NJPW G1 Climax 29 Day 3 results and analysis: New Japan delivers yet again

Day 3 of the NJPW G1 Climax 29 tournament was in Ota once again and featured the next round of A-Block matches.

Results roundup:

• Juice Robinson, Toa Henare & Yota Tsuji def. Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma & Yuya Uemura
• Jeff Cobb and Ren Narita def. Jon Moxley and Shota Umino
• Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Toru Yano def. Jay White, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
• Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi
• A-Block: Lance Archer (4) def. Bad Luck Fale (2)
• A-Block: Will Ospreay (2) def. SANADA (2)
• A-Block: Kazuchika Okada (4) def. Zack Sabre Jr. (0)
• A-Block: KENTA (4) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi (0)

Juice Robinson, Toa Henare & Yota Tsuji def. Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma & Yuya Uemura

A good opener. This felt like more of a showcase for the young guns than anything else. Henare, Tsuji and Uemura all wrestled like they were actually in the G1 during this match. Tsuji and Uemura were great together as usual, and Toa Henare really could have been in the G1 this year with his recent performances.

Goto and Robinson were fine but quiet and probably banged up from their bouts on Saturday; Honma is alive. Henare scored the pin after a huge modified uranage on Uemura.

Jeff Cobb and Ren Narita def. Jon Moxley and Shota Umino

Moxley and Umino’s chemistry together is really entertaining. Once the the G1 Climax wraps we’re going to look back on this time and refer to it as Shota’s Senpai Summer (starring Jon Moxley as “Mox-senpai”). They walked together through the crowd on their way to the ring, Umino carrying Moxley’s US title belt for him as he walked behind him, Moxley’s Nikolai Volkoff to his Ted DiBiase.

Narita got the upper hand early as the bell rang with a sudden shotgun dropkick. These two, like Uemura, Henare and Tsuji in the match before, wrestled with notable intensity. They are always intriguing to watch and most fans can’t wait to see them at the top of the card in the next four years or so.

Moxley and Cobb together make for a unique styles clash. They are totally different in a lot of ways and it showed here. Moxley is beginning to get into the groove of this G1 thing and looks to be in the best shape of his life. This dude is looking real jacked, baby.

This was short but sweet, a quick showcase where everyone looked cool and had me jonesing for more of this Moxley and Umino combo. We haven’t mentioned Cobb much but he was equally great in this match, especially after that bar fight he had on Saturday night with Ishii. Cobb actually grabbed the win for his team after he took Narita on a Tour of the Islands.

Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Toru Yano def. Jay White, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens

This match did its job of pumping Tomohiro Ishii and Jay White’s match on Monday in Hokkaido. Ishii called Jay White out early on. This Ota crowd was loudly behind the Stone Pitbull and loved to hate White. Ishii’s persona is ideal for stories of comeuppance, for angles where the heel is a tried and true piece of trash and no one but the mean old sheriff, Ishii, can dish out the proper discipline.

Ishii’s attitude inspired Yano to act as enforcer whenever Takahashi or Owens would try any funny business and kept ringside free of Bullet Club shenanigans. Yano scored the win early on after rolling Owens up after sneaking in a low blow. White and Ishii had more words after the finish, and Owens iced his groin as he and the rest of Bullet Club eventually walked to the back.

Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi

Naito and Taichi were the focus here. They have a main event bout in Hokkaido on Monday night, Taichi’s home prefecture. They wrestled like two above-average rudos would, mostly brawling and taunting each other as their teammates fought outside the ring. Taichi would later dump Naito to the floor where Kanemaru used a crazy guillotine legdrop onto him as he was draped over the guardrail.

Takagi and Suzuki had a brief but very interesting exchange. It was short-lived, though, as Suzuki essentially murdered BUSHI with a Gotch-style piledriver to pick up the victory for Suzuki-gun. Taichi continued to strangle Naito with a cable near the announce table after the match, though the final scene of he and Naito was Naito grinning and tipping his ball cap to Taichi before heading backstage. Taichi consulted with Takashi Iizuka’s Iron Claw as he and his teammates exited the ring. I imagine that’ll come into play on Night 4.

