Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 16 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 16

August 14^th, 2024 | Hamamatsu Arena in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka | Attendance: 1,607

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.

The A Block is set with ZSJ winning outright and The Great-O-Khan and Shingo Takagi set to face off in the Playoffs. It’s time to settle the B Block with the majority of the guys involved still being alive. Boltin Oleg gets to 8 points thanks to a forfeit win over the injured Yuya Uemura, who will also finish with 8.

B Block: HENARE [6] vs. Hirooki Goto [8]

Goto needs to win AND get help later in the night to advance. Their only prior meeting was in the 2022 G1 before HENARE’s name was in all caps (***½). The idea here is that Goto is a guy who helped define the NEVER Openweight hard hitting style and HENARE was inspired by that and claims to be the future of it. HENARE held serve early on, beating Goto up both in and out of the ring but the veteran fought back and brought the strong style to the younger man. I will say, considering the massive support that Goto got during this G1, the crowd was very subdued for this outing. As this progressed, the crowd got more into it, hoping for the Goto win but HENARE wouldn’t be denied. He started in with headbutts and nailed Streets of Rage to end Goto’s dreams in 12:46. Good though I was hoping for more. The crowd wasn’t as into it as you’d hope and they fell flatter once Goto lost. [***¼]

B Block: David Finlay [10] vs. El Phantasmo [6]

Past meetings include the 2022 G1 (***½) and Dominion 2023 (***¼). A win for Finlay seals his place in the playoffs. As a match, this was about you’ve come to expect from them. Finlay still continues his dull heat segments and trash talk befitting of a guy who comes across as way tougher than him and ELP was the underdog babyface. ELP works in that role with his explosive offense because it tends to get a pop and is pretty fun to see. When he was going, this match was better. At times, it seemed like Finlay was trying to pull the toughness out of ELP given that he felt ELP was too soft for his version of Bullet Club. Down the stretch, ELP busted out his own powerbombs to take down Finlay and added CR2 and Thunderkiss but Gedo pulled the referee out, prompting Jado to hit him. Ah, BS in non-House of Torture matches. Never change as a booker, Gedo. Finlay used the shillelagh to set up Overkill and win in 12:30. A good match and nothing more. [***]

 B Block: Konosuke Takeshita [8] vs. Ren Narita [10]

The last four men are all alive so I think it comes down to who wins each to determine who joins Finlay. Konosuke got jumped in the back beforehand because House of Torture, so he was dragged out by Dick Togo and EVIL. Leave it to that stable to do their best to ruin a perfectly good Takeshita match. Ren kept going after the leg which was the theme of the match and that’s a decent idea on its own but there was interference and shenanigans surrounding it. Whenever I watch SHO or Ren, I get sad because their matches would rule if it wasn’t for this stupid obsession with this bad stable but Gedo insists on ruining their careers. Anyway, Takeshita fought through all sorts of interference and won with a huge forearm in 16:47. The House of Torture desperately wanted this to be awful but Takeshita made it watchable. Gedo won’t have him win it all but I’d say fuck it. Be daring. [**½]

Running low on time for this review since I still have STARDOM to cover and it’s getting late so this upcoming match will have a short write up.

B Block: Jeff Cobb [10] vs. Yota Tsuji [8]

Takeshita and Finlay are in. The winner here joins them. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. It was…fine. They did some back and forth stuff but it lacked a sense of urgency and a few of their counters and exchanges felt like they weren’t clicking. It picked up down the stretch and there was a particular headbutt spot that was LOUD and kind of sickening to experience. While I appreciate shorter matches more than most, this one ending at 11:37 felt just a bit too short as it ended once they felt like they were starting to get going. Tsuji won with the Gene Blaster from out of nowhere to advance. I will say, even if I think the match could’ve used another few minutes, I do appreciate the quick ending because we need more of that in New Japan. Give me moments where matches can end at any moment. [***]

A BLOCK	POINTS	B BLOCK	POINTS
Zack Sabre Jr.	14 (7-2)	David Finlay	12 (6-3)
The Great-O-Khan	10 (5-4)	Konosuke Takeshita	10 (5-4)
Shingo Takagi	10 (5-4)	Yota Tsuji	10 (5-4)
Tetsuya Naito	10 (5-4)	Jeff Cobb	10 (5-4)
EVIL	10 (5-4)	Ren Narita	10 (5-4)
Gabe Kidd	8 (4-5)	Yuya Uemura	8 (4-5)
SANADA	8 (4-5)	Hirooki Goto	8 (4-5)
Shota Umino	8 (4-5)	HENARE	8 (4-5)
Jake Lee	8 (4-5)	Boltin Oleg	8 (4-5)
Callum Newman	4 (2-7)	El Phantasmo	6 (3-6)

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

Yeah, that’s about as 6/10 a show as you can get. Disappointing for the final few block shows but hopefully the playoffs pick up the pace. At least some good people got into the playoffs for the most part.