Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 31, 9.29

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 31, Day 6
September 29, 2021
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Taichi [4] (w/Miho Abe) vs. EVIL [2] (w/Dick Togo) - 5.5/10
This match had really small glimpses of what could had been a good match, Taichi looked like a great babyface against EVIL and Togo, but unfortunately, the match was short and two thirds of it were about EVIL shenanigans. I did like the finish somewhat, more than the usual excitement void that EVIL finishes are. Togo threaten to attack Miho, which was a reasonable reason for Taichi to distract himself and get low blowed by EVIL. An EIE later, EVIL won. Togo even stomped on Abe after the match, now I want the Tekkers to go after House of Torture.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
SANADA [2] vs. Chase Owens [0] - 7.5/10
Good basic solid match. They had a little thing about Owens using a lot of SANADA's moves on him, but never managing to make them count like SANADA would. This would had been a fairly easy match for SANADA if not for a small misstep flipping the ropes, that allowed Owens to take out his leg and cut him off. All the Owens heat stuff was good, but once SANADA made a comeback and they went back and forth, it got really good, I really liked the striking exchange that Owens ended up winning, only to go for the O'Connor Roll and get reversed into the Skull End and moonsault. SANADA picks up two more points.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Hirooki Goto [0] vs. Jeff Cobb [4] - 8/10
This was slow, but really good for what it was, two meaty boys clobbering on each other over and over again. The story they told was that every time Goto went for a slam of sorts, Cobb easily blocked him, so Goto had to rely mostly on strikes, but as he chipped down on Cobb, he eventually was able to get a takedown, which didn't end up helping much because Cobb came back full force. Goto came really close to winning with the GTR, but Cobb blocked the attempt, pulled Goto into the Tour of the Islands, and got the win. My favorite Cobb and Goto matches this tournament so far.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi [2] vs. Tama Tonga [2] (w/Jado) - 7/10
It's not like these two are the oldest wrestlers in the promotion, but this felt weirdly nostalgic, the fact that we haven't seen Tama Tonga in the G1 in a while and these two don't often cross path, made me nostalgia about the older days of the Devitt or even Styles era.

Match was good, I mostly enjoyed Tama Tonga's performance, but I thought that Tanahashi played it safe, and I don't know if it's part of a story going forward (I haven't looked up his post-match promos), but he's been getting his wins by roll ups, which I thought was the weak point of the match, they had a good ending sequence with Tana hitting a High Fly Flow and Tonga a Gun Stun, but then it came down to a pin reversal into a roll up and a that was it.

G1 Climax 2021 Block B Match
Kazuchika Okada [4] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [0] - 8.5/10
This was a really good match, but I did think it went a bit long. These two hadn't wrestled each other in a long time, so they allured to the growth on both sides, especially YOSHI-HASHI, who has been having better performances and more gold in the last years. The match had Okada push YH to bring it, so YH brought it and while it took him a while and a lot of work, he pushed Okada to the brink, forcing Okada to snap back into control. By the end, YH had done enough damage that Okada had it hard, but he managed to survive the Butterfly Lock, come back with a couple of dropkicks and the Rainmaker for the win.

While Okada stayed at his level, this did a lot for YOSHI-HASHI.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good G1 show, this was one of the least impressive cards in this block, and it still ended up delivering some good wrestling. Remind me again how this G1 was going to be terrible because Chase Owens is in it?


Block A
Great-O-Khan - 3-0-0 -- 6
KENTA - 2-0-1 -- 4
Kota Ibushi - 1-0-2 -- 2
Shingo Takagi - 2-0-1 -- 4
Tanga Loa - 1-0-2 -- 2
Tetsuya Naito - 0-0-3 -- 0
Tomohiro Ishii - 0-0-3 -- 0
Toru Yano - 2-0-1 -- 4
Yujiro Takahashi - 1-0-2 -- 2
Zack Sabre Jr. - 3-0-0 -- 6

Block B
Chase Owens - 0-0-3 -- 0
EVIL - 2-0-1 -- 4
Hirooki Goto - 0-0-3 -- 0
Hiroshi Tanahashi - 2-0-1 -- 4
Jeff Cobb - 3-0-0 -- 6
Kazuchika Okada - 3-0-0 -- 6
SANADA - 2-0-1 -- 4
Taichi - 2-0-1 -- 4
Tama Tonga - 1-0-2 -- 2
YOSHI-HASHI - 0-0-3 -- 0

[cero2k]