NJPW G1 Climax 30 10.6

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura - 6.5/10

They went to a time limit draw and it was great. Lots of submissions and grappling, but they got into a great striking exchange at the end. I'm seriously falling in love with Uemura's selling.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Toru Yano (6) vs. Hirooki Goto (2) - Dud!

Goto, like a total dick, tossed away the t-shirt that his friend offered him and using the distraction, attacked him from behind and rolled him up for the upset win.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Zack Sabre Jr. (4) vs. SANADA (2) - 8.5/10

Smartest way to start this match. we just saw Yano get pinned within seconds of the match started, so they started with a fast pace pin reversal sequence that ended with a great near fall that everyone ate up.

The rest of the match was mostly Sabre grappling SANADA, looking for a submission or a quick pin by clutch. After SANADA kicked out of the European Clutch, he kinda chased the Skull End for about 3 minutes and then he hit a draping cutter and moonsault combo for the win, nothing to do with the Skull End. I don't know why, but we've been getting a lot of these finishes that feel rushed but not exactly surprises or upsets. Wrestling was great, but I hate ending a match thinking 'wait, that was it?'

World Tag League + BOSJ 27 Announcement - They're running both tournaments at the same time. Finals of both will be at Budokan!

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Juice Robinson (6) vs. EVIL (4) - 7/10

Not exactly sure what it was, I think it was mostly the selling, but I really enjoyed EVIL in this match, like he actually gave a damn and put some energy into the match. It helps that Juice is one of those wrestlers that brings out the energy from the audience, and that easily gets into the wrestlers too.

The match was similar to some of the other babyface vs Bullet Club matches where the babyface is fighting against the numbers odds and cheating, and it's working, but at the end, it ends up being too much for them and in one distraction, the heel gets the low blow or shot that gets them the opening to hit their finish and win. At least I can't complain that the finish was out of nowhere, this one was properly built.

This match really made me think about what will be next for both these guys. I think Juice is gonna go straight for the US title chase along with KENTA, that is the easy path for him. EVIL however, I can't imagine he challenges Naito for a while

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Tetsuya Naito (6) vs. YOSHI-HASHI (2) - 8.5/10

This match started off really good, it seemed like we were getting another great match out of YH, and it was easy to believe it, Naito and YH have been great so far.

Match initially was about Naito working over YH's head, a little glimpse here and there about Naito being overly tranquilo with YH, but as the match went on, YH started to get more and more offense in, and when it seemed we finally reached second gear, YH locked in the Butterfly Lock and the match just slowed down to zero. He held the lock in like for 3 minutes of which the fans never stopped clapping, so bless their hearts, but the action really slowed down and it wasn't able to fully get back on track pace-wise.

Finish just saw YH and Naito go for their finishers, Naito landed two Destino's and won. It's unfortunate that as good as a tournament YH has had so far, we know the booking is not part of that story and at no point did I ever consider he'd win tonight. There's gonna be upsets on the double champion, but YH is just not one of them.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (4) vs. KENTA (4) - 9/10

At this point of his career, what's the point of bringing up Tanahashi's hair, but today was something else, it looked like he killed a third of a lion and put it on his shaved head.

Match saw both men work on each other's legs, but KENTA's approach was different in the sense that he'd go for the leg when he needed to cut off Tana, but then would go for the head in order to build to either the GAME OVER or the GTS. If he could get a leg based submission on the way there, then great.

Something that I loved about the story here was that KENTA was actually keeping the striking to a minimum for most of the match, until Tanahashi had to slap KENTA in desperation to release a leg lock, and at that point, KENTA let it go because he was provoked and wanted to strike Tana. They would get into a strike exchange minutes later that I'd venture to say KENTA won since Tana was forced to change course into the Dragon Screws.

And probably contraire to popular belief, but I thought the ref bump and briefcase shot were perfect for this match. We've seen so much Bullet Club cheating leading to EVIL/White/KENTA winning, so that when this happened, the crowd kinda felt like they knew it was over, but alas, Tanahashi made a great recovery and won by submitting KENTA with a Cloverleaf. Fantastic performances by both, KENTA was the correct heel for Tanahashi.

On a final note, really low key, but Tanahashi did some Shibata spots, at least up as good as Tana was able to perform them.

Post-match - I got the impression that Tanahashi showed interest in the IWGP US title briefcase, but it could had just been because his head broke the side of the briefcase and he was impressed.

After that, Tanahashi cut his winner's promo, with tears in his eyes, he thanked the crowd. He played air guitar to close off the show.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Great show, a lot of tonight felt good at most, but then the main event really left me with a sweet taste.