Usually when you get a 5 star rating from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, you can pretty safely assume that will be the best match of the week.

However, the G1 Climax is on at the moment, and you know how much Dave loves a match in Japan.

The main event of day one of this year’s G1 Climax saw current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi defeat Tomohiro Ishii in what you can only imagine was one stiff match.

Meltzer described it as “one of the best matches of 2021”, and in fact this rating would make it the joint second best match of the year, with only the Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros at All Out receiving a higher rating (5.75 stars).

It is the seventh time this year that a match has received over 5 stars from Meltzer, and there are still three more months to go in 2021. For comparison, 2020 saw five matches receive a higher than 5 star rating.

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• Tomohiro Ishii
• star rating
• dave meltzer
• Shingo Takagi

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