10 Best Wrestling Matches Of The Week (Aug 7) 

7. Katsuyori Shibata Vs. Kenny Omega (NJPW G1 Climax, 4 August)

Tommaso Ciampa Johnny Gargano
njpwworld.com

One of the most anticipated matches of the entire tournament, this past Thursday saw NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata take on former IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kenny Omega, and the duo did not disappoint. Omega made the mistake of stepping up to Shibata straight away, which more often than not leads to an individual making quick friends with the canvas.

Shibata's injuries are really starting to show, with his knee and his shoulder the main culprits, and Omega was fantastic at zeroing in on them both here. Shibata's style is great for working injured though, in that he more often than not can block out the pain and merely boot his opponent to death.

The finish was extremely good too, as Shibata locked the Sleeper on Omega only for the leader of Bullet Club to try and fight out with all he had. It made a nice change of pace from the usual "well, the sleeper is in, there we go", and added an element of drama to the closing stages.

There wasn't much drama attached to the Penalty Kick that followed however. Shibata wins.

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.