NJPW G1 Climax 2019 Night 2 (July 13) - B BLOCK: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best
Jon Moxley and Juice Robinson go back to war, but not against each other...
A week's break between the first and second nights of the 2019 G1 Climax made this year's event not actually feel like it had actually kicked off proper until (article spoiler alert) Juice Robinson and Shingo Takagi kicked the sh*t out of each other and pro wrestling as an artform in a blistering battle for two precious points.
The Ota City General Gymnasium was up a height all night for the action much like the Dallas crowd that greeted the first night, but just how would B Block respond to some of the bangers in their opposing field? It was the more maligned of the two - A Block's Okadas and Tanahashis weren't ever going to be topped by the Tachis and Toru Yanos, but wrestlers such as these are mathematical devices for booker Gedo more than they are super-workers in the most elite field in all of wrestling.
Their jobs here were to either do jobs or find ways to beat the stars in a manner so detached from the norm. To this end, the first night of B Block delivered everything it promised. It was short a true classic, but there are many gruelling nights left to go...
5. Hirooki Goto Vs. Jay White
An ill-fitting main event for B Block's first night, the second singles meeting between Hirooki Goto and Jay White this year featured lots of industrious effort and a reasonably satisfying conclusion for the well-respected Goto, but it struggled to reach the drama of the clash at the other end of the card.
White occupies such a strange space on the NJPW roster at the moment - as a recent former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, he's permitted to have the confidence and cockiness of a man that could win the entire tournament, not least after toppling both Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada in last year's event. Here though, the story relied not on White's intoxicating arrogance but the babyface fire of Hirooki Goto. A fire that, regrettably, never ran wild.
On commentary, Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero worked overtime to get the story of Goto's refined look and regenerated attitude over (Goto sported an LA Dojo t-shirt en route to the ring as the pair discussed his important relationship with Katsuyori Shibata), but the in-ring wasn't quite as effective. An enjoyable finishing sequence was engineered to deliver a big ending for the match, if not the card itself.