Tama Tonga vs. Zack Sabre Jr – G1 Climax (Block B)
Tama/Naito proved that the Bullet Club OG clusterfuck match is something that can kind of work if given the right dosage of wrestling and screwiness. But the balance was completely off with this one, just an overbooked mess. It was fun seeing Zack play the babyface hero in this type of situation and use his submissions to fend off the villains, but the non-stop interference just killed the match at some point. Best part of this whole thing was TAKA mimicking his protégé’s sleeper hold by applying one on Tanga Loa at ring-side. Speaking of Loa – his hypeman introduction for Tama was not quite as cringey as I expected! **1/2
Juice Robinson vs. Toru Yano – G1 Climax (Block B)
After that disappointing match he had with Goto, Yano is now officially back on the WRESTLING TRAIN. So far, we’ve seen him take it to the mat with ZSJ and withstand Ibushi’s strongest backflips, but here he took it one step further by working a Melzer-baiting LIMB WORK MATCH with Juice! This man knows how to get all the stars. Honestly, Yano going after the injured hand was rad, but him and Juice going into full comedy mode was even better. The match took a complete Osaka Pro turn when they started battling it out with corner mats and doing drunk sells off Air-plane spins. Quality stuff. Sometimes wrestling needs to be a little more like classic Osaka Pro. Much love for the comically-long counter sequence that led to Juice’s Pulp Friction. ***
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kota Ibushi – G1 Climax (Block B)
Here’s two guys that have a lot more in common than meets the eye. Both came up through the indies and started in New Japan at the bottom of the ladder. Both won over management and crowd support by working hard and having homerun matches when it mattered. And as they made abundantly clear via this match: both of them are fucking tough as nails. This was an all-out war in the vein of Ishii’s match with Goto, but with more violence and less selling.
After they established each guy’s strengths (Ishii is a burly bastard that will beat you down, Ibushi is a speedy little angel that will Moonsault off high places) they went straight for the DON’T PISS OFF IBUSHI trope, and I can’t really fault them: it’s one of the best tropes in wrestling. The level of dickishness went soaring through the roof, bypassing everything we’ve seen so far in the G1. The peak of these brutal slug-fests used to be the unprotected headbutt or Ishii’s throat chops, but Ibushi went one step further here by PUNCHING ISHII IN THE THROAT. Repeatedly.
The insane violence made for one hell of a spectacle, but the selling kind of suffered at times due to both guys pushing the envelope and going for pure bravado. I’m fine with fighting spirit surges, but Ibushi straight-up no-selling a Superplex and release German suplex by just popping up with a blank stare seemed unnecessary. In short, Goto/Ishii did a better job highlighting the resulting damage of having such a physical slobberknocker, but the big moments of this match were crazier. Pick your poison, baby. ****
Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito – G1 Climax (Block B)
This was totally fine, but it was missing some kind of hook other than ‘’Goto and Naito wrestling a totally fine match’’. Juice/Yano had the comedy, Ishii/Ibushi was a fight to the death and this was two guys running through their stuff without much of a story. It also didn’t help that there seemed to be recurring miscommunication issues across the board. There were hints of neck work by Naito that didn’t really go anywhere and it eventually all came down to ‘’can Goto take the Destino without making it look like shit’’. The kind of everyday struggle anyone can relate to. My favorite part of the match was Naito nearly falling asleep in the middle of the ring during a Goto countout, proving that even if SANADA’s the biggest Keiji Muto fan in New Japan, Naito is the true heir to Muto’s nap-style pro-wrestling. ***
Kenny Omega vs. SANADA – G1 Climax (Block B)
Ishii might be the workhorse of the tournament, but by the end of this thing, SANADA could very well be the breakout star. After getting an exciting match out of Hirooki Goto, going hold for hold with ZSJ and then FLIP FOR FLIP with Ibushi, here he is having a high-end Kenny Omega match with crazy drama and nail-biting counters. The guy can seemingly adapt to any style of wrestling, and most importantly, gets super over while doing so.
These two did a whole lot of stuff that I liked, so I’m gonna be listing some of this stuff. Kenny Omega is grating as hell as a character. In his own words, he’s a ‘’kind of a bitch’’. And I like when he’s wrestling like a little bitch: playing with SANADA’s Mohawk during the opening chain wrestling, punting him in the head and stiffing him with soccer kicks. It fits perfectly with the idea of Kenny Omega as this insufferable nerd and it sets up all of these great payoffs where SANADA gets tired of this shit and just starts pummeling him with stiff forearms and European uppercuts.
Kenny going after the leg in the early portion of the match felt like new territory and even though it wasn’t Tanahashi-level leg work or anything, it was more interesting than whatever he usually does to fill the opening stretch of a match. SANADA’s selling wasn’t mind blowing, but the level of discomfort he showed was proportionate to the kind of low-level offense Kenny was dishing out on his leg.
Loved SANADA’s tumbling springboard dropkick getting countered in mid-air with a Ligerbomb. It’s a cool SANADA spot but sometimes it takes so long to set up that you just wish someone would do something instead of stand around. This led to an appropriately epic ending stretch: V-Triggers left and right, some nifty Skull End counters and best of all, SANADA chants ringing out all over the place. Everything’s in place now and the upcoming Naito match could be what cements him as the new guy to watch. ****
