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Kevin’s NJPW G1 Climax 29 Night Fifteen Review

August 7, 2019 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
NJPW Kazuchika Okada Rainmaker Champion - Credit TVAsahi-NJPW Okada Rainmaker Champion - Credit TVAsahi-NJPW
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Kevin’s NJPW G1 Climax 29 Night Fifteen Review  

NJPW G1 Climax Night Fifteen
August 7th, 2019 | Hamamatsu Arena in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka | Attendance: 3,030

With Kazuchika Okada losing to SANADA, the A Block is not quite yet decided. He faces EVIL tonight, while Kota Ibushi takes on his old rival Zack Sabre Jr. A loss to Okada eliminates EVIL, while Ibushi just has to win to remain alive heading into the final A Block show. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the block plays out in terms of standings.

A Block: Lance Archer [4] vs. SANADA [6]
After a 2-0 start, Archer has dropped five straight. While SANADA is eliminated, his win over Okada was one of the biggest of the tournament. The idea here was that Archer was in a pissy mood over losing so many matches in a row. He jumped SANADA before the bell and that set off a good idea for what the rest of this match would be. Archer was an aggressive bully and SANADA had to fight from behind. The thing is that SANADA is always at his best when the timing in his matches is pinpoint. It’s why he works so well against Sabre. Archer doesn’t quite have the timing down and it caused a few issues. That was even the case with the finish as the counter work on the Derailer didn’t come off well at all. SANADA cradled him to win in 10:28. This was good but had timing issues and lacked some of the late drama. [***]

A Block: Bad Luck Fale [4] vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi [8]
Talk a match Gedo loves booking. Fale won in the G1 24 (***½), G1 25 (***½), and 2016 New Japan Cup (***¼). Tanahashi won at the Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2016 (***), G1 26 (***¼), G1 27 (***), 2018 New Japan Cup (**¾), and G1 28 (**¾). Usually, Tanahashi is a safe bet to get something interesting out of Fale. However, Fale has been way worse than usual over the past two years so hope isn’t high. Add in the fact that none of this matters because both are eliminated and this had no chance of clicking. As always, they told the David vs. Goliath story pretty well. Tanahashi does it so well. They’ve just done it better in the past. The action was sluggish, there was interference around most corners, and the finish was flat. Fale had the Bad Luck Fall countered and then just pulled Tanahashi into a backslide in 9:58. It felt closer to 20 minutes. It’s sad watching Tanahashi wrestle something like this. Small points for at least telling a competent story. [*¾]

A Block: KENTA [8] vs. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay [4]
KENTA is just 2013 Yujiro Takahashi and 2014 Shelton Benjamin. He started the G1 4-0 and then went on a lengthy losing streak. Classic Gedo. I heard these two went at it during a preview tag. It was obvious here because their opening exchange is filled with hard strikes. Some of the fancy athletic stuff has Willy written all over it and that didn’t work. I’m not saying that because I don’t like Willy (it worked against a guy like Ricochet). It’s because that’s not KENTA’s strength right now and they should have altered the match to fit something that worked for both men. This match was at its best when they were throwing strikes. Ospreay is similar to a younger Ibushi in that he can do quite well in that department. Ibushi started rolling with heavyweights when he adapted to them and not the other way around. Similar to the Archer/SANADA match, KENTA isn’t as smooth as he once was and it caused a few of their spots to come off awkwardly. To make up for this, KENTA began striking harder and Ospreay started taking wild bumps. It’s a fine way to cover things up. The Hidden Blade was extra good here and Ospreay picked up a big win with Storm Breaker after 16:33. This was like a lot of Ospreay’s G1. Very good, bordering on great. Make this a bit more strike based and clean up some timing issues and you’d have something wonderful. As is, it’s still good. [***¾]

A Block: Kota Ibushi [10] vs. RevPro British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. [6]
One of the best combinations in wrestling. Ibushi won their two G1 meetings (both ****½), while Sabre won the two New Japan Cup matches (****½ and ***¾). Needless to say, when they go at it, you’ll get something good. That was the case once again. However, this was different. A lot of those matches were based around Sabre being in control and that wasn’t the case here. I think the match suffered because of it. It made sense that Ibushi has learned from their previous meetings but it didn’t make for a better match. It wasn’t bad, but Sabre’s selling and bumping has never been his strong suit. It’s why he’s usually confidently in control when his best matches happen. Regardless, the stuff that happened was still very good because they had ridiculously good chemistry. The finish felt kind of flat (a trend today) as Ibushi just hit his signature stuff and won in 15:46. I liked most of this but the structure was odd and there was no drama since the outcome was obvious.[***½]

A Block: EVIL [8] vs. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada [12]
EVIL beat Okada in a great G1 match two years ago (****), but Okada won the title match (***¼) and their G1 match last year (***¾). I’ve mentioned before that I’m over the Okada formula and it was 100% in play here. This got to a wildly slow start and it was the usual “nothing that happens here has any effect on the rest of the match” trope. It was just killing time so they could nearly go 30 minutes again. Maybe two-thirds of the way in we get something of actual interest. Maybe a bit sooner. EVIL brought the stiff shots, lariats, and suplexes and Okada did a solid job of bumping for him. There’s one hell of a 12-15 minute match in here somewhere, but it’s buried under 20 minutes of nothing. It also didn’t help that there was no drama here. I couldn’t imagine a world where Gedo booked anything other than Okada/Ibushi in a winner take all final A Block match. He does it almost every year. Okada won after the Rainmaker sequence we’ve come to expect in 27:00. Not a bad match, just one we’ve seen a million times before. [***]

A BLOCK POINTS B BLOCK POINTS
Kazuchika Okada 14 (7-1) Jon Moxley 10 (5-2)
Kota Ibushi 12 (6-2) Tetsuya Naito 8 (4-3)
EVIL 8 (4-4) Hirooki Goto 8 (4-3)
KENTA 8 (4-4) Tomohiro Ishii 8 (4-3)
Hiroshi Tanahashi 8 (4-4) Jay White 8 (4-3)
SANADA 8 (4-4) Juice Robinson 6 (3-4)
Zack Sabre Jr. 6 (3-5) Toru Yano 6 (3-4)
Will Ospreay 6 (3-5) Jeff Cobb 6 (3-4)
Bad Luck Fale 6 (3-5) Taichi 6 (3-4)
Lance Archer 4 (2-6) Shingo Takagi 4 (2-5)
6.0
The final score: review Average
The 411
Since we’re at the end of the G1, this is a disappointing show. It felt like something we’d get on night nine or something. We’re wrapping up and this was kind of just there. Too much formula and when you’ve seen enough G1s, you know how Gedo is going to book and it takes a lot away from it.
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NJPW G1 Climax 29, Kevin Pantoja