NJPW G1 Climax 30 10.13

Gabriel Kidd vs. Yuya Uemura - 6/10

Good opener, Uemura was in there, so my biases told me it was good.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Jeff Cobb (6) vs. Will Ospreay (10) - 7.5/10

I totally didn't see this coming, this close to the end, Ospreay is one of those guys that I didn't see losing anymore, especially on a night that the other wrestler with 10 pts have it believable chance at winning and everyone with 6 or less will be eliminated as soon as someone reaches 12 pts.

The match was a flippier version of the Cobb match with Ibushi, a lot of Ospreay going high and Cobb catching him and tossing him around. Something inside my head felt that this was more for a 2018 Ospreay, but now that he was bigger, some spots did seem somewhat exaggerated. Having said that, it was a great match, Cobb looked super dominant and Ospreay resilient, this is the type of match that really makes Cobb shine, and at this point, we have to agree, Cobb's wins this tournament have been against pretty big names.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Yujiro Takahashi (0) vs. Kota Ibushi (10) - 6/10

Crazy that in a tournament with 50 year olds like Suzuki, or huge mastodons like Cobb, or stalling heels like EVIL, or even people being held together by tape like Tanahashi, Yujiro is still the slowest person, dude wrestles in slow motion. Aside from like one or two spots that Yujiro escaped Ibushi's grasp, this was pretty boring, the action was ok, just really really slow, and not in the mat wrestling type of slow, like legit superkicks being executed at the slowest speed possible that won't break your balance. Ibushi won.

At this point, I hope that Yujiro ends with zero and decides to take a second excursion to Mexico or something. And for that matter, Ibushi reaches 12 points and mathematically eliminates anyone that came in to this show with 6 points, Shingo, Suzuki, Taichi, and Cobb.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Taichi (6) vs. Shingo Takagi (6) - 9/10

If you're one of the NJPW English commentary listeners, watch this one match in Japanese with Milano Collection and Jushin Liger marking out at every Pumping Bomber. Liger joining commentary has been the saving grace since he retired.

This was awesome, this is the Taichi and Shingo I love to see. They just hit each other with every strike in their arsenal, they traded about a thousand Bombers and punches and kicks. They kicked out of Made in Japans and Dangerous Backdrops, but at the end, Taichi nailed Shingo with a Tensho Jujihou and Black Mephisto to pick up the win.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Minoru Suzuki (6) vs. Jay White (10) - 9/10

This match-up immediately made me realize that we've never seen Zack Sabre stretch out White in the ring, not even in a tag team match.

This was great, Suzuki beat the shit out of White, and as much as he tried to run, cheat to gain advantage, or cut off Suzuki, White would always find himself at the hands of a Suzuki elbow or submission. Not even after White took out Suzuki's knee did he stop Suzuki from chasing him around the ring on his knees. No matter what White did, could he stop Suzuki and stop him from getting angrier and angrier, so at the end, Gedo had to interfere to save White from losing by submission when he tapped to Suzuki's rear choke, thanks to the distraction, White caught Suzuki with the Bladerunner for the win.

I enjoyed Gedo's work here, I laughed when he spoke in English to Suzuki for some reason.

G1 Climax 30 Block A Match
Tomohiro Ishii (6) vs. Kazuchika Okada (10) - 8.5/10

Great performances by both, but I found this to be somewhat disappointing, my fault for once again finding myself comparing to what these two have done in the past. I think having this match so close to the end of the G1 made it harder to believe that Ishii was once again getting the win over Okada and that it be one of those matches, and instead, parts of the match just kinda felt like waiting for the finish, which to make things worse, we also knew it'd come via Money Clip.

And so, we got ourselves a match that saw Okada on top a lot, and Ishii do submissions to play Okada's new game, and while it all looked great, no complains, it's not exactly playing to their strengths. This match also had a lot of trouble hitting second gear, there was one spot with Ishii blocking a dropkick and dropping a knee that felt like it was turning things up, but the crowd had trouble following it up, the action slowed down, and once again, Ishii went for headbutts against the guy whose head once retired a man.

Okada eventually won with the Money Clip and the crowd went mild. I really hope Okada loses the finals for not using the Rainmaker, and the way things are going, I hope that either Naito or White win, no one else feels worthy.

Post-match - Okada cut his winner's promo. You could tell he's half assing these promos.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

An up and down show for New Japan standards. It was all good, don't get me wrong, but I found two matches to be particularly great compared to the rest. It's the second to last show for Block A, I think we're all tired at this point, so still commend these guys for performing at this level.

It's down to 4 men, Okada, White, Ibushi, and Ospreay, the latter one being the only with 10 points. If White defeats Ishii, he passes regardless of the other results. Ibushi must win and hope that White loses. Okada must win and hope that both Ibushi and White lose. And Ospreay, not only has to win, but White and Ibushi must lose.
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