Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 5 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 34 Night 5

July 27^th, 2024 | Dejima Messe Nagasaki in Nagasaki, Japan | Attendance: 1,616

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 last two solo block shows have been solid but were still a dip from the first two nights. While I want to get excited again, I see that main event for tonight and know it could be the worst match of the tournament.

A Block: Callum Newman [2] vs. Shingo Takagi [4]

Considering Callum is basically Diet Ospreay, it makes sense that this felt like a lesser version of the wars Shingo had with Will. A lot of Callum’s offense is just Will’s stuff too, so it REALLY felt that way. I liked Shingo doing his best to match Callum’s quick pace. Despite his age, he can still really go and didn’t have to slow things down at all. Still, that speed proved to be a difference maker and, combined with some timely dives, helped put Callum in the driver’s seat. Shingo’s response with big shots like raining down elbows on young Callum. The closing stretch saw Shingo bust out the Poison Rana and hit a DDT only for Callum to immediately pop up and nail the Oscutter to win in 12:51. That was good stuff though I think it could’ve been better. The finish was a good idea for a spot though it didn’t totally work as the no sell of the DDT isn’t something I like. Big win for Callum though. [***¼]

A Block: Gabe Kidd [4] vs. SANADA [2]

They faced off in last year’s tournament (***¼). It’s Gabe Kidd so of course this featured intensity and some fighting through the crowd. That even led to a near countout loss for SANADA but he made it back just in time. The issue was that the brawling wasn’t anything interesting. He was holding his shoulder as that became Gabe’s target throughout with moves like the Border City Stretch. I’ve always liked that submission. Gabe kept up the aggression, even biting SANADA at one point, before the former World Champion rallied. Again though, the stuff he was doing was kind of just there and didn’t fully grab me. It’s a problem I’ve had with a lot of SANADA’s matches. The closing stretch featured the usual bump in quality as they went into the expected counters and whatnot. SANADA turned a wristlock into Deadfall to secure the win after 11:14. A largely fine yet somewhat lifeless match? Yeah, that’s the SANADA Special. [**¾]

A Block: The Great-O-Khan [0] vs. Shota Umino [2]

Two guys who should be among my favorites in the tournament but two guys who haven’t fully clicked quite yet. Again, the idea of O-Khan adapting to fight everyone in their style is unique, though I don’t think it has yielded the best results from an entertainment standpoint. Also, Shota doesn’t have a super specific style to adapt to the way that ZSJ or Gabe Kidd does. What we got was something similar to SANADA/Kidd in that it was basically just a match. There was solid back and forth and some decent counter wrestling but nothing about this stood out at all. I did like how O-Khan would throw his Mongolian Chops and Shooter’s response was just to pick up a big move like a fisherman’s suplex or Exploder. He felt he had the advantage with bigger offense rather than trade strikes. Smart stuff. They started trading bigger moves late anyway before Umino won with the Death Rider at the 15:07 mark. Like I said, similar to the previous match in that it was solid, yet nothing more. [***]

A Block: Jake Lee [2] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [6]

Jake Lee has been very uninspiring in this tournament and seems to have negative aura. He’s like the anti-Yota Tsuji. Thankfully, Lee was in there with ZSJ and he’s been on fire lately. We’ve always known how great he is but he seems locked in since around the time of the first Bryan match last year. ZSJ managed to make Lee work better than most. It was a battle of Lee getting in his stuff, including attempts at underhanded moves, around the moments where ZSJ was able to trap him in submission or limb work. And that’s probably the best use of Lee at this moment. Basically wrestle around him. I thought Lee would get a big win here and it seemed to be headed there. He went for his chokeslam but ZSJ countered into a triangle submission, which he then turned into an armbar which he then turned into a Rings of Saturn of sorts to win in 17:47. Another good match that I won’t ever think about again. [***]

A Block: EVIL [6] vs. Tetsuya Naito [2]

Lots of history here given their LIJ roots. Matches include the G1 26 (***½), Dominion 2020 (**), Summer Struggle in Jingu 2020 (***¼), the G1 2020 (***¼), Power Struggle 2020 (***¼), and the G1 32 (**¼). I’ve said it before but I’m so over the House of Torture BS that I just can never give it my all during an EVIL match. However, this is one instance where I think it actually helped things. By overbooking this, it took some of the pressure of Naito’s body. He didn’t have to go hard or carry things, letting the sports entertainment side of things take over. I’m still not going to cover things in detail but I liked this more than I expected because I was expecting the worst things in the tournament. I had low expectations so even if this was bad, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The interference wasn’t enough and EVIL resorted to things like powder in the eyes, which actually backfired. That set up a missed whiskey spit and things were falling apart for the heels. You’d think Naito would win from there but Destino got blocked and EVIL won with Everything is Evil in 15:11. A ho-hum main event that at least wasn’t awful. [**]

A BLOCK	POINTS	B BLOCK	POINTS
Zack Sabre Jr.	8 (4-0)	Yuya Uemura	6 (3-0)
EVIL	8 (4-0)	Konosuke Takeshita	4 (2-1)
SANADA	4 (2-2)	HENARE	4 (2-1)
Callum Newman	4 (2-2)	Ren Narita	4 (2-1)
Gabe Kidd	4 (2-2)	Hirooki Goto	2 (1-2)
Shota Umino	4 (2-2)	Boltin Oleg	2 (1-2)
Shingo Takagi	4 (2-2)	Jeff Cobb	2 (1-2)
Tetsuya Naito	2 (1-3)	El Phantasmo	2 (1-2)
Jake Lee	2 (1-3)	Yota Tsuji	2 (1-2)
The Great O-Khan	0 (0-4)	David Finlay	2 (1-2)

 

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

The first miss for this G1 Climax. This show just ranged from mediocre to solid and never really threatened to get any better. You could skip this entire day and miss nothing of value but you also won’t hate watching it.