Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 9 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 9

July 27^th, 2023 | Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 2,316

A third straight night of the G1. I’m a day late reviewing due to other stuff I had planned but this has a major main event and is held in the same building that STARDOM just tore down last week.

A Block: Chase Owens [4] vs. Shota Umino [4]

Hey, look at Gedo getting the Chase Owens out of the way early. He attempted an assault before the bell but it went nowhere as Shota was ready for it. We still got some fighting outside including people getting tossed into guardrails and Owens hiding under the ring because, Gedo booking. Once this got back to the ring, it was a little better but as has been the case with Chase in this tournament and every other match basically, it peaked at being alright. It was inoffensive but bland and uninteresting. Shota won with Death Rider in 9:35 and I’m glad we’re moving on. [**]

B Block: Taichi [4] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [4]

They have a 1-1 record with Taichi beating him as a Young Lion and HASHI winning in an overly long match in the G1 31 (**½). Thankfully, this one was kept much shorter and that was to their benefit. Both guys typically bring the effort, especially in sub-15 minute situations like this one. They traded some strikes and chops at the start before the pace was slowed with an abdominal stretch. HASHI was winning out when it came to strikes and lariats but Taichi managed to combat him with some of the best kicks of the entire G1. As this neared the 10 minute mark, you could tell they were gearing up for the closing stretch, which was strong. Taichi hit a modified Black Mephisto, added a superkick, and then finished it with a second Black Mephisto to win in 13:13. That was pretty darn good. [***]

A Block: Gabe Kidd [4] vs. Kaito Kiyomiya [5]

Guess what? Kidd jumped Kaito during his entrance. That sparked a fight through the crowd before the bell rang and they were SLUGGING it out. Using a chair, Kidd seemingly knocked Kaito out before the bell even rang. He slid him in to try and steal a pin in mere seconds but Kaito survived. Still, Kidd didn’t let up and just beat the hell out of the downed NOAH star. Kidd even violently sent him to the outside in a way that got an audible pop. Kaito refused to stay down and started firing up, with the crowd totally behind him. With Kaito rallying, a desperate Kidd kicked him low to stop his momentum. Things got taken to the next level when the fight went outside and both guys spat on each other. They took the fight through the crowd again and stopped listening to the referee, who gave up and went inside to start the count. Kaito and Kidd wouldn’t stop and were eventually both counted out after 11:44. One hell of a fight and one of my favorite matches of the tournament so far. The fight kept going after the bell until officials pulled them apart. [****]

B Block: The Great-O-Khan [2] vs. Tanga Loa [2]

This actually happened in the G1 two years ago, with O-Khan winning (**). Thankfully, this one didn’t go 17+ minutes like that outing but this was worse. The issue here was in the execution because O-Khan going after the knee made sense and his leg work is typically solid. The problem is that the crowd just doesn’t care about Tanga unless he’s teaming with his brother and the selling wasn’t very good and inconsistent, so it all missed. This was a slog to get through before Tanga Loa won with Apeshit at the 12:41 mark for whatever reason. [*]

A Block: Hikuleo [2] vs. Yota Tsuji [3]

A guy who looks, wrestles, and carries himself like a star against a 6’9 guy with a huge win under his belt this year. The idea here was that Hikuelo is learning and improving in the G1, even if it’s just a story and not actually true. He’d do something small like outsmart Tsuji on one move and commentary would jump all over it. He also wrestled like an actual big guy, which hasn’t been his strong suit. Yota made this work though, bringing his personality throughout, making sure Hikuleo looked good, and even popping the crowd with an impressive suplex. Then, New Japan made a choice. They legitimately put Hikuleo over as he won with Godsend at the 12:12 mark. One of the better Hikuleo matches but the booking of Tsuji has been horrendous. Like, what are we doing here? This company is in DIRE need of new stars and they have potential ones in this tournament who have kind of done a lot of nothing. [***]

B Block: El Phantasmo [2] vs. KENTA [4]

ELP was pretty aggressive when talking about KENTA on his last show. KENTA stalled a bit until ELP hit a dive onto him and they fought through the crowd for a bit. That included ELP taking a back body drop that looked awful to take. It took a few minutes and the use of a kendo stick before they finally got to the ring and this officially started. Once there, ELP countered Go to Sleep into a cradle to win in 0:19. They kept fighting after the bell, meaning this will likely continue down the road. [NR]

A Block: Ren Narita [2] vs. SANADA [8]

Narita is actually 1-0 against SANADA, beating him in the TV Title Tournament last year (***½). As a match, this was kind of standard SANADA fare. They did some grappling exchanges and a lot of it was smooth though Narita had a bit of the advantage there given his Shibata training. SANADA quickened the pace to take control, going from a Cobra Twist into a springboard dropkick and holding serve with higher impact stuff. Some of the counters here worked really well, like Narita during Deadfall into the Cobra Twist. He also managed to escape Skull End a few times but man, that move kills momentum. It’s odd because submissions when done right shouldn’t have that problem but it’s an issue in New Japan (I’m looking at you, Money Clip). SANADA got leveled with a huge strike late but then turned Narita offense into the Deadfall to be the first to 10 points in 16:30. A good match that never really went to the next level. [***¼]

B Block: Kazuchika Okada [8] vs. Will Ospreay [6]

Okada holds a 7-1 record over Ospreay. Okada won in at Global Wars 2015 (***½), the Anniversary Event in 2018 (***), the 2019 New Japan Cup (***¼), the G1 29 (***½), Wrestle Kingdom 15 (***¾), Wrestle Kingdom 16 (***½), and the G1 Finals last year (****). Ospreay won in the G1 30 (***¼) with help from Great-O-Khan. I’ve also had someone get REALLY mad at me because I don’t think their matches are great together. The idea here is that Will NEEDS to beat Okada and it seems impossible to do with the new 20 minute time limit. Okada formula was out the window as within the first minute or so, Ospreay took to the skies with a plancha. However, Okada responded with a trio of DDTs both inside and out of the ring. Between DDTs and the Rainmaker clothesline, Okada must be a Jake Roberts fan. Ospreay had to fight back from that neck pain and he was helped by a crowd that was very much behind him. As they passed the 10 minute mark, an Oscutter on the apron put Okada on his heels and gave Will some much needed momentum. Okada slowed him down (and the match) with the Money Clip but Ospreay survived. From there it was counters of Hidden Blades and Rainmakers until Ospreay hit a ripcord Hidden Blade and Storm Breaker to win in 17:12. Probably my favorite match of theirs due to the frantic energy of the time limit. This wasn’t drawing something out for the sake of it and it instead felt like it all had a purpose. [****¼]

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

The G1 puts on another solid show as they’re on a good streak. This still isn’t even close to being a top-tier G1 and it has a lot of bad but we’re now mostly getting pretty good stuff.