New Japan Pro Wrestling
G1 Climax 36 Night 12
August 6, 2026
Korakuen Hall
Tokyo, Japan
Watch: NJPW WORLD
Audio Review (FlagshipPatreon.com)
Hey folks, it’s your least favorite podcaster John checking in here for my first G1 Climax written review of the tournament, and boy, what a show I ended up picking in hindsight! I’ve been doing audio coverage of all of these shows each week over on my podcast Wrestling Omakase (along with coverage of two major ongoing joshi tournaments, the STARDOM 5 Star GP & TJPW Princess Cup as well!) so if you’re interested in hearing some different takes in audio form as well, please check it out!
This has been, for my money at least, easily the greatest G1 of the decade, with the A block shows in particular far outperforming the respective shows over in B block. So when I saw the chance to review an A block show from the sacred grounds of Korakuen Hall, I jumped at the opportunity. As you’ll see below, for a lot of the show I was starting to wonder if I had made a bit of a mistake- up until the main event this ended up being the most underwhelming A block show of the tour so far pretty easily. Thankfully, Yota Tsuji and Boltin Oleg would do what they’ve done all tournament long and deliver in a big way.
But before we get to all that, here’s your Tales From the Undercard:
- United Empire (HENARE & Jakob Austin Young) def. Yuya Uemura & Masatora Yasuda when JAY used the Jakob’s Ladder on Yasuda in 6:51.
- House of Torture (Ren Narita & Dick Togo) def. Aaron Wolf & Tatsuya Matsumoto when Narita used a cross kneebar on Matsumoto in 6:01.
- United Empire (Callum Newman & Zane Jay) def. OSKAR & Gedo when OSKAR was counted out in 8:27.
- TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson) def. Unbound Co. (Drilla Moloney & Daiki Nagai) when Hartley used a sitout powerbomb on Nagai in 10:23.
G1 Climax 36 – A Block
SANADA [6] def. Yuto-Ice [6] by KO in 8:10
The story of this match going in was both men complimenting each other- Yuto-Ice claimed that one of (or possibly the very first??) matches he ever saw was a Seiya Sanada match in AJPW, while SANADA claimed that Yuto-Ice’s now-famous promo at the end of New Year Dash (when he basically promised the fans that he’d continue giving them a reason to love pro wrestling after Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement the night before, to an enormous reaction) helped inspire him to make a return after his surgery to repair his long-torn biceps instead of walking away from the sport entirely. They played into that story immediately when SANADA removed his very shiny gold outfit to reveal his old school blue-with-white-stars tights from his early AJPW days, which had Yuto on a pro wrestling high alright.
It started with some basic but solid wrestling, including a nice little dropkick from SANADA. He was able to block the Cruella a little later with a dropkick to the knee, which set up the Shining Wizard and then a moonsault press off the top for a 2 count. That sequence might sound a little more exciting in text form than it was to actually watch it play out, though, as the actual execution was just a touch slow. SANADA then went for the Deadfall but Yuto blocked it with a nice high kick. He tried for his O’Connor roll instead, but this lead to the ref getting caught between them and thus getting bumped. Yoshinobu Kanemaru ran out from the back and spit whiskey in Yuto’s face, which is something we haven’t seen anything of in SANADA’s matches to this point. He then basically reminded SANADA that he is in fact a House of Torture member (which he has barely seemed like for most of this tour, outside of the occasional low blow like the one he used to beat Yota Tsuji at one point), and since he’s facing elimination, it was time for him to finally use the guitar for the first time all tour.
I was kind of worried when Kanemaru handed him said guitar that we were either in for a long, drawn-out “SANADA can’t decide if he wants to use it” sequence with lots of pained facial expressions, or (maybe even worse) SANADA would act like he wasn’t going to use it and then SWERVE US BRO before breaking it over Yuto’s head, but to my relief he just kind of seemed torn about it in a pretty low key way for maybe twenty seconds total, then just broke it over poor Yuto’s face. Then SANADA just collapsed to the mat as both me and the announcers were having a hard time figuring out why he was doing that, but it turned out to be so the ref could do a standing 10 count before SANADA did a big kip-up right at 9 (which was actually pretty funny) so Yuto could continue his streak of all of his losses coming via knockout.
