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G1 Climax 29: The Stretch Run (A Block)
August 3, 2019
By: Lou Pickney
The first of the two G1 Climax 29 shows in Osaka begins tonight at 4 a.m. EDT. We've hit the stretch run.
Hopefully the fans going to tonight's show won't get too overheated. It hit 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1 C) there in Osaka today.
Are they going to even tease the idea of KENTA hitting the Go To Sleep on Fale? Probably for the best that they don't do that.
Sabre vs. Archer is intriguing, hard to know what to expect. Archer has had a great tournament, ditto for ZSJ (along with his great promos), and Archer tends to work well with smaller wrestlers with good body control.
Ospreay vs. EVIL, first time ever, should be very good. And look at Dave Meltzer's star ratings for the four previous Tanahashi vs. Ibushi matches:
July 20, 2015: G1, Sapporo ****3/4
August 1, 2017: G1, Kagoshima ****3/4
November 5, 2017: I-C Title match, Osaka (same building at tonight) ****3/4
August 12, 2018: G1 Final, Nippon Budokan *****3/4
Also, they were on opposite sides in a five-star tag match at Korakuen this past December (Tanahashi & Ospreay vs. Golden Lovers). Hey, no pressure.
The fact Tanahashi beat Ibushi in their previous meeting at this building makes me think (along with other reasons) that Ibushi is going over, but that match was in November 2017. We'll see soon enough.
High expectations as well for the main event after the two Okada vs. Sanada matches this year went ***** and ****3/4, respectively. Both of those matches went north of 30 minutes, which perhaps was foreshadowing a time limit draw on this show.
Okada has to lose at least once to make the final A Block night matter. But that doesn't necessarily mean he will lose to Sanada here, particularly with EVIL (in his home market of Hamamatsu) looming for Okada on August 7.
Though at some point Sanada really does need to beat Okada, who leads their all-time head-to-head record 6-0.
The numbers next to the names in the G1 matches reveal how many points each wrestler has accumulated. Okada has a two-match lead on the field with three matches to go in A Block.
August 3, 2019 - Osaka (Night 13)
1. Juice Robinson & Toa Henare vs. Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji
2. Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Toru Yano & Jeff Cobb & Tomoaki Honma
3. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Taichi & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
4. Jon Moxley & Shota Umino vs. Jay White & Chase Owens
5. G1: KENTA (8) vs. Bad Luck Fale (2)
6. G1: Zack Sabre Jr. (4) vs. Lance Archer (4)
7. G1: Will Ospreay (4) vs. EVIL (6)
8. G1: Hiroshi Tanahashi (8) vs. Kota Ibushi (8)
9. G1: Kazuchika Okada (12) vs. Sanada (4)
Here's a look at the remaining matches for A Block after this show.
Okada (6-0): 8/7 EVIL, 8/10 Ibushi
KENTA (4-2): 8/7 Ospreay, 8/10 Sabre
Ibushi (4-2): 8/7 Sabre, 8/10 Okada
Tanahashi (4-2): 8/7 Fale, 8/10 Ospreay
EVIL (3-3): 8/7 Okada, 8/10 Archer
Archer (2-4): 8/7 Sanada, 8/10 EVIL
Ospreay (2-4): 8/7 KENTA, 8/10 Tanahashi
Sanada (2-4): 8/7 Archer, 8/10 Fale
Sabre (2-4): 8/7 Ibushi, 8/10 KENTA
Fale (1-5): 8/7 Tanahashi, 8/10 Sanada
See any mistakes, omissions, or needed corrections? Please let me know: @LouPickney
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