[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: For these final four nights of tournament action, I am reviewing only the tournament matches unless a particular tag match tickles my fancy. And 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.
Lucky number 13 is all the competitors of the A Block need, as five remaining wrestlers look to join block leader SANADA in the finals. One of the brightest young prospects in the company, Shota Umino will meet the literal giant HIKULEO in the main event, while block leader and the already advancing SANADA will face the other most experienced member of the block in Chase Owens. Kaito Kiyomiya will fight for his survival when he battles the ‘Son of Strong Style’, the already eliminated Ren Narita, and starting off the block action for night 13 will see Gabe Kidd and Yota Tsuji do their part in gunning for the final open slot, though either man will need a lot of assistance from other matches as well.
Night 14 meanwhile is the complete opposite, with only two men able to join Kazuchika Okada in the finals, and it will all come down to the main event when El Phantasmo and Will Ospreay collide. Kazuchika Okada will be in action himself when he faces Tanga Loa, and though eliminated already, YOSHI-HASHI will face KENTA, and Taichi will meet Great-O-Khan.
On this final night of A block action, with SANADA having alerady taken the first spot in the finals, the road to victory for each competitor still alive is simple:
– Yota Tsuji will advance if he wins, and Kaito Kiyomiya draws with or loses to Ren Narita, and the main event is a draw;
– Gabe Kidd will advance if he wins, and Kaito Kiyomiya draws with or loses to Ren Narita, and the main event is a draw;
– Kaito Kiyomiya will advance if he wins, and Shota Umino defeats HIKULEO;
– Shota Umino will advance if he wins, and Kaito Kiyomiya loses to or draws with Ren Narita;
– HIKULEO will advance if he wins.
Similarly, Kazuchika Okada has already claimed one of the two spots for the B Block, but there is still one more spot to be filled. For this block the road is much more straight forward, as only two men are in a position to advance:
– El Phantasmo will advance if he wins;
– Will Ospreay will advance if he wins.
+ El Phantasmo [6 points] vs Will Ospreay [8 points] (G1 Climax 33 B Block Match): absolute banger. These two have some bonkers good chemistry, and that paired with the huge stakes for both competitors made it a really special match to see. Ospreay is incredible, and this new ‘good guy’ Phantasmo has some real fire behind him, not least of all because of the crowd who were clearly hoping for an ELP win. I liked this one a lot, perhaps not least of all because of how little I liked the rest of the two shows in one sitting
+ Kazuchika Okada [10 points, has already advanced] vs Tanga Loa [6 points, eliminated] (G1 Climax 33 B Block Match): I’m surprised to say that I actually got a real kick out of this one. Tanga Loa can have these flashes of something really good when paired with the right opponent, and as much as I dislike a lot about Okada, there are truly not many better. Except for that weird jab combo thing Loa does, I really enjoy his explosive offence, and coming out of that Ospreay match I almost didn’t know what to expect. Okada looked great as always, but there is a part of me that knows he wans’t trying his hardest considering he had already advanced
+ Yota Tsuji [5 points] vs Gabe Kidd [5 points] (G1 Climax 33 A Block Match): an interesting opening led to a fantastic match full of hard-hitting and violent strike exchanges. This easily ended up being one of my matches of the tournament, thanks in no small part to how great both of these guys are, with Kidd in particular being such a standout when I really wasn’t expecting it
– Taichi [6 points, eliminated] vs Great-O-Khan [4 points, eliminated] (G1 Climax 33 B Block Match): I did not care for this match in the slightest. The ending was cool, but only because it has tied into something I’ve been playing around with in my personal life (make of that sentence what you will). Great-O-Khan in particular has fallen so far from the highs he was at just a few years ago
– YOSHI-HASHI [4 points, eliminated] vs KENTA [4 points, eliminated] (G1 Climax 33 B Block Match): ignoring the fact this was a G1 match I might be inclined to say it was worth seeing. But for two champions facing off in a match where both have so severely underperformed (in-character) in this tournament, I just could not possibly have cared less about this one
– Shota Umino [6 points] vs HIKULEO [6 points] (G1 Climax 33 A Block Match): overall this was very exciting and the crowd was well into the match, but I struggled simply because it was just so predictable. It was, dare I say, a bold match to end the A Block on when I’d argue that HIKUELO and Yota Tsuji could have swapped spots from the beginning of the tournament and we’d be in a more exciting spot here, but what I do I know? The answer is very little
– SANADA [12 points, has already advanced] vs Chase Owens [4 points, eliminated] (G1 Climax 33 A Block Match): there was exactly one moment of joy here and it was of all things a Chase Owens comedy spot. Otherwise, miss me with this stuff
– Ren Narita [4 points, eliminated] vs Kaito Kiyomiya [6 points] (G1 Climax 33 A Block Match): this was good, but I struggled to get too into it. Knowing that no matter the result of this one, the ball would still be mostly in HIKULEO’s court come the main event made it difficult to get too invested in, even as much as I have been impressed by both guys throughout the tournament
> it’s an unfortunate fact that the way the G1 works is that it’s the final match in each block that will determine the winner (or in this case, one of the two winners). It puts a real damper on the rest of the tournament matches
Should you watch this event: It was a great idea of mine to watch these two shows, tournament matches only, in one sitting rather than burn myself out even more with, let’s be honest, unimportant tags. ELP/Ospreay was really great, but I think Yota Tsuji/Gabe Kidd had even that one beaten.
MoshFish Reviews 