NJPW G1 Climax 2019 Night 14 (August 4) - B BLOCK: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best
1. Tetsuya Naito Vs. Shingo Takagi
Shingo Takagi doesn’t deserve to be rooted to the bottom of B Block, not least in the wake of his show-stealing effort against Los Ingobernables de Japon boss Tetsuya Naito in a main event which did even more for your writer (and sections of the Osaka crowd) than the Kazuchika Okada/SANADA instant classic one night earlier.
What a war. What a brilliant, brutal, breathtaking war befitting not just of a wrestler in incredible form, but one perhaps still in need of a banger or two to remind everybody just who the f*ck he is. Takagi can no longer toil in the Junior Division after such an explosive effort here and in virtually every G1 Climax mini-classic he’s assembled. Naito can no longer toil at all.This win felt the most symbolic thus far for the ‘Tranquilo’ favourite. A victory against Juice saw him creep towards the top of the block, but came following a match that profoundly failed to inspire. This headlining epic stood in direct contrast to that, and it's a pattern Naito has to maintain in his final two outings.
His role is no longer to outscore the dynamic and dangerous Jon Moxley, but - as he did here - to outperform him.