Michael Elgin & Shota Umino vs. Hangman Page & Chase Owens
The last few minutes with Shota fighting off both Bullet Club guys and refusing to release the Boston crab on Chase was pretty great stuff. Rest of the match was split between Elgin/Hangman going after each other to build up their G1 match and Shota working young lion in peril. It was all very okay wrestling. Liger marking out for Elgin’s big man high flying spots on commentary adds a lot to his matches. **1/2
YOSHI-HASHI & SHO vs. EVIL & BUSHI
Lots of CAPSLOCK in this match. The chemistry between YOSHI and EVIL seemed to be firing on all cylinders and I’m pretty sure they have a solid match in them. YOSHI took an INSANE bump off an EVIL guardrail whip, amongst other things. SHO and BUSHI were mostly an afterthought here. Dug the finish with LIJ taking out everyone and SHO tapping to the Banshee Muzzle. **1/4
Togi Makabe & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado
Really fun batch of wrestling here. Suzuki was in top form: dumping guardrails on Makabe, lighting him up with his absurdly loud forearms and finally making short work of Henare with the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it running sleeper into Gotch-style Piledriver combo. Everyone else was fine but all kind of took a passenger seat to the greatness of the KING. **3/4
Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa
Midlife Crisis Okada now doing the SCOOBIDOOBIDOO flying cross body in every match is a true blessing. Tanga Loa making fun of him for it was also an inspired segment. The rest was mostly Okada/Fale establishing their dynamic (never quite as good as the Tana/Fale dynamic) and Gedo getting a bunch of flash rollups on Loa to pop the crowd. A reasonably good time was had. **1/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay vs. Jay White & YOH
David Finlay literally dresses like a rockstar now and still doesn’t come anywhere close to the actual rockstar charisma of the Ace of the Universe. All snark aside, this was the best non-tournament match of the G1 so far. This thing had some MEAT to it, baby. Jay White was pushing forward multiple storylines here and it all came together really well. You had him being a heel’s heel almost walking out of the match initially and turning the entire crowd against him, then eventually turning his attention to Tana’s bum knee to soften him up for their match and THEN trying to turn YOH t the dark side by telling him to use a chair against Finlay. Jay not saving YOH from the Primanocta because he wouldn’t listen to him was the icing on the cake. The ‘’Jay trying to bring back CHAOS to its original form’’ story has massive potential. ***
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toru Yano – G1 Climax (Block B)
The big novelty here was Yano working large chunks of straight-up WRESTLING against his tag partner and old buddy Stone Pitbull and my god, it was a whole lot of fun. You had him going back to his AMARESU ROOTS and busting out the fancy takedowns, standing up to Ishii in a god damn forearm battle and even no-selling a release German suplex like a TRUE STRONG STYLE WARRIOR! As the match went on, the story became that despite all of his best intentions, Yano couldn’t beat Ishii in a straight match and he had to revert back to his old ways to get an advantage, which actually makes a lot of sense. The flash rollup near-falls during the ending stretch were incredibly well-timed and had the crowd losing their minds, but the ultimate twist of Ishii using Yano’s own shtick against him to beat him was the best part. ***1/4
Juice Robinson vs. Tama Tonga – G1 Climax (Block B)
I had a real hard time getting into this one. They worked at a snail’s pace and Tama Tonga control segments are one of the most sleep-inducing things in modern New Japan. Then you had the Tanga Loa interference shenanigans breaking up the flow of the match and it looks like all of the Fale/Tama matches from the G1 will be drowned in Bullet Club bullshit. Juice tried to wake up the crowd with his natural babyface charisma, but this shit just wasn’t clicking. NJPW booking logic would indicate that Tama’s win here would grant him a shot at Juice’s US title and that just sounds like the worst possible first defense. Meeeeh. **1/2
Hirooki Goto vs. SANADA – G1 Climax (Block B)
This was first and foremost a battle between two guys with some of the best hairstyles in all of NJPW. It was also a hell of a wrestling match between two guys who don’t have the most vibrant personalities out there but were able to grab the crowd through sheer workrate. It took a little while to get going and move past the more formula exchanges, but once they got there, both guys dug deep and pulled some truly inspired spots that kept the crowd (AND ME) on the edge of their seats. A lot of this was based around SANADA’s superior speed and craftiness clashing with Goto’s more hard-edged SAMURAI FURY and it made for some super compelling counters.
