NJPW: G1 Climax 30 - Night Four
September 24th, 2020
Another good effort from these two here. Tsuji looked like a monster with an insane running power slam and a nice spear. This power advantage leads him to victory as he’s able to control Uemura and force him to tap to the same move he made Tsuji tap to on Night One.
Match rating - **1/2
2) Hirooki Goto (0-1) (0 pts) vs. SANADA (0-1) (0 pts) - Block B Match
I have to say - this was a lot better than I anticipated. I love Goto and SANADA can pull out a good match, but this was balls to the wall from the start and kept my attention from bell to bell. Goto got his arm worked and SANADA flew around a little bit. Goto fought from underneath and it looked like the start to a disappointing G1 for our main man Goto but he fights back and gets the win.
Match rating - ***1/2
3) Hiroshi Tanahashi (1-0) (2 pts) vs. Toru Yano (1-0) (2 pts) - Block B Match
Largely a comedy match as you’d expect but it’s fun. I enjoyed it a lot more than the Sanada match. Probably because Tana has a lot more personality than Sanada to match what Yano brings to the table. The finish with Yano almost getting counted out with a towel wrapped around his head only for him to cradle Tana for the surprise win was wild.
Match rating - ***
4) KENTA (1-0) (2 pts) vs. Juice Robinson (1-0) (2pts) - Block B Match
KENTA is in major don’t give a fuck mode here and you can tell he takes Juice very lightly. It’s honestly exactly what I hoped for in this match. Typical KENTA weaseling his way out of locking up and stuff but to me with an extra sense of caring even less bc of how he small of a threat he considers Juice, if at all. Juice is the perfect full of heart and hope babyface to go against that. Anyway this is all pre match/opening moments talk. KENTA tries to ground Juice early and wear him down. Juice fires back but gets cut off on the top rope with headbutts and KENTA starts running through with him with all his signature stuff. They end up in the middle of the ring and Juice throws some hellacious forearms but KENTA hits an amazing spinning back fast exchange only for Juice to floor him with a lariat. This started a little slow but the final moments ruled. Juice picks up a huge victory with pulp friction and he’s so sensational as he stares down KENTA post match and points at his NJCup USA briefcase that I almost wanna cry.
Match rating - ***1/4
5) EVIL (0-1) (0 pts) (w/ Dick Togo) vs. YOSHI HASHI (0-1) (0 pts) - Block B Match
Well this had way more life to it than I expected. EVIL's title reign and stuff was cool on story level, but the matches were so dull and empty for me that it takes a lot to get me into anything he does. He and Zack had a good match on Night Two of the G1, but they always work well together. Hashi is hit or miss and admittedly he's on here and they have a real solid match. I didn't enjoy it as much as some others because of reasons previously stated, but it was better than I anticipated it would be. Hashi looked strong, but EVIL pins him when all is said and done despite the match being very competitive.
Match rating - ***
6) Tetsuya Naito (1-0) (2 points) vs. Zack Sabre Jr (1-0) (2 points) - Block A Match
Hot damn this built up into one hell of a match. It starts a little slow, outside of a few early pinning combos from Zack that ruled and felt like legit nearfalls. It felt like it lost it's focus a few moments in the early/middle, but the work was still great. Sabre and Naito work awesome together and have had several outstanding matches in the past. No MOTYC shit, but still really good stuff. This was no different. Like I said, early with a lot of mat work and stuff that took a minute to build up, but once they found their grip, it turned into a barnburner. Listening to this with Japanese commentary instead of English also helped because their enthusiasm is off the charts. Last few minutes had me gasping a couple of times. Naito wins after a couple destinos.
Match rating - ****
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