NJPW G1 Climax 30 – Night Twelve (October 8th) Preview, Statistics, and Notes

by | Oct 7, 2020 | Column, NJPW, Preview

The twelfth night of G1 Climax 30 will emanate from ZIP Arena in Okayama and will be headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi, looking to extend his three match winning streak facing off against EVIL in a battle to stay in the hunt for the top of the block standings. The semi-main event will be Tetsuya Naito facing off against Juice Robinson as Robinson looks to tie Naito for the block lead. Third from the top, SANADA and KENTA will face off, each dependent on a victory to keep them alive in the tournament. The second block match of the evening will have flash-pin experts Toru Yano and Zack Sabre Jr. looking to out duel each other, and the block matches will open up with recently succinct Hirooki Goto matching up with recently resurgent YOSHI-HASHI.

You can find my complete statistical breakdown for every competitor in this year’s G1 Climax here, I have interactive, sortable tables for NJPW’s 2020, detailed results and statistics of all 1500+ G1 Climax matches to date, as well as a full boxscore for This Year’s Tournament at SportOfProWrestling.com, and you can let me know what you find when you drill down by dropping me a line on Twitter @TheChrisSamsa.

Date: October 8th, 2020

Venue: ZIP Arena Okayama

Time: 6:00pm JST

Watch Live or OnDemand On NJPWWorld

Local Time Conversions:

G1 CLIMAX 30: B BLOCK RESULTS TO DATE

SPORT OF PRO WRESTLING BOX SCORE

Elimination Number: Elimination # represents the number of wins by the leading wrestler or losses by the trailing wrestler which will eliminate the trailing wrestler.    

An Elimination # of 0 designates that the best a wrestler can do is tie the block leader. Wrestlers are only eliminated if their elimination number reaches 0 and they have already lost to the block leader.

BLOCK TABLE

Key Tiebreakers

UP-TO-DATE, DETAILED RESULTS AND STATISTICS CAN BE FOUND AT SPORTOFPROWRESTLING.COM

G1 CLIMAX B BLOCK MATCH

Hiroshi Tanahashi [6] Vs. EVIL [6]

Hiroshi Tanahashi will participate in his second straight Main Event as he will face off with EVIL in the last match from Okayama. Tanahashi and EVIL couldn’t be employing more different strategies during this year’s G1 Climax tournament, but they’ve produced the same results, 3 wins, 2 losses, and 6 points, good for second in the block and behind only Tetsuya Naito. The winner of tonight’s main event is guaranteed to stay within two points of the block lead, at worst.

G1 CLIMAX 30 – TOURNAMENT TO DATE

  • EVIL’s -6:29 Win-Loss Differential is the second worst in the block, better only than SANADA. EVIL is laboring through victories, while losing his matches relatively quickly when he isn’t successful. Tanahashi is also one of four block competitors negative in this category at -1:37.
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi enters his match with EVIL with the most momentum in the block. He is on a three match winning streak.

G1 CLIMAX HISTORY

2020 RESULTS

  • EVIL’s 10 singles wins in NJPW this year are second most, just one behind Kazuchika Okada’s 11.

HEAD TO HEAD HISTORY

  • EVIL and Hiroshi Tanahashi have met four times in singles matches. EVIL won their first match in 2017, but has not been able to defeat the ace since.
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi leads the G1 series over EVIL 2-0 with victories in the last two tournaments.

SPORT OF PRO WRESTLING PODCAST

G1 CLIMAX NIGHT TWELVE (OCTOBER 8) AUDIO PREVIEW

G1 CLIMAX B BLOCK MATCH

Juice Robinson [6] Vs. Tetsuya Naito [8]

In the semi-main event Juice Robinson and Tetsuya Naito will meet for the fourth time in their careers. Juice looks to defeat Tetsuya Naito and put himself into a tie for the block lead headed into the final three tournament matches. Naito, almost certainly worn down from his long and arduous first half will need to finish the energetic Robinson quickly or he’ll risk another exhausting defeat.

G1 CLIMAX 30 – TOURNAMENT TO DATE

  • Tetsuya Naito’s 2 hours, 9 minutes and 33 seconds of Total Match Length Is just 66 minutes short of the all time G1 Climax block record of 3 hours, 9 minutes and 18 seconds set by Kazuchika Okada last year. If Naito’s matches average 16 1/2 minutes through the last 4 matches, he will break the record for the longest G1 Climax in history.
  • Juice Robinson, still at 6 points, just needs one more victory to match his career high of 8 points.

G1 CLIMAX HISTORY

2020 RESULTS

  • Tetsuya Naito’s 29 minute and 55 second average match length in 2020 is still outrageous, especially considering his last five matches have been contested with a 30 minute time limit.

HEAD TO HEAD HISTORY

  • Tetsuya Naito and Juice Robinson have met three times in the past, once for the Intercontinental Championship and twice in the G1 Climax. Tetsuya Naito has been victorious all three times.