This really wasn’t much of a match overall, making it one of the weaker matches of the tournament for both guys (especially Yuto, but also SANADA who really has had a quite decent tournament up to this point, much to the surprise of many). It wasn’t horrible or anything, but the action was pretty slow even before the interference started, and then the actual finish was just kind of weird and stupid. I guess if you wanted to look for silver linings they’ve at least moved away from making these “House matches” a ton of interference bullshit for the entire match (even Ren Narita over in B block has toned it down a bit, though on some nights more than others though), instead just doing one spot at the finish, which I think most would agree is much more tolerable. At the end of the day though this was just a below average match. **1/4
G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Jake Lee [6] def. Great-O-Khan [4] in 1:47 by DQ
I tend to think you probably either find Jake Lee’s antics amusing or you don’t- I tend to find him to be quite funny, so I don’t mind him taking over Toru Yano’s role of G1 clown (I guess even more literally in his case!)/night off. He’s even managed to deliver a few actually good matches along the way, although this sure wasn’t one of them. Great-O-Khan on the other hand has been the worst wrestler in the entire tournament for me by a wide margin, so I was dreading this match quite a bit going in. As a side note, OSKAR’s hilariously casual burial of this match while doing commentary on the previous A block show was hilarious- poor Walker Stewart was trying to hype it up as something exciting because that’s his job and all, and OSKAR just bellows out “I know which match *I”m* gonna skip- THAT ONE!”. I almost pissed myself laughing. Anyway, when this match came up on NJPW World and it was all of 7 minutes long including the pre- and post-match stuff I was honestly relieved more than anything.
Jake had a weird half clown, half not clown face paint on under his mask, and then Great-O-Khan tried to attack from behind with a chair during his entrance, so Lee simply bailed. The look on his face where he basically was going “oh my word!” was pretty damn funny. They then started brawling on the floor before the bell even rang, with Jake tossing him into the railing a couple times before tossing him back in. I was relieved that the crowd brawling was mercifully short given there’s been way too much of it on this tour in general. O-Khan however just kicked the middle rope into Lee’s balls as he was entering behind him, and after the bell rang (with the ref checking on Jake AFTER he rang the bell, because that sure makes sense) with Jake down selling, he revealed he was actually playing possum, low blowing O-Khan from behind while he was arguing with the aforementioned ref, pulling a cup out of his pants and then dancing his little Pennywise jig. Again, I find Jake amusing, but I gather that this opinion is not shared by all.
O-Khan then recovered and brought a chair into the ring before Jake pulled the ‘ol Eddie Guerrero move on him, pretending to get hit by it (even knocking the seat out of the chair in a nice little touch) and immediately dropping to the mat. The ref actually DQed O-Khan immediately, which is funny (and a little infuriating) given how much guys tend to get away with in NJPW, although people always seem to miss that there’s a big difference between what you’re allowed to do on the floor and in the actual ring for some reason. Anyway, this was pretty bad don’t get me wrong, but I’m kind of amazed at the level of discourse a sub-2 minute match has apparently managed to cause. It really didn’t bother me that much. **
G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Ryohei Oiwa [8] def. Hirooki Goto [4] in 8:51 with the Big Lock
The big theme from Ryohei Oiwa on this tour has been him trying to simply headlock his way to victory (often successfully!), and he started it again very early on here, grabbing Goto in a side headlock very early on and just squeezing away. Goto tried to get free first by simply lifting his arms off of him and then by pushing him off the ropes, but both failed. He was finally able to push him off on the second try but Oiwa just immediately ran him over with a big shoulderblock and then put it right back on again. This time Goto didn’t even bother trying to break it himself, just maneuvering his way back toward the ropes to get the break. Great, simple little sequence there, but these guys really made the struggle to escape a side headlock super engaging.
