KENTA vs. Lance Archer
KENTA vs. a man much larger than him is historically a great match-up, so I was already intrigued by this one, and that intrigue only got bigger as Archer had two rock solid performances in his first G1 outings vs. Ospreay & Fale. And aye, this was indeed the good shit. Archer largely dominated, and he was real good at it. He threw KENTA around with his power moves and talked shit while doing so. KENTA was a helluva "David" as well, which isn't surprising. Him chopping Archer down with his lethal kicks was awesome & I loved the finish with him busting out the Triangle, and then transitioning that into the good ol' Game Over. The "you're not KENTA anymore, you're HIDEO!" bit followed by KENTA waking up & slapping the taste out of Archer's mouth was absolutely brilliant as well. ***3/4
EVIL vs. SANADA
They have built the tension between these two pretty well, and it translated VERY well into the match. EVIL truly came off as a someone wanting to kind of step out of the shadow of SANADA & the big 2019 he's had, and SANADA was great interacting against the focused EVIL with his facial expressions being on point. Very fun, competitive back & forth between the two tag partners - loved the signature move stealing starting with EVIL doing the Paradise Lock, which SANADA later on made sure to get payback on by doing EVIL's signature STO against him. Quality stuff all around, and a great moment with the post-match fist bump too. Mini-stories like this are what help make G1 so damn awesome year after year. ***1/2
Bad Luck Fale vs. Kazuchika Okada
Fale largely dominates, there's your Bullet Club shenanigans with Chase & Jado, Okada starts getting into the thing & ultimately wins. Pretty much "the usual" between the two, but I almost always enjoy it on some level, and such was the case here. Good match. ***
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Not a surprise in the slightest that this was a banger. Charming & vicious grappling throughout with Zack doing some nasty damage to Tana's always-banged-up arm, which Tana sells greatly. The finish absolutely rules as well. Definitely would rank this over their Cup & MSG (both are very good though) matches when it comes to their 2019 meetings. ***3/4
Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay
Who would've thunk that Ibushi vs. Ospreay would get better as they add 10 more minutes into the thing?! I certainly wasn't expecting it, but this sure was absolutely great; they start it off slower (by their standards), with Ospreay starting to go after Ibushi's ankle injury, and Ibushi responding by attacking Ospreay's banged up neck. It's really great stuff - I very much popped for Ibushi using the CRAVATE, which was probably the first time I've seen him do it. The match pretty much gets more & more brutal as it goes on, with them busting out some truly gnarly & vicious moves to try n' keep one another down. Some of the highlights, for me, were Ospreay's twisting powerbomb, which was just ridiculously explosive + the Hidden Blade after he landed on his feet after Ibushi's deadlift suplex attempt - the Ospreay-landed-on-his-feet!!! -spots are a bit tired by this point, but this one was actually pretty fantastic with him selling the neck big even when he landed on his feet, and there was no corny poses/faces to be detected! And that mentioned Hidden Blade was absolutely brutal as well, the best one he has done so far. My absolute favorite bit of the whole thing though was the tree-of-woe stuff w/ them reversing the roles from their first meeting - Ibushi's blank lunatic killer facial expressions were outstanding during it, as he dared Ospreay to slap him back, and he went to that classic Ibushi-zone with them strikes during it too. The match definitely could've shaved off a few nearfalls & the finishing stretch, overall, a little bit, but for the absolute majority of the thing, this was amazingly compelling. ****
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