NJPW G1 Climax 36 night 12 live results: Yota Tsuji vs. Boltin Oleg
The G1 Climax continues today at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo with five A Block matches.
Boltin Oleg and Yota Tsuji will square off in the main event. Both wrestlers enter the show with 4-2 records. This will be their third singles match, with Tsuji having won each of their first two bouts.
Konosuke Takeshita will face Shingo Takagi. Takeshita is 5-1, while Takagi is 3-3.
Hirooki Goto will take on Ryohei Oiwa. Goto has a 2-4 record, while Oiwa is 3-3.
Jake Lee will face Great-O-Khan, with both wrestlers entering the match at 2-4.
Yuto-Ice will take on Sanada. Yuto-Ice has a 3-3 record, while Sanada is 2-4.
Several preview matches for upcoming tournament bouts are also scheduled for the show.
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Pre-Show
Dory Funk Jr Tribute
Tiger Hattori stood in the ring with a framed photograph as he stood beside NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi. Ring announcer Makoto Abe listed off the accolades and contributions to New Japan Pro Wrestling and wrestling in general.
Main Show
United Empire (HENARE & Jakob Austin Young) defeated Masatora Yasuda & Yuya Uemura
Uemura quickly gained control of the match, outspeeding HENARE’s sturdy offense with armdrags and a dropkick. HENARE soundly kept Yasuda underfoot with a Senton. A side suplex swung a comeback courtesy of Uemura. HENARE replied with a Maori Drop.
Yasuda hit Young with a hip toss and scoop-and-slam. He followed this with a Boston Crab. HENARE chopped Yasuda back down before resuming focus on Uemura. Young finished off Yasuda with a Jacob’s Ladder to give United Empire the win.
HENARE was in good form. Yasuda looks like he’s getting closer to graduation; he’s put things together so well since I first watched him.
House Of Torture (Dick Togo & Ren Narita) defeated Aaron Wolf & Tatsuya Matsumoto
The obligatory pre-match House of Torture assault left Wolf winded at ringside, leaving Matsumoto to contend with Togo. Briefly, Matsumoto held a Boston Crab on Togo. A Darkness Scorpion was Togo’s response.
Wolf plunged Narita into a vertical suplex. He discarded a momentary Togo interference with a Triangle Choke. Narita broke the control by stomping Wolf’s sensitive nether region. Matsumoto’s kneebar to Narita faltered to Togo’s Senton. Narita slipped away with a submission win, tapping Matsumoto out with a kneebar of his own.
Wolf receiving acclaim for his matches with the rest of the NJPW roster, only to have matches where he takes on the House of Torture again, is hilarious. Hopefully, someday, he gets a much-needed, extended break from them.
United Empire (Callum Newman & Zane Jay) defeated Unbound Co. (Gedo & OSKAR)
Newman teased OSKAR from the Korakuen Hall rafters and on the ground floor, ragebaiting him, the fans, and Referee Sakamoto. Gedo choked Jay into near-unconsciousness and poked him in the eye. Jay returned the favor, targeting Gedo’s beard in the process. Newman taunted Gedo as he picked up steam, just to spit on him and press him to the mat with his boot.
OSKAR chased Newman out of the ring. Gedo swept Jay to the mat and finally tagged OSKAR in. The gigantic German decapitated Jay but missed Newman with a double clothesline. He swung the young United Empire match in a headlock. Newman kicked him in the back, incurring wrathful chops to the back that spilled into a brawl among the crowd. As Jay lay in the ring, OSKAR pulverized Newman into the seats and across the arena to a 20-count, giving United Empire another win.
Newman using Jay as cannon fodder was a hilarious dick move. His beef with OSKAR is a great bit of long-term storytelling, the more Newman serves as his arch-nemesis.
TMDK (Hartley Jackson & Zack Sabre Jr.) defeated Unbound Co. (Daiki Nagai & Drilla Moloney)
Sabre’s wrist control faltered a bit in the opening minutes with Moloney’s strength and preparedness. He and Sabre traded side headlocks and headscissor holds. Nagai fared little better against the hulking Jackson, suffering a shoulder tackle and a splash. Jackson and Sabre kept tagging each other in to batter Nagai’s chest.
