wrestling / Columns

The Top 10 G1 Climax Final Matches

July 20, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke

With the 25th G1 Climax about to start (or under way? not sure when this is going up), I decided to take a look at every single G1 Climax Final ever. Here are the ten best. Share your own Top Ten in the comments.

10. Masahiro Chono vs. Riki Choshu
August 6, 1996

You can watch this match here on New Japan World.

I honestly do not know how many Riki Choshu matches I have seen, but it is not nearly enough to make an informed opinion on him. Chono I know I am not big on though, which automatically makes me less interested in this one. I am happy to report though that the match was a pleasant surprise.

They wisely just had Chono beat the shit out of Choshu for most of the match. Choshu probably could have stood to sell his knees (Chono’s main target) more during his comeback, but his comeback was short enough that it was not the very end of the world. The lengthy beatdown really caused the crowd to rally behind Choshu, and they were electric for his win (which he got with a sharpshooter). (***1/2)

9. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Hiroshi Hase
August 7, 1993

Watch the match here on New Japan World.

When you compare it to the epicness of the previous two G1 finals, this did not seem terribly impressive. Fujinami and Hase (obviously) worked hard though, and the match was clearly quite good. They had a cool story going on in the beginning, but they almost lost me as they got further and further away from it. Hase came in with an injured left knee, and Fujinami started going after it pretty much as soon as the match started. Hase looked to be in a desperate position, and it seemed like we knew exactly how the match would play out from there. They zagged though, as Hase gave Fujinami an exploder on the floor to make the match competitive again. From there, the match devolved a little bit. I am okay with matches being worked without a clear in-ring story, but I cannot help but be disappointed when a cool idea is dropped like it was here. Luckily, Fujinami paid off the early work in the end as he repeatedly applied a sharpshooter until Hase was in so much pain from the injured knee that he had to tap out. That was a really great finish to a good match. (***1/2)

8. Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
August 10, 2014

You can watch this match here on New Japan World.

This was the finals of the 2014 G1. I actually reviewed this show live which was quite the unpleasant experience.

This match does not age as well as I would have guessed. It had a lot of things going for it and against it at the time. It was the first time these two had met since the rise of Okada in 2012. So, there was a freshness to this matchup that just made everything in the match compelling at the time. Seemingly going against the match was that it was the main event of a very long and bad show that had just done a Jeff Jarrett-joins-the-Bullet Club angle. It seemed hard to believe anyone in the building would care after the slog of a show they had just sat through. However, they managed to easily overcome that, and they sucked the crowd in almost immediately.

The real issue that holds this match back is that it relies on the freshness of the match to make it interesting instead of having much substance. At the time (even as I was recovering from the Jeff Jarrett angle), I could not help but be compelled by everything in the match because it was two wrestlers that I love going up against one another for essentially the first time. A year later, and I find there is not much else going on. It’s still fun to watch mind you, and a couple of sequences stand out as being excellent for sure (Nakamura reversing a Rainmaker into a cross-armbreaker clearly being the highlight). It is a great effort (Nakamura only turns it up stadium shows after all); it is just not the great match that I remember. (***3/4)

7. Kazuchika Okada vs. Karl Anderson
August 12, 2012

You can watch this match here on New Japan World.

It is impossible to watch this match and have it not serve as a cold reminder that Kazuchika Okada was born to play the subtle heel. Look at the picture above. Really look at it. Compare that to every sheepish grin you seen Okada work with now and honestly tell me this man is not a natural heel. I dare you!

Anyway, this match does a number of things very well while still be very flawed. Let’s get the negative out of the way. The first thing that sticks out is that Anderson targeted Okada’s Rainmaker arm a solid amount, and Okada decided to stop selling it when he returned to offense. Now, you can make the argument that Anderson did not work on it all that much. If we accept that, then it’s just a story thread that was introduced and dropped. That is not much better.

The match also relies on a few tropes that have been plaguing NJPW singles matches for the past few years. The big one is the forearm-exchange sequence that genuinely had no place in this match, and it should be reserved for the wrestlers that make it look painful (your Shibatas, your Ishiis, etc.).

Now, for the good. It was so nice to re-visit both of these guys in the roles they were meant to play. Anderson is an energetic babyface who makes fun comebacks (compared to his sinfully boring work as a heel in the Bullet Club). Okada being a heel (by default, more than anything of course) meant that he controlled the majority of the match. His work in that situation always focuses on the neck, and that perfectly sets up the Rainmaker to be instant death.

