NJPW G1 Climax 29, 8.7

Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Toru Yano, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura - 4/10

They're building Yano vs Taichi, so not a lot there really, and Suzuki only had Young Lions to work from, so it was a lot of cool torture porn, but nothing beyond that. Kanemaru submitted Uemura with a Boston Crab

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Jon Moxley & Shota Umino - 4.5/10

Goto vs Moxley seemed promising IF they can keep it in the ring tomorrow, but I thought that Moxley was coming off as a dick since Goto wasn't exactly being antagonizing to Mox. YOSHI submitted Umino with the Buttergeek Lock.

BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi) (w/Gedo) vs. Juice Robinson, Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma - 6/10

I think it's a really underrated pair up since White totally elevated himself beyond the US title, but I really really love the stuff that White and Juice do when they're together. I have high expectations for tomorrow's match, especially since we now have a more serious Juice. Their pair up was good, but the rest was mostly just the same stuff we've seen for a while. Owens pinned Honma with the PP and I think at this point, Owens has pinned more people than anyone in the tournament AND undercard.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Jeff Cobb, Ren Narita & Tomohiro Ishii - 5/10

Shingo vs Ishii is going to be AWESOME! Cobb vs Naito is going to be ok, I think it may exceed my expectations, because this didn't hype me up that much. I'm feeling kinda down on Cobb after this tournament. BUSHI hit MX on Narita for the win.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Lance Archer [4] vs. SANADA [6] - 8.5/10

Ok, here's a way to explain this match. It was like when you're playing Metal Gear Solid, and you're up against Rex, and you're just running all over the place, taking as many shots here and there as you can, and you get hit now and then, you recover and keep dodging and hitting, until you finally come close, and out of pure luck, you have one last missile and it lands and you win. That was this match. It was Archer running all over the place and SANADA managing to survive and get some offense in and slowly chop Archer's legs down.

Finish saw SANADA escape Blackout twice before rolling up Archer for the pin. This was a really good victory for SANADA, probably the best option after defeating Okada, since we had originally seen Archer come close to beating Okada, he has been having a great tournament sans the loses, and now we saw SANADA survive the onslaught. It was the babyface win that SANADA needed here.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Bad Luck Fale [4] (w/Chase Owens/& Jado) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi [8] - 8.5/10

Well, I didn't see that coming, I knew that Fale would be getting at least one more win in the tournament, and in a way, I'm really glad it wasn't against SANADA (crosses fingers).

I think it's acceptable to say it was one of Fale's better matches this tournament, but it still wasn't particularly good. It did however go quick and I think combined with the finish, sucked some air from the crowd. As expected, this was Tanahashi against Jado, Chase, and Fale, with one of them always figuring out how to distract the ref so the other two would attack Tanahashi. Bullet Club mostly focused on Tanahashi's back, while Tanahashi went after Fale's leg. Fale went for his finishers kinda quick, only managing to land a Grenade for a near fall. As he went for the BLF, Tanahashi escaped, and so Fale instead rolled up Tanahashi for the upset win.

Commentary made a big deal that Fale has started winning by using actual wrestling moves.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
KENTA [8] vs. Will Ospreay [4] - 9/10

All day I've seen people on twitter/podcasts saying that KENTA is a disaster for missing a springboard and his timing here and there, that he had to be completely carried by Ospreay. I mean, dude spent years in WWE having crap matches, getting injured, then took time off, and then went straight into the most gruesome tournament in professional wrestling, and he's still have great matches with a ton of people. It's been 15 dates with top level wrestling, and the dude is a disaster because he botched a springboard? Give me a break, dude is probably tired and hurting at this point.

The match played to both men's styles, a lot of striking early on, with a lot of dodging and reversals in between each strike. There were some big moves executed here, KENTA hit a Falcon Arrow on the apron that looked nasty. Ospreay hit the Hidden Blade and it also looked kinda hard, but I figure that's as close to KENTA's style as it can get. End came when Ospreay escaped the GTS, hit an Os Cutter, Hidden Blade, and Stormbreaker for the win.

I really didn't think Ospreay was winning since I have him defeating Tanahashi on the next match, so I was really surprised then he defeated KENTA.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
Kota Ibushi [10] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [6] - 9/10

It was the usual greatness these two put together, probably among the same quality as their New Japan Cup battle. It was the usual story of Sabre working limbs, then thinking he can hang with Ibushi with strikes, and getting flattened with just a couple of strikes when Ibushi fires back. The last exchange with Ibushi chasing Bomaye and Sabre either dodging or countering was great, ending with Ibushi hitting the Bomaye and Kamigoye combo for the win.

G1 Climax 2019 Block A Match
EVIL [8] vs. Kazuchika Okada [12] - 9.5/10

This was the most killer that EVIL has looked since he defeated Okada the first time, if not more. I really really thought that EVIL was winning this, he looked great and in a way, it could continue the SANADA/EVIL story from before the G1.

The match was mostly hitting all of their spots, from EVIL's chair batting spot, to Okada's usual neckbreakers, poses, and dropkicks to build the match. The last minutes of the match as they neared the limit were pretty good, it was when EVIL started to look really dominant as he got closer and closer to hitting Everything Is Evil, but it was Okada that kinda woke up, hit about 4 Rainmakers in total to win.

With this win, everyone but Ibushi is eliminated, making things easier for me. Commentary said that the card announced earlier before the tournament wasn't final until now that matches get re-organized according to points. Sometimes we argue that ending the tournament with only two people as contenders to win kills the suspense, but I honestly didn't mind it this year with Okada and Ibushi, I think there are many other things going around beyond the points. For the block finals, Ibushi NEEDS to win, Okada advances with a win, draw, or double countout.

Post-match - Okada cut his usual promo saying he has 7 wins and that he didn't have enough fingers in his hand to count them.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I'm finding hard to find a way to describe this show. I feels weak since well, the last Block A match was fucking awesome, but this was still good. It had a lot of finishes that I did not see coming, so it also felt like a show of upsets.