The rookie peppered Jackson’s neck as best he could with elbows, but it just took one from the Aussie to drop him. Eluding a leg drop from his gargantuan foe, Nagai deployed a dropkick. Moloney managed a scoop-and-slam to Jackson. Nagai volleyed Sabre back and forth against the blue steel guardrail. The rookie pulled off the feat of crashing Jackson down in a spinebuster, but couldn’t capitalize.
Jackson crushed this mosquito with a low-crossbody and a senton. Moloney made the save, refusing to give up on the Drilla Killa he’d tried all match. Sabre denied him this, securing a grasp over the arm amid Nagai’s roll-up on Jackson. Jackson powerbombed Nagai to finish the match while Sabre moved onto Moloney’s leg.
Nagai’s fighting spirit angle is doing wonders for him in these matches. It’s hard to root against him, even when you’re a Hartley Jackson fan like me. Speaking of Jackson, I think the world would benefit from more matches against Drilla Moloney.
G1 Climax Matches
SANADA (6) defeated Yuto-Ice (6)
Ice struggled with SANADA’s dominance over his arm, not to mention the dropkick to his leg. However, he fired back with kicks of his own, grounding SANADA in the corner. SANADA cut off Ice’s Bomboclat with a dropkick to the leg, then followed up with a Shining Wizard. Ice answered with a roundhouse kick to daze his opponent.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru tripped Ice up mid-Bomboclat, spraying whiskey into his eyes. He lent SANADA a guitar, which he obliged by striking it over Ice’s head. While SANADA played dead, Kanemaru stirred Referee Kendo Sato awake. There, SANADA mockingly lay as the referee counted to ten, getting up at nine to leave the match with a score of six.
SANADA’s technique was sound, and the dirty heel tactics worked in this bout’s favor, which I can’t believe I’m saying for a House of Torture-related match. Nevertheless, it gave Yuto-Ice sympathy at this point in the tournament.
Jake Lee (5) defeated Great-O-Khan (4)
Khan awaited Lee, ready to strike with a chair before the bell. Lee slingshotted Khan into the guardrails and back to the ring. There, he struck his United Empire mate with a low blow, revealing himself to be wearing a cup (which he unwisely threw away). An incensed Khan retrieved his chair, swinging for the fences. Lee stole it, struck the ground with it, and lay flat. Referee Kendo Sato turned his attention to the scene, unfavorable to Khan. Believing the competitor struck Lee with the chair, he disqualified him.
Post-match: Khan assaulted Lee. Jakob Austin Young appealed to him for some mercy. Lee stood upright, gesturing for a handshake; Khan rejected.
Ryohei Oiwa (8) defeated Hirooki Goto (4)
Neither wrestler wasted time, both exchanging elbows before Goto flattened Oiwa with a shoulder tackle. Oiwa bounced back with a side headlock. Goto caught Oiwa’s Grip attempt, collapsing him with a lariat. Protecting his neck with an Ushigiroshi, Goto followed through with a GTR.
Oiwa returned to his side headlock strategy, draining the life out of Goto as he torqued the hold. Goto momentarily broke the hold. Oiwa resorted to headbutting in and sank in the headlock so deep that Goto ultimately tapped out.
Excellent match, and easily digestible too. Shorter than I’d have thought, but with a hungry young talent like Oiwa, that fire had to be believably captured.
Side note: I like how AEW and WWE have been marketing their Mortal Kombat II and Street Fighter films, while the only advertisement needed for NJPW fans is simply reminding fans that Hirooki Goto is E. Honda. That’s the only selling I need to watch the movie.
Shingo Takagi (8) defeated Konosuke Takeshita (10)
Takagi got the better of a strike exchange, but Takeshita got the upper hand overall with a dropkick. That luck would change as Takagi flung him into the guardrails and into the chairs on the ground floor before sending him headfirst into the ring post.
The unrelenting Takagi included as many moves as he could, from stomps to sentons, until he received a vertical suplex. Takeshita hurled him into the guardrail, punctuating it with a Big Boot. Unsatisfied, Takeshita spiked him with a DDT on the floor padding.
Takeshita snapped Takagi’s neck, but his prey escaped to the ropes. Takagi caught his Power Drive Knee, costing him momentum. A DDT and Brainbuster eked Takagi further into control of the match. Takeshita’s Blue Thunderbomb rocked Takagi, but couldn’t put him away.
