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Did everyone really want it? I don't really remember having problems with this show: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Struggle_(2020)

Very likely that Tanahashi/Chase will happen here and maybe Cobb will challenge him for USA title at the dome.

I'm not sure if it makes sense to analyse promotional talk like this. Its not like he is going to say "we peaked, I'll try not to screw it up".

All their shows are shorter. But yes, years of high end matches were bound to take their toil, unfortunate that it happened for multiple guys in the same year.

To me it sounds unlikely that all his talk about V4 wasn't prepared in advance. It sounds like very deliberate story direction for WK.

Silver lining in Ibushi getting injured is that I can pretend that I wasn't completely wrong about everything and plans had to change due to the injury.

How exactly you'd know that by following only results? Anyway, my last MOTN is ZSJ/Shibata, it was short, it was sweat and nobody got injured. Overall match of the tournament for me is O-Khan/Ibushi and I'm going with ZSJ as my MVP. ZSJ/Shibata match explains very well why ZSJ went nowhere despite having a hot start. I remember writing that this year probably had more injuries than few previous combined so in a way its not really surprising that we got another injury. Bad year is bad ? Edit: I also found it rather funny that KENTA sidestepped Chase and he is going to actually challenge Tanahashi first.

Well heavyweight tag teams being shit was one of the common complaints before pandemic. Maybe its good that now tag title holders and challengers are actual stars and not "guys not good enough for singles"?

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi, Shingo/Ibushi, Taichi/Cobb, O-Khan/Ishii, Okada/Taichi, O-Khan/Ibushi, Okada/Chase, Shingo/O-Khan, Okada/Tama, ZSJ/Tanga, Okada/Cobb. This was pretty good show, I think that every single match delivered.

Another Tekkers/GoD tag titles match is likely precisely the reason why ZSJ's early rush went nowhere.

From what I understand they do it for all their properties and they are likely not going to make an exception for... wrestling.

Well, Naito got hurt after first show so I'd write it down to that and NJPW not valuing ZSJ high enough for finals or maybe they just have pencilled him in for tag titles matches till WK and don't want to adjust those plans. As for top 5, in my opinion: O-Khan/Ibushi, Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, O-Khan/ZSJ, O-Khan/Ishii. If nothing surprising happens on next two shows then O-Khan is likely going to end up as my MVP.

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi, Shingo/Ibushi, Taichi/Cobb, O-Khan/Ishii, Okada/Taichi, O-Khan/Ibushi, Okada/Chase, Shingo/O-Khan, Okada/Tama, ZSJ/Tanga. ZSJ/Tanga wasn't amazing, but it was solid wrestling match on a show that was full of bizzare decisions. Ibushi/KENTA had lots of cool things in it, but I can't seriously say that it was a good match when it had 3 (I think) obvious countouts with Red Shoes waiting 4 seconds before counting 20. Makes me think that original plan might have been for Naito/O-Khan to main event because this just didn't work for me. So yeah, Ibushi is again in G1 finals. 4 in a row has to be some kind of a record?

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi, Shingo/Ibushi, Taichi/Cobb, O-Khan/Ishii, Okada/Taichi, O-Khan/Ibushi, Okada/Chase, Shingo/O-Khan, Okada/Tama. 6 months ago if someone said that I'd really like 2 Tama Tonga G1 matches then I likely would have just rolled my eyes, but here we are. Tama busting his ass and showing that he belongs. Mayba a rematch against Tanahashi for USA title at some point? Tanahashi beating Chase and Tama asking for a rematch after that G1 fluke win makes sense from faction and storytelling perspective. Cobb's victory over Evil would definitely not be so enjoyable if Evil wasn't an absolute shit the entire tournament and had a legit chance of advancing to the finals. Does it justify his bullshit? To me it is similar situation to Okada last year who had bad G1 (bad by his standards) only to have a hot match against Ospreay at WK where he finally finished the match with Rainmaker instead of his stupid submission. I guess I'm glad that I didn't have to wait till WK for Evil to get smashed in the face.

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi, Shingo/Ibushi, Taichi/Cobb, O-Khan/Ishii, Okada/Taichi, O-Khan/Ibushi, Okada/Chase, Shingo/O-Khan. During Yano/Chase feud I was expecting him to be evil Yano in G1, but he is trying real hard to show that he belongs. He probably is well aware that he is in this only due to Covid so he wants to make a case for himself why he should be included next year as well. And he is going to get Tanahashi title match after G1 so it feels like he might establish himself as a decent midcarder on the Yoshi/Finlay level.

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi, Shingo/Ibushi, Taichi/Cobb, O-Khan/Ishii, Okada/Taichi, O-Khan/Ibushi. O-Khan had many haters, but after those matches against ZSJ, Ishii and Ibushi I can't see how someone can't be very high on him. And no, he wasn't carried in any of them.

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi, Shingo/Ibushi, Taichi/Cobb, O-Khan/Ishii. Pretty good show, ZSJ/Yujiro and Tanga/Ibushi were close to main event for me. If not for very bad looking botch on Ibushi's part then I think Tanga/Ibushi would have even been by MOTN. I don't know, Tanga to me starts to look kinda like Lance Archer - tag guy for eternity and when he hits 40s starts actually having pretty good singles matches.

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi, Shingo/Ibushi, Taichi/Cobb. Shingo/Ibushi match works very well with my theories about what WK is going to be like this year. While on B block results are a bit surprising to me. Looks like pretty much only Okada and Cobb are alive? With outside chance of Evil winning it as well, but he likely will be spoiled on final night by Sanada.

Found the poll I was thinking about: https://www.g1climax.jp/en/ef.html So I was wrong on ZSJ not being in the conversation, but Cobb ranked higher.

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ, Taichi/Yoshi. I'm not sure, but my gut feeling is that this was the weakest show so far and crowd was dead even by clap-crowds standards. I don't agree with ZSJ being only foreigner with name and credibility. Cobb has been heavily pushed since last year's WTL and is having a good tournament as well. If I'm not mistaken he was also third in NJPW's poll of who'll make the finals from B block, while ZSJ wasn't even in the conversation. That being said ZSJ has been getting a slow push since the pandemic. While these two years he spent most of the time in tag team wrestling he did participate in many semi-main of big shows and last year got many matches against Tanahashi/Ibushi, while this year got few against Naito/Sanada. Getting into G1 finals would be logical next step, I think. But how far can he go? Who knows really, but to me "big problem" is that usually Taichi looks like a bigger star when they are tagging. And you know, Shingo/ZSJ might be a better title match, but I'd rather buy tickets for Shingo/Taichi.

My MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada, Shingo/ZSJ, Sanada/Taichi, Ibushi/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Tama, O-Khan/ZSJ. So yeah, ZSJ is a clear MVP for me. Unfortunately his 4-0 streak probably means that he is about to eat multiple Ls, but if God exists then ZSJ should be making finals. Looking at B block I'd probably most enjoy another ZSJ/Sanada match.

Feels like we got more injuries and health problems this year than in last 5 combined.

So far my MOTNs: Naito/ZSJ, Tanahashi/Okada. Overall strong start for the tournament and feels like certain guys like GoD, Chase and Yujiro want to show that they really belong and weren't picked just because NJPW was short on guys.

I think when someone talks about NJPW/Bushiroad financials they usually ignore elephant in the room - NJPW Strong. It has been running since last year and so far had one paid show. So its not that Japan side has to carry their own shows, they also have to finance USA shows. As for RoH, it looked like it had picked up some hype just before Covid, but all of that was linked to Marty. I wonder how things would have gone if Covid didn't happen.