1. G1 Climax – Block B: Kota Ibushi vs. Tama Tonga
JIP. Fade in to a crowd of wrestling fans buzzing about… something. Suddenly, Kota Ibushi appears on the second floor of the building. He tightrope walks the bannister, high-fives a fan, and moonsaults to the floor below. It is awesome.
Even though they only showed 5 minutes of the 14 this went, I am confident it is Tama Tonga’s best match ever. With all the benefits of smoke and mirrors, this thing actually somehow got dramatic for its last few minutes. Kenny Omega running out for the save after the usual Firing Squad bullshit got OVER, and the crowd was #AllIn on Kota just ending this jackass.
…And then the jackass won.
2. G1 Climax – Block B: Kenny Omega vs. Toru Yano
Tremendous comedy match that became a great wrestling match for its last few minutes. They did the most with the Yano shtick in a while, though this is a hard match to talk about because why explain the joke? Yano waltzing out as Kenny recovered from the Firing Squad attack, Owens holding the turnbuckle pad for Kenny and removing it for Yano, Yano suplexing Omega on the pad and Omega giving a WTF look, the turnbuckle pad strike exchange, Yano tying the young lion to Kenny, and a few awesome near falls at the end were highlights.
Yano should’ve gotten the win without the Firing Squad though. ***1/2
3. G1 Climax – Block B: Tetsuya Naito vs. SANADA
What a wild match this here was. There’s a lot of “I’m going to out-do you by moving really fast” in wrestling today but not many do it like SANADA. They kept a real frantic pace the entire time and it felt like two brothers fighting, though two brothers trained by New Japan. The “first guy to make a mistake loses” thing has become a cliche, but they sold that idea hard here. SANADA does some superhuman stuff too, like leaping over the ropes with ease or that counter of the Destino by deadlift suplexing Naito. Really awesome. ****