Exploder and German suplexes ensued, each man flinging the other. Takagi unleashed a Twist-n-Shout and Brainbuster. Takeshita responded with a Power Drive Knee on the apron. Takagi Driver 98 ached Takeshita on the apron, leading to a Made in Japan back in the ring. After some thunderous headbutts and elbow strikes, Takagi downed Takeshita with a Pumping Bomber. At last, Takagi defeated Takeshita with a Last of the Dragon to gain the pinfall.
Nothing short of spectacular. The odds seemed stacked against Takagi, given Takeshita’s insane score, but he overcame them. Of course, these two have incredible chemistry every time they cross paths in the ring.
Oleg Boltin (10) defeated Yota Tsuji (8)
Early on, Boltin shoulder tackled Tsuji, letting the Unbound Co. leader wear himself out. Tsuji retaliated with a dropkick that agonized the Kazakh wrestler’s midsection. He exploited this with double stomps to the stomach with a rope assist. Boltin snatched Tsuji mid-Marlowe Crush and slammed him to the mat with less strength than he would’ve liked due to his worn arm.
A Boltin Shake dizzied Tsuji, taking more wind out of Boltin. Tsuji gained some respite, cracking Boltin’s spine with a backbreaker. Hoisting Boltin’s legs up, Tsuji spun him around in a swing that would’ve made Claudio Castagnoli blush. Tsuji trounced a Boltin Bomb by securing a triangle hold, using the subsequent opening for a Marlowe Crush.
Boltin and Tsuji battled on the apron, with the latter’s Gene Blaster crashing the former to the floor. Though he struggled, Boltin managed to return to the ring and beat the 20-count at the 18-count mark. Boltin transitioned Tsuji’s Gene Blaster into a Boltin Bomb. Finally in the driver’s seat again, Boltin stressed Tsuji out with a Kamikaze. Tsuji rebounded from a powerbomb for another Gene Blaster. He tried another, but Boltin stopped it with a lariat and a Verdict.
Powerbomb after powerbomb, Boltin demolished Tsuji; trying for other moves, his tender arm threatened to give out, but he stayed his course. Despite Tsuji’s best efforts, Boltin pulled out a miracle and defeated the IWGP Heavyweight Champion with a Kamikaze.
Post-match: Boltin reminded everyone of his promise to bring his best. And he said he’d continue to do so to win the G1 Climax.
Boltin’s an incredible seller. Legends tell of how Randy Savage’s most devastating moves would lessen their impact the longer a match went on or he sold an injury. Boltin’s slam early in the match reminded me of just that. Even his kickouts of Tsuji’s pins were weaker.
It’s one thing to sell the agony and bump, but to add it in the little details goes a long way. There was a moment during the 20-count where his eyes visibly fluttered at around 15 before he stirred awake and made it back to the ring. He’s putting it together so well, and I hope it pays off well for him.
Final Thoughts
Man, this is what I’ve been wanting for so long. Boltin is such an underrated NJPW talent, and I will never let anyone forget it. Invest in Boltin stocks now. He has all the makings for greatness. Anyone can be flashy, but displaying that fighting spirit, maintaining ground regardless of the odds, of the weight of the world on your own flesh and bone to pull out miracles, that’s what it’s all about. The moments in between. That’s the professional that is Oleg Boltin.
The rest of the G1 matches lent themselves to different things. SANADA made Yuto-Ice an underdog, while Jake Lee used the Eddie Guerrero chair gimmick to more success. While it’s sad to see the Goto Revolution not as strong anymore, it’s time for Oiwa to make some waves. Lastly, seeing someone for the second time in this tournament give Takeshita a loss intensified the stakes, especially now that Boltin is tied with him. That’s big, to be tied with the leader on the scoreboard while simultaneously defeating the current IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
Dare I say it, the A Block is heating up!
Corey Michaels covers the play-by-play action of events hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Referenced by content creators and Wikipedia articles, he adds his prosaic voice with authority to the F4W/WON audience.
A content writer and wrestling fan, Corey has woven the stories of our great sport into literature. He cuts to the emotional core of characters, rivalries, and angles.