NJPW G1 Climax 2019 Night 16 (August 8) - B BLOCK: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best
2. Jeff Cobb Vs. Tetsuya Naito
Jeff Cobb's G1 Climax has, on reflection, been a leap in the wrong direction for his character following a couple of gigantic ones forward earlier this year. Only when Tetsuya Naito negged him into a f*cking rage did he finally show some personality - could this be the trick that gets him to the next level in time for next year's tournament?
The Los Ingobernables de Japon leader was at his mischievous best here, doing sumo poses and laughing off the least of his worries in an effort to suggest that Cobb almost wasn't worth the effort. An elevated, release F5 soon changed his mind as he found himself soaring through the air and potentially flying clean out of G1 contention before bucking up in time to hit yet another match-winning Destino.
Naito's taken a long time to get going this year, and will face either Kazuchika Okada or Kota Ibushi in the final if he makes it beyond Jon Moxley and Jay White, but this featured everything anybody could wish for from the potential Wrestle Kingdom headliner. He was p*ss funny, hard as nails when it counted, and looked again like a leader. "Tetsuya 2 Belts" could yet be the t-shirt emerging from NJPW's biggest show as it was WWE's.