19 Ups & 4 Downs From NJPW G1 Climax 2019

9. Eat Chair, 'Pitbull" (Night 6)

That picture tells you much of what you need to know about Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jon Moxley.

Imagine the best possible versions of these two brawlers scrapping across Japan's most majestic wrestling venue for a shade over 20 minutes. Heated, bruising, attritional, heated, plunderous, and heated, their main event was one of 2019's best matches so far, with Korakuen Hall molten from the moment Mox got straight in 'The Stone Pitbull's' face before the bell. From there, it was the most them match imaginable. Ishii and Moxley's respective characters were all over a wild brawl that spliced the former Dean Ambrose's chaos with Big Tommy's "hit me again, !*$%" shtick, and the result was a must-see instant classic that left your writer frothing.

Elsewhere, Shingo Takagi repeated Moxley's night two feat by dragging a great bout from Taichi, who was again in full-on 'Dangerous T' mode. The rest of the card was unspectacular. That's fine, though: going all out, all of the time leaves fans exhausted and wrestlers' bodies devastated, and bouts like Tetsuya Naito vs. Hirooki Goto still brought the thunder.