G1 Climax 30

[Boss Rock]

Good show to start the tournament. Agree that the last three matches were the best. Wouldn't be surprised if Okada-Ibushi is a briefcase match at KOPW and they'll put on something more akin to their WK match there.

Not sure I agree with the sentiments that Okada has lost a step since the lockdown. His reliance on the Money Clip has been a bit much and he was absolutely phoning it in against Yujiro, but I thought he looked good here.

[Makai Club #1]

The main event was fine imo. Some iffy execution and pacing issues aside, it was a good match, just not a flat out great match. Okada looked more motivated in the match and looked good according to the story they were telling. 

[kas]

I thought he looked a lot more motivated today than he has since WK barring the Takahashi match

[Boss Rock]

The ending of Shingo-Jay seems pretty clear that the BC shenanigans are not going to stop. Which is a shame, because it was a really good match up until that point. Jay has proven he's good enough that he doesn't need those tropes in his match. We get it, he's a heel. He doesn't need to cheat in literally every match.

[kas]

The main event today was incredible. The rest of the card was solid, nothing blow away but nothing bad either.

[cactus]

I had night two playing the background, so my attention was dipping in and out, but Yano's match against Sanada had me grinning from ear to ear. I don't find Yano that funny, but his schtick is endearing enough and it breaks up the serious matches nicely. Yoshi-Hashi vs Juice felt like it went on forever. I think Yoshi-Hashi might be my least favourite wrestler. He's completely competent, but he's so uninteresting and dull. I was expecting more from KENTA vs Goto as I felt it needed more hate. Tanahashi vs Naito was good, but they've had much better matches in the past. 

[gordi]

I didn't enjoy Night 2 as much as I enjoyed Night 1, and Misu v Ishii is still my favourite match of the tournament by a wide margin (and to be honest it will be very very tough to top)... but there was still a lot to like. 

I loved Liger on commentary, "boo-humming" (hum-booing??) and getting very into everything. 

I loved that Osaka crowd, doing the very best they could under the circumstances. 

There were some really surprising finishes as well as quite a few near-falls and false finishes that I bought into, which is something i always enjoy. 

Tana's high fly flow to the floor was a truly spectacular spot. It's pretty tough to "wow" me these days, but that totally did it.

I sincerely enjoyed the finishes to Yano v SANADA and EVIL v ZSJ. 

I have a few "Old Man Yells at Cloud" opinions about Night 2, though:

Did Juice and SANADA have a backstage bet about who could put on the stupidest ring entrance outfits? It's a pretty tough choice, there.

It was very cool that Juice got the Osaka crowd into it... and I'm hoping that some day he'll be able to get me into one of his matches, too. I like his left hand punches, but everything else he does in there seems to ripped off directly from a "Best of the SmackDown 6" comp tape. Can somebody maybe send him a "Barry Windham in the 4 Horsemen" comp or something? I'd like to see him do a few basic wrestling moves or holds. (Like I said: "Old Man Yells at Cloud")...

KENTA v Goto just went on and on, from where I was sitting. I've liked both guys a lot at various times (like, for example, Goto's amazing WK 12 match v MiSu) but I just couldn't get into what they were doing tonight. They looked a little rusty, to be honest.

I liked the "technique v power" story that EVIL and Zach told in there. I wish they had teased out the "unprotected turnbuckle" spot a little, but otherwise it was a fine match. If we are definitely going to have interference in every BC match... I guess I slightly prefer Dick Togo interfering to Gedo interfering.

I could see people who are really into "Epic" matches preferring tonight's main event to Suzuki v Ishii. I'd have to imagine that Naito v Tana is Meltzer's match of the tournament so far, for example. It's still not close, though, for me. I guess I'm really into the whole brevity thing these days.

Obviously, the main event went really long... and it's not like those guys aren't great at "Epic." The match had enough drama and excitement to pretty much fill all that time. It was nice to see Tana not looking all banged up in there, too. I just hope that Naito doesn't try to do this every night that he's working in this tournament... but I am kind of afraid that he will.

 

[Boss Rock]

Night 2 definitely wasn't as good as Night 1, but still a solid night with no truly bad matches. Loved Tanahashi-Naito. Crazy how consistently great Tana is in big match situations. Naito looked the best he has in a while (granted he wasn't wrestling EVIL) but this was the Tanahashi show. I do sort of miss when non main-event G1 matches were 10-13 minutes and not 15-20, though. Some folks are good at it, some just aren't.

[gordi]

I'd honestly prefer it if they went back to sub-15-minute main events, too. 

[FMKK]

Quick and dirty ratings of the shows so far

 

Night One - A Block

Will Ospreay vs Yujiro Takahashi ***

About as good as anyone can get from someone who sucks as much as Yujiro. The finish was cool. The promo afterwards stunk however.

 

Jeff Cobb vs Taichi ***1/4

This started slow and built towards a finishing stretch that was better than I expected. Cobb just completely abandoning his leg selling to do spots brings it down. He's so hit and miss.

