Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 30 10.7

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 30, Day 11
October 7, 2020
Hiroshima, Japan

Gabriel Kidd vs. Yota Tsuji - 5.5/10
The usual stuff. I didn't get into it as I've been with other YL matches, but it was good nonetheless.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Tomohiro Ishii (2) vs. Yujiro Takahashi (0) - 6.5/10
If there was a man in the whole company that could potentially get a good match out of Yujiro, it was Ishii, and he kinda did. Yujiro still lacked fire or speed, but the action looked much better than it has before. He even got a decent near fall towards the end. We never got the spot with Ishii telling Yujiro to bring it, the one that really worked for Taichi, and maybe that's the reason that Yujiro kept moving like a slug throughout the match.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Kazuchika Okada (6) vs. Jeff Cobb (4) - 7/10
This was good, but it wasn't anything special to be honest. The story continues that Okada won't use the Rainmaker, and I've noticed that we're starting to get some of his opponents use the ripcord element of the Rainmaker for the moves, and even here Cobb used it to set up one of this tosses. In that same sense, Cobb looked good, I noticed that there were some spots that flipping around Okada was a bit too much and he ended up looking like he needed to the extra minute to rest, and not Okada who was selling.

At the end, Okada once again had to rely on rolling up his opponent to win. Who hurt you Okada, please let me heal you.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Minoru Suzuki (6) vs. Will Ospreay (6) - 9/10
Finally, a hero to deal with that cocky little Brit. Ospreay tried to play rough with Suzuki, and in return, Suzuki beat the shit out of Ospreay for a while, injured his arm. I really enjoyed the clash of styles, neither man changed much of their repertoir for this match. Suzuki's work still consisted of strikes and submissions. The only thing out of the ordinary was Suzuki doing La fucking Mistica transitioned into a sleeper in 2020.

There was a spot that I loved with these guys doing their Strong Style version of a Helena duel, just hitting each other with elbows while they kept grasp of each other's wrists. Finish saw Ospreay win with the Stormbreaker. This was fucking fanstastic!

We also can't leave without commending Ospreay's selling, he was fantastic. He fought like a man without an arm.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Taichi (6) vs. Jay White (6) - 8.5/10
The interaction between these two before the match started alone was worth 8/10 of the rating. I loved the mechanics of this match and what it brought out of each of the competitors. They are two similar heels in some aspects, so there are certain things that they are going to cancel each other out, as it was stalling outside of the ring, misdirecting shots, low blows when things looked bad, and such. But it was these things that forced both men to be more aggressive, they wouldn't go anywhere if they kept dodging each other, so in return, we got a really vicious White and a really fired up Taichi.

There was a spot I liked that is your usual challenge to get hit in the neck, but instead, both Taichi and White were pretending to go for the neck, and instead would fake out and kick each other, and that was just the perfect example of the type of heels that these guys are.

Finish was also really cool, Taichi kept teasing both White and Gedo that he would win using the Gedo Clutch, and he came close, and Gedo was losing his shit

I said it early on. White and Taichi are beasts in this tournament. I honestly think they've been the MVPs of Block A.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Shingo Takagi (4) vs. Kota Ibushi (8) - 9.5/10
Shingo Takagi is a fucking stallion of a man, he came in, challenged Ibushi to fight, Ibushi tried, and Shingo slapped the fuck out of Ibushi and won. That's a fucking stallion!

The match was pretty much an all out fight inside the ring. They traded momentum a couple of times, but what I loved the most was that it wasn't like with other Ibushi matches where he just goes serious and turns things around. Ibushi would get serious and Shingo would be like 'Bring it fucker!'. The finish was a bit out of nowhere because I don't think anyone expected it, but it was well built and executed. Shingo straight up blocked Kamigoye with his shoulder, carried Ibushi, hit the Last of the Dragons, and won. Ibushi was dead for about 5 minutes after the match, and Shingo couldn't get up because he had a dead body on top of him.

It's crazy to believe that this is the first ever one-on-one match that Shingo and Ibushi have ever had. Ibushi is only a year older than Shingo, and he debuted only about 3 months before Shingo, and even though they crossed paths in some Dragon Gate and DDT shows, it had never been one-on-one. This random G1 show in Hiroshima was low key main evented by a dream match that I didn't realized I was missing in my life. And yes, we had more first time matches tonight, but none of them were close to having a combination of careers like Ibushi or Shingo have.

Post-match - Shingo cut a great winner's promo, why doesn't this man cut more promos live? He talked about being there for 2 years only and his hopes for the 3rd.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
I really enjoyed this show so much, I think it'll end up being one of my favorite shows of New Japan this year, it wasn't workrate best, but it was just entertaining top to bottom.

Standings
8 Kazuchika Okada
8 Kota Ibushi
8 Will Ospreay
8 Jay White
6 Shingo Takagi
6 Minoru Suzuki
6 Taichi
4 Jeff Cobb
0 Yujiro Takahashi
6 Tomohiro Ishii