August 11, 2019
Tokyo, Japan
Ren Narita & Shota Umino vs. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura - 7/10
Good Young Lion opener, Umino was particularly vicious in this match. This was probably the most intense fight these guys have had by themselves, they ever brawled outside the ring. Shota and Tsuji surely looked like they had a legit feud going. Finish was an awesome submission struggle with Narita submitting Uemura with a Boston Crab.
Post-match - Shota attacke Tsuji again. Moxleys' influence at play.
BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA) - 5/10
Ok match, nothing special about this. It was virtually the same as we saw during the tournament. Yujiro was the one that got the win this time over BUSHI with Pimp Juice.
Clark Connors, Karl Fredericks & KENTA vs. Kota Ibushi, Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma - 6.5/10
These guys are great, but the American cockiness is starting to rub me off the wrong way. Connors and Fredericks are getting to smug for their own good. KENTA and Ibushi's stuff was good, the mirror kicks was a good spot. Honma got worked on for a while until Henare pinned Fredericks with the Toa Bottom.
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI) & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Suzuki-gun (Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.) - 7/10
This was fun, chaotic, but fun. The whole point about this was to build Tanahashi vs Sabre at the UK show, tease Okada vs either Suzuki or Archer for a future match, and have YOSHI-HASHI be the biggest geek in the world. 3-out-of-3 successes. Tanahashi beat Sabre with a cradle.
G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Jeff Cobb [6] vs. Toru Yano [8] - 5/10
Even for Yano standards, this wasn't much once the comedy with the tapes and singlet was done. I found the start really entertaining, but that was it. Cobb won with a Tour of the Islands.
G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Taichi [6] (w/Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Miho Abe) vs. Tomohiro Ishii [8] - 9.5/10
This was FUCKING AWESOME! These two are fucking gold when they're together, no one brings out the Lord out of Taichi like Ishii does, and I really wish I got to see this Taichi with other guys. I'm seriously behind Taichi every time he goes Strong Style. This was so good that no one should care the slightest that Ishii lost.
Kanemaru and Miho Abe were out there with Taichi, but they never got involved, they just watched as these two beat the shit out of each other. Match saw Taichi start the match strong, work over Ishii, who made a comeback, and then they proceeded to beat each other up, build to the Brainbuster and Black Mephisto, which Taichi landed to win. Not much else to it, just a straight up fight.
G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Jon Moxley [10] vs. Juice Robinson [6] - 8/10
I was still kinda annoyed that Juice wasn't as pissed off at Moxley for anything. Not even having a mark on his eyebrow for life now. Story here was that Juice wanted to defeat Moxley by being a proper New Japan Dojo wrestler, and thus he wrestled clean, he kept it technical, and even when Mox would bring out weapons, Juice would take them from him, and put them back to where they belonged. Crowd was popping for Juice putting back the tables, which would be the anti-thesis of the usual American fan that would chant 'We Want Tables' during the entrances.
I can't say this was better than the June match, but I liked it more, less Moxley brawling, which I still think it's a clutch to hide his WWE-esness. The final minutes especially, when Juice kept hitting desperation Right Hands of God until he finally got the Pulp Friction win. With this, Juice earns a rematch for the US title, but with AEW starting and Mox not being able to work shows outside Japan, I really don't know when this will take place.
G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Hirooki Goto [10] vs. Shingo Takagi [4] - 9/10
This was another great Strong Style match, not as good as Shingo vs Ishii, but some of the lariats here may have been stiffer. The one aspect I appreciated here more is that Goto and Shingo are more alike than Ishii, so when they started chasing the GTR/Ushigoroshi respectively, they created better counters and transitions than with Ishii. This was also a good test for Goto; Shingo is arguably, sans Ospreay (White and Ibushi too, but they usually keep it at a slower pace than they can), the fastest man in the G1 and the heavyweight division, so Goto had to show that he could hang and he did.
Finish run was intense. Shingo landed a Pumping Bomber that made me jump. Goto landed the reverse GTR only, which Shingo kicked out of, only for him to then hit the Last Dragon for the win.
Post-match - Shingo announced that with wins over Ishii and Goto, he feels confident to officially make the jump to the heavyweight division. Ishii vs Shingo at Wrestle Kingdom PLEASE!
G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Jay White [10] (w/Gedo) vs. Tetsuya Naito [10] - 9.5/10
This was a great match, but not the best, I didn't feel that they went all out, and given the IC title being in Naito's hands, I think this may be White's direction towards KOPW or WK itself, which I do think it's the best place for White for a while. I've also seena lot of criticism on Naito's performance this G1, that he's not performing against the best, and I don't know exactly what they're expecting when he's still having great matches. Is he hurt? sure, but just like KENTA, no need to retire them for having a slow G1. If anything else, Naito could use a break, let SANADA take over LIJ for now as he starts to chase Okada's title, let Shingo and EVIL become a tag team, and then comeback when New Japan is ready to explode SANADA as his own man.
Story as expected was White stalling and Naito being too tranquilo to care. White had the upper hand for a while after Gedo's interference, going after Naito's head. Naito would make a comeback and be at par with White as they chased their big moves. The finishing sequence of this match was insane, it takes two great minds to manage all those reversals and not fuck anything up. White won with the Bloody Sunday and Bladerunner combo.
Kota Ibushi vs Jay White will be the G1 Climax 29 Final Match.
Post-match - White called out Ibushi down. At first, White told Ibushi that tomorrow, it will be a fair match between him and Ibushi, no Gedo. White and Ibushi shook hands, but not a minute later, White took out Ibushi's leg from behind. White and Gedo attacked Ibushi's leg with chairs before heading out.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a great show, a lot of drama going in to who would win the block because, while Block A was easily predictable, Block B had two legit contenders since it was 90% obvious this was Ibushi's year. Naito and White were both perfect contenders to battle Ibushi that final night at Budokan. In addition, the rivalries between Taichi and Ishii, and Juice and Moxley used tonight to progress towards what I'm guessing are two of the Destruction main events.
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 [12] |
SANADA [8] Shingo Takagi [6] |
Zack Sabre Jr [8] Jeff Cobb [8] |
Lance Archer [6] Taichi [8] |
Bad Luck Fale [8] Juice Robinson [8] |
