NJPW G1 Climax 2019 Night 16 (August 8) - B BLOCK: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best

2. Jeff Cobb Vs. Tetsuya Naito

Jon Moxley Hirooki Goto
NJPW

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.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett