wrestling / TV Reports

Hawke’s 2018 NJPW G1 Climax Final Review

August 12, 2018 | Posted by TJ Hawke
NJPW Shibata Tanahashi

If you’re interested, here are some select reviews of the NJPW 2018 G1 Climax.

Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi

Kenny Omega vs. Toru Yano

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kenny Omega

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Juice Robinson

SANADA vs. Toru Yano

Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Kazuchika Okada vs. Adam Page

Toru Yano vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Kota Ibushi vs. Juice Robinson

Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

 

August 12, 2018
Tokyo, Japan

 

Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Rocky Romero, and The Chris

 

Bad Luck Fale vs. Toa Henare

This was good and exactly what it needed to be. Henare came out firing and unloaded a bunch of offense on his trainer. Fale was not ready for it, and Henare looked great in progress. Fale finally composed himself and then destroyed Henare quickly thereafter. Good match! (***)

 

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & Takashi Iizuka)

This was an embarrassingly bad match. The main storyline takeaway was that Taichi pinned YOSHI to win, and he wants a NEVER title match. Other than that though, this an overly long brawl with no energy or fire, and the fans could not have cared less. Awful awful awful awful. (DUD)

 

BULLET CLUB (Cody & Hangman Page) vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson

This was an adequate undercard tag bout. The first half of the match did not convey a terribly serious tone, and it felt more like watching a house match as opposed to a tag match on one of the biggest shows of the year to establish a title contender.

They tried to turn it on in the second half of the match which made it more enjoyable. It was not enough to save the match or anything though.

The end came after Cody gave Juice a (very safe-looking) vertabreaker on Juice. Afterwards, he said he wanted a US title shot. (**1/2)

 

BULLET CLUB (Marty Scurll, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. BULLET CLUB (Taiji Ishimori, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)

This was a NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship match.

Originally, this was not a title match. An insufferable pre-match back-and-forth on the mic though led to Matt requesting that Harold make this a title match. And he obliged.

The match itself had some okay action at least. It was hard to get emotionally invested in a match featured an intra-stable feud no one cares about for meaningless belts though. The wrestlers were behind the eight ball from the start in other words, and they did not really deliver the kind of the match to make up for that.

The majority of the match ended up being an extended back-and-forth sequence that proved these matches might as well just officially be competed under tornado rules. It becomes more apparent when they do a finish like this where a BLIND tag is the significant moment leading to the finish.

Anyway, Tama pinned Scurll after a Gun Stun, and then the new champs rejected the belts. Wet fart stuff. (**1/4)

 

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.)

This was a fine brawl. It did a good job of exploring the tensions going on between Zack, Suzuki, and Naito. They worked the match with an intensity that had been missing other matches on thes how which made it refreshing. It also ended cleanly (Sanada submitting Kanemaru via dragon sleeper) and then with Suzuki just mutilating the Young Lions afterwards. It also got in and out before it could overstay its welcome. Mild thumbs up. (***)

 

BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. CHAOS (Jay White, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano)

This match had two good things going for it. For starters, Ishii got the pin in the match and firmly established that his intentions to challenge for Omega’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship. They had a killer G1 match together so hopefully their title match will deliver.

Secondly, after years and years of very dumb male gaze spots in NJPW. There was finally a mildly amusing one. The Bullet Club did a six-person wishbone spot. Yujiro’s valet then did a dance in the middle of it. It distracted everyone…but Kenny Omega. (**3/4)

 

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, SHO & YOH) vs. Pro-Wrestler Sengoku Enbu (Ryusuke Taguchi), KUSHIDA & Rey Mysterio Jr.

This was a solid Rey Mysterio showcase match. Everyone worked hard enough, and the fans were really into Rey and the very mysterious Sengoku Enbu character. Good stuff. The match only had one downside though.

It mostly just made you really wish someone would go ahead and book the Okada/Rey match somewhere. Clearly, Okada is such a huge Rey dork and was totally not gonna Chi away from going all in with a match with him. Anyone not booking this match when they could would be a real villain in my book. (***1/4)

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi

This was the 2018 G1 Climax final.

The G1 Climax always feels like a welcome relief from the pacing and style of NJPW main events. The matches are all much shorter the majority of the time which plugs in a lot of leaks with the NJPW title/main event style. Suddenly, ignoring limb work is less of an issue when it’s been reduced to thirty seconds of a twelve minute match compared to how it can go on for 10-20 minutes in a proper NJPW main event.

Enter this match which sort of functioned as a cross between a G1 match and a match that would be more commonly seen in a NJPW main event slot. At times, the pace was measured and seemingly designed to artificially lengthen the match. There was in fact limb work that went nowhere meaningful.

For a lot of the match though, it was just about hitting each other hard and hitting big moves so as to escape with a victory. Even the limb work done felt somewhat small and not really designed to be anything but a Tanahashi crutch in the face of adversity.

This was all a very long way of saying this was a mixed bag of a match that had a lot of things going for it (particularly just the draw of Kota finally getting a real shot to be a true main-eventer), and other things that held it back from being great. Based on the things they did really well (big movez/slap flights), they really could have condensed this down into a compact strike-heavy match. That is just not what NJPW wants though. [Tanahashi won cleanly after three straight High Fly Flows.] (***1/2)

 

Other recent NJPW match reviews by me.

Kenny Omega vs. Cody Rhodes

Juice Robinson vs. Jay White

Golden Lovers vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito

article topics :

NJPW, NJPW G1 Climax 28, TJ Hawke