August 10, 2019
Tokyo, Japan
Juice Robinson & Ren Narita vs. Jon Moxley & Shota Umino - 5/10
I wasn't a big fan of Juice not really showing that he wanted to get his hands on Moxley, and actually going for the normal wrestling match. I understand that he is trying to not let his emotions get a hold of him, stray true to the wrestler he has become, but I think all that can be achieve and still show the hatred that Juice should be feeling for Mox. So I found wrestling underwhelming here, not a lot of heat and Juice looked like a geek. Umino pinned Narita with a Fisherman Suplex.
Jeff Cobb & Toa Henare vs. Tomoaki Honma & Toru Yano - 4/10
Cobb trying to be funny was weird, but I kinda liked it. Cobb working over Honma hurt me, Cobb's offense is to big impact for what I'm ok seeing Honma take. KK wouldn't shut up about these two being amateur wrestlers. Talking about KK, before the match, Chris Charlton was saying a really good fact about 2020 Olympic sports that will take place at Budokan, and Kelly interrupted him to get his FUCKING IDIOTIC "Hey, it's Honma!" joke. FUCK.KEVIN.KELLY. Cobb pinned Honma with the Tour of the Islands, I didn't care about this after KK annoyed me.
CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Is/hii & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - 6/10
Ishii and Taichi re-ignited their rivalry, which I have high hopes for. The rest were great, Suzuki vs Goto was good as usual. Suzuki pinned the geek with the GSP. Suzuki is sporting suction pump marks on his back, which is worrying given that he wasn't even in the G1. It makes me understand the reason he skipped it this year, but I worry that we may not get one final run unless he gets some rest.
BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) - 6/10
This match did a great job to get me excited for White vs Naito, they showed good chemistry here with one man being an impatient loud mouth and the other being tranquilo. The chance they got to work together was really action packed. I expect a lot of stalling and Tranquilo poses tomorrow, but the actual action should be awesome. The other stuff was mostly Shingo being awesome and working along with Naito. Shingo pinned Yujiro with Made in Japan. I found it interesting that he pinned Yujiro and not Chase.
G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
EVIL [8] vs. Lance Archer [4] - 8.5/10
I guess it's not that surprising that they had a great match, both were awesome throughout the tournament, but I didn't think much of this match going in and was pleasantly surprised. Archer really wanted to end his best tournament on a high impression on the fans, and thus was pulling off some great stuff. At one point he hit a moonsault from the apron to the floor on EVIL and a whole pack of Young Lions.
The match was hard hitting and there were some great spots towards the end when EVIL chased the STO, due to his intensity, the size difference didn't matter. My one drawback was the actual finish, I'm not a big fan of the EBD Claw being a pin, it makes no sense to count a pin when the only pressure point is the head and EVIL was kicking all over in pain. Great match nonetheless.
Archer ended at the bottom of the block with 6 points, but I think he comes out as the breakout star of the G1. I think he is a runner up right now as revitalizing his career if NJPW can follow up with some challenges for the NEVER, US, or even World Heavyweight title come the Destruction tour or Power Struggle.
G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Bad Luck Fale [6] (w/Chase Owens & Jado) vs. SANADA [8] - 6/10
Ugh man, I feared this so much. Fale DOESN'T NEED TO END WITH 8 POINTS! He's old and should be getting cut of the G1 by next year, SANADA is being built as a top guy now, there is NO REASON for Fale to pin SANADA cleanly!
The match wasn't that bad for Fale standards, SANADA was great fighting off against all three men, but when it seemed we were getting the good part with Jado and Chase out of commission, Fale pinned SANADA cleanly. SANADA still has a right to challenge Okada, but given the season, we may be getting an Okada v SANADA Broadway.
I really don't know what the plan with Fale is being that his winning streak has seen clean 'wrestling' pins. Let him chase the NEVER or IC title if you want for one of the irrelevant Destruction shows, but beyond that, I can't see anything else for him until Hikuleo returns from excursion and they do a 'big tongan' tag team. I sure as hell don't think he should be in next year's G1 when that spot could go to a Makabe farewell run.
