Ranking All 89 Matches in the G1 Climax 25

Over the last month, I watched every match in New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual round-robin tournament, the G1 Climax. This was arguably the undertaking of an insane person. If this is indeed the case, my ranking of every match in the tournament that follows is of little consequence. But for those that have partaken or will partake in G1 Climax 25, I think this may be useful.

The 2015 tournament featured Block A and Block B, each with 10 wrestlers who all faced each other once. That’s nine matches per person, or 90 in total (actually 89 when you discount Shinsuke Nakamua’s injury-based forfeit over Michael Elgin). There were five matches per night, spread over 18 nights. The night a match occurred has been placed in parentheses.

As the tournament progressed, I tried my best to assess how each match ranked in comparison to all the others. This was quite challenging for a number of reasons. First, my frame of mind changed from day-to-day, and even from hour-to-hour. A match I enjoyed on Wednesday night, I might have found dull on a Saturday afternoon. Second, since most of these were watched late at night, I got sleepy during parts, which affected both my immediate perception and…Third, my memory. As I write this, for example, I have no idea what happened in the Kojima vs. Anderson match. The best I could do is recall the feeling I had while watching it. If that didn’t work, I tried to figure out how good the match was relative to Kojima’s other matches, or Anderson’s other matches. Fourth, as impartial as I tried to be, I have my favorites. I am a huge fan of Kota Ibushi and Michael Elgin, for example. On the other hand, NJPW could have axed Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Yujiro Takahashi and my life would have been a better place. These biases have unquestionably crept into this ranking.

Of course, even if I had been able to watch every match with no bias and perfect mental and spiritual clarity, these are still going to be my opinions. I will not argue that my rankings are “correct” and everyone else’s are “garbage”, or any other Internet trolling thing of the sort. If you have AJ Styles vs. Tenzan at #42 rather than #62, hell, you might very well be right. Again, Mike Specian = imperfect.

With those disclaimers out of the way, I have separated the G1 Climax 25 matches into four categories. The first eight matches I deem as “absolute must-see”. Each of these is a legitimate match-of-the-year contender. You should go out of your way to see them. The second category is “don’t miss”. These are all very good to great matches that don’t quite reach the elite level. The third category offers solid efforts that aren’t a waste of your time, but which for the most part were not particularly memorable. The final category is the bottom-of-the-barrel fare. While there is some decent stuff in there, we only have so many hours in the day so…prioritize, I guess.

Match-of-the-Year Candidates

1. Tanahashi vs. AJ Styles (17)
2. Tanahashi vs. Ibushi (1)
3. Ibushi vs. AJ Styles (5)
4. Tanahashi vs. Shibata (13)
5. Ishii vs. Elgin (18)
6. Naito vs. Ibushi (11)
7. Shibata vs. Ibushi (7)
8. Elgin vs. Goto (16)

Excellent

9. Goto vs. Ishii (14)
10. Nakamura vs. Goto (10)
11. Goto vs. Okada (8)
12. AJ Styles vs. Shibata (1)
13. Nakamura vs. Okada (18)
14. Anderson vs. Elgin (14)
15. Naito vs. Tanahashi (5)
16. Shibata vs. Naito (3)
17. Okada vs. Ishii (12)
18. Okada vs. Honma (4)
19. Nakamura vs. Ishii (8)
20. AJ Styles vs. Bad Luck Fale (15)
21. Takahashi vs. Honma (18)
22. Okada vs. Takahashi (14)
23. Elgin vs. Honma (8)
24. Ishii vs. Nagata (10)
25. Naito vs. AJ Styles (7)

Pretty Good

26. Honma vs. Ishii (16)
27. Shibata vs. Makabe (5)
28. Nagata vs. Kojima (14)
29. Nakamura vs. Honma (14)
30. Okada vs. Nagata (16)
31. AJ Styles vs. Yano (3)
32. Okada vs. Elgin (2)
33. Anderson vs. Honma (12)
34. Ishii vs. Anderson (5)
35. Ibushi vs. Makabe (17)
36. Okada vs. Anderson (10)
37. Goto vs. Honma (6)
38. Anderson vs. Nakamura (2)
39. AJ Styles vs. Makabe (11)
40. Nagata vs. Goto (18)
41. Tenzan vs. Shibata (15)
42. Yano vs. Shibata (11)
43. Bad Luck Fale vs. Tanahashi (7)
44. Kojima vs. Elgin (4)
45. Anderson vs. Nagata (8)
46. Tanahashi vs. Yano (9)
47. Tanahashi vs. Makabe (15)
48. Gallows vs. Naito (15)
49. Yano vs Tenzan (5)
50. Tanahashi vs. Tenzan (3)
51. Nakamura vs. Nagata (4)
52. Tenzan vs. Naito (17)
53. Makabe vs. Gallows (13)
54. Elgin vs. Nagata (12)
55. Nakamura vs. Kojima (16)
56. Okada vs. Kojima (6)
57. Elgin vs. Takahashi (10)
58. AJ Styles vs. Tenzan (13)
59. Makabe vs Naito (9)
60. AJ Styles vs. Gallows (9)
61. Kojima vs. Anderson (18)
62. Naito vs. Bad Luck Fale (1)
63. Naito vs. Yano (13)
64. Gallows vs. Yano (7)
65. Ibushi vs. Tenzan (9)
66. Takahashi vs. Kojima (8)
67. Shibata vs. Bad Luck Fale (9)
68. Nakamura vs. Takahashi (12)
69. Bad Luck Fale vs. Gallows (5)

Decent to “Just There”

70. Bad Luck Fale vs. Makabe (3)
71. Makabe vs. Yano (1)
72. Anderson vs. Goto (4)
73. Nagata vs. Honma (2)
74. Ibushi vs. Gallows (3)
75. Takahashi vs. Nagata (6)
76. Goto vs. Kojima (12)
77. Gallows vs. Shibata (17)
78. Yano vs. Ibushi (15)
79. Yano vs. Bad Luck Fale (17)
80. Tanahashi vs. Gallows (11)
81. Bad Luck Fale vs. Ibushi (13)
82. Makabe vs. Tenzan (7)
83. Kojima vs. Honma (10)
84. Anderson vs. Takahashi (16)
85. Ishii vs. Takahashi (4)
86. Ishii vs. Kojima (2)
87. Goto vs. Takahashi (2)
88. Tenzan vs. Gallows (1)
89. Bad Luck Fale vs. Tenzan (11)