NJPW G1 Climax 29
Night 12 – B Block
#g129
Event Date: August 1, 2019 (18:30 JST)
aired live on NJPW World
City: Hakata, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan
Venue: Fukuoka City Civic Gymnasium
Attendance: 3,758
Series: G1 Climax 29
Commentary (English): Kevin Kelly, Rocky Romero
Commentary (Japanese): Haruo Murata, Milano Collection AT, Satoshi Kojima (1 – 9)
Ring Announcer: Kimihiko Ozaki (1 – 4), Makoto Abe (5 – 9)
Video
The wrestlers in B Block of the G1 Climax tournament are briefly profiled.
Match 1
Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale vs Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors & KENTA
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Chase Owens pins Karl Fredericks after a package piledriver
Time: 8:11
Match Thoughts
This was a nice opener. Bullet Club completely dominated the first half of the match. Connors was stranded in the ring for while, then he was beat up on the outside for a bit, then he got beat up some more in the ring. KENTA finally tagged in and gave us an okay preview for his match with Fale, then Owens and Fredericks ended the match with a fun exchange.
Match 2
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Lance Archer vs Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. (RPW British Heavyweight Champ)
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Zack Sabre Jr. pins Yoshinobu Kanemaru with a European Clutch
Time: 5:00
Match Thoughts
Very good match. This was utter chaos, and it was great. Archer and Sabre have a tournament match coming up, so this was an intra-faction tag preview. Archer and Kanemaru were on their way to the ring when Suzuki and Sabre ran out and attacked them from behind. From there, this match was pretty much a complete brawl for five minutes. Sabre paired off with Archer as the legal men in the ring, and they went back and forth, giving a good preview for their match. Kanemaru and Suzuki went at each other viciously on the outside, and Kanemaru eventually tagged in and finished the match against Sabre. Suzuki never tagged into the match, but he also never stopped fighting. Sabre versus Archer is going to be fun.
Match 3
Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma & Kota Ibushi vs Ren Narita & Shota Umino & Hiroshi Tanahashi
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Toa Henare pins Ren Narita after the Toa Bottom
Time: 8:18
Match Thoughts
Good match. The young lions beat up Honma to start the match, then we got a brief but very fun preview of Tanahashi versus Ibushi. Narita finished the match against Henare, and that was pretty good. The big story in this match was waiting to see Tanahashi and Ibushi get in the ring together.
Match 4
BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA vs YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champ) & Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champ)
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: YOSHI-HASHI submits BUSHI with a butterfly lock
Time: 9:14
Match Thoughts
Good match. Ospreay and EVIL gave an extended preview of their upcoming tournament match right at the start of this tag match. That will definitely be interesting, as will SANADA versus Okada. YOSHI-HASHI and BUSHI ended the match, and that was fine, but I think the best part of this was Ospreay and EVIL.
Match 5
G1 Climax 29 B Block Match
Shingo Takagi (2-3-0: 4) vs Jeff Cobb (2-3-0: 4)
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: Jeff Cobb wins via pinfall after Tour of the Islands
Time: 12:27
Match Thoughts
Great match. Shingo wanted to use his strength against Cobb early in the match, but Cobb’s size was too much for Shingo to easily slam. So Shingo went low and attacked Cobb’s legs. That helped Shingo get in a lot of offense early and set up for some slams and hard strikes later. As the match went on though, Cobb started hitting some big slams and strikes of his own. This was a very fun battle of power versus power with some nice agility from both men to make it even more exciting.
Match 6
G1 Climax 29 B Block Match
Jon Moxley (5-0-0: 10) (IWGP US Champ) w/ Shota Umino vs Toru Yano (2-3-0: 4) (NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Champ)
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: Toru Yano wins via Count Out
Time: 5:08
Match Thoughts
This was fun. Moxley has been prepared better than enyone for every single one of his opponents in the G1 Climax, but Yano is extremely difficult to prepare for. Even people who want no part of any shenanigans always get dragged into them when Yano is around. Moxley was no exception. There were barely any actual wrestling moves in this match. It was shenanigans versus violence, but really, it was all about shenanigans from both men. This was a lot of fun to watch.