They also got a lot of drama down the stretch from the two men desperately avoiding each other’s finishers. That is something that greatly appealed to me when I first started to watch NJPW (2012), as I see there being a lot more positives to be had from protecting finishes 99.99% of the time. The sequence was done with lots of reversals and missed-connections. Some people find these types of sequences tedious, but I have always though they help to make the finish really pop. Anyway, Okada eventually struck first and hit the Rainmaker after a tombstone to win the match and the G1. This was a very good match that should have been great. (***3/4)

6. Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
August 3, 1997

You can watch this match here on New Japan World.

This match makes for such a nice change of pace while I marathon all the G1 finals. It goes fewer than ten minutes, and the whole match is packed with action. The sense of urgency in this match and the fury at which they attack each other just elevates what could have easily been a completely forgettable match. This does not look great on paper but make sure you do not skip it. Sasaki eventually finished him after a lariat and a brainbuster. (****)

5. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
August 15, 2004

You can watch this match here on New Japan World.

While I doubt Tenzan will ever become one of my favorite performers, it is becoming clear that I have not been giving his older stuff enough of a chance. Tanahashi was *relatively* new still at this point, and Tenzan was clearly the reason why this match worked. He worked on top for the majority of the match but still managed to make Tanahashi come across like a viable threat to him. Tanahashi (who is usually rather flat as a white-bread babyface) took a great beating here, and I’m now curious to watch more matches where he gets destroyed for the majority of the time. After Tenzan threw every bomb he had at Tanahashi, he finally applied a ferocious Anaconda Vice and wrenched until Tanahashi submitted. Yet another great match from Tenzan in a G1 finals who is proving to possibly be the best G1 finals performer of all time. (****)

4. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
August 2, 1998

You can watch this match here on New Japan World.

One of the best parts of subscribing to New Japan World is that it becomes much easier to discover talents you have never watched before. Kazuo Yamazaki is one such wrestler for me, and he really impressed me. His kicks were on point, and his work on Hashimoto’s knee got over big time. Hashimoto’s selling during the heat kept the crowd invested, and they were electric for brief comeback that resulted in him winning (via brainbuster). Hashimoto could have stood to sell his knee more during the comeback of course. It was a short comeback at least so I can forgive it a bit more than usual. His fire was so strong that it becomes to look past certain things. Hashimoto is life. Watch this match. (****)

3. Jun Akiyama vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
August 17, 2003

Watch this match here on New Japan World.

Why did Tenzan ever not have a mullet? Anyway, let’s get on to this surprisingly excellent match. To say I was not enthused by the idea of watching a thirty-minute Tenzan match would be an understatement. The timing and executions of the twists and turns in this match absolutely make the match for me. Just as you think they’re settling into one of them being in control, the other delivers an emphatic bomb to take back control. That turned what could have been a standard match into a near-emotional roller coaster. I am a big fan of the change-in-control moments in matches to be “exclamation points.” Those moments signal a change in the story and should be treated as a big deal. After trading some bombs towards the end, Tenzan had to use the Anaconda Vice to put Akiyama away. (****1/4)

2. Keiji Mutoh vs. Masahiro Chono
August 11, 1991

Watch this match here on New Japan World.

This really had the feeling of two titans battling it out to see which one was superior. The great part to me was that they managed to deliver an incredibly satisfying showdown here, while still managed to give the impression that nothing was settled. After watching this, you felt like either man could have won. Chono just hit his biggest move before Mutoh could connect on the moonsault. Some payoff to the limb work that dominated the first half would have put this match over the top. While these two have never stood out to me in the ring the way Hashimoto did during this time period, there’s no doubt that they had the presence and timing that enabled them to put on great matches. Watch this if you can. (****1/2)

1. Rick Rude vs. Masahiro Chono
August 11, 1992

Watch this match here on New Japan World.

They told a very simple story that clearly worked. Rude was mostly a step ahead of Chono all the way through this match. Every time that Chono looked to be on the verge of making a big comeback, Rude would cut him off yet again. This gave the match an unpredictable element that really worked in its favor. Eventually, Chono was able to string together enough offense in a row and thwart Rude’s desperate attempt to cut him off. Rude tried to send Chono to the floor after a brief barrage of offense, only for Chono to go right to the top rope and catch Rude with a diving shoulder tackle for victory. This was basically the perfect example of how to execute the “slow burn” for maximum returns. The action was slow in the beginning, but they were able to gradually up the stakes more and more until they ended at the perfect moment. A fantastic match that greatly surpassed my expectations. (****1/2)