We are one third of the way through the tournament and it's been...really solid?
I've heard people call it the best tournament of all time. Which is a stretch, especially since last year's G1 was so amazing. I think a lot of people are using last year's G1 as the benchmark to make this claim so...that's a victory for 2018. Anyway, I decided there was no way that I was reviewing both blocks. So I picked B-block due to who was in it and the matches that excited me. I did a preview to the Block you can find here, but now we have to start looking at the tournament itself. Which is below. Let's fucking start this good shit.
G1 Climax Night 2, 7.13.19
Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
This was a weird pick to open the B Block, but in the end it turned out to be a really good, back and forth match. These two have never had a singles match together as far as I know, but what they got from a cold open was actually above anything I could have expected. The crowd was wild and getting really into both men at the finish. Juice picks up the surprise win here with the Pulp Friction after the Left Hand of God.
***1/4
Jon Moxley vs. Taichi (Suzuki-Gun)
Short, sweet, and to the point. Taichi came out the gate real quick to jump Moxley before Jon took over in his natural terrain of outside the ring...and inside the ring...and und-You know, Moxley's just kinda great wherever he is. Taichi got put through a table his opponent had set up, Death Rider'd shortly after and pinned. If you've got like 10 minutes, go find this match for a car crash.
***
Toru Yano (CHAOS) vs. Tetsuya Naito (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
Toru Yano won. Usually I like Yano's bullshit, but fuck this man. My Naito love superceeds my Yano love.
*
Jeff Cobb vs. Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS)
Lemme get it out of the way, if you're the kind of fan who doesn't like matches with a lot of hitting and no selling, none of this matches Ishii matches are going to be for you. Or probably most of Ishii's matches this year. Or any year...fuck are you doing on my blog if that's the case?
Anyway, this was a fucking Chunky bar of a match, Cobb and Ishii just went at it. There weren't a lot of "moves" but the ones that were there were great. There was the heaviest dragon suplex of all time, the looked like gravity increased around both men as the move was executed. Ishii won with the Brain Buster, but it definitely wasn't a dominant win. It could have gone either way and I hope in the near future we get a 4th match between the two.
****1/4
Hirooki Goto (CHAOS) vs. Jay White (Bullet Club)
Goto's back from America and apparently Shibata taught him the fucking Kaioken technique. He's come back more aggressive and with sharper offense than he left with. After losing to Jay White in April, the Fierce Warrior came back with a vengeance here. Jay tried to bullshit his way through the contest, as he will do with every other match in this session, but Goto powered through it. A big focus of Goto's offense seems to be a mid-kick he's using as a momentum changer, hitting it part of the way through this match. Goto nailed a GTR and got the win over Jay. Jay is 0-1 against CHAOS.
****
G1 Climax Night 4, 7.15.19
Toru Yano (CHAOS) vs Shingo Takagi (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
Yano tried to win by count out. Shingo hit him with the Pumping Bomber and won.
**
Juice Robinson vs Hirooki Goto (CHAOS)
These two are much different men from last year. Juice is less happy go lucky after Moxley tried eating his eyebrow off, or something, and Goto's over here getting ready to fight Nappa and Vegeta. Theyr're both upping their game and really going for the gold this year. Match ends with each man headbutting a punch, which is about as stupidly cool as it sounds, but Juice has a left hand made of some kind of brick so Goto goofed trying this new form of martial art. Pulp Friction, great ending.
***1/2
Jeff Cobb vs. Jon Moxley
Moxley took most of the front half of this short match. Injuries are starting and it's only night fucking 4. Cobb's shoulder, Goto's knee, Jay's perception of reality and assurance of self worth, there's casualties everywhere. I love how Moxley is using the uncovered knee strike and Kevin Kelly keeps shouting how it's a Regal knee and all I want out of life is William Regal to live on forever in wrestling in a way that doesn't involve a suplex that involves dumping a bitch strait on their neck. Death Rider as Cobb tries crawling into the ring, don't watch this match. Way too short.
**1/2
Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) vs. Jay White (Bullet Club)
Rope-A-Dope, as definied by Wikipedia, is a strategy "used in many competitive situations. Rope-a-dope is used to describe strategies in which one contender lets their opponent fatigue themself by drawing non-injuring offensive actions. This then gives the contender an advantage towards the end of the competition or before, as the opponent becomes tired, allowing the contender to execute devastating offensive maneuvers and thereby win"
I think Jay White thought he was rope-a-doping Tomohiro Ishii in this match. Unfortunately, he must have misread the 'non-injuring offensive action' part as 'let the pissed off, de facto champion of beating the piss out of people absolutely beat the piss out of you". Half of my notes are just variants of 'Jesus Christ, let him go, he's just a baby'. I wish I could tell you more, but I guess I really loved this match beyond Jay getting beaten forever, cause I gave it 4.5 stars. Jay's been doing a great job at making people want to beat him up. Vertical Drop Brainbuster and Jay White is 0-2 against Chaos
**** 1/2
Tetsuya Naito (Los Ingobernables de Japon) vs. Taichi (Suzuki-Gun)
This was the main event.