Match 7
G1 Climax 29 B Block Match
Tetsuya Naito (2-3-0: 4) (IWGP IC Champ) vs Juice Robinson (3-2-0: 6)
(referee: Red Shoes Unno)
Result: Tetsuya Naito wins via pinfall after Destino
Time: 13:47
Match Thoughts
Great match! Juice tried to pull a Naito and took his sweet time taking off all his ring entrance attire before the match, but Naito outsmarted Juice and just attacked Juice while he was vulnerable. From there, Naito mocked and antagonized Juice as Naito controlled the match. Naito focused on Juice’s neck a lot, and when Juice would start to build up some momentum, Naito would go back to the neck again. Juice is tough to put away though, so this was still a very tough fight for Naito. This was a fun and fairly tense match towards the final few minutes.
Match 8
G1 Climax 29 B Block Match
Jay White (2-3-0: 4) w/ Gedo vs Taichi (2-3-0: 4) w/ Miho Abe, Yoshinobu Kanemaru
(referee: Red Shoes Unno)
Result: Jay White wins via pinfall after Blade Runner
Time: 15:07
Match Thoughts
Very good match. Both men had lots of help in this match, and both men had a lot of shenanigans to pull. The match started evenly with both Taich and White trying to get the other man to follow them out to the floor. Then their corner guys tried to distract but ended up distracting each other. Once the match really got started back in the ring, it was back and forth for a while, but Taichi seemed to be pulling ahead with his kicks. That forced White to go cheaper than Taichi, and the match ended up being a fun race to see who could balance dirty tricks with a few good moves.
Match 9
G1 Climax 29 B Block Match
Hirooki Goto (2-3-0: 0) vs Tomohiro Ishii (3-2-0: 6) (NEVER Openweight Champ)
(referee: Red Shoes Unno)
Result: Hirooki Goto wins via pinfall after GTR
Time: 18:01
Match Thoughts
Very good match. This was an extremely hard-hitting battle with lots and lots of traded strikes and a fair number of traded suplexes. Goto and Ishii just kept hitting each other until one or both of them fell down because they either had their heads scrambled or they just exhausted themselves from all the striking. Usually it was a combination of both. The match was pretty even for a large part of it, but each man surged with some sustained offense late in the match. This was another highly entertaining match from Ishii, and it was possibly a turning point in the tournament for Goto.
Show Impressions
This was another very good B Block show. I think the tournament matches were a bit more even tonight as far as how entertaining they were. Not that all the matches haven’t been entertaining, but I felt like I enjoyed some of the earlier matches more than the last couple of matches. And in general, there wasn’t any one match that stood out too far as being a while lot better than anything else. They were all very good.
Match of the Night
Juice Robinson vs Tetsuya Naito
Even though I just wrote that every match was good, I think this one did edge out the others for me. I liked the personality clash, and I really enjoyed how the match developed.
Standings After Night 12
Block A
| Wrestler | Points | Wins | Losses | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champ) | 12 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| KENTA | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Hiroshi Tanahashi | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Kota Ibushi | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| EVIL | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Lance Archer * | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| SANADA * | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Zack Sabre Jr. * (RPW British Heavyweight Champ) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Will Ospreay * (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champ) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Bad Luck Fale * | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
* = eliminated
Block B
| Wrestler | Points | Wins | Losses | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Moxley (IWGP US Champ) | 10 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| Hirooki Goto | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Jay White | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Jeff Cobb | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Juice Robinson | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Tetsuya Naito (IWGP IC Champ) | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Tomohiro Ishii (NEVER Openweight Champ) | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Toru Yano (NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Champ) | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Taichi | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Shingo Takagi | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
Official Results (Japanese): https://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/192655?showResult=1