NJPW G1 Climax 2021 - Day 9 - 03/10/2021
G1 Climax 2021 Block A Match: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
I thought this suffered slightly from the known result. Perhaps the drama of the match would have sucked me in more if I weren’t to know tht Ishii would escape and eventually win the match. That can somewhat hurt the match. The match was basic in its structure and story. ZSJ attacked Ishii’s arm, using the ropes and his other nefarious tactics while Ishii worked towards making a comeback, fighting through the pain. Some of the closing stretch was predictably exciting but this averaged out at a solid level. ***
G1 Climax 2021 Block A Match: Shingo Takagi vs. Kota Ibushi
Great result for Kota Ibushi beating the IWGP World champion. Perhaps a return to form for him, as Kevin Kelly suggested on commentary. I thought the match had its moments but these two leaned into some pretty bad habits like no-selling german suplexes and Shingo's weak punches. They showed that they can have a better match in them in the closing stretch and the beginning of the match also. ***
NJPW G1 Climax 2021 - Day 10 - 04/10/2021
G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match: Taichi vs. Jeff Cobb
I liken this to a modern day version of Toshiaki Kawada vs Gary Albright without the amazing grappling. It was action packed but in a creative way, with Taichi finding different ways to escape Cobb’s almighty suplexes, including grabbing the throat in mid motion. Taichi threw some hard head kicks and was able to hit the Dangerous Supex but it didn't work and he eventually fell to Tour of the Islands. ***1/2
G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA
Not all of SANADA/Okada matches are hits but this certainly was in every way. Despite the clap crowds, both are still masters at generating as much noise as possible by working the crowd and excellently building the match in classic New Japan main event fashion. Neither are brilliant on the mat or working holds but this was largely built around that and it was surprisingly compelling with it being more a battle of equals, of parity than how great everything looks. Not that the execution was poor either. The drama of the Skull End was milked well, as well as the moonsault and O’Connor Roll nearfalls being effective tools to make people think SANADA would win. This is a good time for Okada to lose actually. It's the middle of the G1, he's currently undefeated, and up against a huge rival of his. So the closing stretch was great and filled with uncertainty. ****
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