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Kevin’s NJPW G1 Climax 30 Night Thirteen Review

October 10, 2020 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
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Kevin’s NJPW G1 Climax 30 Night Thirteen Review  

NJPW G1 Climax 30 Night Thirteen
October 10th, 2020 | EDION Arena Osaka in Osaka, Japan | Attendance: N/A

The G1 Climax returns to EDION Arena for what looks like a strong show on paper. Let’s see how it delivers.

A Block: Jeff Cobb [4] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [6]
Ishii is 3-0 against Cobb but I’ve only seen their G1 29 outing (****¼). Do you guys realize what this is? It’s a case of BIG MEATY MEN BUMPING MEAT and goddammit do I love it. They gave me exactly what I wanted. It was similar to last year’s match in that they just went right at one another. Some of the chops and strikes thrown out during this were downright vicious. One floored Cobb to the point where Ishii couldn’t even pick him up. Dude was dead weight. Of course, Cobb started to get going and suplexed Ishii all over the place. Ishii continues to bump and sell very well for a guy his size. In the end, Cobb finally broke his streak of losses to Ishii when he delivered the Tour of the Islands after 14:57. That was awesome. I liked last year’s a bit more and some of those headbutts were worrisome but this was a great hoss battle. [****]

A Block: Jay White [8] vs. Yujiro Takahashi [0]
First-time ever meeting. Jay White wore a tracksuit, showing how he wasn’t taking Yujiro seriously. The plan was to have Yujiro lay down for him. However, Jay was acting like a dick, so Yujiro kicked out. Bad camerawork saw them miss Yujiro rolling him up and trying to steal this as a shocked Gedo looked on. He even hit Miami Shine. An irritated Jay got going and won with a low blow and Blade Runner in 3:40. It did wat it had to. After the match, Jay went to attack with a chair but Gedo talked him down. [**]

A Block: IWGP Tag Team Champion Taichi [6] vs. Will Ospreay [8]
Taichi is 2-1 against the trash pile of a human being that is Ospreay. There was the BOSJ 2017 (½*), Strong Style Evolved UK 2018 (*¼), and World Tag League 2018 (**). Needless to say, it’s not a good pairing but Taichi has been stepping up lately. Taichi’s early stall tactics were ruined by Willy being very loud about the whole thing. He’s grating. Anyone, once the match got started, you could see that Will is going to continue to be stubborn. He’s a heavyweight now but refuses to let go of his old junior heavyweight flippy stuff and it feels out of place more often than not. Ospreay fought through it all to win yet another match as tone-deaf NJPW keeps pushing him. He used Storm Breaker after 16:26. Taichi was great here. [***¼]

A Block: Kota Ibushi [8] vs. NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki [6]
Their only prior meeting was in the G1 23 (***¾) but Ibushi is a much different wrestler now. This was right up my alley. It was hard hitting right from the start, proving that Ibushi could hang with a guy like Suzuki. At one point, Suzuki walked up to the entrance and dared Ibushi to fight him there, which he did. Suzuki wailed on him with vicious elbows but Kota kept coming back for more, which only seemed to anger Suzuki even more. Near the end, they traded elbows and even some headbutts while laughing at each other. This was sickening in the best possible way. The finishing stretch saw Kamigoye get countered into a Boston Crab but Ibushi came back with a successful one and added a second to win in 16:58. That was a goddamn war and I loved it. Suzuki was still smiling outside as he stumbled to the back. Ibushi is probably the tourney MVP so far. [****½]

A Block: Kazuchika Okada [8] vs. Shingo Takagi [6]
A first-time meeting that could be great or it could go the way of the rest of Okada’s 2020 performances. All Okada fans should be happy. They’ve complained about how he hasn’t been his usual self in this G1 but this was classic Okada. The formula was back, baby! It has changed up a bit, especially in the finishing stretch, but the old days of overly long matches where the first two-thirds are pretty bland live on! It’s a recipe for good matches but rarely for great ones. There were things I really like, including the way it was paced later on and Shingo doing the Rainmaker pose. That was awesome. The ending saw Okada finally win a match of importance with the Money Clip. Shingo didn’t submit, though, instead passing out from the lame move after 27:45. By no means a classic but a pretty great match that showed the Okada of old is still somewhere in there. Meanwhile, Shingo continues to be awesome. [****]

A BLOCK POINTS B BLOCK POINTS
Kota Ibushi 10 (5-2) Tetsuya Naito 10 (5-1)
Jay White 10 (5-2) EVIL 8 (4-2)
Kazuchika Okada 10 (5-2) Juice Robinson 6 (3-3)
Will Ospreay 10 (5-2) Hiroshi Tanahashi 6 (3-3)
Minoru Suzuki 6 (3-4) Toru Yano 6 (3-3)
Tomohiro Ishii 6 (3-4) SANADA 6 (3-3)
Taichi 6 (3-4) Zack Sabre Jr. 6 (3-3)
Shingo Takagi 6 (3-4) Hirooki Goto 6 (3-3)
Jeff Cobb 6 (3-4) KENTA 4 (2-4)
Yujiro Takahashi 0 (0-7) YOSHI-HASHI 2 (1-5)
8.5
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
A pretty tremendous night of wrestling. You’ve got a banger of an opener, Jay White being brilliantly shitty next, a good third match, an outstanding semi-main event, and a great closer. I can’t ask for much more.
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Kevin Pantoja