G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: YOSHI-HASHI vs. Juice Robinson
A really good match between two of the New Japan Midcarders. It took a while to get competitive and interesting since Juice was just doing his signature spots, playing to the crowd and familiring himself with the flow and feel of wrestling in Japan again. Once YOSHI-HASHI got into the match more, they had some cool back and forth sequences. YOSHI-HASHI put on his best version of the Butterfly Lock ever which was the highlight of the match. Juice is a crowd favourite and seeing him use the crowd to get out of it was exciting. ***1/4
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: Toru Yano vs. SANADA
SANADA is hot again! But seriously, he looks so cool with his new look (hair, tights, etc). The pirate look wasn’t great, nor was the blonde hair but this is a star look, if there is one. Anyway, this was a real riot to watch. Yano matches are a tad stale in their routine but SANADA has uncanny timing for comedy - something he’s very underrated at - and helps things. The ref catching all of Yano’s tape before the match was hilarious and the finish where Yano pulls out a final one to tape SANADA and Uemura together was a great payoff to a small gag. The duel between the two with the turnbuckle pads was hilarious as well. I had so much fun watching this. ***1/2
SANADA is hot again! But seriously, he looks so cool with his new look (hair, tights, etc). The pirate look wasn’t great, nor was the blonde hair but this is a star look, if there is one. Anyway, this was a real riot to watch. Yano matches are a tad stale in their routine but SANADA has uncanny timing for comedy - something he’s very underrated at - and helps things. The ref catching all of Yano’s tape before the match was hilarious and the finish where Yano pulls out a final one to tape SANADA and Uemura together was a great payoff to a small gag. The duel between the two with the turnbuckle pads was hilarious as well. I had so much fun watching this. ***1/2
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: KENTA vs. Hirooki Goto
I thought this was fine. Underwhelming if I’m totally honest. Despite KENTA’s brutal targeting of Goto’s arm, his stiff kicks and everything he does, I wasn’t really captivated by the match. Goto’s strength, to me, isn’t selling and gaining sympathy in order to make a comeback which is what he did in the match. That probably had something to do with it. 1+ for their effort. **3/4
I thought this was fine. Underwhelming if I’m totally honest. Despite KENTA’s brutal targeting of Goto’s arm, his stiff kicks and everything he does, I wasn’t really captivated by the match. Goto’s strength, to me, isn’t selling and gaining sympathy in order to make a comeback which is what he did in the match. That probably had something to do with it. 1+ for their effort. **3/4
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. EVIL
This turned out to be a really good match thanks to Zack’s compelling performance. He was the de facto face of the two given EVIL is apart of Bullet Club and Zack has a knee injury but he took the ball and ran with it. Some really good selling but offensively he was gripping at times. His flash pins and submissions made for an exciting and interesting match. EVIL was still listless as always and the interference wasn’t all that great either. EVIL losing to Zack was a big shocker though. So EVIL wasn’t that useless. ***1/4
This turned out to be a really good match thanks to Zack’s compelling performance. He was the de facto face of the two given EVIL is apart of Bullet Club and Zack has a knee injury but he took the ball and ran with it. Some really good selling but offensively he was gripping at times. His flash pins and submissions made for an exciting and interesting match. EVIL was still listless as always and the interference wasn’t all that great either. EVIL losing to Zack was a big shocker though. So EVIL wasn’t that useless. ***1/4
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito
Very good match ultimately with Tanahashi giving a tremendous performance, rallying the crowd (and myself) behind him in hopes that he scores the win. His big stretch towards the win before he failed was very exciting. From the High Fly Flow to the outside to his many attempts at hitting it inside of the ring. The general mat-wrestling was very poor since Naito is very unconvincing in that regard but Tanahashi going after the leg of Naito was a good hook to gain some interest out of it. Naito’s selling was pretty good as well. Naito was good at times in this but there was some severe sloppiness when Naito went for his Destino, more than once. But nevertheless, this was an awesome match thanks to Tanahashi’s drive. ***3/4
Very good match ultimately with Tanahashi giving a tremendous performance, rallying the crowd (and myself) behind him in hopes that he scores the win. His big stretch towards the win before he failed was very exciting. From the High Fly Flow to the outside to his many attempts at hitting it inside of the ring. The general mat-wrestling was very poor since Naito is very unconvincing in that regard but Tanahashi going after the leg of Naito was a good hook to gain some interest out of it. Naito’s selling was pretty good as well. Naito was good at times in this but there was some severe sloppiness when Naito went for his Destino, more than once. But nevertheless, this was an awesome match thanks to Tanahashi’s drive. ***3/4
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