Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 3 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 3

July 23^rd, 2024 | Hiroshima Sun Plaza in Nishi-ku, Hiroshima | Attendance: 1,972

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 G1 Climax is 2-2 in good shows and, dare I say it, I’m actually looking forward to what’s coming up. That’s the first time in several years for the G1. Can New Japan make it 3 for 3?

B Block: Jeff Cobb [2] vs. Konosuke Takeshita [2]

This is an all A Block show EXCEPT for this one because Takeshita had a DDT match when night two took place. ELP was in the booth for commentary and kept up his depressed demeanor. It wasn’t the best idea to make the show interesting to listen to. Right from the start, this was the kind of hard hitting match you hope for from these two. I loved how they kept up the pace throughout as even something like a kickout by Konosuke got boosted from Jeff immediately responding with a standing moonsault. They knew they couldn’t let their foot off the gas against this opponent. By the time Konosuke got two on a German Suplex, this was fully into rocking and you can tell Konosuke is gonna have a great G1. Seeing Jeff bust out a rana showed how hard these two were going. A Blue Thunder Bomb near fall brought us to the 10 minute mark where Konosuke hit an absurd forearm. He added Raging Fire to win in 10:28. That ruled. Just great action for 10 minutes and it didn’t rely on the tired New Japan tropes I’ve come to dislike. More like this please. [****]

A Block: Callum Newman [2] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [4]

It’s A Block time as ZSJ takes on Will Ospreay’s protégé. This opened with chain wrestling as Callum did well to hold his own against the technical master. That said, he couldn’t totally match him and found himself in serious early trouble. ZSJ got cocky and spent his time toying with the youngster. Callum’s shoulder was damaged throughout and he did a decent job of selling it throughout. While he did his best to keep up with ZSJ, it took so much out of him. As expected, his attempt at the Oscutter was countered since ZSJ has faced that move so many times over the years. However, Callum had a counter for that counter and picked up a near fall with Code Red. Soon after though, ZSJ found a way to grab him in one of those submissions where he twists on the arm, leg, and neck at the same time and Callum gave up after 11:56. That was really good stuff as both guys continue to be highlights of this tournament. [***½]

A Block: The Great-O-Khan [0] vs. Shingo Takagi [2]

We’ve got prior meetings here in the G1 31 (***¼), New Beginning in Nagoya 2023 (**), and Destruction in Kobe 2023 (***½). O-Khan’s idea of fighting everyone in their style of match is interesting though it has resulted in an 0-2 start. Here, that meant having a NEVER Openweight Title style match. However, it never felt like it out of second gear as they just had a good match that never really sniffed being anything more than that. There’s not much to say here because that was basically what this match was. Some pretty good back and forth until O-Khan used a submission that led to a lackluster looking suplex. That set up a closing stretch that saw more back and forth until Shingo won with Pumping Bomber in 11:05. That should’ve been better. It just kind of meandered and while a solid 6/10 match, never truly got going. This isn’t a pairing that really stands out or works all that well. [***]

A Block: Gabe Kidd [2] vs. Shota Umino [2]

A lone meeting came in last year’s G1 (***). Gabe has been a standout so far while Shota is hit or miss. Some days he looks like a future star and at other times, he comes across as super bland. The idea of this match is that there is animosity there explained by commentary and these are two dudes who just DO NOT like one another. We’re talking strike exchanges that included Gabe flipping Shota off and some of Shota’s hardest shots ever thrown. A lot of this was sold on facial expressions and such as they were screaming at each other, shooting looks of hate, and sometimes laughing at the offense of the other. I like Gabe using the Boston Crab because of their Young Lion past. They were basically challenging each other all match to hit harder and show more fight, leading to things like disrespectful slaps. The finish was also different from usual NJPW fare as Gabe went from another Boston Crab variation to a sitout powerbomb to score something of an upset after 15:56. I think they have something better in them down the line or when Shota is fully healthy but I liked the vicious nature and hate-filled aspects of this one. [***½]

A Block: EVIL [4] vs. SANADA [2]

Obviously, lots of history here given they were former tag champs. They’ve wrestled in the G1 27 (****), G1 29 (***¾), New Japan Cup 2020 (***½), G1 30 (**½), Wrestle Kingdom 15 (***), G1 31 (**¼), G1 33 (*), and Destruction in Ryogoku 2023 (**). Yeah, as they’ve gotten progressively worse, so have their matches together. What we got here was more of the same as things continue to not go well for these two. Outside of those first few meetings, they haven’t worked as opponents and giving this the most time of the night was almost criminal. The match was plodding and featured a bit too much of the House of Torture BS that I don’t even think is worth covering. So again, I won’t go into too much detail because you’ve seen this all before. There were so many ref bumps that just made the 18:06 runtime feel closer to 38:06. EVIL won after a low blow and some other shenanigans. [*¼]

A Block: Jake Lee [2] vs. Tetsuya Naito [0]

Naito looked awful against Moxley. Even his biggest fans have to admit that. He has looked rough at parts of this G1 but being in there against ZSJ and Shingo made up for a lot of that given they are two of the best in the world. Unfortunately, Jake Lee isn’t on that level and this looked like the Naito who struggled at Forbidden Door. He botched several enziguris and messed up Destino in a big way, not for the first time in this tournament. The first half or so of this was basic, highlighted by Lee hitting a DDT on the stage for a near countout victory. As this passed the 10 minute mark, Naito hit some neckbreakers only for Lee to rally and get booed for taunting Naito. That’s when we got into Naito’s comeback that wasn’t good at all and included the botched Destino. Lee got too confident after a spin kick and took a Destino to lose in 17:05. Oof, that was hard to watch. I give it a slight preference over the last match but Naito is in serious trouble because he’s already faced the two best guys to help him in his block so it’s gonna be tough the rest of the way. [*¾]

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

Man, that was going so well. Following two good nights, we got the Takeshita/Cobb banger, really good stuff from ZSJ/Callum and Kidd/Umino as well as a solid enough GOK/Shingo match. But those last two bouts were a lot of what’s wrong with New Japan as a whole from bad overbooked matches to relying on a broken down guy who got the top spot way too late. This is an enjoyable show up until those last two matches which are flat out bad.