NJPW G1 Climax 2020 Day 3 - 23/09/2020
G1 Climax 2020 Block A Match: Shingo Takagi vs. Jeff Cobb
Nothing much to say about this. Cobb has improved tremendously from his deathly boring performance last year. Shingo brings all the magic while Cobb puts in some solid suplexes. ***
G1 Climax 2020 Block A Match: Yujiro Takahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
I thought this was a fine 3rd match on the card. Okada gave way too much to Yujiro as usual so the match wasn’t the most exciting to watch but it wasn’t anything to really rag on either. **1/4
G1 Climax 2020 Block A Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Taichi
This was a very good, compact brawl with loads of weapons shots. It’s pretty much what you expect from these two against each other. Suzuki went nuts with the chairs on the outside with Taichi just trying to measure the storm before taking advantage of the ref bump and interference. Taichi getting the win was big for him though. And it was relatively clean with no iron claw used. ***
G1 Climax 2020 Block A Match: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Will Ospreay
CHAOS vs CHAOS! Aside from the occasional cuteness from Ospreay, this went along sweetly. Ishii was willing to lay in his strikes more and even showed some arrogance when trash-talking in the corner. Ospreay had some cool counters like his Marufuji Spring Basement Dropkick and the backflip counter into the powerbomb. The match didn’t exactly peak as expected but the match ended on a high note with Ospreay pulling out a nasty double underhook piledriver before using the Stormbreaker. Great ending. ***1/2
G1 Climax 2020 Block A Match: Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White
Maybe the weakest match of their 3 but I thought it was a strong match nonetheless. I said in the last match that White should win clean in some of his matches and this was a fairly clean and definitive victory of his. Gedo was taken out by a kick so he was barely a factor at all. All of White’s tactics were based on going for Ibushi’s knee, trying to mitigate Ibushi’s kicks as much as possible. Ibushi fought through it and still was able to gain some big momentum. The V-Trigger by Ibushi looked brutal as did many of his kicks. White’s selling of course was great but the best sell of the match was Ibushi’s sell of the Blade Runner. He looked out cold on impact. Just brilliant. ***3/4
NJPW G1 Climax 2020 Day 4 - 24/09/2020
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: Hirooki Goto vs. SANADA
Apart from being a little counter heavy when it didn’t need to be, I thought this was really good. Neither are the most expressive usually but SANADA in particular seemed way more animated throughout the match. It was different. The Skull End teases were well done. ***1/4
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano
A low-level Yano comedy match. There were a few laughs at the beginning, there was a good count out tease but ultimately it was more of a night off for Tanahashi than a full on Yano comedy match like the SANADA match. **1/4
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: KENTA vs. Juice Robinson
This went far too long. I liked the slow pace that they had consistently but you still could’ve taken it home earlier. There was a good contrast of American style crowd playing and typical snugness that you get with Japanese pro wrestling. Juice stepped up his punches in weight and KENTA was a bit of a dick. Good match. ***1/2
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: YOSHI-HASHI vs. EVIL
Godbless YOSHI-HASHI but there is only something you can do when EVIL’s in the ring. This was pretty boring and uninteresting to watch. The end when YOSHI-HASHI escaped from Togo’s rope wire and had a little hope spot was pretty fun but the rest was flat. **1/4
G1 Climax 2020 Block B Match: Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
You know the feeling of when you feel time goes by very slowly because you simply aren’t captivated by what’s in front of you? This match was just that for me. The wrestling wasn’t bad but there was nothing that I cared about in this match. Occasionally Zack would throw out a sick counter, like his springboard tornado ddt counter or a flash pin but this was a very flavourless match. **1/4
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