A-Block: Lance Archer (4) def. Bad Luck Fale (2)

A solid match. Lance Archer took out a Young Lion on his way to the ring with a hard slap. The two went into a shoulder-block stalemate from the bell until Archer speared Bad Luck Fale through the ring ropes and the match spilled to the floor. He slammed Fale into one of the Japanese announce team’s video monitors. Jado tried to interfere and whacked Archer with a kendo stick, but Archer no-sold it and spooked him off.

The middle of this match was filled with slow brawling. The action didn’t pick back up until Archer tried walking the ropes like Undertaker but Jado butted in once again. This distracted Archer and Fale was able to crotch him on the turnbuckle and superplex him from the second rope. Archer bounced a foot off the ground and referee Marty Asami even bumped on impact. Good visual.

Before the finish, Jado again attempted interfering until Archer laid him out with a stiff right hand. With Jado out of the way, Archer used a big pounce and then a chokeslam on Fale for two. He capped things off after applying a Claw hold on Fale for a three-count.

Nothing spectacular but solid nonetheless. They both played to their strengths and came out with a good match. If there were higher stakes at hand — a title, for example — these two could have a real banger.

A-Block: Will Ospreay (2) def. SANADA (2)

This was modern pro wrestling action that was often at a pace of 100 mph. I felt like I was watching The Transporter.

Both wrestlers were megastars with this crowd, but especially SANADA. Both milked their crowd reactions for all that they were worth early on. Remember, this was an early afternoon show on a Sunday. Imagine what this’d have been like on a Saturday night.

They kicked the match off with classic Euro-style counter-wrestling, lots of physical chess. Ospreay attempted applying a Paradise Lock early on but was too slow according to Milano Collection A.T., originator of the hold and commentator for the night. SANADA then applied it properly but alas: Ospreay escaped with ease and did a handspring out of it to boot. Milano completely freaked about this.

The pace slowed a bit from here, as it should have. The crowd was really hot early on and if they didn’t slow things down there’d be nowhere else for them to go. Things began heating up again when SANADA fastened Ospreay back into a rope-assisted inverted Paradise Lock; Ospreay, with nowhere to go, was forced to eat a basement dropkick from SANADA which knocked him to the floor.

Later, Ospreay used a Space Flying Tiger Drop from the ring to the floor onto SANADA, who quickly returned the attack with a pescado of his own on the other side of the ring. The crowd loved this guy and were screaming their heads off for him here.

Both wrestled at a pace that was so fast that they’d often get ahead of themselves on their own spots with either Ospreay or SANADA not completely sticking a bump or strike here or there, but both were determined to will this to greatness. There was no way these two were not having a great match, they seemed to say.

SANADA used a version of his trainer’s rolling savate kick at one point. There were so many exchanges towards the end of this that it was difficult to even keep track. It’s unreal athleticism, undeniably.

The finish saw SANADA trying to swing Ospreay into a Cold Skull submission that saw Ospreay reverse into a Spanish Fly of his own. After a sharp hook kick, an Os-Cutter and the Stormbreaker, Ospreay grabbed the win. I don’t believe anyone who has taken a Stormbreaker in NJPW has kicked out of it yet. Both looked like a billion yen here.

A-Block: Kazuchika Okada (4) def. Zack Sabre Jr. (0)

This match was an expensive espresso and cigar after a great meal. It was all storytelling with fireworks coming at the end of the bout. Sabre condescended to Okada before the match and ragged on his flashy entrance gear. He made a point in his post-match promos yesterday that it’d be “pissing down submissions” on the Rainmaker in Ota-ku.

The “O-KA-DA” chants were nonstop early on; Okada was received like a rock star. The two played physical chess early on and exchanged holds and counters at a steady pace. The key to understanding this one is in Sabre’s strategy: His aim throughout was to finish Okada with his modified octopus hold. He could never fully sink it in though. There was one European Clutch near-fall that was so close my heart got caught in my throat. Okada is the king of kicking out at two-and-three-quarters.

Okada later spiked ZSJ with a nasty tombstone. When he went for the Rainmaker, Sabre reversed it into the aforementioned octopus hold. When Okada wouldn’t tap, Sabre released the hold and later stomped on his elbow.

