If night 1 of G1 Climax 30 was great then night 2 was incredible. A Block seemed to get all the hype but B Block stole the weekend with a more solid show and the match of the weekend. There were no weak links here. Thus was just over 2 hours of fantastic wrestling and well worth getting up for at 6am on a Sunday morning to watch!
The night kicked off with unofficial C Block action between Young Lions. Yota Tsuji fell to Yuya Uemura last night but got back on track against England and the LA Dojo’s Gabriel Kidd. No surprise that it was a Boston Crab that won the match but what preceded it was a great Young Lion match. Kidd and Tsuji have some very good chemistry. Imagine this match in 3-4 years time without the constraints of been a Young Lion? It will be incredible. Well, here’s the unofficial C Block standings:
2pts: Yuya Uemura
2pts: Yota Tsuji
0pts: Gabriel Kidd
B Block action kicked off with Juice Robinson announcing his return with 2 points over Yoshi-Hashi. Juice was rocking a new look, think the love child of The Blue Brothers and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction but with sequins. Quite appropriate given the win cam via Pulp Friction after a fun back and forth match. Great way to start off B Block!
Shenanigans a’hoy between Sanada and Toru Yano. As is a theme this weekend Sanada had some new gear, looking something like an 80s comic book villain. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the super powers to stop Yano. The ref kept finding rolls of tape all over Yano but he managed to miss one. Sanada seemed to have all the answers to Yano’s cheating ways and looked set for 2 points after locking the Sublime Master Thief in the Paradise Lock on the aisle. However, a young boy freed Yano which angered Sanada who was about to put that young boy in the Paradise Lock. While he was distracted Yano taped Sanada’s leg to the young boy’s and beat the count for 2 points. I love Yano matches, especially during the G1. That was so much fun.
After the ring disinfection interlude we saw Kenta make a triumphant return to a Japanese ring. Sadly, his fluffy lockdown hair was gone. He made up for this by gaining a measure of revenge of Hirooki Goto who had taken the NEVER title from Kenta at Wrestle Kingdom. What we got was a fabulous mat based and hard hitting encounter with Goto tapping to Game Over. Kenta is a really good shout to win this block. Don’t forget he’s on a collision course with John Moxley too.
Evil and Zack Sabre Jr. seemed to steal the weekend with a tremendously chaotic heel v heel encounter. Despite both been bad guys we saw ZSJ play the temporary role of babyface as Evil and Dick Togo cheated at every given opportunity. As a rarity the match was more Evil’s style match with lots of heavy strikes and a more methodical pace. After Red Shoes took a bump in the corner the match descended into a 2 on 1 match until ZSJ took out the Spoiler. A European Clutch later and ZSJ picked up a shocking 2 points in an absolutely fantastic match. Match of the weekend… right?
Last night’s main event didn’t quite live up to the hype between Okada and Ibushi. Living legend Hiroshi Tanahashi and reigning IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito were having none of that though. An incredible back and forth encounter between two old foes locking horns for the first time in a number of years. After missing High Fly Flow it looked like Naito had the win with Destino only for Tana to kick out. He didn’t kick out of the second Destino however and the champ has 2 points. Incredible match, the G1 Climax 30 has truly kicked off!
B Block standing:
2pts: Juice Robinson
2pts: Toru Yano
2pts: Kenta
2pts: Zack Sabre Jr.
2pts: Tetsuya Naito
0pts: Yoshi-Hashi
0pts: Sanada
0pts: Hirooki Goto
0pts: Evil
0pts: Hiroshi Tanahashi
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