NJPW G1 Climax 30 9.29

Gabriel Kidd vs. Yuya Uemura - 6.5/10

Another great YL match, Uemura got his win back with a Boston Crab. At this point there isn't much to say, they're going 50/50 between all three YLs.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
SANADA (0) vs. YOSHI-HASHI (0) - 6.5/10

YOSHI-HASHI beat SANADA and I'm 98% sure that is the main reason Harold Meij left his position with NJPW. I came close to quitting too, but I have a strong will to see things to the end. SANADA is now 0-3, so I have a feeling that he's gonna beat Naito in their match.

Match was ok, weirdly enough, pains me to say it, but I think this was YOSHI-HASHI's worst match so far, and it wasn't even that bad. They just kinda did stuff until they started chasing some submissions and then YH hit Karma and won.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
KENTA (2) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (2) - 8/10

I'm not gonna call this a squash, but this was heavily one-sided towards KENTA. Sabre had some spots here and there and locked in some submissions, but he really didn't come close to hurting KENTA as KENTA did with all his slaps and kicks. Even towards the end that Sabre had some stronger offense, KENTA seemed in complete control and it was just a matter of waiting for the GTS for the win. My only hope would be for another upset win like with EVIL, but I wasn't really seeing KENTA lose this one.

The action was great nonetheless, it was really stiff and the submission work on spot. I personally loved the ease that Sabre showed when he countered the GAME OVER in a matter of seconds into a move submission of his own.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (0) vs. Juice Robinson (4) - 7/10

Never had I seen a more annoyed Tanahashi as the day that Juice messed with his hair.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Toru Yano (4) vs. EVIL (2) - Dud, but more like 700/10

Not a type-o, this was more than perfection. Yano pinning EVIL is a top 3 mark-out moment of the year for me now. I'm calling this a dud because there wasn't much of a match here as some other Yano matches were they're more of a strategy from Yano AND/OR to counter Yano. This felt more like a 5 minute spot, a cat and mouse spot that ended with EVIL being low blowed. Yano is now 3-0 while SANADA is 0-3.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hirooki Goto (2) vs. Tetsuya Naito (4) - 8.5/10

After such a hell of a wacky trip this whole show had been, a straight up match between these two was kinda boring. Great wrestling, don't get me wrong, but my mind is all over the place between Yano and SANADA and Sabre and whatnot, and it's gonna take more than Goto to make me care.

Having said that, both these guys probably knew it, and kinda started the match at a faster pace. They were hitting each other with stronger moves, barely any resting spots, and soon after they started chasing their bigger moves. One fault that I saw was when we got some Glorias and Reverse GTRs and at the end, Naito landed a counter Destino, but after all that, they went for a striking battle and it sounded like the fans lost some momentum after that. It wouldn't be until Goto landed an Ushigoroshi minutes later that the fans would kinda wake again, but the match had started to feel long for me here. I think it would had been ok if Goto had built to the finish here and actually won, but it felt more like extending the match and still ending in the same place where Naito hit Valentia and Destino for the win.

Post-match - Naito invited BUSHI, who was on commentary, into the ring. He cut his winner's promo, messed around with BUSHI and Milano before heading home.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Really fun show, but it wasn't the best show wrestling-wise. Aside from Yano, this was the first show that had no match that I was hyped for or looking forward to, but it ended up giving us a lot to talk about