 

Minoru Suzuki vs Tomohiro Ishii ****1/4

Two mean old men beat the shit out of each other and it was fantastic. Suzuki as the evil sado-masochist and Ishii as the more-guts-than-brains pugilist is the perfect match-up. This had stiff strikes, incredible selling and wonderful facial expressions. A brisk 13 minutes.

 

Jay White vs Shingo Takagi ***1/2

A well worked match with two good professional wrestlers but it didn't reach the heights of other Shingo performances, possibly because they had to do the usual Gedo run-in bullshit before the end.

 

Kazuchika Okada vs Kota Ibushi ****

This was weird because it wasn't the blow away match expected but it was still good. There is a debate about whether Okada is washed or working an angle. I'm sure he's hurting from years of punishment but they were obviously trying to tell a story here with him abandoning the Rainmaker for his shitty new chokehold. This had the usual Okada slow build but ended abruptly at the 20 minute mark when you'd usually expect them to kick it up a notch for an extended finishing sequence.

 

Night Two - B Block

Juice Robinson vs YOSHI-HASHI ***1/4 

Juice's new look is shit. His ability to work a crowd even in the COVID era is commendable though. That made this match a tad better than anticipated against the competent but dry as the Sahara Y-H. It should have ended a few minutes earlier though.

 

SANADA vs Toru Yano **

It wasn't good. It wasn't bad. It was just Yano. It is what it is.

 

KENTA vs Hirooki Goto ***1/2

This was a pretty good fight between two hard hitters, but nowhere near the level of the Suzuki/Ishii match. Again this went a tad long perhaps but I liked KENTA's arm work and the definitive submission finish. If you're a pushed guy you should dispatch of Goto and he did just that.

 

EVIL vs Zack Sabre Jr. ***1/4

15 minutes of EVIL is far preferable to 35 minutes of EVIL in main events. It still had the Dick Togo bullshit and his general blandness but he was a bit better as a bully than usual. Still, how did this fucking goth end up with the title for the summer? Zack was really good here fighting from underneath and could make a good babyface in future. It was surprising to see a primarily submission guy work those into babyface comebacks but he did it well.

 

Tetsuya Naito vs Hiroshi Tanahashi ****1/2

The best New Japan match since COVID. Naito was good her aside from some sloppy Destinos at the end but Tanahashi was a marvel. He rolled back the years with High Fly Flows to the outside and conveyed so much passion in his performance that the crowd was on the verge of just cheering when he leapt to the top rope during the finishing run, COVID restrictions be damned. He may be old and being cycled down in the booking but he's still the Ace to me damn it!

 

 

[Boss Rock]

Tanahashi's ability to pull out these kinds of performances at this stage of his career...just wow. Also funny how every year it's like "Is this the end of the road for him?" yet can still deliver when it matters most.

[MoS]

I thought Suzuki-Ishii was comfortably better than Tana-Naito. Tana's style has never really worked for me and while I think people are too harsh on Naito in respect of his decline, there's no doubt he is not as good as he used to be.

Someone who has really grown on me is Jay White. I was not a fan at all when he won the world title last year, but he has steadily improved and has become a great wrestler. He also is one of the few heels in pro wrestling who incorporates heel mannerisms throughout his matches. It does mean a lot of Gedo shenanigans which quickly become tiring, but his matches still remain enjoyable. Him snatching the ice pack from the ref after the match and applying it on his own neck was hilarious 

[Dav'oh]

Joined Night Three in progress. Quick thoughts:

Is MiSu going full panto-villain as he gets older? There's been aspects of it present these last few years I've been watching him, but his facials and selling seem to be getting..."bigger"? That mugging he did for the cameras off of Taichi's choke seemed so un-Misu.
Ospreay and Ishii made me jump off the couch, twice, which is exceedingly rare. First was Ishii's leaping headbutt as Will was sat up top, the second was whatever the "Murder Ishii Out of a Stormbreaker set-up" is called.
White vs Ibushi is on now. I'd put money on White if my online bookie took G1 bets.
 

[kas]

So Night 3 was pretty good. Ospreay vs Ishii was good but a massive disappointment imo. There were some holy shit moments, but Ospreay doing strong style could not interest me less. Ibushi vs White was MOTN, with an actually decent leg-selling performance from Ibushi which is a pleasant surprise. Okada vs Yujiro was awful but the other two matches were good at least.

[FMKK]

Feel like all of the top three matched were in the 3.75-4/25 range for me. Need to watch Cobb vs Shingo again though because I was making coffee during it.

[Boss Rock]

Best night of the tournament so far IMO. Okada-Yujiro was the only downer and it was to be expected. Not terrible, just there. Okada's back is bandaged up so he does appear to be hurt, but I don't think it's affected him too much (at least not nearly as much as folks on Twitter are saying). Just hopefully after he loses to Jay he drops the Money Clip. That I think is holding him back more than anything.

