G1 Climax 30 Night 9 Results: Another stellar A Block show
There has been a certain theme with this G1 Climax 30 tournament. While the B Block will give us decent to good shows, A Block more than often gives us stellar overall events with more than one truly standout match somewhere on the card. Night 9 of the tournament continued this trend.
The main event of G1 Climax 30 Night 9 would be a rematch from WrestleKingdom 13 with Kota Ibushi meeting Will Ospreay. We would also get two guaranteed hard hitting contests with Tomohiro Ishii against Taichi and Kazuchika Okada facing Minoru Suzuki. The other A Block matches on this night would be Jeff Cobb battling Jay White and Shingo Takagi versus Yujiro Takahashi.
We had another limited capacity, social-distanced crowd in Takamatsu on this evening. Heading into the night, the A Block standings were:
-- Jay White, Kota Ibushi, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Will Ospreay (3-1)
-- Kazuchika Okada (2-2)
-- Jeff Cobb, Shingo Takagi, Tomohiro Ishii (1-3)
-- Yujiro Takahashi (0-4)
For Night 9 of the G1 Climax 30, your "Matches To Watch" are:
-- Jeff Cobb vs. Jay White
-- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Taichi
-- Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay
Our opening match was once again another in the series of contests featuring the New Japan dojo trainees.
G1 Climax 30 Night 9: Gabriel Kidd vs. Yuya Uemura
Our G1 Climax 30 Night 9 opener was the Young Lions of Gabriel Kidd facing Yuya Uemura. This was a rematch from Night 6 where Kidd gained the victory. The friendly rivalry between these two men has gotten hostile with Gabriel showing more cockiness over this tour.
We got some grappling and test of strength to start this G1 Climax 30 opening contest. This quickly transitioned into a strike exchange, which Uemura won with a running shoulder block. Kidd was able to get control with one of his own, followed by a dropkick. He then went for his butterfly suplex.
We got a series of pinning combinations back and forth which eventually led to Uemura locking on the Boston Crab. Kidd fought to the ropes though. However, Uemura hit an arm locked suplex followed by a high angle Boston Crab for the win in seven and a half minutes. Uemura gets his third win in the "unofficial" C Block of the G1 Climax 30.
This was decent yet not on the same level as the usual Young Lions matches that we have seen so far.
Results: Yuya Uemura defeats Gabriel Kidd via submission
Star Rating: **3/4