NJPW G1 Climax 36: Night 6 (July 25) Results & Review

New Japan Pro Wrestling
G1 Climax 36: Night 6
July 25th, 2026
EBARA WAVE Arena Ota
Tokyo, Japan

The 2026 edition of the G1 Climax made its first stop in Tokyo on July 25th, for what would be the first of back-to-back nights in Ota City General Gymnasium (though it’s now apparently known as EBARA WAVE Arena Ota, at least according to cagematch). In the main event, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji and Shingo Takagi both look to keep from getting off to a 1-3 start, while a number of other wrestlers in the A Block have the chance to reach a 3-1 record with victories on this card. Can anyone break away from the pack? Time to find out!

As always, here are the results from the undercard:

Satoshi Kojima & Yuya Uemura def. Toru Yano & Taisei Nakahara
Unbound Company (OSKAR & Gedo) def. Aaron Wolf & Tatsuya Matsumoto
House Of Torture (Ren Narita & Dick Togo) def. United Empire (HENARE & Jakob Austin Young)
Unbound Company (Drilla Moloney & Daiki Nagai) def. (Callum Newman & Zane Jay)

G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Great O-Khan [4] def. Hirooki Goto [4]

For the second show in a row, Hirooki Goto fell to a member of United Empire via underhanded tactics. On this occasion, it was Great O-Khan who put Goto down for the count after a shot to the nuts, followed by The Eliminator. A few moments before that, O-Khan had pulled the referee in the way of a charging Goto, which allowed O-Khan to bring a chair into the ring. Goto was able to wrestle the chair away, and teased using it before throwing it down. With the referee just starting to stir at that point, that gave O-Khan the opening he needed to hit the low blow that led to the finish. The match itself was relatively solid. Certainly nothing outstanding, but the action was decent enough for the ten minutes or so that it lasted. O-Khan had actually tried to use a chair earlier in the match, but Goto thwarted that attempt, dropping him with a bulldog on the outside. O-Khan continued to attack Goto after the fact, using multiple chairs to dish out some additional damage. After Night 1, I wasn’t that excited to watch O-Khan in this year’s G1, but his more recent matches have definitely been a little better. The fact that he’s been doing a lot of cheating lately doesn’t help, that’s for sure, though I suppose that’s just one of the things they’re pushing in this year’s tournament with him. ***1/4

G1 Climax 36 – A Block
SANADA [4] def. Jake Lee [4]

Coming into this year’s G1 Climax, this was the match that I was looking forward to the least in the A Block. However, with SANADA having a (mostly) clean tournament up to this point, I was a little more intrigued going into this one than I would’ve been otherwise. While the match ended up being a tad longer than I would’ve preferred (these two didn’t need thirteen minutes), it was still pretty decent overall. Much like the previous bout, it wasn’t anything special, but for what it was, it was perfectly fine (it even featured some solid exchanges between the two in the closing few minutes). As I’ve said in previous reviews, as long as Jake Lee is contained to the undercard, I honestly don’t have many issues with his presence. The only thing about this that was messy was the finish. The two were going at it on the floor, and the idea was that SANADA was going to lock Lee in the Paradise Lock, with the assistance of a belt (which I believe came from Jake Lee’s entrance gear, I’m honestly not sure), to secure the win via countout. Well, they waited too long into the twenty count to start that spot, and they ended up rushing to try to get it done, which resulted in the spot not exactly coming off the way they hoped. The idea was sound, but the execution was not very good. After starting off the tournament with two straight losses, SANADA has now won two in a row, and once again, he continues to wrestle his matches fairly clean. ***1/4

G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Konosuke Takeshita [6] def. Boltin Oleg [4]

The winner of this match will become the first wrestler in the A Block to reach six points. Of course, these two have quite the history together, as Boltin defeated Takeshita during the G1 Climax two years ago, which led to the duo splitting matches for the NEVER Openweight Title in 2025. All of those previous matches were fantastic, and this bout just added another chapter to what has become an incredible in-ring rivalry. This was an awesome match from start-to-finish and, for my money, was one of the best of the tournament thus far. These two went right after each other as soon as the bell rang, with the amazing exchanges between the two not stopping until Takeshita finally put away Boltin with the Raging Fire in just under fifteen minutes. Some guys just click and have the absolute best chemistry whenever they wrestle each other, even if you can’t totally explain it. I can’t put my finger on why this Boltin vs. Takeshita works every single time, but it just does. The second half of this one was particularly strong, with Takeshita really having to empty the clip to beat Boltin. To his credit, Boltin nearly put Takeshita away on a few occasions. There was one particular spot that I thought was super cool where Takeshita managed to successfully hold onto the ropes to escape the Kamikaze (which was the same spot from the Boltin/Shingo match, with the only difference being Shingo couldn’t hold onto the ropes, and ate the Kamikaze for the finish). After managing to avoid that Kamikaze, Takeshita hit a series of knee strikes (the first of which Boltin no-sold) before hitting Raging Fire for the pin. Now THIS is the kind of match that perfectly encapsulates why we love the G1 Climax. When the matches hit, there’s almost nothing better. The type of match that you need to go out of your way to see. ****1/2

