Clips of Kota Ibushi vs. Toru Yano and Tetsuya Naito vs. Juice Robinson are shown to start the show. I bet Ibushi and Yano are two cooky guys who don’t agree on what cooky should be. Like they should be pals but they don’t get along for whatever reason. As for Naito vs. Juice? Eh. It’s two guys I like who I don’t want to see wrestle each other again.
1. G1 Climax – Block B: SANADA vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
So kind of AXS to bless us with this match. This is so good, 10 minutes of tremendousness with SANADA keeping up with and even sometimes out-doing ZSJ’s technical wrestling. This is almost all holds and reversals and let me tell you, SANADA out full-nelsoning Zack Sabre Jr. is very much my thing.
After they get done just trading holds for 5 minutes they both back off into their corners, just dripping sweat, with ZSJ all like, “Huh. That usually doesn’t go that way.”
With almost all holds and maybe two near falls, a match like this is so uncommon in New Japan, so much so that even Good Ol’ JR is audibly marking out for it by the end. Loved the finish too with them reversing cradles and SANADA able to keep ZSJ down with one. ***1/2
2. G1 Climax – Block B: Kenny Omega vs. Tama Tonga
This felt like these guys trying to pull off a Monday Night RAW match in Korakuen Hall and it just didn’t work. You’ve got Bad Luck Fale and Camacho, you’ve got Chase Owens and Hangman Page, you’ve got Tama Tonga working over Kenny Omega. It’s not good. Here, I will say one positive thing about Tama Tonga: I like that drop-down-and-slide thing he does when he’s doing an intense exchange of moves. Anyways, The Firing Squad is like a Makai Club with less credibility. Dumb match. *
3. G1 Climax – Block B: Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Elbows, chops, slaps, shoulder tackles, lariats, intensity, stiffness, selling, heated crowd, and both guys always going for their opening = magic pro wrestling. These are two wrestlers that exude real wrestling, just throwing endless shots at each other and not budging and saying with their eyes, “BRING IT GOD DAMNIT.”
I liked how they were always going hard, but then Goto for example would fire off a random kick and Ishii’s like “AWWW FUCK OK THAT’S ENOUGH.”
These men are speaking to us through their professional wrestling and it is both savage and beautiful. There was no cuteness here, it was two dudes beating the shit out of each other bell-to-bell until one stayed down for 3. A KILLER brainbuster by Ishii finishes it. Magnificent. ****1/2
These is no promo by Ishii after the match. No questions from reporters. He gets his neck iced and stumbles to the back, onto his next challenge.
