1. G1 Climax – Block B: Toru Yano vs. Taichi
Yano as the underdog fighting off interference would’ve been a cool dynamic – wish they leaned into that. It was weird seeing Taichi and Yano’s awkward bump over the top right after Okada/EVIL too – I mean have some pride in your work, god damnit. The apron wrapping stuff was fun though, which saw Taichi wrap Yano up with the apron to try and get a countout, then Yano using his own apron wrap as a revenge spot later, wrapping both Taichi and Kanemaru up together to get a countout win. **1/4
2. G1 Climax – Block B: Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb
This was an odd little match, a story of two Naito’s. One was hamming it up, treating Cobb like shit, slapping him around, and spitting at him. The other one was bumping huge for him and making him look like a million bucks. Eventually Naito went after Cobb’s leg which Cobb kept selling and I dunno. I’m happy for Cobb’s ability to do a moonsault, ability to do a stalling superplex, ability to catch all of Naito’s big spots with suplexes of his own, but this nevr once felt like it got ticking until the last couple minutes, which included an F5 counter of a Destino and the Tour of the Islands countered into the Destino. Of course they needed to do ANOTHER Destino for a 3. Fun Naito performance but ehhh. **3/4
3. G1 Climax – Block B: Hirooki Goto vs. Jon Moxley
I loved this weird little 8-minute match. Mox makes a guys’ life in the crowd by walking past his outstretched hand, tossing a guardrail, then clasping hands with him. Mox also makes my life when he makes Hirooki Goto SMILE, opting not to tap fists with Goto like any normal man but by slamming his fists down onto Goto. This is a man who has adapted to this new world pretty quickly, and both these guys brought the strikes and struggles for holds and even a part where Mox absorbed a lariat, did his shoulder shake thing, and told Goto to bring it in what’s now my new favorite fighting spirit spot. And then, just like that, Goto won with a GTR. Sudden finish aside, a blast. ***3/4
4. G1 Climax – Block B: Jay White vs. Juice Robinson
These guys had an inexplicable classic match in the U.S., but there was a lot going on there – hostile U.S. crowd legit hating Jay, guardrail the chaos, JR falling down, Juice being uber babyface, and everything clicking for Jay to finally have one good high-level match.
And here… well I’ll be damned they did it again. I don’t know what to tell you – I’ve been watching the same Jay White we all have. And I also know Juice is a great babyface, but I don’t expect Jay White to take advantage of it. And here he is, doing it again, and them having an incredible match together. They brought the character work early, which is a requirement for 20+ minute match to be good, with Juice baby-facing it up with armdrags and WOO’s opposite White being a shit. White then went after the leg, which Juice made sure to sell like he’s your boyfriend who’s caught in the desert. He keeps rallying and nothing works – goes up top, sells the knee, White hits the ropes and Juice bumps on his balls. Then he just gets TOSSED to the floor with a backdrop suplex, made even better by Gedo losing his mind.
White goes for the kill as they head to the finish but Juice won’t say die. The crowd ELATED as Juice escapes the first TTO submission, something nobody has ever bought until this very night. Juice swings away at White but gets caught with a sleeper hold as the 20-minute announcement is made and I reflect, how is it so that these guys are able to use 20 minutes together so well and not always with others?
The finish is a great mix of New Japan counter-mania and American-style frustrating, dejecting finish. Jay tries a Blade Runner, Juice tries Pulp Friction, Jay does a chop block, tries the Blade Runner, Juice socks him with a left hand, tries the Pulp Friction, Gedo gets on the apron to setup White hitting a low blow and pushing Juice into the ref. White gets a chair, which wild and crazy Juice punches into his face, sets up a Pulp Friction on the chair… and gets dropped on it by White, who chairshots the shit out of Juice’s leg and locks on the TTO again he screams for the ref to call it before Juice finally, finally taps. Tremendous match, and each guy’s tournament best. ****1/4
5. G1 Climax – Block B: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shingo Takagi
Just sit back and enjoy, man. There’s nothing pretty here yet it’s also so beautiful, with the stockiest of stocky and beefiest of beefy dudes doing their thing and not once making you question if they didn’t believe that any of it wasn’t real. Stiff chops and bitchy attitudes were the play here, with both guys trying to be a hard-ass and refusing to lose face for a second. They also did some cool reversals of the usual stuff, like Ishii blocking Shingo’s punch/lariat combo and Shingo reversing the brainbuster, which made it all the more satisfying 5 minutes later when they hit what they wanted to.
They showed their strength and they also sold the exhaustion of wrestling the guy across the ring perfectly. Shingo looked downright OFFENDED that Ishii wasn’t registering a lariat towards the end. The finish was hot because DUH, including the most earned of all fighting spirit kickouts at one and the Pumping Bomber kickout of all Pumping Bomber kickouts. He might shave to not show it but Ishii is a man with fully gray hair and I hope for his sake he calms down one day, but I just can’t question the greatness. This was a match that met my expectations, maybe didn’t exceed them, but also my expectations were incredibly high, so all in all it ruled. ****1/2
