Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 31, 9.24

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 31, Day 4
September 24, 2021
Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi [0] vs. Hirooki Goto [0] - 7/10
This was a weird match, not only is it weird to see Tanahashi open a show, but the match was uncharacteristically protective of Goto. Tanahashi worked over Goto's leg, while Goto mostly kept knocking Tana down with Lariats and a couple of moves. It all seemed to be building to a longer Tanahashi match where he makes a comeback, except around the 15 minute mark, they started trading rolls and Tana got the win via roll, so surprising that Goto's reaction was to kickout after 3 and immediately pin Tana.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Tama Tonga [0] vs. Chase Owens [0] - 7.5/10
I really liked how this went down. It started with both men being friendly to each other, but as they started to wrestle, Owens started to get the better of Tama Tonga, annoying him, and so Tonga decided to stop playing nice and viciously went after Owens. As the match went on, Owens would make a comeback and come really really close to finishing off Tonga, but his package piledriver was countered into a gun stun and pinned. There were zero shenanigans, just straight up wrestling between two guys that didn't want to lose.

Post-match - Tama Tonga himself helped Owens up and to the back. Bullet Club show a lot of union as of late.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
YOSHI-HASHI [0] vs. Jeff Cobb [2] - 7/10
Good match, I thought it could had gone a bit shorter, but for the sake of making Cobb look more explosive. Match was all about Cobb slamming around YH, and YH trying to make a stand against Cobb here and there, but at the end failing against the overwhelming power of Cobb's Tour of the Islands. YH was a good bumper for Cobb, but I think lariats aside, a lot of YH's arsenal wasn't going to work on Cobb.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Taichi [2] vs. SANADA [2] - 8.5/10
This was my favorite match of the night, but it had some weird stuff happening. This was back and forth from the get go, from showing off their pecks to striking and slams, all the way to trading signature move attempts. This could had gone to either man at the end, they kept it well balanced so that a snap Black Mephisto felt like a good finish that doesn't hurt SANADA at all.

The one spot that we do need to talk about is that one spot where both men stumbled out of the ring. They didn't touch, they just exchanged a couple of slams before both men stumbled to the floor, and I thought it was worth bringing up because I it looked both planned and like a reaction to a missed spot at the same time. Like I think the idea was for both men to fall to the floor, but maybe they forgot and reacted on the spot. Either way, I thought it worked because it was coming from like 2 or 3 suplexes one after the other.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Kazuchika Okada [2] vs. EVIL [2] - 8.5/10
This was an EVIL match without a doubt, but when the babyface is a motivated Okada, an Okada that will push EVIL liked he used to and who will overcome the shenanigans, I think the formula works better. There's not much that can be said of the match, if you've seen an EVIL match since he turned heel, you've kinda seem them all, the only difference here was that it was Okada in the other corner, and for that matter, Okada is kinda doing the greatest hits of the Rainmaker.

What they did for heat in this match, cheating aside, was that EVIL went after Okada's lower back, which he had been rehabbing for some time. They had an exposed turnbuckle that they used both for the heat and the comeback.

Post-match - Okada cut his winner's promo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Another good G1 show, we're not getting Young Lion matches anymore, making the shows shorter and easier to watch, but also allowing more matches to take it to the 20 minute mark, so we're getting in many cases, better fleshed out matches. This was a show that on paper didn't look so strong, but it ended up delivering.

Block A
Great-O-Khan - 1-0-0 -- 4
KENTA - 1-0-1 -- 2
Kota Ibushi - 1-0-1 -- 2
Shingo Takagi - 1-0-1 -- 2
Tanga Loa - 1-0-1 -- 2
Tetsuya Naito - 0-0-2 -- 0
Tomohiro Ishii - 0-0-2 -- 0
Toru Yano - 1-0-1 -- 2
Yujiro Takahashi - 1-0-1 -- 2
Zack Sabre Jr. - 2-0-0 -- 4

Block B
Chase Owens - 0-0-2 -- 0
EVIL - 1-0-1 -- 2
Hirooki Goto - 0-0-2 -- 0
Hiroshi Tanahashi - 1-0-1 -- 2
Jeff Cobb - 2-0-0 -- 4
Kazuchika Okada - 2-0-0 -- 4
SANADA - 1-0-1 -- 2
Taichi - 2-0-0 -- 4
Tama Tonga - 1-0-1 -- 2
YOSHI-HASHI - 0-0-2 -- 0