NJPW’s G1 Climax Ratings Notebook

In which I anger literally everyone who watches pro wrestling

Jeremy Botter
Jul 22, 2017 · 2 min read

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

  1. Kenny Omega vs. Minoru Suzuki (Night 2): ****3/4
  2. Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi (Night 1): ****3/4
  3. Zack Sabre Jr vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Night 1): ****1/2
  4. Kota Ibushi v. Zack Sabre Jr (Night 3): ****1/2
  5. Hirooki Goto vs. Yuji Nagata (Night 3): ****
  6. Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii (Night 1): ****
  7. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe (Night 3): ***3/4
  8. Yoshi-Hashi v. Yuji Nagata (Night 1): ***1/2
  9. Juice Robinson vs. Satoshi Kojima (Night 2): ***1/2
  10. 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: ***

Jeremy Botter

Written by

I write & edit the @whizzered and @clasico subscription newsletters. Formerly: Policy advisor at Beto for America, senior writer at CNN.

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