NJPW G1 Climax 29, 7.18

Jon Moxley & Shota Umino vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Yuya Uemura - 6.5/10

So this is my narrative. Moxley saw that Ishii vs Shibata match from years past that put both men on the map and he said to Ishii, I want to reach this level of intensity, how can we do this without having crossed paths ever before. Ishii told him, let's beat the shit out of each other in the preview match and neither of us will back down. From the entrances to the Ishii walking out, these two displayed animosity to each other like if they knew each other from before or were part of different high schools.

The match was an all out brawl in the ring, at one point early on, Shota and Yuya had to pull them apart from each other because it was getting out of hand. The Young Lions didn't back down either and were heated too, and I think that the last show when we saw Umino be extra hard on Tanahashi HAS to be Moxley rubbing off on him. Shota pinned Yuya with a Fisherman Suplex.

Post-match - Mox and Ishii got into another pull apart. Ishii brought in a chair, but Mox used it to sit and call out Ishii, so Ishii in the aisle, grabbed a chair and did the same. These men are playing chess with each other. This match is going to be a classic, mark my words.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) & Jeff Cobb vs. Juice Robinson, Toa Henare & Yota Tsuji - 6/10

Only thing being built here was Cobb vs Juice, since for some reason, as commentary said, Goto vs Naito didn't really require build given their past. Cobb and Juice were good, but it wasn't anything special so far. Tsuji was great, beating the shit out of that geek YOSHI-HASHI, who commentary started talking about him for block C, the joke jobber block from last year, and I don't think he'd even win it that geek. He did win this match tapping out Tsuji with the Butterfly Lock. That geek.

BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Ren Narita, Tomoaki Honma & Toru Yano - 6.5/10

Main stuff here was the interaction between White and Yano, it's a weird combo, but I find it the most interesting in the tournament to be honest. At first it seemed like White was kinda weary of Yano, but he's been doing that about everyone else, but I mean, that was Ishii and Goto, this is Yano. They did some shtick and Yano got some near falls on White. Narita was awesome, but he lost to Chase's Package Piledriver.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - 5.5/10

Taichi vs Shingo was built here, and I wasn't that impressed, Taichi got a lot of offense on Shingo, but I do expect their match will be a clash of kicks vs bombers. The rest were just kinda there doing the usual SZKG brawling all over the place. Suzuki did get the win over BUSHI tho, that was good.

Post-match - Kanemaru hit the Whisky Mist on Shingo, allowing Taichi to take him out with a kick. Naito stepped in and saved Shingo, which made it seem like Taichi vs Naito is heading somewhere beyond the G1. I do appreciate that Naito is bringing out more out of Taichi.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
KENTA [4] vs. Lance Archer [4] - 7.5/10

Big man vs little man that kicks a lot. Not much story other than KENTA kicking Archer of his feet until he could reach his head, kicking his head, and then submitting him with a Crossface. Archer being the big dude had a lot of offense using power, tossing KENTA around. At one point, Archer made fun of KENTA calling him Hideo, which fired up KENTA and had a small comeback. Good match for both, but both men's least special so far.

KENTA is the first man to reach 6 points.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
EVIL [2] vs. SANADA [2] - 9/10

This was the most intense match of the night, the tension was heavy in the room. This was two brothers that had a little beef with each other, and as they started to beat each other up, that beef escalated into real heat, and at the end, they really meant each of their strikes. Story going back a couple of weeks is that SANADA has really surpassed EVIL in singles competition, he got to the New Japan Cup finals and Okada even granted him a title match afterwards, while EVIL was just there roaming around, and I think it really bothered EVIL that SANADA was the most tranquilo about it. For a few weeks, EVIL hadn't been playing teammate with LIJ, we knew he was coming in being butthurt.

The match was a lot of play into their own relationship. EVIL at one point locked in SANADA in the Paradise Lock, while later on, SANADA used the STO on EVIL. A lot of counters and striking, reaching a point that SANADA was fired up against EVIL. Finish would end up seeing EVIL win with Darkness Falls and Everything Is Evil. This was great, it was a match that I didn't know who was winning, but whoever did, would mean something down the line, and granted, I'm team SANADA and found myself disappointed that he lost, but I think if the idea of SANADA leaving LIJ were to come to fruition, I think this loss is not a mistake.

Post-match - EVIL offered SANADA the fist-bump, which SANADA replied. All is good I guess.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Bad Luck Fale [2] w/Chase Owens & Jado vs. Kazuchika Okada [4] - 6.5/10

They started the match with Fale beating up Okada in the back and dragging him outside to the ring, this way we can get over the boring section of the part of Fale beating up Okada. The match was pretty much Okada being the awesome one-man-army that he is against all three men. There were a lot of shenanigans, ref bumps all over the place, but Okada took everyone out and eventually rolled up Fale with the same roll up that Ospreay defeated Fale in the NJC. A lot of people are not fans of this pair up, I've liked some of their previous bouts, but this had to be one of the worst they've had. At least Fale didn't win this time.

Post-match - Fale attacked Okada, who dropkicked him again.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi [0] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [0] - 8.5/10

Good match, but nothing special for me. Tanahashi tried to play Sabre's game, and was doing ok for a while, but it wasn't enough and had to rely on what he does best, working the leg and striking Sabre. Two things I noticed in this match was that every second High Fly Flow that Tanahashi has flown in this tournament, he has been welcomed with knees to the chest, and on the other side, Sabre keeps losing to his own convoluted pins. Both men were great, one of their better bouts given the change of pace, but it felt like a match i've seen a lot lately between New Japan and RevPro.

Sabre has now gone 0-3.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Kota Ibushi [0] vs. Will Ospreay [2] - 9.5/10

Both men are coming in with legit injuries, Kota with a strained ankle and Ospreay had a stinger in the back no more than a week ago. What did they do to protect each other? Well, work on those specific injuries throuughout the match. This was the wrestling interpretation of 'Walk it off'.

Match was a lot of action, back and forward, both men working the mentioned injuries. They hit each other with a lot of stuff, Ospreay in particular, taking some ugly looking head bumps. They also kicked each other a lot, like a lot and stiff sounding. There wasn't as much drama as SANADA vs EVIL, but this was pretty intense too towards the end of the match. The chase for Stormbreaker and Kamigoye was really good, it had counters, it had Ospreay finding ways to set it up since he couldn't lift up Ibushi, but at the end, it was Ibushi had landed a Bomaye and Kamigoye for the win.

Given their injuries, kuddos to both men, they left it out all in the ring.

Post-match - Ibushi cut his winner's promo thanking Ospreay and doing the usual spill.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Good show, this was one that I was looking forward for storyline reasons more than anything, primarily LIJ stuff. The wrestling was top notch with Okada vs Fale being the only one that I didn't really care for.