Kevin’s NJPW G1 Climax 30 Night Nine Review

NJPW G1 Climax 30 Night Nine
October 5th, 2020 | Takamatsu City Gymnasium in Takamatsu, Kagawa | Attendance:: N/A

After a few days off, the G1 Climax is back. With rematches from some great matches of prior years, there’s potential for an uptick in quality.

A Block: Shingo Takagi [2] vs. Yujiro Takahashi [0]
On paper, this should be a massacre. Shingo is an absolute beast and Yujiro is Yujiro. Unfortunately, Gedo didn’t have that in mind. Instead of the dominant Shingo running through Yujiro for points, they decided to make him have a legitimate match with him. Yujiro didn’t even use many underhanded tactics to take control. He was just besting Shingo at times and seeing Shingo sell for him was laughable. That made this a chore to get through, especially since it lasted a ridiculous 13:38. This needed to be sub-10 minutes. Shingo finally won with the Last of the Dragon in a match that dragged. [**]

A Block: Jay White [6] vs. Jeff Cobb [2]
White won their only prior meeting, which came in last year’s G1 (***). I’d say this reminded me a lot of that outing. White took a powder to start and continued his theme of stalling in the early stages. Cobb battered him when he got him. However, I wish we got more leg work from White. It has worked for him in the past and you’d think you would try it against an opponent with a size and strength advantage. Chop him down to size and stuff. Instead, this didn’t really have that. It did feature a decent amount of Gedo involvement, which I’ve appreciated as not happening much in the G1 so far. Cobb weathered the storm and scored the Tour of the Islands to secure an upset in 12:24. That was just getting really good and ended abruptly. Even more reasons why the opener should’ve been shorter. Big win for Cobb. [***¼]

A Block: Kazuchika Okada [4] vs. NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki [6]
These guys have met a ton. From what I’ve seen, Suzuki won at New Beginning 2013 (***¾). Then Okada won them all. That includes Wrestling Dontaku 2013 (****¼), the G1 24 (****¼), New Beginning in Sapporo 2017 (*¾), the G1 28 (***½), and last year’s Royal Quest (****¼). There was also a draw at Suzuki’s anniversary show and the G1 27 (***¾). The problem is that 2020 Okada has been wildly mediocre. In some ways, he’s the same as he’s always been but without the title and with everything about him being stale, people are taking notice. This was off to a slow start as Suzuki focused on the arm. Okada took that as a challenge and did it back to him, seemingly looking to setup his awful Money Clip submission. This meandered on and just when it seemed to maybe get going, Okada countered the Gotch Piledriver into a cradle to steal it in 14:10. I actually really like that finish. It allows Okada to not use the Rainmaker, avoids his terrible submission, and gives us another case where it feels like a G1 match can end at any point. A fine match but like most of Okada’s recent stuff, far from great. [**¾]

A Block: IWGP Tag Team Champion Taichi [6] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [2]
Ishii beat him in the New Japan Cup last year (***¼) but Taichi took the G1 outing (****¼). I have high hopes for this one. At first, it seemed like Taichi would take the Jay White route and just kick back and relax for a while. Then, he came out with a kick that angered Ishii and let you know that this would be something of a war. It reminded me a lot of what they did last year and I mean that in the best possible way. I wanted more action like that and they gave it to me. It felt like Taichi was again out to prove that he was tougher and better than Ishii. It was only when they started to fail that he opted to go a different route. He hid behind the referee and hit a low blow but that was mostly it for his cheating. Ishii’s determination to never back down or go down remains incredible. Taichi doing what he could to match that was great. In the end, they traded big blows with Ishii finally scoring the win with the Brainbuster after 18:42. That proved to be great. A notch below last year’s outing but still one of the better tourney bouts so far. [****]

A Block: Kota Ibushi [6] vs. Will Ospreay [6]
Willy beat Kota for the NEVER Title at Wrestle Kingdom 13 (****) and Kota beat him in the G1 last year (****½). Winner takes the block lead and also, Ospreay is an awful human. Onto the match, Ospreay is leaning into the fact that he sucks as a person and is becoming a cocky prick heel. He has shown it more and more throughout the tournament and did it a lot here. On his usual “I land on my feet, look how cool I am” spot, he turned and taunted Ibushi to bring it. Things like that are corny but it suits him. They’ve shown that they have strong chemistry before and that was clear here, with mostly smooth wrestling. Ibushi was a good foil for tool Ospreay because he’s so likable and you want to see him kick ass. They played up the history, like Ibushi managing to avoid the Hidden Blade that wrecked him last year. The closing stretch was typical NJPW stuff and Ibushi won with Kamigoye in 15:56. I appreciated the short main event. Like pretty much everything in the G1 this year, it wasn’t as good as their previous encounters. [***¾]

A BLOCK	POINTS	B BLOCK	POINTS
Kota Ibushi	8 (4-1)	Tetsuya Naito	6 (3-1)
Taichi	6 (3-2)	Juice Robinson	6 (3-1)
Will Ospreay	6 (3-2)	Toru Yano	6 (3-1)
Jay White	6 (3-2)	Hiroshi Tanahashi	4 (2-2)
Kazuchika Okada	6 (3-2)	EVIL	4 (2-2)
Minoru Suzuki	6 (3-2)	KENTA	4 (2-2)
Jeff Cobb	4 (2-3)	Zac Sabre Jr.	4 (2-2)
Tomohiro Ishii	4 (2-3)	Hirooki Goto	2 (1-3)
Shingo Takagi	4 (2-3)	YOSHI-HASHI	2 (1-3)
Yujiro Takahashi	0 (0-5)	SANADA	2 (1-3)

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

I wanted to like this night more as it had some good stuff on paper. However, Okada/Suzuki was a supreme disappointment and the opener was weak. The other three matches ranged from good to great but again, nothing really stood out as being MOTYC level or anything like that.