NJPW G1 Climax 25 Finals Review

NJPW G1 Climax 25 Finals Review

David Finlay, Mascara Dorada & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Jushin Liger, Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu (**1/2)

Your usual 6 man tag team match to open the show. A fine match, but nothing to really write home about.

Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Captain New Japan vs Jay White, Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata (**1/2)

Again, similar to the first match, your usual opening 6 man tag. Worked fine throughout, but again, nothing ridiculously special, and there didn't need to be.

Michael Elgin vs YOSHI-HASHI (***)

An alright match. Elgin has been having the best matches of his career in Japan for sure, and he absolutely rocked Y-H with a forearm shot halfway through. He seems to be way more motivated than usual. Wasn't a huge fan of the no sell of the Superkick from Elgin, though. Regardless, a decent enough match.

Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazushi Sakuraba vs Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga (*3/4)

Weakest match on the show. I really don't like Takahashi and not even Sakuraba and Ishii could save this match for me. Nothing exciting.

Katsuroyi Shibata, Kota Ibushi and Hirooki Goto vs Tetsuya Naito, Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma (***1/2)

The most enjoyable 6 man tag on the show with some fun heel work from Naito and some solid action. The brawl at the end was pretty nuts and seemingly set some stuff up for the future.

IWGP Junior Tag Team Championships - reDRagon vs The Young Bucks (****)

This was absolutely the second best match on the card. reDRagon are the best tag team in the world today and this match certainly showed that. I haven't enjoyed a JHTT match like this in a long time. Cody Hall basically kidnapping Kyle was pretty damn funny too. A lot of exciting spots but ultimately the right team won.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship - Ricochet vs KUSHIDA (***3/4)

This was a very exciting match from top to bottom. Over the past few months I've grown to appreciate Ricochet more and more and KUSHIDA has been having the year of his career. Lots of crazy stuff in here, most notably KUSHIDA's tope to the floor from the top, and Ricochet's missed 630. KUSHIDA got the win and retained the title in a fun match.

AJ Styles, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson vs Kazuchika Okada, Matt Taven and Michael Bennett (***1/4)

The Kingdom are now in CHAOS, I guess. This was a fine tag team match and one that ended with AJ pinning Okada clean, which of course means he is in line for a title shot now. I had a good chuckle at the Styles and Anderson/Maria moment and all in all this match was pretty solid.

G1 Climax 25 Finals - Shinsuke Nakamura vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (*****)

Oh. My. Fucking. God. This match was amazing. Legit. I don't like to hand out the full ***** often but this match absolutely far and away deserves it. It doesn't quite top Ishii-Honma as my match of the year but it is damn close. Rarely do I ever say "Good lord above, that match was fucking perfect", but good lord above, that match was fucking perfect. I was on the edge of my seat from the start to the very end. The drama, psychology, wrestling, atmosphere, and pretty much everything else was nailed down to a t. This genuinely had a "big fight feel", and even though I'm a huge Nakamura fan and really wanted him to win, I can't even be mad that Tanahashi won because of how good that match was. So, I guess we currently have Tanahashi vs Okada set for WK10? That is of course if Tanahashi doesn't have to defend his cup.

Overall

This was a great show. The main event, Ricochet-KUSHIDA, and the Jr Tag Title match are all must watch, IMO. The rest of the card was pretty much your standard New Japan undercard but this show was still awesome.

Final rating

8.75/10