[2019-07-18-NJPW-G1 Climax 29: Night Five] Will Ospreay vs Kota Ibushi

[SmartMark15]

Loved this match. Both men came in hurt and both viciously attacked the wounded body parts of the other. Ospreay's initial attack on Ibushi's leg in particular is some gnarly stuff. There's a brutal looking spot where he steps on Ibushi's toes and then just stomps on his ankle. Nasty. Of course, we all know Ibushi is a master of dropping people on their necks and boy did he make Ospreay bump for him in this match. Loved all the callbacks to their WK match with Ibushi countering the Hidden Blade but also being completely rocked by it in the finishing stretch. Thought that Ibushi's sustained selling after the Hidden Blade was some of the best from him that I've ever seen. Loved Ospreay not being able to complete his super cool land on his feet spot and instead struggling from his damaged neck. An important aspect of this match: it completely flew by. So rare for a New Japan main event but those first twenty minutes completely breezed by. This was just awesome, everything I wanted from both these guys in a match of this setting. 

****1/2

[Makai Club #1]

I didn't really buy the "Ospreay is WOTY" talk last year but he has really stepped up even more this year round and this is another feather in his cap. Even more impressive considering that both guys had different injuries going into this match. Both of which could've had them taken out of the G1. And the way they incorporated that into the match was splendid. Ospreay nastily going for the ankle early on and Ibushi working on the neck. Love the build from working holds to them throwing some brutal strikes and hitting some big bombs. It became less about the injuries and more about getting the win. Great match. ****"

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Who would've thunk that Ibushi vs. Ospreay would get better as they add 10 more minutes into the thing?! I certainly wasn't expecting it, but this sure was absolutely great; they start it off slower (by their standards), with Ospreay starting to go after Ibushi's ankle injury, and Ibushi responding by attacking Ospreay's banged up neck. It's really great stuff - I very much popped for Ibushi using the CRAVATE, which was probably the first time I've seen him do it. The match pretty much gets more & more brutal as it goes on, with them busting out some truly gnarly & vicious moves to try n' keep one another down. Some of the highlights, for me, were Ospreay's twisting powerbomb, which was just ridiculously explosive + the Hidden Blade after he landed on his feet after Ibushi's deadlift suplex attempt - the Ospreay-landed-on-his-feet!!! -spots are a bit tired by this point, but this one was actually pretty fantastic with him selling the neck big even when he landed on his feet, and there was no corny poses/faces to be detected! And that mentioned Hidden Blade was absolutely brutal as well, the best one he has done so far. My absolute favorite bit of the whole thing though was the tree-of-woe stuff w/ them reversing the roles from their first meeting - Ibushi's blank lunatic killer facial expressions were outstanding during it, as he dared Ospreay to slap him back, and he went to that classic Ibushi-zone with them strikes during it too. The match definitely could've shaved off a few nearfalls & the finishing stretch, overall, a little bit, but for the absolute majority of the thing, this was amazingly compelling. ****

[Tetsujin]

Really loved the last 12 minutes of this. The first half didn't say anything to me, not bad but nothing was going on from a storytelling perspective.