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| The best match of Night 6, of the tournament, of the year Photo Credit: NJPW1972.com |
A Breath of Fresh Air - Jon Moxley entered the G1 Climax a wild card. Despite the fact that he'd already worked two New Japan matches and one for All Elite Wrestling, he had the stink of a (unfairly, in my opinion) maligned WWE run, especially after The Shield broke up on him. His first match with Taichi helped allay those fears, but then he went through B-block's big boys in Jeff Cobb and Tomohiro Ishii, and MAN, people started getting excited for Mox really quick after those. The match vs. Ishii especially stood out, closing out night six with a bang. In addition to working "good" matches, Mox has brought a different atmosphere to his matches. Most New Japan matches that don't involve Bad Luck Fale or Toru Yano have an almost formal feel to them. Mox has brought a wild card to all his matches so far, which has done well in giving the tenor to the tournament a little more diversity in style.
The match with Ishii was the best example, and it was also not only the best match of the slate so far, but probably the best one of the year that I've seen at least. It saw Mox stand up to Ishii's power HOSS offense and bait him to the outside with weapons. Watching Mox give Ishii a chair before they did steel chair swordfighting was about as delightful as wrestling violence can be. The match allowed Ishii to come out of a box so to speak, leaping from the top rope to give Mox a flying press through a table. I know the modern HOSS is agile nowadays, but the only wrestler from which a highspot of that nature would surprise me more would be the Great Khali. When I think Ishii, I think headbutts, scowling, brainbusters, and general garbled yelling at his opponent. But that's the beauty of both the G1 Climax and having someone as fresh and eccentric as Moxley in it.
B Is the Magic Block - Going into the thing, I figured B-block would be the better frame, but I didn't figure it would be better by a considerable margin. So far, there have been 15 matches in B-block, and only one of them, Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi, is one that I would feel okay if you skipped. Sure, this block doesn't have Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, KENTA, or Zack Sabre, Jr., but the overall performances have been consistently at a high level. I've heard that people have grown unhappy with Jeff Cobb's run in the tournament, but I also thought all three of his matches were at a high baseline. They weren't brilliant, well, the second and third acts of his match with Ishii were brilliant, but he's putting in work. Regardless of Cobb though, you have Shingo Takagi, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto, Juice Robinson, Ishii, and Moxley all going at their highest levels. Jay White provides a needed arch-heel presence, while Taichi and Naito are still turning in good stuff most of the time. I think going forward, B-block feels like the slate you should watch in full, while A-block has the matches you cherrypick.
EVERYBODY DIES! - I wasn't looking forward to Archer, a tag specialist whose singles runs in WWE and TNA didn't really inspire much optimism, in the G1, but you'd have to be an A-plus hater not to recognize he's been on a tear. It might be a unicorn run, sure. Or maybe he's just getting more acclimated to singles wrestling now that Davey Boy Smith, Jr. has left New Japan. Archer's 42, so who knows how long he's got. Might as well make the best of it, and he has. He followed up a surprisingly enjoyable match with Will Ospreay with two really good matches against KENTA and Tanahashi and with something not embarrassing against Bad Luck Fale. He provides an imposing bully presence without needing outside interference, and bringing back The Claw as a finish only adds to his menace. Hopefully, he keeps it up, because A-block needs a dominating presence like his.
Starting a Dialogue About Sanada - When looking at the slate for the G1, I thought that the weak spots might have been Archer, Fale, or even Ospreay (I'm a hater, I know). However, I didn't think Sanada would be on the list, and yet, after his match-of-the-night with Sabre in Dallas, he's not been all that great to put it lightly. His match with Ospreay was the worst match of the tournament so far, even worse than anything Fale was involved in, and the Ibushi match came off the rails at the end. It's hard just to blame one person for a bad match because it takes two to tango. That being said, is Sanada just off his game, or is the explanation that he's at best a lump of clay who can only have a match as good as his opponent? He was good against Sabre and fine against EVIL, and not coincidentally, they're two of the best wrestlers in the block. The question is though, does it matter? Sanada is hella over, inspires massive thirst, and he's tight with Ibushi, which means if he ever leaves Los Ingobernables de Japon, he's probably gonna start a stable with Ibushi that, like Friend of the Blog and PW Torch contributor Rich Fann II says, will increase the population of Japan by 13 percent. The point isn't that Sanada is above criticism, it's just that the community at-large will have to be dealing with that criticism for a long time. If you don't like it? Well, don't participate.
Coming Up - Night 8 is Wednesday night in Japan, early Wednesday night in America, and it features the leader, Moxley, taking on one of the three nipping at his heels with four points, Takagi. Is the crown for Mox/Ishii for best match ready to be knocked off at the very next B-block show? Also, Robinson (four points) will look to avoid falling into the Yano spoiler trap, which at this point isn't a spoiler trap since Yano also has four points. Goto and Taichi will try not to fall too far behind as they battle, both with two points, and White will look to get off the schneid with Cobb (two points) in his crosshairs. Finally, in the probable main event, Ishii (four points) will look to bounce back from his defeat to Moxley, and he's got Naito, who only has two points and needs to pick up the pace if he wants to have a chance to win the block this year.
Night 9 will probably have the biggest match in the tournament thus far, as KENTA and Okada, both unbeaten thus far through four matches, will go head-to-head. KENTA's story so far is that the locker room hasn't quite accepted him yet, and the fans really haven't either. He'll be up against a wave of populism with the Rainmaker. Archer and Ibushi will battle to see who can keep pace with the eventual winner, as the two four-point players will collide, and said collision will probably send Ibushi flying into the nearest body of water. Tanahashi (four points) will look to continue his G1 defense against Sanada, still looking for his first win since Dallas. EVIL (four points) and Zack Sabre, Jr. (two points) will tangle, and finally Ospreay (two points) will look to not get smushed by an angry Fale, who also hasn't won since Dallas.
The G1 Climax is still in its early stages, and although favorites have emerged, the tenor can change with one week's worth of shows. You can watch all the shows on New Japan World, through more devious means, or you can just watch select action on AXS TV.
