G1 Day 18 & FINALS

G1 Day 18: Taichi vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Absolutely ZERO shenanigans by Taichi, as he is out to fully prove that he can hang with Ishii without any of his usual fuckery. It creates for a nice lil' story for the match, and all in all, it's a real good smack & bombfest. Definitely tighter & better than their Cup + Dominion matches too. Absolute banger with amazing atmosphere. ***3/4

G1 Day 18: Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson

Really liked how Juice put away all the weapons Moxley tried to bring into the thing, refusing to let the tables & all come into play, having learned from their first meeting. Moxley's attack on the knee rules too, and damn that STF he busted out towards the end looked absolutely fantastic. Thought the whole finishing stretch after that STF-blackout-tease -bit was really good as well, and it very well capped off a real damn good match. ***3/4

G1 Day 18: Hirooki Goto vs. Shingo Takagi

This was painfully uninteresting, dull & boring until the last 5 or something minutes. The pace, urgency & overall energy picks up in those last few minutes, and it's pretty good stuff, but for the majority of the 15 minutes Goto & Shingo went, this was a complete bore, straight up. **1/4

G1 Day 18: Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito

Not as dramatic or 'epic' as some of the more general-consensus-highly-regarded block finals of the last few years, but I thought this was a very good match. White was the usual shithead that he is, and Naito was more than happy to return to favor by also acting like a dick to him. Nice character clash there, and the actual in-ring action is them working over each others necks in very enjoyable fashion. Very good stuff all around. Strong tournament closer for Naito & watching this now after the tournament has ended, I definitely think it also perfectly set-up for what was about to come in the finals between White & Ibushi. ***1/2

G1 FINALS: Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi

I actually watched this two times in a row, just because of how in awe I was of the whole thing after the 1st viewing. There's so much that I loved about it, or actually, I could just say that I loved EVERYTHING about it, tbh. Even the entrances are amazing with White & the entire Bullet Club being together, and then Ibushi walking down all alone to the ring to see that corner of pure evil. White has been a tremendous piece of shit all tournament long, and it all showed again here w/ a fantastic performance -- his trashtalk was awesome & I can't praise his facial expressions enough. The moment where he triggers Ibushi into that classic Ibushi murder-mode w/ that slap was so epic, and a major part in why was the tremendous character work by White with those facial expressions. The Gedo run-in is done masterfully too, with it adding lots of more heat to the already super-heated battle, and then his whole tournament long shtick paying off with Ibushi kicking his head off & Rocky carrying him out of the ring. AMAZING STUFF. Really felt like a proper climax to the tournament that G1 29 had been. Ahh, so good! There's so much more I could say about it, but let's just sum this up by saying it's the NJPW MOTY & a bonafide G1 (& NJPW) classic. ****1/2