G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Yuto-Ice [4] def. Ryohei Oiwa [4]

After defeating Great O-Khan in his G1 Climax debut, Yuto-Ice has been on a bit of a slide, as he lost his next two tournament matches to Boltin Oleg and Konosuke Takeshita. He managed to get back on the right track here in Tokyo, as he managed to defeat Ryohei Oiwa with Cruella in just over fifteen minutes. This started out as a wild brawl, with both men fighting into the crowd and using chairs at various points. Once they got back in the ring, these put on a super entertaining match, with both men trading all sorts of strikes (from forearms to kicks), and even headbutts at one point (Chris Charlton noted on commentary that it was the first time he could ever recall Oiwa using a single headbutt, let alone multiple headbutts). Yuto took a lot of punishment late in the match, from barely surviving submissions to taking multiple Tenzan suplexes. He finally managed to fight back, and one more back-and-forth exchange between the two followed before Yuto got the win. This was easily Oiwa’s best match in the G1 up to this point, and as for Yuto, he’s been really hitting his stride with these last two matches. It makes me super excited to follow Yuto’s journey through the rest of the tournament, especially when he still has guys like Goto, Shingo, and (on the next A Block show) Tsuji in front of him. ****

G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Yota Tsuji [4] def. Shingo Takagi [2]

I honestly had no idea that this was the first singles match that these two have had in over five years. The only other singles encounter between Shingo Takagi and Yota Tsuji prior to this was in May of 2021, when Tsuji was still a Young Lion. I could’ve sworn that they had wrestled in a G1 Climax before, but the bottom line is that this was the first time they’ve faced since Tsuji returned from excursion. When the dust settled, Tsuji scored the victory in just over twenty four minutes when he managed to hit the Fire Blaster out of nowhere. At one point, it really felt like we were heading towards a time limit draw (which I wouldn’t have hated, for the record), but realistically, it was probably time for the IWGP Heavyweight Champion to get another win after losing two in a row. This was an excellent match that I had an absolute blast watching. While I would still give match of the night honors to Boltin vs. Takeshita, this main event was just as great, despite the fact that it was a very different kind of match. While Boltin and Takeshita went all out right from the jump, these two wrestled a more traditional main event, starting off slow before gradually building to a strong closing stretch. The big highlight in the first part of the match was Shingo hitting Tsuji with the Takagi Driver 98 (what’s supposed to be his version of the Tiger Driver 98) on the floor. From there, the pace started picking up, and we were treated to some awesome exchanges in the second half. Each time Shingo connected with something big, Tsuji would respond in kind. There was one spot in particular that I just loved, where Shingo pulled off this beautiful counter of the Gene Blaster into a flash pin. A few moments later, Shingo tried to follow up after getting a nearfall off a Burning Dragon, but that’s why Tsuji found his opening, and hit what was essentially a snap version of his new Fire Blaster move. In real time, it was a very sudden finish, but I do appreciate how Tsuji was able to add a different twist on it here. Again, a fantastic match from beginning to end, and a great way to close out the show. ****1/2

Final Thoughts

Night 6 of G1 Climax 36 was easily one of the best shows of the tournament thus far. While it did get off to a slow start, the last three matches absolutely delivered. Boltin Oleg vs. Konosuke Takeshita is definitely a contender for match of the tournament, while Yota Tsuji vs. Shingo Takagi isn’t that far behind. Ryohei Oiwa vs. Yuto-Ice was a great match as well, showing that Yuto-Ice has very much stepped up his game with his most recent set of performances in this tournament. You can honestly watch all of the A Block matches on this show if you want (the first two matches are totally fine for what they are), but you should 100% go out of your way to see the final three matches.

When it comes to the A Block Standings, Konosuke Takeshita has managed to gain a little bit of separation as the first wrestler to reach six points in the block. However, it’s a big logjam behind him, as everyone else (aside from Shingo Takagi, who only has two points) is tied at four points. The next A Block show should be an interesting one, as we should….in theory….start to break that logjam up a little bit.