NJPW G1 Climax 30 10.14

Yota Tsuji vs Yuya Uemura - 6.5/10

Mark my words, unless something bad happens, Yuya Uemura will be the next Kenta Kobashi.

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

This was great, they beat the shit out of each other and then just started chasing their submissions and finishers and barely any shenanigans. YH bringing the fight to KENTA really made this match, this would had completely failed with someone like some other KENTA matches, but YH really brought in some fire. We know that it is because YH is not GTS level guy, but I liked the match the became a submission race between them, changed it things for both guys who had been doing a lot of striking.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Zack Sabre Jr. (8) vs. Juice Robinson (6) - 7.5/10

Great wrestling and fire from Juice. Sabre worked over Juice's arm, and Juice just pushed through the pain. Story early on was that Juice has ready for Sabre and was able to reverse or counter him, but as soon as Sabre took out his arm, his whole plan broke down and Juice had to revert to doing what he does, fight through the pain, get Sabre to try an play his game, but even after all that, it came down to both men trading pin attempts, and once Sabre found the European Clutch, Juice wasn't able to reverse and lost.

Post-match - I haven't been including the backstage promos for these guys, but Sabre hoped that everyone eats bad chicken and gets diarrhea and he can advance to the finals.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Toru Yano (6) vs. Tetsuya Naito (10) - Fun/10

Naito has taken the stalling against Yano to a whole new level, this time around not even making it to the ring before he started, not even to the half of the ramp actually. I mean, he didn't take Undertaker levels of time, but a close second.

This felt like the climax to Yano's G1 Climax. They played around with a lot of Yano tricks. Match saw Naito actually try to beat Yano to his own tricks, forcing Yano to be the one trying to stop Naito from cheating and survive the quick attacks at the same time. At the end, after both Naito and Yano survived some close calls, it came down to both men low blowing each other, but Naito being the one with the successful pin.

With this match, Naito has eliminated everyone except EVIL, and SANADA who can stay alive if he wins tonight. Naito has the tie breaker on Sabre, the only other with 10 points.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hirooki Goto (8) vs. EVIL (10) - 8.5/10

This started really slow, but once it picked up and Goto made his comeback and took out Togo and started beating up EVIL, it got really good. Regardless of how much interference Togo has prior to the end, it makes such a big difference when EVIL finishes a match chasing the EIE with counters and not a low blow. Even knowing that EVIL was likely winning, Goto got me excited for the finish. EVIL has such a simple change to improve.

With this win, EVIL is one win away from winning the block as he has the tie breaker with Naito.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (6) vs. SANADA (8) - 9/10

SANADA is wrestling here for his G1 survival, he NEEDS this win in order to make it alive to the final day of Block B.

I loved this match. Fantastic babyface vs babyface match that ended up becoming a mirror match as SANADA's arsenal and style has developed

Post-match - SANADA cut his winner's promo saying that he started losing, but now was on a 5 win streak and next was EVIL. He thanked the Yokohama crowd.

Backstage, Tanahashi cut a promo talking about how hard was for him to face reality that it was hard to keep up with the high level of wrestling in NJPW, but starting now, he was starting to train towards next year's G1. Tanahashi said that of all of his opponents, Ibushi, Naito, Okada (ok, maybe not Okada), SANADA, EVIL, that it was SANADA the one that most excited him and that he thought was coolest.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

This show really brought Block B up from the bad streak of the previous two shows, this one I really enjoyed. This was the one event where we know who really contends for the block finals, so there is always that making it worth checking out, but the wrestling, even when some are already eliminated, ended up being really good.

We're down to three men here, Naito, who needs to win and for SANADA to beat EVIL; or EVIL, who simply needs to win his match against SANADA; and finally SANADA, who needs to win his match against EVIL, but also needs Naito to lose to KENTA.