The G1 Catch-Up

 

Day 2: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito
This was good. As always, the two top dogs brought the big time emotion & charisma into the match, and the match followed the familiar structure of Tanahashi weakening Naito's knee & Naito largely spending his time on top going after Tana's neck. It's good stuff & while I almost never expect good selling from Naito, I thought he did fine here. Of course it helps that Tana's focus on the leg wasn't ALL THAT much, but yeah, everything was fine from that point of view as well. Nothing great, special or memorable, but a good New Japan main event all in all. ***

Day 3: Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi
They had the NJPW MOTY 2019 & the Wrestle Kingdom re-match was very good -- this one is clearly the weakest out of the three, but it's still a very niiiice match. White is extremely dominant from start to finish - his usual arsenal of moves is a pleasure to watch, and the legwork was also pretty good here. I really liked how he used it as a way to gain the control back each time it started to look like Ibushi was gaining some momentum. Now Ibushi certainly isn't a very notorious limb-salesman, but here I thought that he didn't get enough time with his comeback bits to truly say "fuck you" to White's attack on the leg, which made the whole thing work. Some cold moments & periods of time here n' there make this feel a little spotty in its quality, but all in all I had a good time watching it. ***

Day 5: Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
You know what you're getting when these two step into the ring with one another. It's all about them letting those macho juices flow & refusing to acknowledge being hurt. That of course doesn't mean that there isn't selling, because both of them, especially Ishii, sell big when needed. Sadly though, I thought that this felt quite tired -- usually there's always some new spark & energy in their matches, but this felt like a very paint-by-the-numbers autopilot Ibushi vs. Ishii bout, and it definitely wasn't very interesting for the most part. **

Day 5: Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada
Another strong Jay White G1 main event. Not a high-level must-see banger or anything like that, but a rock-solid outing that told a fun narrative from start to finish. ***