10 G1 Climax 27 Matches That You Need To See
The G1 Climax is over for another year but it leaves behind countless wonderful matches.
Nineteen shows in just under a month featuring twenty of the greatest heavyweight wrestlers on the planet. It's exhausting to watch so imagine what it's like to take part in?
And yet, the G1 Climax is one of wrestling's greatest events. In the world of New Japan, it is for the chance to compete at Wrestle Kingdom for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but to the world at large, it's a chance to impress. Whether you are an old pro like Yuji Nagata or a relative rookie like Juice Robinson, a good tournament can help you make your name.
The great thing about having twenty magnificent wrestlers doing everything to impress is that that gives you 91 matches (including the final) of potentially top class wrestling. Sure, in the middle there's a chance that they'll tire a bit but if there is a dud, there is generally a great match popping up right around the corner to blow it from your mind.
With wrestlers like Kenny Omega, Kazuchika Okada, and Michael Elgin plying their trade, it's not a question of finding ten great G1 matches, but instead of whittling it down to that many. This is wrestling at its best. Enjoy.
10. Tomohiro Ishii Vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (11/8/2017)
The brawler versus the wrestler. Both Zack Sabre Jr and Tomohiro Ishii are capable of slipping into the other's world but Zack is at his best on the mat and Ishii is at his best when he’s being built of granite and hitting people in the face. It was a mesh of styles that would break or make this match.
It made it and it gave it the simple story that it needed. When they traded blows it was overwhelmingly Ishii’s game, Zack crumbling under just one big elbow from the Stone Pitbull. However, the second it went to the ground Sabre was in his element, twisting and prodding the man with no neck and bending him up in ways that someone built like that should not bend.
In the end, Zack caught Ishii one time too many and managed to wrap up in a bow that no one could have escaped from. If there is one thing Ishii isn’t, however, it’s a quitter and as Zack pulled harder and harder on his limbs bending him, it only seemed to reinforce his determination never to give up. In the end, the ref had to decide for him and called for the bell bringing an end to a fascinating competition.