Night 1 of the G1 Climax in Osaka was a night of great matches, big returns and low key surprises. The big news: Kota Ibushi gained a measure of revenge for his defeat to Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom.
What was surprising was in the manner he did it. This was a reasonably decisive victory. The match itself seemed to end as we were about to reach the crescendo when Ibushi hit him with the Kamigoye. The finish was so unexpected I was shocked Okada didn’t kick out. The match was good but it wasn’t the expected epic. It did put Ibushi over big time however. You don’t usually see Okada beaten as easily as this.
Match of the night honours will probably go to Jay White and Shingo Takagi for me. This was a great return from Jay White who, along with Gedo, carried on where they left off using ever dirty trick in the book. The match was back and forth and it never let up. Shingo had the win with the Last of the Dragon but White’s feet had taken out Red Shoes. White recovered and hit a Bloody Sunday followed by a Blade Runner for a big win in a fantastic match.
Probably comes as no surprise but Minoru Suzuki and Tomohiro Ishii beat the snot out of each other. The NEVER Openweight Champion hit the Gotch Style Piledriver for the win. What preceded it though was a war of forearms, palm strikes and headbutts from two of the biggest badasses in professional wrestling. I will say, less of those headbutts to the top of the head please. That low but audible thud made me wince big time.
Taichi had his working boots on tonight. Barring an early attack on Jeff Cobb’s leg with the bell hammer we saw Taichi wrestle a pretty straight match. Anyone who has seen Taichi’s battles with Ishii will know the Taichi I mean.
Because of all his shenanigans it’s easy to forget just how good the Holy Emperor actually is. Black Mephisto gave Taichi his first 2 points of G1 Climax 30. It’s nice to see Cobb back in a Japanese ring, hopefully it’s true he has signed full time for New Japan, he has a big future.
Yujiro Takahashi lost. That’s not really a headline. The big story is, despite all the accusations, Will Ospreay won easily and decisively with the Stormbreaker and made the proclamation that he is the best in the world and is winning the tournament. Will he? His participation has caused a lot of issues already but is a big push in this tournament really on the cards? Truth is, if it does, expect the complaints to get even louder.
Before all this though? Yuya Uemura got an early and unofficial 2 points in the equally unofficial Block C by using the Lion Tamer variation of the Boston Crab to beat a clean shaven Yota Tsuji in our Young Lions opener.
So that’s night 1 in the books! Here’s your standings after the first round of Block A:
2pts: Will Ospreay
2pts: Taichi
2pts: Minoru Suzuki
2pts: Jay White
2pts: Kota Ibushi
0pts: Yujiro Takahashi
0pts: Jeff Cobb
0pts: Tomohiro Ishii
0pts: Shingo Takagi
0pts: Kazuchika Okada
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