10 Fascinating Facts About 2019's 5-Star Matches
3. A Classic G1 Climax
The G1 Climax is always one of the best times of the year for wrestling fans, as all of New Japan's top talents take part in a massive, month-long round-robin tournament for the G1 trophy and a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom the following January. While there are often storyline aspects to the G1, most of the time it's just a way for fans to see two world-class athletes clash with one another in pursuit of glory.
This past year, we were treated to a total of eight 5-star matches in the G1, which is a new record for the tournament, breaking last year's admirable record of seven 5-star matches. It also tied with the previous year for most scale-breaking matches in a G1, with three total.
Some of the year's G1 highlights include Jon Moxley's first-ever 5-star match, which was a hard-hitting display of brawling acumen with Tomohiro Ishii. It also featured two of three 5-or-more-star matches on the year from Shingo Takagi, who prior to 2019 had never achieved such an honor. Strangely enough, one of those bouts was also against Ishii.
Perhaps this year's G1 can be renamed to "Tomohiro Ishii Makes New NJPW Talents Look Like 100-Million Yen". Yeah? No? Okay.