 

[kas]

Yeah, I agree. Replace the money clip teases with Rainmaker teases and all the matches he's had since the pandemic improve significantly.

[FMKK]

As a few people have pointed out, it kind of sucks that the only two stories they can do with Okada are 'he's the unbeatable ace' or 'he's lost his mind because he isn't the champion.' Like, if the dude is hurting then pair him up with Goto and stick him in the tag division for a bit. Or better yet, have someone beat his ass and put him on the shelf for a bit so he can rest up and then come back for revenge.

[Boss Rock]

He said in a post-match interview he'd consider going after the tag titles among other things, so yeah I'd be down with him and Goto, SHO, or Ishii teaming up. I'm also still salty we never got a proper Mega Powers team with him and Tana.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

Another good night from A Block. Shingo/Cobb was solid with both putting on good effort. Okada got a decent match out of Yujiro but that money clip has to go asap. Suzuki/ Taichi was a fun tough man fight and I must say I dig serious Taichi, he didn't fuck around one bit. Ospreay/Ishii was the banger that we all knew would not. disappoint. The main event was great. I got a kick out of White taunting the fans because they can't shout. Also Ibushi was brilliant in selling the leg working underneath until it was time to tap into dark Ibushi. So glad they've toned down the shenanigans because it made everything flow nicely. Let's see what B Block has in store tomorrow.

[kas]

With Tana & Ibushi seemingly breaking up, Tana & Okada together would be amazing.

[FMKK]

Night Three - A Block

 

Shingo Takagi vs Jeff Cobb - ***1/4

Shingi rules. Cobb is patchy. If you imagine a decent match between these two in your head, it'll be pretty close to what this was. Cobb hits his spots nicely but Shingo was much more interesting to watch.

 

Kazuchika Okada vs Yujiro Takahashi - **1/4

Look, I can't blame anyone for dogging it against Yujiro. He's shit. But I've seen Okada do it like three times already this year. Enough. And his new choke still sucks.

 

Minoru Suzuki vs Taichi - ****

Suzuki-Gun explodes as these two went right at it with chokes, punches, slaps, kicks and chair shots. Suzuki is a great brawler as always but it was nice to see Taichi mixing it up as well. Different than anything else so far and great finish as well.

 

Tomohiro Ishii vs Will Ospreay - ****

This was technically well wrestled with a lot of impressive spots but it was too much of an Ospreay juniors match as opposed to an Ishii match for my liking. A little much counter-fu in the middle. However, I have no doubt that a vocal crowd would've bit big on some of the nearfalls. The finish absolutely ruled as well, which is just enough to push it to four stars.

 

Jay White vs Kota Ibushi - ****1/4

White has always been good at his character but the in-ring has come on leaps and bounds. He was great at trolling the crowd for not being able to cheer and also at punishing Ibushi's leg with precision throughout. We also got the return of glassy-eyed psycho Ibushi, which is his finest form. The finish was amusing because it had a great sell from White on a V-trigger, Ibushi completely whiffing a kick on Gedo and then an awesome sell from Ibushi on White's finisher. A shit sandwich with beautiful bread lol. Match was excellent though.

[kas]

Naito and Zack killed it today. If this is the quality we can expect from Naito throughout the tournament we're in for a great ride.

[Boss Rock]

Two average matches (SANADA-Goto, KENTA-Juice), a slight over-achiever (EVIL-YOSHI-HASHI), a fun Yano match, and a great main event. Thinking that's gonna be the trend for the rest of the B block.

[FMKK]

Night Four - B Block

 

Sanada vs Hirooki Goto - ***1/2

I liked this quite a bit. They've got sneaky good chemistry and their moves match up well for reversals. Sanada is such a smooth and athletic worker but Goto was really bringing the grit and fire as he fought through his taped up arm being worked over. These two have a great match in them with more time.

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Toru Yano - **1/4

Usual Yano silliness. The blindfolding stuff was a fun twist and Tana was game for the nonsense.

 

Kenta vs Juice Robinson - ***

Like Juice's last match, this was an eternity. There was some nice stuff, like Kenta slapping the piss out of him, but clunky moments too. Especially the finishing sequence.

 

Evil vs Yoshi-Hashi - ***1/2

These two are usually a charisma vacuum but YH brought some good fire right off the bat, stomping on Evil like he was Steve Austin. His valiant babyface act against Evil and Togo's cheating made this work quite nicely. Good match, but Evil doesn't scream main event act at all.

 

Tetsuya Naito vs Zack Sabre Jr. - ****1/4

This was really good. They managed to work a nice blend between a Naito match and a Sabre match, with Naito game to trade submissions. Zack springing from the corner pad to hit a Tornado DDT was the spot of the night. Strong main event. Naito has been the MVP of the tournament so far for matches but ZSJ has had two really good performances now too.