10 Best Wrestling Matches Of The Week (Aug 7) 

9. Katsuyori Shibata Vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW G1 Climax, 30 July)

Tommaso Ciampa Johnny Gargano
njpwworld.com

Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito are two top tier players in New Japan Pro Wrestling with immensely differing personalities. Shibata is Mr. Wrestling, black tights, black boots, no words, and a desire to do nothing other than boot you in the face. Naito is the leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon, the man with a couldn't-care-less attitude who takes an age to do anything in the hope of riling up his opponent.

As such, the interactions between Shibata and Naito are always great fun. Their G1 Climax main event match from Aichi was faced with the almost impossible task of following an Elgin/Omega MOTYC, and whilst it didn't reach the heights of the Clash of the Canadians, this was a damn fine main event nonetheless.

Naito proved further why he is one of the finest professional wrestling minds on the planet with some expert submission work, targeting Shibata's injuries. Shibata for his part responded the only way he knows how, by booting Naito with all his might. Strikes won out over smarts this time, with Shibata picking up the win to keep him in contention towards the top of the B Block.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.