Captain Lou’s Review: NJPW G1 Climax – Day 13 (8/3/2019)

KENTA vs. Bad Luck Fale – G1 Climax (Block A)

Considering the raging erection he has for old territorial wrestling, you’d think that booking monsters would come naturally to Gedo. Yet here we are: Bad Luck Fale beating borderline junior heavyweights with rollups and Jeff Cobb working even with everyone. This man has learned all the wrong lessons from Highspots.com’s Best of Mid-South Wrestling. I legitimately enjoyed KENTA firing off some hard slaps at Fale only to get knocked down instantly, but the rest of this was the usual non-sense. At this point, there’s no heat in Babyface KENTA in NJPW, so the whole thing was kind of doomed to fail. **1/2

Zack Sabre Jr. vs Lance Archer – G1 Climax (Block A)

This tournament has put Shaddap-Gun Leader Lance Archer in a variety of fun new situations where he blew past everyone’s expectations, and it’s been a great ride. This one had bits of Lance Archer: The Technical Wrestler, which was fun, but it was mostly about Archer overwhelming Zacku with Big Man Shit, and that’s even better! Loved the dynamic between these guys – Lance just tossing ZSJ all over the place and Zack holding on for dear life with his submission trickery.

All of Archer’s offense came off as extra destructive thanks to Zack’s fragile malnourished frame just splattering across the mat. Archer’s infatuation with THE CLAW ended up causing his downfall as it gave Zack an opening to outwrestle the big man into submissions and rollups. Considering my own infatuation with The Claw, that’s a relatable story I can get 100% behind. ***1/2

EVIL vs. Will Ospreay – G1 Climax (Block A)

BANGER ALERT. A few times a year, EVIL steps out of his castle in Darkness World and goes on a quest to prove to the world that he’s more than the sum of his glow-in-the-dark scythes. He stepped way up against guys like Okada and Ishii before, and he did the same here against New Japan’s Social Media Specialist William Ospreay. In my mind, this was all triggered by poor EVIL being unable to open that damn chair during the opening. You know the shame brought upon by that sequence is what drove him to outwork Ospreay and redeem himself. And redeem himself he DID.

This match was a whole truckload of fast-paced, hard-hitting, high-end pro-wrestling with EVIL effortlessly keeping up with Will and showing his full potential. Ospreay brought the flips and EVIL responded in kind by taking his fucking head off with multiple lariats. Ridiculous chemistry between both guys – impossibly great execution on everything, including some endlessly-rewindable wackiness like Ospreay pulling the flippy-do Powerbomb out of EVIL’s STO or EVIL attempting an actual murder with consecutive Half Tiger/Half Dragon suplexes.

All of my favorite G1 matches so far have had some built-in backstory to them (Ospreay/Okada’s CHAOS friendship turned pseudo rivalry, the Sekigun Ace successorship story of Ibushi/Tana, etc), but this was the kind match you could show to anyone without having to explain anything. Just a bunch of wild modern pro-wrestling. ****1/4

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi – G1 Climax (Block A)

The Tanahashi/Ibushi saga is one of my favorite ongoing stories in modern NJPW. It felt a bit weird to see the latest episode unfold in the semi main-event of this show, considering the sheer epicness and magnitude of their last meeting, but they still managed to make this feel Important. The amount of quality content they packed into these 15 minutes was pretty staggering – it literally felt like a condensed version of their G1 finals match remixed with callbacks to their 2017 matches. Basically, the best possible version of a Tana/Ibushi Greatest Hits match.

Tanahashi was intense in this match and the potential ‘’passing of the torch’’ ramifications of the ending clearly weren’t lost on him. He worked this thing twice as snug as any match from the tournament, went after the leg like a shark and kept up with Ibushi’s speed and agility at the best of his 42 Year Old Broken Tana abilities. Kota’s never been the best leg seller, but he acknowledged the leg just enough to make it work and put over Tana’s absurdly painful-looking high angle Texas cloverleaf as instant death.

All of your favorite Tana/Ibushi spots were there: Ibushi countering a knee dropkick with a mid-air footstomp, the Springboard German suplex, an absolutely BONKERS springboard Frankensteiner to cut off Tana’s High Fly Attack to the floor, Ibushi taking the Sling Blade right on his fucking head. It was all deliciously high-end pro-wrestling, but my favorite stuff from these two remains the strike-based sequences.

The Generational War Slap Fight to the Death will never get old – Tana standing up to Demon Ibushi is the most compelling shit ever. Tanahashi eating that high kick to the face but refusing to go down perfectly encapsulated their entire story: Tana acting as the last wall for Ibushi to break in order to reach the next level and top babyface spot in the company. Brilliant stuff. ****1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA – G1 Climax (Block A)

My favorite Okada/SANADA match has always been their 2018 title match, which featured Okada cranking up the heelish smugness in the middle of his Final Boss IWGP champion run and turning SANADA into a fun babyface challenger. All of their other matches tend to suffer from a lack of intensity and emotion, despite all of the technically-sound wrestling on display. The first portion of this match suffered from similar issues – I can barely remember anything of note outside of some fun lucha-flavored exchanges that had Okada pulling from his Toryumon training.

