KENTA vs. Lance Archer – G1 Climax (Block A)
You’d think this match would have been right up 2019 KENTA’s alley considering he spent the last few years of his life learning the secrets of American pro-wrestling and mastering the subtle art of the Hard Cam, but this felt like a step down. These guys seemed to have a fun little story in mind with Big Red Bully Archer trying to trigger KENTA’s WWE PTSD, but in a comical twist, the crowd fucked their whole dynamic by being massively PRO-ARCHER. Obviously, KENTA’s lacking a proper connection with the NJPW faithful, but he wasn’t helping his case out there with the lifeless comebacks and the absurdly-weak PK. Props to Archer for trying to make lemonade out of this one but in the end it was just okay. **3/4
EVIL vs. SANADA – G1 Climax (Block A)
SANADA really came across as the 4th most popular wrestler in Japan in this match. This man is a hunky space pirate that will do two perfect leap frogs in a row and something is happening between him and those fans. As soon as he chills out with the Paradise Lock, I will be right there on the SANADA bandwagon, but until that happens, I will be the grumpy guy saying this match took too long to get going because once again the Paradise Lock fuckery was out of control.
Thankfully, everything that came after was exactly the kind of match you would want EVIL and SANADA to have. Balls to the wall, exlosive LIJ COLLIDES-type action with all sorts of wild finisher thievery, All Japan-esque striking and Marty Asami-assisted shenanigans. Part of me really wanted SANADA to bail on the LIJ fist bump after the match. The top-tier babyface potential is right there for this dude and he’ll never reach that next level as a Naito underling. ***1/2
Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale – G1 Climax (Block A)
Okada tends to be one of Fale’s best opponents, but this was probably one of their weaker matches. The RAW IS SHIN NIHON tropes felt overdone and didn’t seem to land with the crowd, starting right off the bat with Fale dragging Okada from THE BACKSTAGE AREA to start the match to a complete non-reaction. Wonky booking aside, I will never not be impressed by Okada selling the hell out of Fale’s monster offense and taking the highest back body drop of all time. **3/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – G1 Climax (Block A)
There is something hugely satisfying about Tanahashi and Zack doing simple mat wrestling together. It doesn’t have the hyper speed fluidity of something like Zack/SANADA, but the huge grin on Tanahashi’s face when he grabs on to a leglock and Zack’s growing irritability tell an equally compelling story. At 40-something, Tana has fully mastered the ‘’less is more’’ wrestling philosophy and I could watch him work these kinds of old-school mat-based matches all day.
Case in point, they managed to turn a simple backslide struggle into A BATTLE FOR THE AGES, with Zack angry spitting all over the place and Tana refusing to give an inch as the crowd cheered him on. They smartly tied together all the common threads of their recent matches (namely ROLLUP-BASED DRAMA and Zack targeting Tana’s eternally-injured arm) into a tight little package that kept me second guessing the final outcome until the last second.
The Ace absorbing all of Zack’s slaps before wrecking him with the ANTI-MINORU SUZUKI INVERTED DRAGON SCREW OF DEATH might be my favorite moment of the tournament so far. Love this pairing with all my heart. ***3/4
Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay – G1 Climax (Block A)
Well, fuck me. This was anything but the match I expected from these two and I loved it to bits. I wasn’t fully on board with their Wrestle Kingdom match and this was just something else completely. It had the ultra-layered structure of a 90’s Super Juniors match, or a Tanahashi long-form epic, with the early matwork building towards the multi-injury subplots building towards the bigger moves and so on. And because New Japan have been surprisingly careful with match lengths in this G1 Climax, this was one of those special times where a 25+ minute ‘’epic match’’ actually felt epic.
I quite enjoyed how both guy – two wrestlers I would normally never associate with limb work-type matches, didn’t hesitate for one second and went right after those injuries as soon as they saw an opening. Once again, that’s the magic of that Blurred G1 Line between real-life injuries and worked injuries. The focus ended up being mostly on Will’s neck and he did a great job selling that thing. The Screamo Frontman hysterics seem to be mostly gone and his emoting made all the crazy spots that came later so much more nerve-wracking.
Because yeah, this wasn’t without its fair share of absolutely bonkers shit. You had Will flipping out of the Springboard German suplex, that insane flippy-do Ligerbomb spot that slays the crowd every single time, Ibushi murdering Will with some insane Reverse Piledriver thing. Plus, CALLBACKS! The biggest one being that tree of woe slap-fest that was basically an inversion of their Dome match with Ibushi getting some payback. Nice little detail.
Even with all the wild spots, it felt like both guys were very conscious that this was the G1 Climax and that everything should feel more like a heavyweight battle than the usual Ospreay match. So they laid their shit in, sold those body parts and even managed to fool me into thinking this was going to a draw. Total homerun of a wrestling match. ****1/2
Captain Lou’s G1 Climax 29 Match Rankings
- Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay (Block A) – ****1/2, 7/18/19
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA (Block A) – ****1/4, 7/14/19
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Block A) – ****1/4, 7/6/19
- Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi (Block B) – ****, 7/13/19
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jay White (Block B) – ****, 7/15/19
- Kota Ibushi vs. EVIL (Block A) – ****, 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
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block A) – ***3/4, 7/13/19
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block A) – ***3/4, 7/18/19
- EVIL vs. SANADA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/18/19
- John Moxley vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/13/19
- Will Ospreay vs. SANADA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/13/19
- Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/15/19
- Juice Robinson vs. Hirooki Goto (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/15/19
- 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
- Toru Yano vs. Shingo Takagi (Block A) – ***, 7/15/19
- KENTA vs. Lance Archer (Block A) – **3/4, 7/18/19
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – ***, 7/18/19
- Lance Archer vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – **3/4, 7/13/19
- John Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb (Block B) – **1/2, 7/15/19