Goto was able to fight back after that with a reverse GTR and then a pretty nice running lariat, but Oiwa countered a backdrop suplex by just grabbing him into the damn side headlock again. That was a very cool little counter there since Goto basically gave him his own head. But one minor complaint I had about this match is that Goto would keep trying to escape the headlock by throwing these little elbows to the sternum, and I thought the elbows he was throwing just looked remarkably weak. Unfortunately he got out of the headlock with those weak elbows this time and then hit the Ushigoroshi, then followed it up with the GTW for a 2 count. About a minute or so later Oiwa just caught Goto’s head when he tried for a headbutt, grabbing him right back into the side headlock in an awesome spot. Goto tried again to backdrop suplex his way out of it but couldn’t quite lift him, then settled for simply lifting Oiwa’s arms up to finally get himself free again…..only for OIWA to immediately explode forward with a very sick (and very Goto-esque) headbutt, and then immediately reapplied the headlock again! The crowd was going increasingly crazy for a side headlock at this point, an amazing feat in 2026, and Goto finally had no choice but to just tap out.
So yeah, I really do love the whole Oiwa headlock thing if you hadn’t noticed! I can’t quite call this a “notebook match” given it was a bit short and as I mentioned above Goto’s weak elbows really bothered me, but this was still a ton of fun. Ryohei Oiwa is one hell of a professional wrestler. ***3/4
G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Shingo Takagi [8] def. Konosuke Takeshita [10] in 19:44 with Last of the Dragon
The start of this match in the ring was fairly exciting but unfortunately they quickly ended up on the floor for some quite boring brawling, which again the sheer frequency of that sort of thing has turned into possibly my biggest pet peeve with the tournament up to this point. I think there might have been more than one match on night 11 where almost half of the match was outside brawling, which was ridiculous- the moment I thought it was over after they got back in, Takeshita just tossed Shingo right back outside to do it some more, which may have produced an audible groan from me.
Even when they got back into the ring at first this match just felt like it was missing a little something for me, although the live crowd was definitely into it. When they fought out onto the apron they started doing some more spectacular stuff though, as Takeshita just murdered him with a running knee to the face out there, but Shingo was able to recover and hit this crazy short-range powerbomb out there. He then hit Made in Japan back in the ring but Takeshita kicked out- as a side note, he really should have taught his wife a move that has actually beaten someone since the mid-2010s or so for her big match with Syuri last month!
Shingo hit some nice standing lariats that briefly rocked Takeshita, but he came back with a kinda meh boot to the face before they then traded some kinda poorly executed poison ranas. That’s probably one of the more cliched NJPW sequences to begin with, which makes it even worse when they don’t land flush like this. Takeshita ducked the Pumping Bomber and hit a pretty mediocre running lariat, but Shingo kicked out at 1 (speaking of cliches!) before Takeshita hit his own version of the Made in Japan for a 2 count. Nobody of any gender can win with that move I guess! Shingo then reversed the Raging Fire into one of his own a little bit later, and Korakuen was sure going insane for this match now chanting for Shingo (even if I still wasn’t quite that into it myself at home). You could see a massive welt forming below Takeshita’s eye so Shingo apparently got him pretty good with one of those strikes at some point, and they did just keep cracking each other in the face pretty hard at least. That whole sequence of brutal shots was easily the highlight of the match and kinda saved it for me to a degree, before Takagi finally put him down with another Pumping Bomber and hit the Burning Dragon, but Takeshita kicked out again. Finally the Last of the Dragon was enough for Shingo to get a win over Takeshita for the first time in three tries.
Again, the ending saved this match from being even more disappointing, but I still don’t think it was even close to the level of the banger they had in the G1 last year. Ironically, I thought that Shingo/Takeshita match in last year’s G1 was one of the very few highlights for Takeshita in what was a pretty underwhelming tournament for him compared to his first run in 2024- this year I think Takeshita’s been much better again overall, but then this match just couldn’t live up to that one. A good match for sure, would be silly to say it wasn’t, but that’s all it was for me at least. ***1/2
G1 Climax 36 – A Block
Boltin Oleg [10] def. Yota Tsuji [8] in 24:35 with the Last Kamikaze
So yeah, entering this match it’s safe to say I had been underwhelmed by this show to this point. I had been expecting better things out of the last two (especially Takeshita/Shingo) than we actually got, so it fell to these two guys to “save the show”. Thankfully, Yota Tsuji and Boltin Oleg just so happen to be the MVPs of the entire tournament, and boy did they deliver here too with the greatest match we’ve seen in the 2026 edition of the G1 so far.
