The third night of the G1 Climax placed two of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s rising stars in the main event.
The A Block show aired from Sendai and drew 1,714 at Sun Plaza Hall.
RESULTS
*A BLOCK: Yota Tsuji over Yuya Uemura in 16:56
*A BLOCK: Taichi over David Finlay in 13:35
*A BLOCK: SANADA over EVIL in 6:33
*A BLOCK: Oleg Boltin over Hiroshi Tanahashi in 9:50
*A BLOCK: Ryohei Oiwa over Callum Newman in 10:24
*Zack Sabre Jr. & Harley Jackson over Shota Umino & Katsuya Murashima in 8:53
*Konosuke Takeshita & Rocky Romero over Great O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young in 7:30
*Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru over El Phantasmo & Jado in 6:08
*Drilla Moloney & Taiji Ishimori over YOSHI-HASHI & Shoma Kato in 6:30
The main event was a rematch from last year’s tournament involving Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura, which also occurred in Sendai. One year ago, Uemura defeated Tsuji but, in the process, tore his triceps muscle and was forced to withdraw from the tournament.
Their history as Young Lions included 22 draws between them, and a Hair vs. Hair match in 2024 where Tsuji prevailed.
In the rematch on Tuesday, Uemura was the one targeting the arm of Tsuji. Uemura had multiple counters to the Gene Blast, including an arm drag and executing a ‘rana to stop the maneuver.
Uemura went through multiple pin attempts after using a Bridging German suplex, a Dragon suplex, and even the High Fly Flow.
Uemura came off the top and was hit by a Gene Blast in mid-air, and Tsuji followed with an encore Gene Blast, trapping the arm and scoring the pin to grab the two points.
Taichi defeated David Finlay in another strong match as the crowd escalated its intensity toward the end of the match. Taichi kicked out of Into Oblivion and survived a Buckle Bomb and Overkill when he countered the maneuver into a leg-trap jackknife cover and then attempted the Gedo Clutch.
It hit a fever pitch for the closing minute, ending with Black Mephisto and Taichi earning the win and improving to 2-1 in the block.
In the weakest match of the show, EVIL suffered his first loss of this year’s G1 to House of Torture stablemate, SANADA. The House of Torture members at ringside tried to help EVIL, which led to referee Marty Asami being knocked out and Yoshinobu Kanemaru taking the ref’s shirt and calling it down the middle. It set up Asami regaining consciousness and reclaiming his shirt, and shoved SANADA to the mat.
Asami was knocked down again, allowing EVIL to hit a low blow. He was handed a towel, and as he went to choke SANADA, he was rolled up and pinned.
Walker Stewart called it “a fever dream” and couldn’t believe it aired on television. His words, not mine, but no disagreement either.
Oleg Boltin handed Hiroshi Tanahashi his second loss in another great effort put forth by the retiree. Boltin has an unconventional style and is not “polished,” but that’s also his appeal, where he’s a jacked-up robot with a uniqueness that stands out, and his improvements are immense.
The crowd loved Tanahashi, and he just has to show fire and spirit to gain that support from the audience. Tanahashi went for Aces High and was caught as Boltin hoisted him onto the shoulders to hit the Kamikaze and win.
The first tournament match of the show was a fun match between Ryohei Oiwa and Callum Newman, with the latter coming off a major win against Tanahashi on Sunday.
From a technical standpoint, Oiwa really stood out here by working on Newman’s knee and setting up The Capture, which is Oiwa’s inverted single-leg crab submission. Newman kicked away at Oiwa’s shoulder for the escape and survived a Chaos Theory before being struck by The Grip, and Oiwa picked up the win.
Four of the five matches were really solid to varying degrees, with the only blemish being the House of Torture affair, which was kept to six minutes and hardly the most offensive of House of Torture affairs.
G1 BLOCK STANDINGS
Below are the current point standings for all of the wrestlers in the G1 in their respective blocks.
| Rank | A Block | B Block |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boltin Oleg (4) | Drilla Moloney (4) |
| 2 | EVIL (4) | Yoshi-Hashi (4) |
| 3 | Ryohei Oiwa (4) | El Phantasmo (2) |
| 4 | Taichi (4) | Great-O-Khan (2) |
| 5 | Yota Tsuji (4) | Konosuke Takeshita (2) |
| 6 | Callum Newman (2) | Ren Narita (2) |
| 7 | David Finlay (2) | Shota Umino (2) |
| 8 | Hiroshi Tanahashi (2) | Zack Sabre Jr. (2) |
| 9 | SANADA (2) | Gabe Kidd (0) |
| 10 | Yuya Uemura (2) | Shingo Takagi (0) |
Wednesday’s show in Niigata is headlined by a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom between Zack Sabre Jr. and Shota Umino.
Wednesday, July 23 in Niigata at 5:30 a.m. ET
*B BLOCK: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shota Umino
*B BLOCK: Shingo Takagi vs. Gabe Kidd
*B BLOCK: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Great O-Khan
*B BLOCK: El Phantasmo vs. Ren Narita
*B BLOCK: YOSHI-HASHI vs. Drilla Moloney
*Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuya Murashima vs. David Finlay & Gedo
*Yota Tsuji & Daiki Nagai vs. Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson
*Yuya Uemura & Shoma Kato vs. Callum Newman & Jakob Austin Young
*Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano vs. SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
