Captain Lou’s Review: NJPW G1 Climax Day 15 (8/7/2019)

SANADA vs. Lance Archer – G1 Climax (Block A)

Lance Archer, my man, if you’re reading this: you need to wear those satanic contact lenses in every match. That’s your look now, you giant hellspawn, you. Anyway, this felt like the Standard Lance Archer G1 match but Standard Lance is still pretty darn good. SANADA played a fun babyface underdog and him doing the double leap frog spot over Archer’s gigantic ass was pretty impressive. It was SANADA’s speed and agility clashing with Archer’s demonic strength for the whole match and I was ON BOARD WITH IT. Also, gotta respect SANADA for selling the shit out of that CLAW. ***1/4

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

Tanahashi coming out with a purple dye-job with only two matches left in the G1 is such a power move. This man has salon-quality hair and will get entertaining matches out of Bad Luck Fale any day of the week. Tanahashi has always been Fale’s best opponent and while this wasn’t as crazy as their Korakuen match from last year, I still dug it a lot. Fale going after Tana’s bad knee was a more interesting dynamic than any of his G1 matches so far and Tana was good enough to make it all click. I quite enjoyed the spot where Tanahashi couldn’t turn Fale’s corpulent ass over for the Texas cloverleaf, so he just wrecked his leg with a ground dragon screw and slapped on a good ol’ Figure 4. Bonus points for that backslide finish: never saw it coming. ***1/4

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

On this fateful G1 Climax day, William Ospreay gave himself the noblest of all missions: bring back the wild energy of an old KENTA vs. Marufuji match with 2019 post-WWE PTSD Kenta Kobayashi. Some parts were a bit rough around the edges and Will had to physically drag KENTA’s ass through a lot of the more complicated sequences, but here’s the thing: I fucking loved it. These guys had themselves a snug, physical match and did so many things right. KENTA kicking the shit out of people is still a great time and Ospreay really went out of his way to make him look like a million bucks: selling big, eating all strikes, bumping and flying around.

They pulled off a ton of compelling shit, including an ACTUALLY BELIEVABLE (!) 19 count sequence where Ospreay barely got back inside the ring on time after taking a massive apron Falcon Arrow. Best of all, this had the palpable hatred and intensity of KENTA’s best G1 matches so far – an emotion that is often so difficult to convey properly for Will’s goofy ass. People writing this match off because of a blown springboard dropkick is something that amuses me to no end. The Great Sasuke would’ve been instantly cancelled in 1994 if Twitter was around. ****

Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – G1 Climax (Block A)

This was a match where I had a lot existential questions regarding Ibushi’s leg selling. Is it bad? Is it acceptable? What is our purpose in life? Every time I was ready to write off the match for a lack of selling, Ibushi would do a little something to acknowledge the injury and thus BRING ME BACK (one-legged Half-nelson suplex hold!). Watching it all play out, I came to the understanding that Ibushi’s limb selling logic is that he will ‘’endure the pain’’ for long stretches of offense and then start selling during select periods of down time. I think I’m okay with this…? Maybe?

As far as selling approaches go, it’s nowhere near as compelling as guys like Tanahashi or Shingo, who will milk every single detail for drama, but it still kind of works. I mean, he was limping hard once the match was over, so that alone is saying something.

Also thought Zack was particularly great in this. Not just for the laser-focused leg onslaught, but also for the relentless bitchiness and imaginative counters. He seemed to be hitting harder than usual and built some great babyface heat for Ibushi by slapping him around constantly. Wouldn’t rank this amongst their best matches but it was nonetheless the high-level submission vs. speedy kicker type of match that one now expects from Zack and Kota. ****

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

A lot of this was them playing with the idea of a possible hometown upset for EVIL, now made even more plausible by the SANADA shock win from the last A Block show. Like the SANADA match, they went super long and bet all of their chips on a killer ending stretch, which isn’t my favorite gamble. Everything that came before the closing craziness was perfectly fine, but came off a bit Okada/EVIL by the numbers.

Some of the early segments were directly lifted from their previous matches, without any new twists (EVIL throwing a chair in Okada’s face to counter the cross body over the guardrail). That’s not a BAD THING per say, but the drawn-out nature of this thing made some of the rethreads feel a bit unexciting. Especially compared to something like that last Tana/Ibushi match, which was all callbacks but still came across as spectacular due to its more compact nature.

That being said, those two ARE known for their wild ending sequences and this was no exception. Can Kazuchika Okada hit two short-arm clotheslines and then connect with a third using FULL WRIST CONTROL? Can the wrestler EVIL find an unexpected way to drop Okada with his STO which also happens to be called EVIL for some unexplainable reason? In the end, these are the questions that this match was out to answer and it answered them in very fun ways. Lots of perfectly-timed dropkick cutoffs from Okada, a whole bunch of rip-roaring lariats from EVIL and a BONKERS sequence where a discuss lariat was countered by a brutal headbutt from the Prime Minister of Darkness World EVIL. Couldn’t reach the heights of their 2017 G1 banger due to some of the blatant time-filling, but I was still marking out pretty hard by the end. ***3/4

Captain Lou’s G1 Climax 29 Match Rankings

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