NJPW G1 Climax 35: Night 4 (July 23) Results & Review

New Japan Pro Wrestling
G1 Climax 35: Night 4
July 23, 2025
Aore Nagaoka
Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan

The first solo B Block event on this year’s G1 Climax tour would be short one match, as Gabe Kidd was once again not medically cleared to compete due to the knee injury he suffered against Konosuke Takeshita on Night 1. Thus, he forfeited his match against Shingo Takagi who, after starting 0-2, gets his first two points of the tournament.

Before diving into the B Block matches, here are the results from the undercard:

Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano def. House Of Torture (SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
United Empire (Callum Newman & Jacob Austin Young) def. Yuya Uemura & Shoma Kato
House Of Torture (EVIL & Dick Togo) def. Taichi & Masatora Yasuda
TMDK (Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson) def. Yota Tsuji & Daiki Nagai
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuya Murashima def. Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay & Gedo)

G1 Climax 35 – B Block
YOSHI-HASHI [6] def. Drilla Moloney [4]

Kicking off the tournament action on this Niigata show was arguably the biggest match on the card from a kayfabe standpoint. Who would’ve guessed a week ago, before the tournament even started, that Drilla Moloney and YOSHI-HASHI would be battling for the lead in the B Block? It’s wild that I’m even typing that, but it was indeed true. The winner of this match would be the first person in this year’s G1 (across both blocks) to reach six points, and when the dust settled, YOSHI-HASHI would emerge victorious after putting Moloney away with Karma. This match went just shy of twelve minutes, and featured some pretty solid action throughout. The early portion of the bout featured some hard chop exchanges before Moloney took control. There was good back-and-forth action down the stretch (this included one counter from YOSHI-HASHI that looked suspiciously like those Destino counters that Tetsuya Naito usually does) before YOSHI-HASHI finally put Moloney away. A good match on the whole, though not one you need to go out of your way to see if you missed it. Again, the real significance to this one was the battle for the lead in the B Block. ***1/4

G1 Climax 35 – B Block
Ren Narita [4] def. El Phantasmo [2]

Ren Narita made his entrance first, but then ran back out through the crowd so that he could attack El Phantasmo from behind during his entrance. The two then had a brief brawl on the floor, which culminated with ELP doing a dive off the ramp onto Narita (this was all before the match officially began). This match had some decent action for the most part, but of course, because there was a House Of Torture member involved, we got shenanigans at the end. Jado did manage to take away the push-up bar from Narita at one point, though he almost immediately got taken out by accident by ELP. That would lead to Yoshinobu Kanemaru getting involved, and after avoiding the push-up bar again, ELP got hit with a Narita low blow, which led to the eventual finish. Had Kanemaru not gotten involved, this was on its way to being a good match, but that interference does knock this down a peg. As shown by his bout with Zack Sabre Jr. and parts of this clash here with ELP, Narita is still capable of having solid matches. Just a shame the gimmick is what it is. **3/4

G1 Climax 35 – B Block
Konosuke Takeshita [4] def. Great O-Khan [2]

The semi-main event of Night 4 featured a first-time ever singles encounter between Konosuke Takeshit and Great O-Khan (a clash of styles to say the least). Ultimately, Takeshita would pick up the victory in what ended up being a really strong match. Following the initial opening exchange, O-Khan took control after things spilled to the floor (at one point bodyslamming Takeshita on the barricade). It was super interesting to see Takeshita be in the babyface position here, as he worked from underneath and eventually made his comeback (he’s been a face before obviously, but it’s been a few years since he turned heel). The second half featured some very good back-and-forth action between the two. There was one cool spot close to the end where O-Khan actually broke up a Takeshita pin attempt with the Iron Claw. Not long after that, O-Khan stopped Takeshita with a straight right hand to the gut, and went to follow up with another, but Takeshita caught him just in time with a straight right hand of his own. That led right to the Raging Fire that gave Takeshita the victory. Great O-Khan is far from the most graceful wrestler in the world, but that’s what makes him so much fun to watch during the G1. He really stands out from the pack, and it’s a real blast getting to watch him mix it up with guys like Takeshita. ****

G1 Climax 35 – B Block
Shota Umino [4] def. Zack Sabre Jr. [2]

Of course, these two faced off in the much-talked-about (and not exactly for positive reasons) main event of Wrestle Kingdom 19. The good news is that these G1 matches have thirty minute time limits, so there was no chance of this approaching the forty plus minute runtime that their title bout in January reached. Shota Umino and Zack Sabre Jr. didn’t waste any time in this one, as they went right after each other as soon as the bell rang. The opening moments saw them trade forearms and uppercuts before Umino started targeting the leg of Sabre, which Ren Narita had worked over back on Night 1. Umino continued to target the leg with a variety of submissions over the next few minutes (some of those submissions were very Sabre-esque) before Sabre finally mounted a response with an attack on the arm of Umino. From there, the back half of the match became your usual back and forth affair as both men traded big moves. Sabre actually managed to hit the Zack Driver on a few occasions, but neither were enough to put Umino away (the first time Sabre just didn’t have the energy to make the cover, while the second time saw Umino just straight up kick out, which definitely surprised me a little bit). At one point, Sabre trapped Umino in a double arm submission, and the crowd really got behind Umino as he struggled to get the rope (which he finally did after Sabre tried to simultaneously go for the legs while he had Umino’s arms trapped). A short time later, following a series of flash pins, Umino nailed Sabre with this big lariat, and followed up with The Second Chapter to secure the win.

This was a great main event to close out the show, though for me, it didn’t quite manage to top El Phantasmo vs. Konosuke Takeshita from Night 2 as my Match Of The Tournament up to this point. Umino definitely showed a good amount of fire here, and I definitely felt that he had a better performance on the whole compared to that aforementioned Wrestle Kingdom match. That being said, I still feel he can do a better job….emoting more, if that makes any sense? As for Sabre, he’s really had a rough start to the tournament from a kayfabe standpoint. Two losses already in matches where his leg took a ton of damage (the Narita more so than this match with Umino), and his only points thus far were because of Gabe Kidd’s forfeit. I suspect that we’ll see the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion go on quite the run through the rest of the B Block, and I’m sure he’ll be a factor in the knockout stages. Worth noting that Sabre did throw an ice pack at Umino after the match, and English Commentary did bring up Sabre’s past G1 temper tantrums, so we’ll see if Sabre gets more vicious down the stretch as he’s in a serious need of points. ****

Final Thoughts

Night 4 of G1 Climax 35 was highlighted by the top two matches as well as the surprising battle for 1st Place between Drilla Moloney and YOSHI-HASHI. From a quality standpoint, O-Khan vs. Takeshita and Sabre vs. Umino are the only things worth checking out, but again, if you’re invested in that 1st Place Battle, absolutely watch that opener as well. ELP vs. Ren Narita is a match you really don’t need to see if you’re pressed for time.

Here are the B Block Standings following Night 4: