NJPW G1 Climax 30 9.30

Yota Tsuji vs Yuya Uemura - 6.5/10

Have you ever seen the visual of a wrestler in fear of not being able to reach the ropes as their opponent locks a Boston Crab and pulls them to the center of the ring. Watch this match and see Uemura selling that fear.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Minoru Suzuki (4) vs Yujiro Takahashi (0) - Squash

Fuck it, i'm calling this a squash, Yujiro looked the weakest he has in this match, Suzuki just ran over him with a semi. Not even with the referee down and a ring surrounded by chairs could Yujiro make a stand. And to think that I thought that maybe Yujiro could get his first win via DQ but not even. He is virtually eliminated now, it would take a miracle to find the right combination of loses and draws for the rest of the block and for Yujiro to defeat White, Ishii, Ibushi, Cobb, and Shingo, thus virtually impossible at this point for him.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Kota Ibushi (4) vs Jeff Cobb (2) - 8/10

This match was the perfect example that I needed to contrast with Cobb's previous match about how uncomfortable he felt with Suzuki. With whom he had trouble getting physical and doing some of the stuff that he is most known for, and for that matter, it also kinda exposes Cobb a little bit on how much he depends on their opponents for a lot of those spots.

It was easily my favorite Cobb match, he did the stuff that I initially fell in love with Matanza for, just being able to grab dudes and toss them around and catch them midair and flip them around, and sure, an occasional striking battle, but mostly the tossing is what I love. This was pretty much Ibushi slowly carving down Cobb until he could have him down for Kamigoye, but to get there, he had to survive an onslaught of Cobb power moves.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Kazuchika OKada (2) vs Taichi (6) - 8/10

I really thought this was gonna get the main event spot, but I'm happy it got this spot, the two following matches seriously deserved their spots more than this. During his entrance, Taichi sand directly to Kanemaru's eyes and there was a beautiful connection that Kanemaru didn't know how to process.

Taichi looked great in this match, at this point, he was out-striking and out-smarting Okada. He looked confident and strong as he kept Okada down, who yeah, eventually made a comeback and won with the Cobra Clutch, but it was a hard way for him to get there, a path that would had been a stroll in the park previously. Taichi even got Okada with a Rainmaker Axe Bomber.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Will Ospreay (4) vs Jay White (6) (with Gedo) - 8.5/10

Given the participants, I think this was kinda underwhelming. Where was all that cockiness of Ospreay that he had with Ishii? Don't get me wrong, this was great, arguably the best match of the night, but you have two guys that will mark your future, wrestling in a big-ish stage for the first time, and it ended up being the second to last. This could had been built to the clash of the foreign talent.

As for asking for Ospreay's cockiness, it's just a personal preference. White has showed to be the MASTER of trash talking in NJPW since his return, he knows how to tease the crowds and all, and if there is ONE person that could had been a perfect counter for that trash talking, it could had been Ospreay. They exchanging trash talk during the match would had been a cherry on top.

As for the match, it was great. White worked Ospreay's leg, who sold it on point, but as the match went on, he made a comeback, he fought from underneath and got to the point that White could only fall back into avoiding Ospreay by dropping to the mat, relying on Gedo, and going for the Bladerunner out of nowhere that he couldn't even connect. Ospreay would end up hitting the Hidden Blade and Stormbreaker for the win.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Shingo Takagi (2) vs Tomohiro Ishii (0) - 8/10

I thought this went longer than it needed, and not in the sense that it overstayed its presence, but in the sense that a lot of the start of the match and towards the end, the match felt really slow, likely because they were making time. I did like the match a lot tho, the action was stiff and brutal, it was just two dudes beating the shit out of each other and I liked it. The selling got progressively better as you could start to see how tired they were getting, yet not just pretending like they're not trained fighters that gas out or that go down to a couple of moves. Full adrenaline here.

There was the headbutt spot that these two having been getting pretty comfortable with that actually got a audible moan from a crowd that can't speak. I still don't think their headbutts are as stiff as Shibata's were, but if the crowd is moaning about it, it's not even worth the pop. Just stop doing them.

Post-match - Once again, Ishii kept attacking their opponent like he did with Ibushi. It's getting annoying old man, just fucking win and go home if you don't have promos to cut.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I had a big problem with how this card was organized. Nothing against Ishii or Shingo, but they could had benefited from having less time given them to and having a sprint similar to Ishii vs Ibushi, and at the same time, giving Ospreay vs White would have given them time for a more dramatic story that would put Ospreay over big. See it this way, Ishii won the main event and didn't cut a promo to send the fans home, whereas, Ospreay would have done so, cut a nice promo, send the fans happy.

Anyway, overall, it's was a good show, but I'd say it was the weakest of the Block A, and that is something with such a strong lineup. I think at the end, the match that I enjoyed the most was Cobb vs Ibushi, but even that is not worth going out of your way to watch.<