The headline match of G1 Climax 30 Night 12 saw IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental ‘Double Champion’ and Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) leader Tetsuya Naito against former two-time IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Juice Robinson.
Naito was looking to move to a commanding 12 points, while Juice needed to move to 8 to maintain a realistic chance to move to the G1 Climax 30 Finals.
Naito was coming off a difficult win against CHAOS member Yoshi-Hashi, while Juice lost to former IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental ‘Double Champion’ Evil.
Juice showed how important the match was to his G1 Climax 30 campaign as he presented Naito with a number of questions throughout the match that the ‘Double Champion’ had to rise to the occasion to solve.
Juice would come close to hitting Naito with his Pulp Friction technique several times during the match, but Naito was able to avoid the move that once defeated him during a multi-tag match back in 2017 during his first reign as IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
Naito would use his more high impact offense to counter Juice’s more impactful style, countering Juice with half Destino’s to put him in a position to win.
Naito would be able to gain the fall at the 25 minutes and 1-second mark after using his full Destino technique. The win moved Naito to 10 points, while Juice stays at 6.
Naito has Evil (October 11th), KOPW (presumably King of Pro Wrestling) titleholder and CHAOS member Toru Yano (October 14th), and Bullet Club member Kenta (October 17th) to finish his G1 Climax 30 campaign.
Juice has LIJ member Sanada (October 11th), Suzuki-Gun member and former four-time Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr (October 14th), and former two-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion and CHAOS member Hirooki Goto (October 17th) to finish his tournament fixtures.
