I’m American made, Bud Light, Chevrolet
My momma taught me wrong from right
I was born in the south
Sometimes I have a big mouth
When I see something that I don’t like
I gotta say it
We been driving this road
For a mightly long time
Payin’ no mind to the signs
Well this neighborhood’s changed
It’s all been rearranged
We left that change somewhere behind</i.
Slow down, you’re gonna crash
Baby you were screamin’
It’s a blast, blast, blast
Look out babe you got your blinders on
Everybody’s lookin’ for a way
To get real gone, real gone
Real gone…
1. Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd
For most of the tour the Young Lions have been trying to out-rassle each other, but for these last few matches they threw bombs and tried to knock each other out. I have seen eighteen of these matches now and feel like all four of us – Yuya, Gabriel, Yota, Me – have grown. **1/2
2. G1 Climax – Block B: Toru Yano vs. YOSHI-HASHI
These two Men of a Certain Age took it easy on their final night of tournament matches, five minutes of the usual shenanigans before YOSHI did a kind of amazing counter of a Yano low blow into the Kinkoji cradle. There is also a good bit here from Yano where he gets tied to the guardrail and has to force his entire fat body through it. Oh, Yano. Who makes the clown laugh? **
3. G1 Climax – Block B: Juice Robinson vs. Hirooki Goto
Like some kind of stream of consciousness wrestling match, counter after counter with commentary just losing it so hard for everything that they convinced me it was good. I’m not even sure if it was! But they liked it, and Juice and Goto can put together a solid if not exciting wrestling match. ***
4. G1 Climax – Block B: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Here are a couple of fellows who respect the mat and work their holds with a seriousness and tightness that stands out among even hundreds of matches. They’ve had a couple epics before, and this was a shorter but still quality version of the pairing: while ZSJ is typically an offense kind of guy, Hiroshi Tanahashi will go hold-for-hold with him like he studied the tapes Zack missed.
Tanahashi’s counter of Zack’s triangle choke into a Texas Cloverleaf was very cool, as was his counter of a Japanese leg roll clutch where he just flexed his leg muscles and pushed Zack away – before doing a Japanese leg roll clutch himself. This is a man with so much left to offer this business. ***1/2
5. G1 Climax – Block B: Tetsuya Naito vs. KENTA
Here are two men who have taken different paths in wrestling and now find themselves past their primes in the G1 Climax, at least as far as putting together engaging 20-minute matches goes. Naito and KENTA are a couple of cool dudes, but this was one of the less exciting long G1 Climax matches there were this year. KENTA staring Hiromu Takahashi (on commentary) down after the match and Hiromu commentating over it was by far the best part. **3/4
6. G1 Climax – Block B: SANADA vs. EVIL
The former partners did the long New Japan Main Event + Dick Togo Interference and it mostly worked, even if there isn’t much more to say (or think) about this type of match on the final night of regular block matches. They paced it well, the crowd was in, and Togo ate shit before SANADA triumphed. That’s a match, folks! A match!
The superplex spot in this match came off less exciting than the one in Goto vs. Juice earlier and I liked their matches against each other before the EVIL turn more, but this worked. Do I want better from the new top dogs? Should the final night before the G1 Finals do a little bit more than “work”? Yes and yes, but hey – this worked. SANADA vs. Ibushi it is. ***1/2
Happy Thoughts: This was one of Block B’s best nights of the G1, but there are still only a couple good matches and you can find better versions of those matches in last year’s G1 alone. 5/10
