NJPW G1 Climax 30 10.17

Gabriel Kidd vs. Yuya Uemura - 6/10

This one felt kinda sad for Uemura, he's been saying he wants to enter the BOSJ by winning the most in this little YL round robin calendar they've had, so he was devastated when he lost here to Kidd.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Toru Yano (6) vs. YOSHI-HASHI (2) - 5/10

The story of how YOSHI-HASHI is Yano's best friend, or at least has paid the most attention to him in the last years. He countered all of Yano's tricks and even pulled them on him somewhat successfully, including the low blow that he reversed into a roll up. Well, we've confirmed that YH may have good matches as long as they're not comedy.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hirooki Goto (8) vs. Juice Robinson (6) - 6.5/10

This was promising when Juice worked the Goto style, but when it was the other way around, the match felt really slow and meaningless. Juice worked over Goto's arm and it kinda felt they were leading for a Goto win, but at the end, Juice hit the punchy punch and Pulp Friction for the win.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (6) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (10) - 8/10

The same great match these two have done in the last years, and a lot in the last three months or so. Nothing wrong, great stuff, Sabre is awesome, Tanahashi is awesome, but I've seen this too many times to find anything new. Tana won with a roll up counter to contrast with Sabre's European Clutch.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
KENTA (8) vs. Tetsuya Naito (12) - 7/10

This was up and down, it had some good things here and there, but then there would be a spot that drained the momentum away. I liked Naito tricking KENTA with KENTA's heel tricks to stall and all. They had a lot of mistiming or being out of position, but I didn't mind them that bad, it looked more like a real match with people thinking on their feet, than a perfectly choreographed gymnastics exhibition. Match really picked up at the end with Naito chasing Destinos like crazy, and during one of all those attempts, KENTA got the roll up win.

I wasn't expecting Naito to win and kinda dreaded the idea of having both KENTA and EVIL having claims to title matches against Naito, but it would also add some extra spice to the White and EVIL situation.

Naito got eliminated here.

Post-match - KENTA and Hiromu, who was on commentary, antagonized each other.

G1 Climax 30 Block B Match
SANADA (10) vs. EVIL (12) (w/Dick Togo) - 8.5/10

I liked this, I liked the chemistry between them, I liked how they talk to each other after being tag team partners for so long and not being in the same page anymore. I loved that SANADA acted differently from their previous matches with EVIL, where he had never defeated him, but now this wasn't a friendly contest and he went all out and right in for the kill.

There was a lot of ref bumps and Togo interference that people will complain about, but I personally marked a bit when Hiromu Takahashi, who was on commentary, jumped the rail to aid SANADA and counter Togo. It also contrasted with Naito falling for the duo whereas SANADA survived.

Towards the end, mixed around with Togo's interference and some moments where both men were down, we had some good counter exchanges between STOs, Skull Ends, TKOs, and what not. But at the end, after Hiromu took out Togo for good, SANADA won with the Japanese Clutch. The crowd exploded when SANADA got the win.

Ibushi vs SANADA for the finals!

Post-match - SANADA, after hearing that he won by tie breakers, cut his winner's promo and told Tokyo that he'll see them tomorrow.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Not the best show in any way, but it also wasn't bad, it's still far above your average American show, and I liked it fairly more than some other G1 cards. I think everyone is gonna use this show as the example to shit on NJPW simply because this show wasn't as good as the previous year's final day before the finals match, it's gonna be dumb, but people gotta complain.