The finish saw a number of hard strikes and more awesome counters between the two before Okada dusted ZSJ with a rolling Rainmaker to follow up and then one more standard Rainmaker for the road and impressive win. These two are always very good together.

A-Block: EVIL (2) def. Kota Ibushi (0)

Woah. I don’t think we’ve seen EVIL with this much intensity in a long while; both he and Ibushi were on fire in this match. From the bell, the two collided and smashed each other with elbows. He slowed the pace down soon after and began working over Ibushi’s injured left ankle with a variety of foot and ankle locks. The crowd was loud in its support of Ibushi as EVIL tortured him.

Ibushi was able to shimmy out of a fireman’s carry (the setup to Darkness Falls) midway through and used a snap power slam and second-rope moonsault for a two-count. He pounded on his ankle afterwards, continuously selling that injury.

EVIL regained momentum and used a massive superplex into the ring. The two exchanged German suplexes and no-sold both of them not unlike something you’d see in a ‘90s All Japan main event. They screamed back and forth at each other during another exchange of strikes but EVIL but the kibosh on that sequence quickly by stomping on Ibushi’s ankle again. The crowd booed heavily. He told referee Red Shoes Umino to shut up at one point.

Ibushi landed a hard Boma Ye with his knee exposed for another close two. EVIL returned with a massive lariat that literally folded Ibushi and popped the audience. He finally landed Darkness Falls but it wasn’t enough, until he landed Everything Is Evil (an STO) for the huge win.

Was this an upset? I argue no. EVIL is often booked to kick ass in these tournaments and often walks away with a couple of big wins, like when he took out Kazuchika Okada during his legendary IWGP Heavyweight run in 2017. Don’t sleep on EVIL.

A-Block: KENTA (4) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi (0)

Another killer main event, and much more of a fight than a match. KENTA is slowly acquiring his confidence back and this bout helped, for sure. Tana was cheered like the mega-star that he is while KENTA was treated with cold intrigue more than anything else.

He is still an outsider in the eyes of a good number of the NJPW crowd, many of whom missed his golden years as the star of Pro Wrestling NOAH and as one of modern wrestling’s most important stylistic influencers.

KENTA slapped Tanahashi in the mouth with so much force that the crowd started booing. This was only a minute or so into the match. Tana gave KENTA a nice receipt but the fight quickly spilled to the outside. After the two traded Irish whips into guardrails, KENTA planted Tanahashi on his head with a DDT on the floor near the front row.

Katsuyori Shibata was on commentary with the Japanese announce team during this bout and looked elated when he saw KENTA use his signature basement dropkick into the corner on Tanahashi. He might have been the only one in the building who felt that way, though, as the crowd was fully behind Tana for most of this. KENTA followed up with a diving double foot stomp from the top for a two-count.

Tanahashi’s defensive strategy was to take KENTA’s legs and knees out so KENTA wouldn’t be able to destroy him with kicks. He used an inverted Dragon Screw leg whip and a Texas Clover hold to do this, though it didn’t slow KENTA down much.

KENTA returned the offense with a draping DDT, a possible shoutout to former co-worker Randy Orton. Tana then made a stellar comeback that consisted of his greatest hits, including a Slingblade and a few Twist-and-Shouts. He also landed a picture-perfect High Fly Flow cross-body, then went for the standard HFF splash but KENTA got his knees up. He then blasted Tana with a Penalty Kick and the GTS for another convincing victory.

On commentary, Katsuyori Shibata said the following: “Today’s match, that was the real KENTA, I believe.”

Check back on Monday for results from G1 Climax Day 4 and analysis.

Current G1 Standings

A-Block

• Kazuchika Okada 4
• KENTA 4
• Lance Archer 4
• SANADA 2
• Bad Luck Fale 2
• EVIL 2
• Will Ospreay 2
• Kota Ibushi 0
• Zack Sabre Jr. 0
• Hiroshi Tanahashi 0

B-Block

• Hirooki Goto 2
• Tomohiro Ishii 2
• Toru Yano 2
• Jon Moxley 2
• Juice Robinson 2
• Shingo Takagi 0
• Taichi 0
• Tetsuya Naito 0
• Jeff Cobb 0
• Jay White 0