It's still sad seeing day 1 of the G1 not get a sellout, all those empty seats in Hokkaido were
Shota Umino vs Ren Narita - G1 Climax 2023, Block A Day 1
Good draw. The weakest part of the match were the first 3-5 minutes were they based it on strike exchanges that neither of them know how to pull off yet. Shota seemed like the more polished, "ready" performer of the two, but I liked Narita's focus on leg work and the different stuff he did to work that body part.
Yota Tsuji vs Kaito Kiyomiya - G1 Climax 2023, Block A Day 1
In a vacuum, there was nothing wrong with this match. In context though, they kinda fukked up working the same type of match that Umino and Narita did, Kiyomiya working the leg and the figure four were the same thing fans saw early on the show, someone should've stepped up and fix that one. Yota truly has IT man, he's got the look, the mannerism, the offense and he sells very well. Didn't see dude coming and he's 2 for 2 this year for me. I thought Kaito whiffed on this one, Tsuji was ready to have a heated interpromotional match but Kiyomiya worked a regular tournament match. Which again, it's not like there's something wrong with that, but they could've had a great little match and decided to take a different route.
The 20 minute time limit is absolutely the best thing NJPW did in a while. It made two matches better because of it.
Shooter/Narita was by far the match of the night.
@Jmare007 our boy has finally arrived.
NJPW making the new three musketeers was a good move. The crowd was behind all three.
20 minute time limit a cotdamn godsend
Shota just needs to learn how to throw a damn elbow. It took Tanahashi some years too but he better put more juice into them strikes if he wants to be make that final leap. Everything else he seems to have a good grasp of, I hope Yota showing up and crushing the buildings puts some urgency on our young breh. Their match against each other in this tournament has become my most anticipated, really looking forward to what they can do
Gotta wonder if Taichi or O-Khan get the mandatory Day 1 upset
Taichi did it, some traditions are not meant to be broken