The crowd was loudly chanting for Boltin pretty much the moment the bell rang, and it’s kind of amazing to see how fast Yota Tsuji has slid into the old Okada/Tanahashi ace role in more ways than one. Just like those two before him, Yota is very well liked by the fans and never really gets booed (well, Tana especially actually DID get booed for a little while there, but anyway….), but he’s such a dominating presence that the crowd tends to get behind virtually everyone they put across from him, just because they want to see the upset happen. NJPW just works so much better when you have that established ace figure performing at a high level, and Yota Tsuji has sure been doing that throughout this entire tournament.
This match was very intense pretty much right from the opening bell. Boltin tried for the Kamikaze very early, and when that didn’t work he started throwing some very hard chops to Tsuji after he had briefly rolled out of the ring to catch his breath. Tsuji came back by targeting Boltin’s midsection in what became the running theme of the match, hitting a nice little combo of knees to the gut and then a gutbuster around the 5 minute mark. This made sense both from the standpoint of Tsuji’s finishers all targeting Boltin’s gut, and Boltin needing to lift Tsuji to hit his own finishers.
Boltin came back by catching Tsuji coming off the turnbuckles trying for the Marlowe Crash and just sort of hitting this very natural looking side slam as a counter, before going down and selling his midsection. His selling was excellent throughout, as he did a great job making it look like more of a struggle than usual when he lifted Tsuji up for the “Boltin shake” gutwrench suplex thing he does, still holding his gut the whole way. He’s such a breath of fresh air among a 2026 landscape of often very corny, over-the-top professional wrestlers- his selling is so much more subtle and realistic than many others.
Tsuji actually broke out a giant swing in this match, which I can’t even recall the last time I saw him do that (it’s always great when wrestlers bust out moves they don’t normally do in a long tournament like this!). He continued showing off his power by almost deadlifting him into this cool powerbomb out of a suplex position, and that is obviously a pretty big boy to be lifting like that! But speaking of power, Boltin was able to block the Tsuji curb stomp by simply holding up his upper body with his arms which was so cool looking. He went for the Kamikaze again but Tsuji reversed it in mid-air with a triangle choke of all things, a very cool counter. That left Boltin motionless for Tsuji to hit this very out-of-control looking double jump double stomp off the top (Walker calling it the “best double stomp ever” popped me) for a 2 count, and boy was this match hitting another level entirely at this point.
Tsuji then tried to wear the monster down some more with a sleeper hold. Boltin got back to his feet with Tsuji on his back and walked him up the corner, so Tsuji smartly let go of the hold, dropping down and then just powerbombing Boltin off of there in a very cool and inventive spot. They fought out to the apron where Tsuji GENE BLASTED HIM OFF OF IT ALL THE WAY TO THE FLOOR, a super crazy bump for both guys that of course left them both down. Back in the ring a few minutes later Tsuji tried for another Gene Blast spear, but Boltin just stuffed him and turned it straight into an enormous powerbomb in another incredible spot. If I wanted to nitpick I don’t love that they did a typical NJPW forearm exchange after they both got back up, as it felt both completely unnecessary and out of sync with the rest of the match (not to give away my final rating but this might be the biggest thing that kept it from “full five” for me), but at least it didn’t go on very long.
A bit later Tsuji was able to counter the Kamikaze by hitting a high speed German suplex, but Boltin did this amazing no sell spot that really wasn’t a “no sell” at all in the traditional sense. He kinda staggered up back to his feet off of it while still doing an amazing job selling that he was moving on instinct more than anything, then managed to lift Tsuji straight up into the short-range version of the Kamikaze for a 2 count just before the 20 minute call. And then a little later, we got the spot of the match- Tsuji tried for the Gene Blast again, but Boltin simply ROARED IN HIS FACE to stop him. That easily could have been a corny or stupid looking spot with another pair of wrestlers, but Boltin is so legitimately intimidating (and Tsuji sold his shock so well as he stopped) that instead it ended up kicking all kinds of ass. Tsuji recollected himself quickly though, briefly staggering the monster with knee attacks and a huge headbutt, but Boltin shrugged all that off and hit this giant leaping front dropkick, before kipping back up…..right into another enormous Gene Blast from Tsuji, as he speared him out of his proverbial boots. Boltin kicked out however. Holy shit what a match these two were having.