G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
KENTA [8] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [6] - 9/10
This was a great match, but it was weird because Budokan turned on KENTA and Sabre's mannerisms didn't help him out at all. Regardless, it was the perfect match for both men with Sabre working KENTA's bad shoulder, while they traded some hard hitting strikes, that really brought back the old KENTA, and showed that Sabre's striking game is on point. Aside from that, there wasn't a lot beyond these two beating the shit out of each other. Finish came when Sabre countered the GTS into a Guillotine, and after transitioning a bunch, they ended in the mat with a double chickenwing and Sabre kicking him in the head until KENTA verbally submitted.
KENTA went from a winning streak to a losing streak. I really don't know where he goes from here, like I don't even know if he stays in WWE, but I think he had a great tournament. I think a lot of fans are taking the whole NOAH v NJPW thing too seriously tho, so it may be harder for him to proceed without being a heel. I think with the status of NJPW, a new LA Dojo stable wouldn't be that bad of an idea, to mix things up.
G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi [8] vs. Will Ospreay[6] - 9.25/10
I was kinda worried coming in to this match that Tanahashi would look bad not being able to keep up with Ospreay being all over the place, and I also feared that Ospreay needed to be where Tanahashi needed him; however, I don't know why I even doubted these men, this was awesome.
Tanahashi worked over Ospreay's leg, which he sold by doing moves with one leg and while he landed, but he didn't exactly slow down that much. Ospreay kinda went for Tanahashi's head when he started properly building towards the finish. The last few minutes of the match were pretty heated, it wasn't exactly pointing to Ospreay actually winning, so him landing the Os Cutter, Hidden Blade, and Stormbreaker made the crowd go crazy.
It's telling that times are a-changing that Tanahashi is finishing the G1 Climax without touching double digits. I also think it's important to see how it follows up that the Jr. Heavyweight champ pinned Tanahashi, and I don't mean it for Ospreay, he'll likely lose it to whoever wins the Super J Cup, but what would it do for the new champ and title since they beat the dude that beat Tanahashi.
Post-match - Tanahashi and Ospreay exchanged some words, looked endearing.
G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Kazuchika Okada [14] vs. Kota Ibushi [12] - 9.5/10
This was a great and classic match, but I think they also kept it safe and left things for another match in the future, likely a Wrestle Kingdom where Ibushi crowns himself for the first time ever.
Story from the get go saw Okada take Ibushi seriously, tell him to bring it, which he did, and well, it didn't go Okada's way. Ibushi would also sell that his bad ankle had been re-injured early on with another Pescado, so from there on, Ibushi was fighting from below, but he would slowly start going after Okada's head, landing a Package Tombstone to finally turn things towards his side. They fought for wrist control as Okada chased Rainmaker and Ibushi the Kamigoye. They both landed some of each, but Okada never landed the proper Rainmaker before Ibushi hit two Kamigoyes for the win. This was awesome.
Ibushi is the winner of Block A of the 29th G1 Climax.
Post-match - Ibushi cut a promo saying that last year, he failed to win the G1, but this year, he's not giving up until he wins, or is dead.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
You couldn't ask for a better finish to Block A. While i'm still damming the Fale win, the rest of the tournament card and for the most part undercard, was a solid show that made perfect sense.
POST SHOW POINT STANDINGS
Block A Block B |
Kazuchika Okada [14] Tetsuya Naito[10] |
Hiroshi Tanahashi [8] Jon Moxley[10] |
Kota Ibushi [14] Tomohiro Ishii [8] |
KENTA [8] Hirooki Goto [10] |
Will Ospreay [8] Toru Yano [8] |
EVIL [8] Jay White [10] |
SANADA [8] Shingo Takagi [4] |
Zack Sabre Jr [8] Jeff Cobb [6] |
Lance Archer [6] Taichi [6] |
Bad Luck Fale [8] Juice Robinson [6] |