Things turned around when Okada remembered he was the god damned Ace and started screaming at SANADA to hit him harder. This is the kind of stuff I need from these two, and it’s also the kind of stuff I wish would show up MUCH EARLIER in their matches. That’s the whole story, Okada trying to light a fire in SANADA, pushing him to reach his level. And my god, for the last section of the match, SANADA really did feel on his level.

The way they milked the looming threat of a 30 minute draw was absolutely masterful and SANADA came across as a megastar with 200% crowd support. I’m not the biggest supporter of the Skull End, but Okada sold it in such a dramatic way here that it almost worked, nonsensical grip from SANADA and all.

That miraculous POP-UP ACE CRUSHER spot was exciting beyond words and turned those last minutes into a full-on thrill ride. And that’s why this match is so hard to rate! I’m struggling to remember the first half yet those last minutes had me more invested than maybe any other wrestling match this year. When in doubt, drop the old Four and a Quarter. ****1/4

Captain Lou’s G1 Climax 29 Match Rankings

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi (Block A) – ****1/2, 8/3/19
2. Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay (Block A) – ****1/2, 7/20/19
3. Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay (Block A) – ****1/2, 7/18/19
4. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jon Moxley (Block B) – ****1/2, 7/19/19
5. Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Block B) – ****1/4, 7/24/19
6. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA (Block A) – ****1/4, 7/14/19
7. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Block A) – ****1/4, 7/6/19
8. EVIL vs. Will Ospreay (Block A) – ****1/4
9. Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Block A) – ****1/4, 8/1/19
10. Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA (Block A) – ****1/4, 8/3/19
11. Tetsuya Naito vs. Jon Moxley (Block A) – ****1/4, 7/28/19
12. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Juice Robinson (Block B) – ****1/4, 7/28/19
13. Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi (Block B) – ****, 7/13/19
14. Kota Ibushi vs. Lance Archer (Block A) – ****, 7/27/19
15. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jay White (Block B) – ****, 7/15/19
16. Kota Ibushi vs. EVIL (Block A) – ****, 7/13/19
17. SANADA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block A) – ****, 7/6/19
18. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Lance Archer (Block A) – ****, 7/20/19
19. Kazuchika Okada vs. KENTA (Block A) – ****, 7/27/19
20. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. EVIL (Block A) – ****, 7/30/19
21. Shingo Takagi vs. Jay White (Block B) – ****, 7/28/19
22. Will Ospreay vs. Lance Archer (Block A) – ***3/4, 7/6/19
23. Jon Moxley vs. Shingo Takagi (Block B) – ***3/4, 7/24/19
24. Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block A) – ***3/4, 7/13/19
25. Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***3/4, 7/19/19
26. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block A) – ***3/4, 7/18/19
27. Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block A) – ***3/4, 7/30/19
28. Tetsuya Naito vs. Hirooki Goto (Block B) – ***3/4, 7/19/19
29. EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Block B) – ***3/4, 7/27/19
30. Zack Sabre Jr. vs Lance Archer (Block B) – ***1/2, 8/3/19
31. Jeff Cobb vs. Shingo Takagi (Block B) – ***1/2, 8/1/19
32. EVIL vs. SANADA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/18/19
33. Jeff Cobb vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/28/19
34. Jon Moxley vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/13/19
35. Will Ospreay vs. SANADA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/13/19
36. Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/20/19
37. KENTA vs. EVIL (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/20/19
38. Kazuchika Okada vs. Lance Archer – ***1/2, 7/30/19
39. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. SANADA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/27/19
40. Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/15/19
41. Juice Robinson vs. Hirooki Goto (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/15/19
42. Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White (Block B) – ***1/2, 7/13/19
43. Kota Ibushi vs. KENTA (Block A) – ***1/2, 7/6/19
44. Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi (Block B) – ***1/4, 7/24/19
45. Tetsuya Naito vs. Toru Yano (Block A) – ***1/4, 7/13/19
46. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb (Block A) – ***1/4, 7/13/19
47. Tetsuya Naito vs. Juice Robinson (Block A) – ***1/4, 8/1/19
48. EVIL vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – ***, 7/6/19
49. Juice Robinson vs. Toru Yano (Block B) – ***, 7/24/19
50. Toru Yano vs. Jon Moxley (Block B) – ***, 8/1/19
51. Toru Yano vs. Shingo Takagi (Block A) – ***, 7/15/19
52. Jay White vs. Taichi (Block A) – ***, 8/1/19
53. KENTA vs. Lance Archer (Block A) – **3/4, 7/18/19
54. Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – ***, 7/18/19
55. SANADA vs. KENTA (Block A) – **3/4, 7/30/19
56. Jay White vs. Jeff Cobb (Block B) – **3/4, 7/24/19
57. Juice Robinson vs. Jeff Cobb (Block B) – **3/4, 7/19/19
58. Lance Archer vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – **3/4, 7/13/19
59. Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb (Block B) – **1/2, 7/15/19
60. Kota Ibushi vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – **1/2
61. KENTA vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – 8/3/19 **1/2
62. Will Ospreay vs. Bad Luck Fale (Block A) – **1/2, 7/27/19
63. Zack Sabre Jr. vs Bad Luck Fale (Block B) – **1/2, 7/20/19
64. Hirooki Goto vs. Toru Yano (Block B) – **1/4, 7/28/19
65. Jay White vs. Toru Yano (Block B) – *3/4, 7/19/19