wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 3 Review
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 3
July 18th, 2023 | Yamagata Sports Center in Yamagata, Japan | Attendance: 1,239
This review will be up a bit late. I’m watching a couple of matches, then heading out for a Fall Out Boy/Bring Me The Horizon concert and I’ll check the rest out the next day. There’s also night 4 to cover so this might be a shorter review.
A Block: Chase Owens [2] vs. Kaito Kiyomiya [2]
Apparently, these two met in Canada five years ago when Kaito was on excursion. This was yet another Chase Owens match. He did relatively fine stuff but in no way was this anything that stood out or made me think I need to watch it again. I did like how he was kind of an asshole throughout this and it just seemed to anger Kaito, who responded by kicking his ass. That’s what I want to see from Kaito. I like him beating someone’s ass as a flip to Okada destroying him. Kaito weathered the storm from Owens, went on an offensive onslaught and won with Shining Wizard in 8:28. Inoffensive but moved at a snail’s pace and the crowd was dead as hell for it. [*¾]
B Block: The Great-O-Khan [0] vs. KENTA [0]
KENTA won their only prior meeting in the G1 31 (**½). If you thought the last match was lifeless, boy did these guys try to best that. After some stalling, we got brawling outside and through the many empty seats in the arena. It took forever and only after a ton of time did the referee decide to start the 10 count. The crowd sat on their hands as this got back to the ring and they did a lot of uninteresting stuff. KENTA won by countering O-Khan into a pinning combination with the ropes for leverage after a boring 11:40. Holy shit that was bad. [½*]
A Block: Gabe Kidd [0] vs. Hikuelo [0]
Their only previous match was in RevPro in 2019. Guys, I don’t think this show is going to get much better here. We started with Kidd jumping Hikuleo during his entrance. YES BECAUSE THIS WORKED SO WELL FOR YOU ON NIGHT ONE GABE. These STRONG Tag Champs have looked like total buffoons so far. Kidd wailed on Hikuleo with chairs all around the arena before the bell rang. The big man turned the tide to take this to the ring where, like the last match, things didn’t really get any better. The Bullet Club dudes make no sense. Like Kidd regained momentum after some Hikuleo offense and then just randomly went after Jado. Why? Because BULLET CLUB VIOLENCE, I guess. Kidd used a low blow and then a piledriver to steal this in 3:21. Stop the pain. [*½]
B Block: Taichi [2] vs. Tanga Loa [2]
Another first time match. Well, I wanted Taichi to save this show but that wasn’t happening. Like the outing with KENTA, this Tanga match was booked around his knee. It’s the kind of thing that makes sense on paper but is failing miserably in practice. Maybe he’s not fully ready to be out there in a G1 setting but the stuff he’s doing is lacking and feels lifeless. Taichi did his best to help and he did REMOVE THE PANTS to pop me but otherwise, this was a lot of nothing. Taichi won with his take on the Gedo Clutch to move to 2-0 in 12:34 and that was another bad match. [*½]
To add to the pain of this show, Chase Owens joined commentary.
A Block: Ren Narita [1] vs. Yota Tsuji [0]
Narita is 5-0 against Tsuji, all during their Young Lion time. They need to save this because we’re on pace for the worst G1 show I’ve ever seen. The things that make these guys interesting were on display from the start with Narita’s Shibata-isms everywhere and Tsuji just oozing star power. Everything he did felt interesting and like it mattered but then Narita could just shut him up with a slap or strike. Tsuji is just so explosive. His tope suicida looks like it absolutely wipes his opponents out. The back and forth here was very good but as this passed the 15 minute mark, you knew where they were going with it. I’m fine with draws for the new musketeers but this needed a hotter closing stretch. If time is about to expire and the guys aren’t giving their all out of desperation for those two points, then what are we doing? I did like Tsuji collapsing before making a cover just ahead of the final minute. Narita doing a top rope submission as the clock winded down and then taunting made him look kind of dumb though. We got the draw right after and this was the best thing on the show but ultimately a disappointment after Narita/Shooter. [***¼]
B Block: Will Ospreay [0] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [2]
William won their G1 32 match (***¼). I came in interested in seeing if the equilibrium stuff from night one would come into play. The answer was that it didn’t play a big part which I found surprising. I think that would be a great way to make it seem like YOSHI-HASHI might actually pull off the upset, especially after Will hit his head hard on a running Blockbuster. That said, this was still a good bit of pro wrestling. HASHI put up a great fight and this had a very good pace that felt like they were really going for it in under 15 minutes. HASHI came close with some big moves like Destroyer but it never felt like he truly threatened the US Champ. Interestingly, Ospreay won with Spiral Tap in 13:04, furthering his return as the “Aerial Assassin.” A good match and given what this show has bene, two good but not great matches in a row is 10/10. [***¼]
A Block: SANADA [2] vs. Shota Umino [1]
Surprised to see this hasn’t happened before. People are catching on but they have too much going on with Shooter, especially after the comments that he “looks like Tana, fights like Moxley, and talks like Naito.” It’s like he has an identity crisis. Neither guy has really solidified the belief that they belong their pushes so this was interesting to see. The crowd was pro-Shota early. As a match, this was kind of prototypical New Japan because it was pretty standard for the most part and nothing stood out until the end. There’s something about SANADA that remains uninteresting and Shooter doesn’t have enough to make up for it. About 14-15 minutes in, this picked up for a hot closing stretch that saw SANADA win with Deadfall at the 18:48 mark. The idea was that Shooter pushed SNADA to the limit but it never really felt like that. [***]
B Block: El Phantasmo [0] vs. Kazuchika Okada [2]
A night of mostly first time matches concludes with yet another one. This feels like another case of an established guy possibly being put to the test against an up-and-comer. Unlike a lot of Okada matches, this one had an interesting opening with ELP angering the top guy. Okada as a pissed off dude against Kaito and Narita earlier this year has been great so we got to see more of him being a total dick here and it’s always when Okada is at his best. I just wish we got more of that. Instead of overly aggressive Okada for a while, he only did it a bit and otherwise controlled a lot of this in basic fashion. ELP started rallying late by hitting Sudden Death and CR2 for a near fall. Okada got his knees up on Thunderkiss to set up the usual Okada counter on counter on counter finishing run. He hit the Rainmaker to win in 16:21, capping a good main event. [***¼]
