NJPW G1 Special 2018 Results, Highlights, and Grades

NEVER Openweight Championship: Hirooki Goto(c) def Jeff Cobb

Dangit. I wanted this to be better. It should’ve been better. Both Goto and Cobb are fantastic professional wrestlers, and it was obvious that both guys gave it their all, but this never completely clicked for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a solid championship match. I just expected a lot more.

There was some fun back and forth action between the athletic powerhouses. They started off by trading a bit of standard hoss, strong style offense- high impact shoulder blocks, heavy strikes, and some big suplexes and tosses. Then, we got a glimpse of some of the athleticism both guys possess- a beautiful dropkick and standing moonsault from Cobb and a flawless plancha to the outside by Goto.

The match felt like it was building to an exciting, satisfying crescendo. However, the finish came abruptly and fell flat. Still, in the end, Goto came out of this looking like a dominant champion, which is great. Hopefully we’ll see more of Cobb wrestling for New Japan in the future. I’d love to see him mix it up with some of the company’s other top guys.

Rating: ***