This was Taichi's Hometown/
This was not great and Gedo probably thought it would be.
This match seriously threw my confidence in Taichi for a loop. Me! The Taichi fucking bannerman! Who went from ironically liking the guy that did the chair shuffle, to unironically liking and supporting him. After literally the next match I review in this session, my vconfidence was back. But I'm puzzling and puzzling till my puzzler will be sore to figure out what happened in this match (spoiler, it was a prolonged slog of a brawl and the inability of someone to beat Naito clean). Taichi finally used the Iron Fingers From Hell after like six months of Chekhov asking them to get on with it, ad Taichi busted out that sweet, better than the Air Raid Siren Last Ride for the pin. The parts in this match were better than the sum.
***1/4
G1 Climax Night 6, 7.19.19, from Korakeun Motherfuckin' Hall
Shingo Takagi (Los Ingobernables de Japon) vs. Taichi (Suzuki-Gun)
This may have been Taichi's best performance. Because it was Shingo Takagi but also because it was Korakeun Hall. Korakeun is my Tokyo Dome, fuck y'all. I could watch two fresh out of wrestling school hoss-types wrestle for like 10 minutes and I'd give it like a solid "Yeah, it was alright". This match was great, and the commentary made it better. By the way.
Dear TV Asahi, if you ever read this,
Are you people fucking high?
Thanks.
Shingo nailed Taichi with Last of the Dragon to end a hard hitting, application making match. This match reminded me why I like Taichi and will probably be what I show people to convince them he's great.
****1.4
Juice Robinson vs. Jeff Cobb
Oh Thank God Jeff Cobb won this match. Yeah, spoilers. This match was important for his momentum, cause a loss here would have completely ground him as a threat to a dead halt. I was worried when Juice took almost all of the first half working Jeff's Guam Pork Shoulder over before he got the momentum swinging back for him. Juice goes on a Tour of The Islands, ending a decent match. But it was Korakeun Hall, so Fuck you.
***1/4
Toru Yano (CHAOS) vs. Jay White (Bullet Club)
Sucks to be Jay White. Poor bastard got punched in the dick with brass knuckles. 0-3 against CHAOS this tour.
*1/4
Hirooki Goto (CHAOS) vs. Tetsuya Naito (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
I always like when these two meet. There's something of a fun "Proto-Ace vs. Proto-Ace" aspect between these two, seeing where they went with their in ring styles and with their reaction to never being the replacement Top Guy. Goto's knee is starting to get fucked up so that was Naito's target the whole time. These two are the guys I have marked to win the block, but with them both sitting at 1-2 right now (spoilers Naito wins with two Destinos) I'm worried for both their chances. Nothing much to say here that hasn't been talked about; Goto's looking shiny and new, he's got a mid-kick now that screams "fuck you, my turn", and Naito antagonizes everyone he possibly can.
***3/4
Jon Moxley vs, Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS)
It's rare that a match is literally everything you thought it would be like 4 years ago. This fight between the two definitive styles of brawl in today's wrestling; Neo Strong Style and Deathmatch. And it was as awesome as it was going to be. The brawled outside the ring, had a chair duel, Moxley set up a table that he went through when ISHII DOVE FROM THE POST LIKE MASATO TANAKA, before they went in the ring and had the traditional Honor Duel with elbows as the weapon of choice. Moxley got a Dirty Deeds snapped off quickly, which didn't work, before hitting the Regal Knee and a lifting Dirty Deeds for the win. It was great, left more for the eventual rematch, and set up Moxley as a real player in this tournamnet and New Japan as a whole.
****
So yeah. This tournament has been Wild so far. In the B-Block there's a clear points leader, but it's someone that probably isn't in most people's Pick 'Em. We have six Block matches left, so there's time for people to jump ahead and make a stake at the block, clinching the finals spot. Will they? I'll see you after night six for the second session of my B Block reviews.
Thanks for reading! I'm glad I found the motivation to get these reviews out, even when I wanted to originally do a review of every individual night, but this honestly worked out a lot better I feel. The banner I'm using for this post and the subsequent B block postsw was designed by @bobroba, who graciously gave me permission to use their badass piece of Cowboy Bebop like art. If you like this piece, let me know. I tried a more comedic style of review, and I wanna know if it worked or if I'm a flop. And feel free to follow me on Twitter here.
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