Results
- HENARE & Jakob Austin Young def. Toru Yano & Taisei Nakahara (5:26)
- Aaron Wolf & Tatsuya Matsumoto def. Yuya Uemura & Masatora Yasuda (5:05)
- OSKAR & Gedo def. Drilla Moloney & Daiki Nagai (5:22)
- Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson def. Ren Narita & Dick Togo (7:01)
- Boltin Oleg def. Jake Lee (A Block) (10:18)
- Ryohei Oiwa def. SANADA (A Block) (11:48)
- Konosuke Takeshita def. Great-O-Khan (A Block) (14:36)
- Shingo Takagi def. Hirooki Goto (A Block) (16:40)
- Yota Tsuji def. Yuto-Ice (A Block) (KO) (26:08)
Konosuke Takeshita remains in the lead.
Takeshita kept hold of his first-place spot in NJPW’s G1 Climax A Block following Wednesday night action.
Takeshita overcame Great-O-Khan as part of this morning’s card, making a come-from-behind performance to secure his fourth win of the tourney. Surviving a backstage attack before the match, plus endless cheating and referee distraction spots by Great-O-Khan throughout the contest, Takeshita was eventually able to find the pinfall after securing a Raging Fire.
Current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji won in an incredible main event against a tough Yuto-Ice, who endured a historic beating before not reaching a standing 10-count at the 26-minute mark.
Tsuji, who is tied for second with six points, landed an endless barrage of chops to the chest of Yuto-Ice, who wouldn’t back down after taking what felt like hundreds of blows to the body. By the end of the bout, the Knockout Brothers member’s chest was nearly purple due to the strikes he consumed.
Yuto-Ice looked as though he could’ve secured the biggest win of his career late, countering a Gene Blaster spear into a hard knee strike. But a follow-up sequence saw Tsuji connect with his new Fireblaster move. They were both down for long following the sequence, although Tsuji got up before the 10-count, causing a knockout finish.
Shingo Takagi picked up his second win of the tourney in the co-main event, winning a physical & entertaining showdown against Hirooki Goto. The win, a back-and-forth showdown from start to finish, helped Takagi crawl out of a last-place spot in the A Block after starting the tournament just one-for-four.
Ryohei Oiwa relentlessly chased SANADA with a headlock through their G1 match on Wednesday, returning to the basic yet effective move numerous times through their tourney match. Eventually, Oiwa was able to catch SANADA with a snug go at the move, forcing a submission to end the match and secure the TMDK member his third win of the tourney.
Boltin Oleg opened the block action on Wednesday with a win over first-time opponent Jake Lee. While Lee survived a pair of huge powerbombs from the Kazakh wrestler, he was done after eating a Kamikaze from him.
The G1 will return this weekend with a tripleheader of events. Friday’s card will see Yuya Uemura take on Aaron Wolf, and Callum Newman square off with Gabe Kidd.
Here’s an updated look at the G1 standings:
A Block
- Konosuke Takeshita (8)
- Yota Tsuji (6)
- Ryohei Oiwa (6)
- Boltin Oleg (6)
- Yuto-Ice (4)
- Shingo Takagi (4)
- Hirooki Goto (4)
- Great-O-Khan (4)
- SANADA (4)
- Jake Lee (4)
B Block
- Drilla Moloney (8)
- Gabe Kidd (8)
- HENARE (8)
- Callum Newman (6)
- OSKAR (6)
- Aaron Wolf (4)
- Ren Narita (4)
- Yuya Uemura (4)
- Zack Sabre Jr. (2)
- Shota Umino (0)*
*Shota Umino withdrew from the tournament following Night 1 due to a concussion. All of his remaining matches were forfeited.
