NJPW G1 Climax 29, 7.28

Ren Narita vs. Yuya Uemura - 6/10

The usual solid Young Lion match that sometimes feels like it deserves a spot in the G1. Narita used his over the head Belly-To-Belly suplex to bridge and pin Uemura. These two are my current favorite Young Lions, so I was happy.

BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Kota Ibushi, Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma - 5/10

You know what, I really really like the team of Owens and Yujiro, I know that they'll never get a credible run, but I really like their work together. Likewise, while total geek and old man, I thought that Henare and Honma looked good together here, their double Kokeshi spot is good. The stuff with Fale and Ibushi was pretty much what we've been seeing with the giants vs the speedsters. Yujiro pinned Honma with Pimp Juice.

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI) & Shota Umino vs. Suzuki-gun (Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.) - 7/10

I LOVED this match, especially for what it was. I really can't remember if Ospreay and Sabre had crossed paths before, but this surely was the first time they got to do their thing alone and showcase their European style that made LDRS2000 huge. They pretty much did a long sequence of counters and reversals, the perfect combination of high flyer and technical wrestling. I liked this so much that I won't even call YOSHI-HASHI a geek today.

Archer and Okada also built their match, it was less showy, but given Archer's tournament, it should be great. It's one that a lot of people are speculating Okada loses as Archer is getting this new push. Suzuki and YOSHI were actually pretty decent, as we as Kanemaru and Shota, who took it to the end with Shota eating Deep Impact.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Karl Fredericks & KENTA vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA) - 6.5/10

Another solid match. The main thing here is that EVIL injured Tanahashi's leg for tomorrow. SANADA and KENTA was good too, I got some 'we didn't used to belong here' vibes from this pair up. BUSHI won with MX over Fredericks.

G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Hirooki Goto [2] vs. Toru Yano [4] - Dud, Fun Stuff

These two have fought before in the G1 Climax, this lasted 1 m 42 s, and it wasn't even the shortest of their matches, so you can't complain that they're having short matches. Goto rolled up Yano after a bunch of shenanigans.

G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Juice Robinson [6] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [4] - 7/10

This felt sooo long and slow, I really thought they were going for the time limit draw because they kept dodging and reversing their finishers towards the end and they just kept going back to striking each other. Juice really wanted to have a classic striking match, but it felt so slow. Match was just strikes until they chased finishers and Ishii hit the Sliding Lariat and the Brainbuster to win. It wasn't bad, but just felt soo long and slow.

G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Jeff Cobb [2] vs. Taichi [4] (w/Miho Abe) - 8.5/10

I initially feared that this would be another Cobb vs White with Taichi being one to stall a lot, but they actually ended up surpassing the quality of their previous bout for the NEVER title. Story was that Taichi was playing a lot of mind games, using Miho Abe to distract Cobb over and over again, and Cobb just kinda working from there and tossing Taichi all over the place. There were some nice kick exchanges here, and once Taichi started chasing Black Mephisto, the counters were great. Cobb hit Tour of the Islands for the win.

G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Jay White [2] (w/Gedo) vs. Shingo Takagi [4] - 9.5/10

This was my favorite match of the night, you have a hard-hitting-no-bullshit dude in Shingo, and a vicious, cerebral, and sneaky White, who is not usually known for going into Strong Style territory and just exchanging lariats here and there, but Shingo is exactly that, and he clocked White life out. The image of Shingo lariating himself out of the Bladerunner was a thing of beauty.

Gedo interfered a lot, but nothing particularly annoying like Jado would, so I didn't mind it. The last few minutes saw a ton of finisher reversals and escapes, Shingo felt like he was getting closer and closer to hitting the big one, but White was faster and smarter, and managed to hit a Sleeper German, a Brainbuster, and eventually the Bladerunner to pick up his second win. Awesome match.

G1 Climax 2019 Block B Match
Jon Moxley [8] vs. Tetsuya Naito [4] - 9/10

This was as heated as it was teased to be. Naito once again played with Moxley's patience in a masterful way, to the point that I still felt that Moxley was being top patient for someone who is the Lunatic Fringe. Disclaimer, I still don't know what that means.

The match was a brawl, both in and outside the ring, they hit each other with everything. There was a lot of stuff outside the ring as expected, and I did like that Red Shoes at one point tried to take the chairs away from Moxley. Inside the ring, they worked on each other's heads, with Naito feeling like the dominant wrestler until the end when Moxley turned things around with a huge lariat. They traded big moves, at one point Mox kicked out of the running Destino, and Naito kicked out of the old Dirty Deeds and blocked the Death Rider. At the end, Moxley did land the proper Death Rider for the win.

It was a good heated match, but it didn't live up to the expectations of a 'dream match' that unfortunately, mostly everyone had built at this point. Finish felt kind of flat because as over as Mox is, I don't think a lot of people wanted to see him defeat Naito of all people.

Post-match - Moxley cut his winner's promo, talking so fast that I think that even those that speak English in Japan, have trouble understanding. He said that those who doubted him can change their mind now, and that he's going to win the G1. He has 10 points, I'm starting to fear he will and I really really hope he doesn't. He NEEDS to lose against Juice and White and Yano.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

A good show, but a lot of ups and downs throughout the show, probably the one with the least consistency going. I did think it went fast and easy. We're coming close to the end and unless Mox starts losing, he's pretty much taking the B Block.