Playoff competitors from the A Block in NJPW’s G1 Climax 35 were decided at Sunday’s card in Gunma, Japan
EVIL, David Finlay, and Yota Tsuji are the remaining competitors from the tournament’s A Block, advancing to the six-man single-elimination break-out bracket, which will eventually determine the winner of the lengthy tour.
EVIL finished first in the block, advancing him directly through to the semi-finals of the playoffs. He moved to 12 points in his typical cheating fashion, throwing powder in the eyes of Hiroshi Tanahashi and getting help from House of Torture teammates Dick Togo and Don Fale before scoring an Everything is EVIL for the pinfall win.
The victory meant that EVIL is only two more successful performances away from taking the tournament, and brought an end to Tanahashi’s final G1.
David Finlay went 23 minutes against Yuya Uemura in the main event of the night to secure a second-place spot in the standings. The back-and-forth contest saw Finlay hit many of his signature moves before finally finding a pinfall finish with Overkill.
Wrapping up with 10 points, Finlay is expected to face the B Block’s second-place finisher at NJPW’s show on Thursday.
Yota Tsuji confirmed himself a third-seed spot in the playoffs on Sunday, scoring a spear and a Marlowe Stomp against a tough Callum Newman before putting him away with the 17 Cross Powerbomb in 11 minutes. Tsuji will face the third-place finisher of the A Block on August 14. The winner of that bout will go on to face EVIL two nights later as part of a semi-final contest.
Boltin Oleg finished his second-ever G1 run with a win over Taichi, bridging a powerbomb into his Kamikaze finisher to move to 10 points in total. While his tournament run was enough to put him among the best in the block, tiebreaker calculations meant that he didn’t make it into the single-elimination playoffs. For Taichi, a loss on Sunday kept him at six points, the worst out of anyone in each block apart from Gabe Kidd, who withdrew due to injury.
SANADA prevailed in a first-time singles matchup against Ryohei Oiwa, utilizing a series of referee bumps to cheat his way to a pinfall win. The result finished both wrestlers at eight points, leaving them out of the playoff conversation.
Here are the results from Sunday’s show, along with an updated look at the standings, half of which is finalized now.
- Drilla Moloney & Taiji Ishimori def. Daiki Nagai & Shingo Takagi
- Hartley Jackson & Zack Sabre Jr. def. Shoma Kato & YOSHI-HASHI
- Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young def. Katsuya Murashima & Shota Umino
- Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Konosuke Takeshita & Rocky Romero
- Boltin Oleg def. Taichi (A Block)
- SANADA def. Ryohei Oiwa (A Block)
- Yota Tsuji def. Callum Newman (A Block)
- EVIL def. Hiroshi Tanahashi (A Block)
- David Finlay def. Yuya Uemura (A Block)
A Block Standings
- EVIL (12)
- David Finlay (10)
- Yota Tsuji (10)
- Yuya Uemura (10)
- Boltin Oleg (10)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi (8)
- Ryohei Oiwa (8)
- Callum Newman (8)
- SANADA (8)
- Taichi (6)
B Block Standings
- Zack Sabre Jr. (12)
- Shota Umino (10)
- Ren Narita (10)
- Konosuke Takeshita (10)
- El Phantasmo (8)
- YOSHI-HASHI (8)
- Shingo Takagi (8)
- Great-O-Khan (8)
- Drilla Moloney (8)
- Gabe Kidd (0)*
*Gabe Kidd withdrew from the NJPW G1 Climax due to injury on Night 5.
