Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 30 9.20

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 30, Day 2
September 20, 2020
Osaka, Japan

Gabriel Kidd vs. Yota Tsuji - 5.5/10
Your usual well wrestled opener between YLs. Tsuji won with a hell of a spear and later a deep deep Crab.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
YOSHI-HASHI vs. Juice Robinson - 7.5/10
Well, now we know what movie Juice watched on repeat in the last 6 months of isolation. He came out wearing spandex version of a bad boy version of a Blues Brother 2000 John Goodman. I liked it, 100x better than the handlebar mustaches and long white coat and sparkly fedora looks.

This was surprisingly good for a YH match, they got a lot of time and were able to build up some good momentum and drama towards the end. I wasn't really expecting Juice to lose his return match, especially against YH, but there were some spots towards the end that had me thinking that maybe he would. It also helped that they kept a somewhat fast pace throughout the match.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Toru Yano vs. SANADA - 6.5/10
Everyone who wondered what Juice Robinson was wearing, suddenly felt that Juice looked perfectly normal now that cyber SANADA is a thing. WHAT THE FUCK is SANADA wearing!? At least get a larger size on both the mask and jacket. I do love what he did with the hair, looks better.

This was the usual SANADA vs Yano formula with the latter going for the tape tactic, and SANADA going for the Paradise Lock tactic. SANADA has always one of those guys that doesn't fall for Yano's tricks, unfortunately for him, Yuya Uemura fucked him and unlocked the Paradise Lock and that would cost him the match. It's kinda funny that SANADA lost to the same thing that Yano tried with Hiromu, yet Hiromu did manage to win.

Anyway, it was short and fun, Yano makes me happy and I highly appreciate his type of matches now more than ever.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
KENTA vs. Hirooki Goto - 7.5/10
KENTA cut his heartthrob hair he had been sporting in the US shows, now he's pretty much back to the look he had before he left Japan earlier this year.

This started off really slow, and not just because of KENTA's stalling, but just because of both these men's current style; however, as the match went on, it slowly picked up speed and intensity and it ended up pretty good. Having said that, it was still one of those matches that you start to lose focus and you start thinking about what witty tweet you can make about SANADA's space suit.

See, there I go again. KENTA won with the GAME OVER, which could be argued as Goto didn't even get the GTS.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. EVIL w/Dick Togo - 8.5/10
This is probably the closest we've ever been to a babyface Sabre in New Japan. He had to fight a guy that uses chairs, he had a numbers disadvantage because Togo is always there, and he got jumped at the start of the match to cap it off. Both the fans and commentary were chanting for ZSJ at the end, and when Sabre locked in the European Clutch, Liger started marking out, the crowd went nuts. I think this experiment was a success.

Moreover, I think this was the trickiest match to book this weekend. You probably don't want the tag champs to lose their first matches, but you also may not want EVIL to take a loss on his first match, so I came in not really having a sure bet.

The match was the clash of styles between the technician and the brawler, so it was a lot of EVIL doing power moves and Sabre now and then working on a limb. The thing here was that on several occasions, Sabre couldn't keep a submission locked because there was always a second person there to interfere, making his game plan a bit more complex. In addition, he had to deal with EVIL's heelish tactics, which are not usually something that Sabre has to deal with. So everything looked bad for Sabre, at the end the ref was taken out and it was easy pickings for EVIL and Togo, EVIL had it won, he hit Darkness Falls and went for EIE, but suddenly, Sabre is his most Sabre way, wiggled his way out, locked in the European Clutch and won.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito - 9.75/10
With the theme of tonight, let's talk about entrance attires. Naito came out expecting a hanging bloody Briscoe or something, he's done white suits before, but this one was extra shiny.

This match was fantastic, one of those Tanahashi clinics that people talk about, and Naito was the perfect partner today. They worked each other's legs and sold it perfectly. The escalation was on point, they build up and delivered some crazy ass 2.999 near falls, and they were not even done yet, they chased their finishers, failed and succeeded and failed again, but they persevere until Naito landed Destino for the win.

Post-match - Naito cut his winner's promo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Awesome show, I liked it more than yesterday's. Awesome main event, awesome Sabre performance, two new ring attires to talk about. It won't all be winners, but remind me again how Block B was gonna suck again.

Standings
2 Tetsuya Naito
0 Hiroshi Tanahashi
0 EVIL
2 KENTA
0 Hirooki Goto
2 Toru Yano
0 YOSHI-HASHI
2 Zack Sabre Jr.
2 Juice Robinson
0 SANADA