You Must Be My Golden Star

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7dyx0i

Kota Ibushi VS SANADA - NJPW G1 Climax 7/20/2019

CJD: Selfish pick on my part here. I know you've watched this one already. You know I'm slowly making my way through the G1 and this is about where I'm at. You also know my time to watch pro wrestling is limited right now so I'll gladly take a chance to get two birds stoned at once. And you also also know that I'm loving me some SANADA. He had one of my favorite matches this year VS ZSJ on the first day of the tournament, and while this isn't on that level, it has some similar elements. You can feel that these guys go out and have exactly the match they want. With Ibushi that can go a lot of different ways, but so far in the G1 I'm buying what he's selling. The difference in his role as the slightly cocky veteran in this match compared to last week where he was such a spunky underdog is remarkable. I hope you don't mind rewatching this one babycakes, I think it's the type of match that warrants revisiting.

JJZ: ALRIGHT! Actually really excited to rewatch this because when you're watching the G1 every day it can turn into a conveyor belt where you miss a lot of the little things. So this is a welcome match for me. Very happy to see this is in my favorite venue in Japan. This is also a great showcase of how far Ibushi has come from junior to heavyweight. These two are in the top five workers in NJPW currently for my money, along with Okada, ZSJ, and Ospreay. A big difference in this Ibushi from the Ibushi in my match last week is his pacing. He for sure slows it down and picks his spots in this match. Both these guys have had huge years in NJPW so this could go either way. Sanada's leap frogs are insane. Dude does not look like he would have hops like that. This match isn't perfect but has a great build with some edge-of-your-seat falsies. This doesn't give the result away since the G1 is a point based tournament but Sanada is my pick to win the G1 next year.