There were some genuinely surprising moments in this match, and the word ‘’surprising’’ is not a word I would usually associate with these two guys, but SANADA dropping Goto with his own version of the Ushigoroshi (after teasing a TKO), Goto unleashing the UBER-BRUTAL rope-draped Reverse GTR and the 2.99999 near-fall off SANADA’s Victory roll all had me jumping out of my seat. I was definitely hoping for a SANADA win so I was 100% dialed into all of the ending stretch, even if the world’s most handsome Mohawk-bro ended up losing. ***3/4
Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr – G1 Climax (Block B)
This seemed a tiny notch below their New Japan Cup meeting, but it was still an awesome match nonetheless. They worked with the same themes of that first match: Ibushi having a power and striking advantage, Zack doing everything in his power to keep him from using these particular tools via his impossibly-advanced submission skillz. This time, they added the new wrinkle of Zack specifically going after Ibushi’s leg to soften up his kicks and they managed to jumpstart that subplot in an amazing way by having Zack counter the Triangle Moonsault by dragging Ibushi right into a kneebar on the floor.
I love how snug these two work with each other as it makes every section of the match gripping. ZSJ seems to have seriously upped his striking game since the last time they met as all of his slaps and kicks looked more fierce and painful than ever before. Ibushi’s reactions to his strikes were some of the biggest hooks in this match as it gave the impression Kota was about to snap at any second and start beating Zack to death. And he actually did at some point with that STRAIGHT SHOTEI right to the face!
The entire struggle around Ibushi’s Kamigoye was brilliantly put together and made for such an exciting ending stretch. Pretty sure these two guys can do no wrong together at this point. Out of this world chemistry. ****
Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito – G1 Climax (Block B)
There we go, folks. The first two days of the G1 have been a lot of fun, but this was the first match that truly felt like a show-stopping epic worthy of the World Cup of wrestling. An explosive, high-end wrestling match with nuclear crowd heat and huge drama. This was the third ever G1 meeting between these guys and they did a stellar job playing the familiarity card. I loved them ramping up the dickishness in the first few minutes to build up the tension – Naito almost ACTUALLY DIVING instead of rolling into the usual Tranquilo pose was hilarious. Lots of cool little details like Naito easily anticipating Omega’s tope con hilo or Kenny countering Naito’s now predictable slingshot dropkick with the You Can’t Escape.
Let’s take a minute to talk about the reverse Frankensteiner. This is a move that should be treated like instant death, but in the last few years, a lot of guys have been using it the same way you would use a quick release German suplex in Japanese wrestling: to set-up a no-sell fighting spirit spot. I consider this to be a great tragedy. Thankfully, the way they worked in the reverse Frankensteiner here was brilliant. Naito took the first V-Trigger right in the face and Kenny went for the One Winged Angel right away, but Naito basically just fell backwards and snapped Kenny down along with him, still selling the knee to the face in the process. Genius!
The precision and ingenuity of the counters later in the match were just jaw-dropping. The whole bit where they went back and forth between the Destino, One-Winged Angel and the Croyt’s Wrath before Kenny finally dropped Naito with a reverse Tombstone had me losing my damn mind. I also need to mention Kenny’s freaking BONKERS V-Trigger to Naito laying face first in the corner. This was one of the best spots in the last match with Okada and it looked even more brutal here, to the point where the photographers near Naito at ring-side were VISIBLY CRINGING!
Best of all, they kept the match (mostly) safe and didn’t drag the finish into overkill city. No one died a thousand deaths taking a Piledriver on a table or a top-rope reverse Frankensteiner. They conditioned the crowd to focus on the counters and in the end it worked like magic. You want all of this! ****1/2
