wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 12 Review
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 12
August 7th, 2024 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,504
NOTE: For anyone following all of my reviews, my WrestleMania Series is still ongoing. It’s something I’m doing in my free time though so reviews from 2024 (like this one) take precedence. Also, I’m up to the Manias that are like, 7 hours long so it takes a while.
Time for a B Block show in Korakuen with one more person in attendance apparently.
B Block: Boltin Oleg [4] vs. Jeff Cobb [8]
Honestly, this is the Boltin Oleg match I was waiting for. Why? Because it’s BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPING MEAT. They gave me what I wanted, with Boltin using his size more than he usually does. It’s an aspect of his game that I’d like to see him improve on. He uses it more than, say, Hikuleo, but not quite enough. Here, he was down to trade big boy shots with Cobb. The TV Champion held serve in the middle but it wasn’t prolonged, which became a theme of the match as it was more about back and forth action than anything else. I will always pop for something like Boltin swinging Cobb around for his gutwrench gimmick. The highlight was them either stealing each other’s moves or doing mirror moves at points. Cobb got hot late with a flurry of moves including a superkick before finishing with Tour of the Islands in 10:14. A really fun opener where they played to their strengths. And now Cobb leads B Block. [***½]
B Block: El Phantasmo [4] vs. Konosuke Takeshita [6]
The idea here was that Konosuke was basically kicking ELP’s ass from the start. ELP has been struggling so it makes sense that he was on his heels here and Konosuke was sure show off how arrogant he was as he dominated. ELP had to take risks to gain any sort of momentum. His tope to the outside changed the tide of this for a while but then things took a wild turn when a table got introduced. They teased using it a few times as tension built before ELP got a near fall on a super rana inside, away from the table. He came even closer to winning with CRII though it was hard to buy that as the finish given the table was still in play. Konosuke used it when he caught a diving ELP and hit him with the Bastard Driver off the apron through the table. A ridiculous spot that saw ELP get folded and end up with back cut. From there, we got ELP putting on a hell of a performance as a desperate, battered man. From the inside cradle close call to hitting Sudden Death, the crowd bought into every chance he had. Spitting at Konosuke and rolling him up made for the best near fall of the night. Konosuke only getting one on a lariat was madness, so he hit Raging Fire to win in 17:22. I liked that way more than I expected. Great stuff from both men. [****½]
B Block: HENARE [6] vs. Yota Tsuji [6]
There was potential for something really good here but I was disappointed to see that this only capped out at being good. Maybe it’s because it came after a standout match but it just felt like it was missing something. They had some solid back and forth, trading big, hard hitting moves, yet it suffered from the runtime. They did the usual fighting spirit stuff you see in a lot of HENARE matches, he yelled a bunch as he got going, and they threw some stiff strikes. The counters late were what you’d expect from New Japan matches but before getting there, this felt like it dragged. That’s not usually the case with these NEVER Openweight style bouts though this should’ve done 10-12 minutes rather than 15:38. The closing stretch saw them hit knee strikes, slaps, and headbutts until Tsuji avoided Rampage and won with Gene Blaster. It was good, just never really as good as it should’ve been. [***]
B Block: Ren Narita [6] vs. Yuya Uemura [6]
Last time out, I said that Ren Narita may have needed the House of Torture shenanigans because without them, he delivered a dull match. Well this time around, he was doing alright on his own. He worked the leg and used some underhanded tactics but didn’t go too deep into his bag of antics. That allowed Yuya to play the fiery underdog babyface, which I’ve consistently praised him for in this tournament. But then we got the House of Torture awfulness and it dragged this down pretty hard. That said, Yuya is such a good face that he did well as the man fighting against so many odds. Ren used a low blow and Double Cross to win in 11:42. I’ll give it a better score than a lot of Ren matches because it was solid at first and Yuya did his thing. [**¼]
B Block: David Finlay [8] vs. Hirooki Goto [6]
Surprisingly, this is yet another first time match. On paper, I shouldn’t be at all interested in this. Goto is typically just a guy and Finlay hasn’t worked for mee in this heel role. However, Goto is fresh off a wild performance against Konosuke and was pretty over with the Korakuen faithful, giving this a good atmosphere. Goto was still indeed on his game and he used the fire from the hot crowd to give this a boost. Finlay did his usual heel stuff which was serviceable here but it was all about what Goto was doing. This man has turned back the clock in ways I wasn’t expecting. It did start a bit slow but once Goto got going, things picked up. I liked when Finlay opted for things like biting and daring Red Shoes to disqualify him. He’s solid at that stuff, it’s just his offensive heat segments that have problems. I kept thinking Finlay won with powerbombs and especially when he hit Oblivion but Goto kept kicking out. Then, the crowd popped hard as he blocked Oblivion, hit a headbutt, and scored an upset with the GTR in 17:51. Stunned at that result but I’m here for it. Old man Goto, baby. A very good main event in front of a hot crowd. [***½]
| A BLOCK | POINTS | B BLOCK | POINTS |
| Zack Sabre Jr. | 10 (5-2) | Jeff Cobb | 10 (5-2) |
| EVIL | 10 (5-2) | Hirooki Goto | 8 (4-3) |
| Tetsuya Naito | 8 (4-3) | Yota Tsuji | 8 (4-3) |
| SANADA | 8 (4-3) | Konosuke Takeshita | 8 (4-3) |
| Shingo Takagi | 6 (3-4) | David Finlay | 8 (4-3) |
| Jake Lee | 6 (3-4) | Ren Narita | 8 (4-3) |
| Gabe Kidd | 6 (3-4) | Yuya Uemura | 6 (3-4) |
| Shota Umino | 6 (3-4) | HENARE | 6 (3-4) |
| The Great O-Khan | 6 (3-4) | Boltin Oleg | 4 (2-5) |
| Callum Newman | 4 (2-5) | El Phantasmo | 4 (2-5) |
