G1 Climax 30 Night 4 saw another entry into the storied history between former eight-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and G1 Climax 17, G1 Climax 25, and G1 Climax 28 winner Hiroshi Tanahashi against the current KOPW (presumably King of Pro Wrestling) titleholder and CHAOS member, Toru Yano.
Tanahashi came into the match off a G1 Climax Night 2 defeat against current IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental ‘Double Champion’ and Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) leader Tetsuya Naito. On the same night, Yano was able to defeat Sanada by using one of his many tricky tactics to earn a ring out victory.
Coming into the match, the two wrestled 20 singles matches against one another going back to 2003. Tanahashi held a 15-3-2 (wins-losses-ties) series led over Yano, yet they had not faced each other since August 2, 2015, during G1 Climax 25, when Tanahashi was able to defeat Yano.
Despite his long-time advantage over Yano, Tanahashi was frustrated throughout the match. Yano has earned the reputation of being an annoyance and nightmare to face during singles competition.
After being able to lure Tanahashi into wrestling a Yano ‘style’ of match, which is Yano keeping his opponent from wrestling at all, Yano was able to get the upper hand on arguably the best wrestler of his generation.
At the 7 minutes and 15-second mark, Yano was able to gain the fall over Tanahashi with his Urakasumi technique, granting him a perfect 2-0 start in B Block action.
With the defeat and dropping 0-2 in block competition, Tanahashi needs to go on a significant run if he is to challenge for advancing to the G1 Climax 30 Finals.
While Yano has never been able to be consistent enough with his trickster style in tournament action to become the eventual winner (outside of the recent KOPW title tournament), he will likely cause massive problems for others as G1 Climax 30 continues.
