NJPW G1 Climax 2019 Night 3 (July 14) - A BLOCK: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best
KENTA kicks down another door, kicks on in the G1, and kicks the sh*t out of The Ace...
Through no fault of the organisation, NJPW risked falling afoul of wrestling content exhaustion ahead of the third evening of the G1 Climax kicking off in Ota-ku, Tokyo, in spite of the fact that they were getting in first.
A Western expansion in recent years has elevated the tournament to a higher profile than ever before, but with only two nights covered ahead of A Block's second showing, they found themselves competing with one of the busiest nights of the wrestling year on what will surely go down as the most loaded non-WrestleMania weekend of 2019.
NJPW loyalists still mourning Kenny Omega's exit could wait a while to see him go to war with CIMA on All Elite Wrestling's Fight For The Fallen. Those craving spotfest matches missing from the lack of Junior Heavyweight content were sure to have their thirsts quenched by half of the undercard on the Evolve 10th Anniversary card counter programming AEW on the WWE Network. Anybody missing iconic Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura had only to tune into the Extreme Rules Kickoff show to... well, there was a lot of wrestling anyway.
The A Block warriors were thankfully up to the challenge, delivering the best all-round show of the tournament thus far, and with it a healthy reminder to all the opposing companies that the "King Of Sports" moniker adorning the logo remains key to the values of the product.
5. Lance Archer Vs. Bad Luck Fale
Bad Luck Fale's best G1 Climax match in years, this battle with Lance Archer served as another reminder of the former Killer Elite Squad's potential not just to thrive in this year's tournament but to be a huge force in New Japan Pro Wrestling's near future.
The match was objectively the weakest on a very strong night, but its position on a list such as this would immediately be switched if either of the monsters came and so much as looked sideways at your writer. They went much further against one another in an energetic heavyweight brawl.
Captivating through to its conclusion, Archer's babyface role came more by default than any particular effort to work the crowd, but it feels as though he'll now be the natural hero against other heels on the NJPW roster. Surviving Fale's onslaught enough to level up his power game, Archer's EBD Claw finisher again got the best possible rub when it took its second victim in as many matches.
Archer will likely lose the majority of his points at the end of his G1 journey, but he may then already be a made man going forward. At 42-years-old, it's better late than never.