Tsuji then stole the Kamikaze, which he didn’t execute particularly well (although honestly that’s fine- it’s not his finish for a reason!), getting another 2 count off of it. He ran in for either another Gene Blast or maybe even finally the Fireblaster but instead just gets absolutely murdered with a huge lariat from Boltin. The crowd was going completely insane by this point as Boltin was literally roaring, before he pulled Tsuji up off the mat straight up onto his shoulders and DELIVERED THE VERDICT for another 2 count. Boltin then yanked Tsuji straight up off the ropes into a powerbomb for another nearfall, then deadlifted him back up to try it again before Tsuji countered with a rana that he very nearly got the pin off of. He kind of cleverly acted like he was going for the spear again before trying a second rana instead, but Boltin was able to block it and slowly maneuver him back into place for two more powerbombs. He then lifted Tsuji back up to go for the full Kamikaze, and when Tsuji grabbed onto the ropes to block, Boltin simply climbed up to the second rope and hit it off of there instead, which is apparently the LAST KAMIKAZE. And indeed, it was enough for Boltin Oleg to pin the IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
What else is there to say after all that except this match was absolutely fucking incredible? It’s the new match of the tournament, beating out two other Yota Tsuji matches (vs. Yuto-Ice and Konosuke Takeshita) I have at the same rating as this one, because Yota Tsuji is having one hell of a G1 Climax. Boltin really isn’t that far behind him either, and New Japan simply seems to be in very good hands with these two around. ****3/4
Final Thoughts
So yeah, this was kind of a one match show at the end of the day, but when that one match goes straight into your top 10 matches of the year that’s pretty freaking good! I’m really digging the newer style of the young (or, well, young-ish in some cases actually) top guys in NJPW these days- a bit less flashy than the 2010s for sure, but the match structure is a little less “finisher reversal dance” and a little more realistic, and some of the selling these guys are doing is next level. Nobody is going to confuse 2026 NJPW with RINGS, especially when you still have the wacky undercard stuff at times, but it’s still great to see the current crop of top guys carving out their own niche this year. “NJPW is back” became a bit of a cliche for a reason, and the threat of terrorism booking from Gedo always looms over the promotion like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, but man are they putting on one hell of a Grade One Climax at least!
Up next for the A block is Sunday 6/9 in Gunma, where Shingo Takagi will clash with his fellow Unbound Co. member Yuto-Ice in the main, and new co-block leader Boltin Oleg faces Hirooki Goto in a singles match for only the second time in his career (Goto won their previous meeting which came two years ago in the G1, in case you’re wondering). Tsuji faces Great-O-Khan in what might be the biggest test of him as a worker to date given GOK’s performances in this tournament so far, Takeshita battles SANADA, and Ryohei Oiwa takes on Jake Lee. Before that though it’s a B block show on Saturday from Yokohama with an OSKAR vs. Callum Newman main.
A Block Standings
- Konosuke Takeshita (5-2)- 10 points (Note: has direct win tiebreaker over Boltin)
- Boltin Oleg (5-2)- 10 points
- Yota Tsuji (4-3)- 8 points
- Ryohei Oiwa (4-3)- 8 points
- Shingo Takagi (4-3)- 8 points
- Yuto-Ice (3-4)- 6 points
- Jake Lee (3-4)- 6 points
- SANADA (3-4)- 6 points
- Great-O-Khan (2-5)- 4 points (Note: has direct win tiebreaker over Goto)
- Hirooki Goto (2-5)- 4 points
Listen to Voices of Wrestling’s NJPW podcast: Super J-Cast!
Powered by RedCircle
