10 Things We Learned From NJPW G1 Special 2018
9. Ishii Saves The Day
Those that perhaps don't understand the fawning adoration from many fans towards New Japan's product need only look at the second match of the night for the manner in which it stuck so loyally to some of wrestling's fundamental tenets and yet delivered a simplistically brilliant conclusion that built both from a prior match and to future encounters between the quartet in the upcoming G1 Climax.
The contest between Suzuki-Gun members Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr and CHAOS odd couple Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano replicated many of the beats from their enjoyable Dominion doubles encounter - the tension between Ishii and Suzuki again contrasting with the mammoth gulf in skill between Sabre and Yano - but the finish this time saw Ishii save his partner before Sabre yet again tied him up in knots following a failed low blow attempt.
Yano and Sabre will meet again in singles action when this year's G1 commences, with Ishii also taking on both by virtue of his placement alongside them in Block B. For NJPW to infuse two seemingly innocuous tag matches on the last two supercards with enough purpose to feed into three otherwise meaningless singles matches highlights the spectacular thought that goes in to even the smaller details.