G1 CLIMAX B BLOCK MATCH

SANADA [4] Vs. KENTA [4]

In the middle of the block matches, SANADA and KENTA meet as they each attempt to progress past the four point mark and stay in the running to win the block.

G1 CLIMAX 30 – TOURNAMENT TO DATE

  • If Tetsuya Naito wins tonight, the best the loser of this match will be able to do is tie for the block points lead. That would not eliminate either wrestler though, as SANADA already holds the tiebreaker over Naito and KENTA faces the double champion on the last night of block competition in Ryogoku Sumo Hall next weekend.
  • KENTA’s 3.8% pinfall success rate is the worst in the block thus far, though, he is one of two wrestlers in B block with a submission victory and one of only two wrestlers in B block with a submission loss.
  • KENTA enters his match with SANADA in danger of slipping into the same pattern he took in last year’s G1 tournament. He is currently tied with Toru Yano and YOSHI-HASHI with a block-worst 2 match losing streak.

G1 CLIMAX HISTORY

2020 RESULTS

  • KENTA is tied with EVIL and Kazuchika Okada for the most NJPW singles victories over the last 90 days, each has 6.

HEAD TO HEAD HISTORY

G1 CLIMAX B BLOCK MATCH

Toru Yano [6] Vs. Zack Sabre Jr [4]

Toru Yano and Zack Sabre Jr. meet in the second block match of the evening in a battle of flash-pins. Yano and ZSJ should both be very much on their toes as they each recently experienced very quick matches with Hirooki Goto and Zack followed that up with an affair with SANADA that included many rolling exchanges and flash pin attempts.

G1 CLIMAX 30 – TOURNAMENT TO DATE

  • Toru Yano‘s 5:01 match length is actually 6 seconds longer than his 4:55 average in last year’s tournament. HIs career low was 4:21 in 2016.
  • Zack Sabre Jr. is always on the lookout for an easy way out. His match with SANADA on Tuesday featured the most pinfall attempts so far in the tournament with 12 (6 each).

G1 CLIMAX HISTORY

  • If Toru Yano loses out the rest of the tournament, he will tie Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Yuji Nagata for the most losses in G1 Climax history with 67. If he loses to ZSJ tonight, he will tie Togi Makabe for third on the all-time list with 64.

2020 RESULTS

HEAD TO HEAD HISTORY

  • Toru Yano and Zack Sabre Jr have faced each other once. That was during the 2018 G1 Climax tournament when ZSJ’s 10 minute and 34 second victory was more than double Toru Yano’s current G1 average. This was during the period of time when Yano was attempting to win honorably, which he as clearly regressed from.

G1 CLIMAX B BLOCK MATCH

Hirooki Goto [4] Vs. YOSHI-HASHI [2]

Two-thirds of the NEVER Openweight Six Man champions will face off against each other to open the block matches as Hirooki Goto steps into the ring against YOSHI-HASHI. YOSHI-HASHI is attempting to continue his Cinderella return by fending off elimination in the first block match of the night against Hirooki Goto. If YOSHI-HASHI loses or Tetsuya Naito wins tonight, he is eliminated.

There is a lot of chatter that Hirooki Goto might be wrestling injured. He certainly hasn’t looked the same since his match with Tetsuya Naito, and he has amassed less than four and a half minutes of ring time in his two matches since then. YOSHI-HASHI has shown the opposite resilience, kicking out of more pinfall attempts than anyone else in the block, with the second longest matches in the block, behind only Tetsuya Naito.

G1 CLIMAX 30 – TOURNAMENT TO DATE

  • If YOSHI-HASHI loses or Tetsuya Naito wins tonight, YOSHI-HASHI  is eliminated.
  • YOSHI-HASHI has attempted to pin his opponent more than any other wrestler in the B block with 26 attempts, or 5.2 per match. Unfortunately, with only one win, his success rate is also the lowest in the block at 3.8%
  • YOSHI-HASHI has also kicked out of more pin attempts than anyone else in the tournament. He is averaging 4 kick-outs per match. Unfortunately, his opponents have also been successful four times already in the tournament.
  • Hirooki Goto’s 18 second victory over Toru Yano on Tuesday was the shortest match in G1 Climax history. His loss to Zack Sabre Jr in his previous match is the 38th shortest match in G1 Climax history. No two consecutive G1 matches have ever been shorter.
  • Of course, those two short matches have driven Hirooki Goto’s average match length down to be second in the tournament at 10:55.

G1 CLIMAX HISTORY

  • Earlier in the tournament, Hirooki Goto was surpassed by Tetsuya Naito for 5th on the All Time G1 wins list.

2020 RESULTS

HEAD TO HEAD HISTORY

  • Goto and YOSHI-HASHI have faced each other once previously, in the 2017 G1 Climax tournament, where Goto defeated YOSHI-HASHI in 11 minutes and 26 seconds.