Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi – G1 Climax (Block B)
If the match with Kojima showed Shingo could hang with heavyweights, this one proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he belonged in this tournament. These guys had themselves a no non-sense slug-fest that instantly put Shingo over as a threat to all the established G1 veterans. He was the one leading most of the action in the ring, forcing Juice to pick his spots and fight from underneath, and my dudes: it was awesome.
I always had trouble buying Juice as a NEW JAPAN STRONG STYLE WARRIOR in the previous years, but recently he seems to have figured out how to project the Tough Guy Aura and do these kinds of matches a lot better. It might also be because he got rid of the whiteboy dreads, finally putting his Korn fandom to bed and fully embracing the spirit of Riki Choshu.
Beyond all the great striking and facial expressions (Juice’s disappointment faces after big-time kicks are at 1996 Shinjiro Otani levels of greatness right now), the best thing about this match is that these boys made me second guess the finish every step of the way. Absolutely lost my shit when Shingo countered the Pulp Friction with the Noshigami. ****
John Moxley vs. Taichi – G1 Climax (Block B)
The spirit of FIRE PRO WRESTLING random match-making lives on through this match and it’s a beautiful thing. Mox will most likely be the non-comedy Change of Pace guy in this block, working short WWE-style/prop-heavy brawls with his opponents, and I’m totally okay with that. It’s an approach that hides all of his limits and keeps his aura intact until Juice finally gets the US title back from him.
Props to Taichi because he totally thrived in this setting and came across as a star for all 7 minutes of this match. Great table bump sequence made even better by the incredible selling of QUEEN MIHO ABE, the poor woman crushed by the sight of her Taichi going through that table. Also, Taichi was totally game to take a Tiger Driver ’91 level bump on that double-arm DDT finish and you just have to respect that level of dedication. ***1/2
Tetsuya Naito vs. Toru Yano – G1 Climax (Block B)
Loved everything about this match. These guys have incredibly complementary shticks and have always been comedy gold together. Honestly, I was in tears even before the match started thanks to that entire pre-match bit where Yano was losing his shit at Naito’s drawn out unclothing ritual. The slingshot dropkick spot with Naito just landing in front of Yano and waiting, Red Shoes DIVING TO THE RESCUE to keep one of the guys from using a turnbuckle pad, the t-shirt spots. All of it was peak G1 Climax Toru Yano wrestling and just like that, the man is once again a threat to anyone in this tournament. ***1/4
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb – G1 Climax (Block B)
This one took me back took me back to the post-Misawa/Kobashi Pure-O-Resew landscape of 2003/2004, where certain guys completely jumped the shark with the Head Drop Fighting Spirit No-Sell pro-wrestling and pushed it into complete overkill caricature non-sense. This is what this match felt like to me. They tried to get Cobb over by having him do a proper Tomohiro Ishii Epic but a lot of the match felt very forced and I lost interest after the 12th head-drop fighting spirit no-sell spot.
It’s a shame because it all started pretty well, with both guys focusing on beefy strike exchanges and getting Cobb over as a tough guy. Sadly, they couldn’t keep the character-based interactions interesting because Cobb is just not good at filling empty spaces in a wrestling match. The guy has great-looking suplexes and he can do a sweet standing Moonsault, but in terms of the in-between stuff: it’s a struggle.
At multiple times it felt like he was just waiting for Ishii to take the lead and I had serious trouble buying him as a guy that should be having this Epic Bombs-fest with the Stone Pupper. Meh. ***1/4
Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White – G1 Climax (Block B)
This entire match hinged itself on the belief that the audience would embrace the concept of Jay White dominating POST-LA DOJO RETURN/JACKED UP Hirooki Goto for 15 minutes straight. It’s a shaky premise and it didn’t fully work. I can buy Jay White kayfabe-working circles around a broken down Hiroshi Tanahashi – it’s a story that makes sense and Tana’s good enough to make it work. With Goto, not so much.
What they did here also showed that there is a very real limit to Jay White’s ‘’US style heel psychology’’ with Japanese crowds. There was a clear point in this match where the constant denying of Goto babyface comebacks had the crowd seemingly give up on the match, and not in a ‘’Boooo Jay White we hate you, you’re a heel’’ kinda way.
For all the weird structural decisions and boring patches of long Jay White offense, THE PEOPLE’S ACE HIROOKI GOTO worked his ass off and both guys put together one hell of an ending stretch. All of Goto’s awesome offense and powerful babyface emoting in the last minutes kind of highlighted the stupidity of giving Jay 75% of the match, but it was good stuff nonetheless and made Goto look like the star he should be. ***1/2
Captain Lou’s G1 Climax 29 Match Rankings
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Block A) – ****1/4 7/6/19
- Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi (Block B) – **** 7/13/19
- SANADA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block A) – **** 7/6/19
- Will Ospreay vs. Lance Archer (Block A) – ***3/4 7/6/19
- John Moxley vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***1/2 7/13/19
- Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/13/19
- Kota Ibushi vs. KENTA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/6/19
- Tetsuya Naito vs. Toru Yano (Block A) – ***1/4, 7/13/19
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb (Block A) – ***1/4, 7/13/19
- EVIL vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – ***, 7/6/19
