[Please note: there are full incidental spoilers for all other nights of G1 Climax 33 action so far. You can start the journey of non-spoiler reviews of each night here.]
[Please note: this year, all 19 nights will be entirely G1 Climax 33 Block matches, without the opening preliminary tags or young lions matches, with A/B and C/D across alternating nights. I am reviewing every tournament match, but this year I am being brutal: if a match is only ‘good’, it doesn’t get the positive check mark next to it. It’s hard to have a ‘bad’ match in the G1, so you can unofficially use the +/- marks as ‘must see’/’can be missed’. That said, damn I love G1 season.]
Nineteen nights of action across the next three weeks can only mean one thing: it’s time for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s (NJPW) G1 Climax 33, a round robin tournament where the winner earns the chance to main event the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom next year. In the G1 Climax, a win earns a competitor 1 point with the loser getting 0 points, while a time limit draw or double countout earns 1 each. For the first time, all matches will have a 20 minute time limit. At the end of the round robin format, top two of each of the four groups advance into an elimination phase, before the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals to crown the overall winner.
Night four means it will be the C and D Block competitors tearing it up in the ring, including Tomohiro Ishii and Tama Tonga clashing in what promises to be a stiff main event. Also on the card, Hirooki Goto will meet Tetsuya Naito in a pairing that Hirooki Goto has historically always held the advantage in, and two bulls will collide when Henare squares off with the Dragon of Los Ingobernables de Japon, Shingo Takagi. Hiroshi Tanahashi will look for his first tournament win when he battles the “Hysterical” Shane Haste, and Eddie Kingston from AEW will face the house of Torture’s EVIL. Jeff Cobb of United Empire will face the powerhouse Alex Coughlin of Bullet Club, and Mikey Nicholls of TMDK will battle the leader of the Bullet Club, David Finlay, the latter of who has never won a match in the town of Sendai where the night’s action takes place. Finally, notorious trickster and bracket buster Toru Yano will meet Zack Sabre Jr. in the opening contest.
+ Tomohiro Ishii vs Tama Tonga (G1 Climax 33 C Block Match): I love me some Ishii, and I know that Tama is always going to bring his A game in these big matches. I admit I never quite got into this in the way I did for Ishii/Tanga Loa a few years ago, but this was still incredibly exciting. Ishii is going to go down as one of the greatest of all time to never be a world champion, and that makes me incredibly sad — unless of course he wins this G1, goes on to win the title in January next year, and I love happily ever after? I can always dream
+ Tetsuya Naito vs Hirooki Goto (G1 Climax 33 D Block Match): this was one of those matches that you knew was going to be good, and it was exactly what you thought, and then because of that it feels underwhelming. It’s still a positive overall, and I still rate Goto higher than many others do. Similarly to Tanahashi, but not to the same degree, Naito is clearly on the way down. If he can still be involved in matches like this one though, then there’s no need to rush him off any time soon
+ Henare vs Shingo Takagi (G1 Climax 33 C Block Match): oh baby, this the stuff I have come to see. These two had an absolute WAR a while back now, and this felt like a continuation of that. They hit hard, ran fast, threw each other around with (controlled, safe) reckless abandon, and I loved it. This was perhaps my favourite match of the tournament so far
+ Shane Haste vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (G1 Climax 33 D Block Match): I’ve been critical of the less-than-main-event material gaijins in this tournament this year, but even I am known to be wrong at times. Shane Haste looked really good in this and the crowd even seems split at times which was a surprise. Tanahashi still has an aura about him, despite very clearly hurting more with every match, so overall this was an exciting contest where I wasn’t necessarily expecting it to be so
+ EVIL vs Eddie Kingston (G1 Climax 33 C Block Match): this was a really interesting match on paper, and it did play out in a slightly different way to how I expected. Just because of his character in AEW/ROH I don’t really see Kingston as a big guy, despite his size compared to most of these Japanese wrestlers. I love it when EVIL just wrestles, and there was a bit more of that than usual here
+ Jeff Cobb vs Alex Coughlin (G1 Climax 33 D Block Match): Coughlin is not quite the size of Cobb, but damn if this wasn’t the first meat match of the tournament, and lord I’m all for it. Cobb’s athleticism is always freaky even having seen it a million times, but the power Coughlin showed was enough to make me remark to myself out loud what a freak he is. I really enjoyed this match
– Mikey Nicholls vs David Finlay (G1 Climax 33 C Block Match): this was okay, and technically perhaps even good, but entirely forgettable after the fact. I know Finlay is expected to do well, and despite Nicholl nearly killing Henare the other night, he is a good wrestler. It’s all just very bloated
– Toru Yano vs Zack Sabre Jr. (G1 Climax 33 D Block Match): this was absolutely dumb as hell, but Sabre made it better than it should have been. Still… no thanks
> Kevin Kelly was flying solo on commentary, and I want to really stress how fantastic he is. Eight matches with all the history for each competitor, and he barely stumbled once
>This new 20 minute time limit is a huge improvement. The ‘less important’ matches are no longer than they used to be, but the ones that used to go 29 and change are now only 19 and change, which is far more palatable
Should you watch this event: I think I’m softening already on the number of matches I feel are superfluous. I know characters like Haste, Nicholls, Coughlin and even Kingston aren’t going to win the G1 overall, but they are all good enough to have some great matches. It seems to just be when they face each other I lose interest.
MoshFish Reviews 