New Japan Pro-Wrestling G1 Climax 29 Night 2: Results and Analysis

Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi, and Yuya Uemura vs SANADA, EVIL, and BUSHI

This match worked as a preview of two upcoming matches for the July 14 show – Will Ospreay facing off with SANADA and Kota Ibushi taking on EVIL. At some point, SANADA and EVIL will clash as well which will leave the ties between LIJ a bit frayed until the tournament battles are over.

On commentary, Rocky Romero made the case for welcoming EVIL into CHAOS if those aforementioned ties ever became too strained. Is Rocky just on a mad spree to recruit someone from every group? He’s already stolen sweet boy Robbie Eagles away from Bullet Club so it’s not the craziest idea around.

While it’s not something instrumental to the match, this is now the third show in a row where Ospreay’s “Elevated” theme song has been dubbed over with another song. It’s a bummer when this happens as it takes you out of the moment, most apparent when we missed the crowd reaction to Eagles clocking El Phantasmo in Australia due to the dubbed theme drowning out the crowd noise. Le weep weep.

The story here was, and going forward in the G1 will be, Kota Ibushi’s injured ankle. Ibushi tweeted out a photo of the damage he incurred during his Night 1 bout against KENTA. EVIL took full advantage by stomping on the bruised foot of the Golden Star and we saw the continued fallout as Ibushi struggled to put his full weight on his foot throughout the contest.

In keeping with tradition, none of the tournament competitors were involved in the losing fall. That responsibility fell to Uemura who ate a Code Breaker from BUSHI to give Los Ingobernables de Japon the victory.

Lance Archer and Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens

Gone are the days of KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley as The Time Splitters. Enter Lance Archer and Yoshinobou Kanemaru as The Drink Spitters. I don’t think I’ve seen two wrestlers more enthusiastic about not swallowing beverages in my 35 years of watching pro wrestling.

The less said about most Fale matches, the better. There was at least one fun moment involving Fale – as the two largest men in the G1 sought to brutalize their opponents, they dropped their smaller opponents with stereo chokeslams. The dual chokeslams themselves were nothing too special, but referee Kenta Sato flying into the air and crashing to the mat due to the impact was aces.

Kanemaru was able to neutralize Fale with a taste of the Suntory Surprise but missed a follow-up Deep Impact on Owens allowing The Crown Jewel to capitalize with a Package Piledriver for the victory.

Archer surprised a lot of people with his outstanding opening match against Ospreay in Dallas. He’ll turn even more heads if he’s able to pull a great match out of Bad Luck Fale on the 14.