NJPW’s G1 Climax Ratings Notebook
In which I anger literally everyone who watches pro wrestling

Prelude
I’ve been watching Japanese wrestling for a long time. Since the mid-90’s, in fact, which is a very long time ago and is a reminder of how old I am.
But I’ve never been what I’d consider a hardcore fan of Japanese wrestling. Sure, I did the whole thing where I sought out New Japan tapes back when I started tape trading. I remember the first two tapes I received on a trade, in fact: the 1994 Super J-Cup and then the All Japan event featuring the legendary match between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada.
But really, if I’m being honest, I never really kept following the Japanese scene the way I did the American side. Until a couple of years ago, that is.
This year, I’m taking it one step further. For the first time ever, I’m attempting to watch the G-1 Climax tournament. All of it. Well, not the multi-man tag matches, but the singles matches. This ongoing notebook will serve as a place for me to jot down my match ratings, which will no doubt anger literally everyone who reads it, mostly because I haven’t really tried to rate a wrestling match in like 17 years.
I’ll update this after every event.
TOP 10 MATCHES (SO FAR) LIST
- Kenny Omega vs. Minoru Suzuki (Night 2): ****3/4
- Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi (Night 1): ****3/4
- Zack Sabre Jr vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Night 1): ****1/2
- Kota Ibushi v. Zack Sabre Jr (Night 3): ****1/2
- Hirooki Goto vs. Yuji Nagata (Night 3): ****
- Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Night 1): ****
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe (Night 3): ***3/4
- Yoshi-Hashi v. Yuji Nagata (Night 1): ***1/2
- Juice Robinson vs. Satoshi Kojima (Night 2): ***1/2
- Tama Tonga vs. Michael Elgin (Night 2): ***1/2
EVENT RATINGS
NIGHT 1
- Yoshi-Hashi d. Yuji Nagata: ***1/2
- Bad Luck Fale d. Togi Makabe: ***
- Hirooki Goto d. Tomohiro Ishii: ****
- Zack Sabre Jr d. Hiroshi Tanahashi: ****1/2
- Tetsuya Naito d. Kota Ibushi: ****3/4
NIGHT 2
- Juice Robinson d. Satoshi Kojima: ***1/2
- Tama Tonga d. Michael Elgin: ***1/2
- SANADA d. EVIL: **1/2
- Kazuchika Okada d. Toro Yanu: ***
- Kenny Omega d. Minoru Suzuki: ****3/4
NIGHT 3
- Hirooki Goto d. Yuji Nagata: ****
- Tomohiro Ishii d. Togi Makabe: ***3/4
- Kota Ibushi d. Zack Sabre Jr: ****1/2
- Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Bad Luck Fale: ***
- Tetsuya Naito d. Yoshi-Hashi: ***
