NJPW G1 Climax 35 results: Semifinals
The NJPW G1 Climax 35 tournament reaches its penultimate night with semifinals action.
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and Konosuke Takeshita square off in the main event with a place in Sunday’s finals hanging in the balance. Sabre earned a bye into the semis with his first place finish in B Block, while Takeshita earned his way in with a win over David Finlay in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Tonight’s other semifinals bout features EVIL vs. Yota Tsuji. EVIL earned his spot in the semis by finishing with the highest point total in A Block, while Tsuji defeated Shota Umino in Thursday’s quarterfinals to move on.
The winners of tonight’s bouts will square off tomorrow in the G1 finals with a spot in the Wrestle Kingdom main event potentially on the line. Last year’s G1 winner Sabre chose to cash in his title shot at King of Pro Wrestling last October rather than wait for the traditional January 4 Tokyo Dome challenge. Sabre defeated Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World title last October.
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- El Desperado, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, YOSHI-HASHI & Yuya Uemura defeated Master Wato, Satoshi Kojima, Taichi, Toru Yano & YOH
- House of Torture defeated Oleg Boltin & Tomoaki Honma
- United Empire defeated El Phantasmo, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuya Murashima
- Daiki Nagai & Shingo Takagi defeated War Dogs (David Finlay & Gedo)
- House of Torture defeated War Dogs
- House of Torture defeated TMDK
- EVIL defeated Yota Tsuji
- Konosuke Takeshita defeated Zack Sabre Jr.
Main Card – Tag Team Matches
El Desperado, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, YOSHI-HASHI & Yuya Uemura defeated Master Wato, Satoshi Kojima, Taichi, Toru Yano & YOH
(Fun 10-man tag to open the show. Everyone hit their best strengths. Kojima and Taichi’s moments were a real chuckle, on par with Yano and Taguchi’s comedic proclivities.)
Uemura and Taichi locked up, with the former eating a big boot from the latter. Deep arm drag by Uemura saw Taichi dragged into the corners, with Umino soon on the receiving end of a kick. Kojima and Taichi had an awkward intense stare after Yano tagged himself in. Kojima eventually made it in, were he rained down chops on Umino’s chest.
YOSHI-HASHI and Desperado bore down on Kojima, who escaped to YOH. Suplexing Desperado, YOH dropped to one himself. Taguchi delivered two Funky Weapons to topple Wato. YOSHI-HASHI nearly tricked Taichi into taking out Kojima, who repeatedly tried shaking Taichi’s hand. Uemura and Umino coordinated to plummet Wato to the mat. Taguchi hit Wato with a Bomaye.
Desperado assisted Taguchi by slingshotting Wato and YOH onto the top rope. Wato fell down, while Desperado pulled YOH by the leg. Taguchi took advantage of the situation by rolling up Wato. Three taps later and Taguchi won the match for his comrades.
House of Torture (Don Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) defeated Oleg Boltin & Tomoaki Honma
(With his recent, crushing loss to EVIL in the G1 Climax A-Block coupled with this loss, there might be a slight change in Boltin. With commentary mentioning to keep an eye on Boltin’s post-match comments in the night, I wonder what it could be.)
A bitter Boltin didn’t even bother taking off his shirt or NEVER Openweight Championship; he charged Fale in the corner and chopped him down. Fale fired back with strikes but stumbled to his opponent’s dropkick. Fale dropped him with a charging lariat and tagged Takahashi in. Honma tagged in after his partner stunned Takahashi with a shotgun dropkick.
Takahashi rolled out of the way of Honma’s Kokeshi. Boltin halted Fale’s rampage for Honma to deliver one Kokeshi. Mid-Kokeshi, Fale caught Honma by the throat, hit him with a stiff clothesline, and an elbow drop for the pinfall.
Post-match: Fale and Takahashi dispatched an irate Boltin, with Fale faux-pinning his downed former opponent.
United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young) defeated El Phantasmo, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuya Murashima
(Newman’s being positioned as the big star of this triumvirate while Khan’s longer tenure glues the group’s dynamics in place. This match was emblematic of that in the wake of departures like Jeff Cobb, Will Ospreay, and Aussie Open’s. Murashima is coming to his own, displaying more than intensity and drama; he’ll go far in NJPW.)
Khan grappled with the Ace, ultimately driving him into the corner. Tanahashi rebounded with a flying crossbody with further assist from Phantasmo and a senton by Murashima. Tanahashi, Phantasmo, and Murashima did an air guitar pose, the latter of which had such a good time doing it that he didn’t notice Young and Newman taking out his partners. After singlehandedly dispatching United Empire, Murashima resumed excitedly playing the air guitar until Tanahashi calmed him down.
Khan sat atop Tanahashi’s shoulders on the top rope, pressing his full weight. He pulled the Ace to the ring’s center for Mongolian chops that instantly fell his opponent. Phantasmo soared into the United Empire on the outside, dragging Khan back into the ring for a Senton + Lionsault combo. Scouting Phantasmo, Khan caught his Canadian opponent with a punch. Sturdy as he was, Newman flipped in the air by Murashima’s power, landing to Tanahashi’s Slingblade and Murashima’s bulldog powerslam.
Newman charged for Murashima, with some trouble. However, he inevitably sent the Young Lion on his back with a crushing Firebolt. This earned Newman and his United Empire co-horts the win.
Daiki Nagai & Shingo Takagi defeated War Dogs (David Finlay & Gedo)
(Unafilliated (LIJ) coming to Nagai’s aid more and more keeps me invested in this new iteration of the group. Post-Naito and BUSHI, its as though Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, and Yota Tsuji are filling a void left behind and the hungry Nagai could be that foil.)
Finlay swiftly dragged Nagai to the ropes, where the pair struck the other with elbows in repetition. Ruthlessly, Finlay battered the Young Lion and hit him with a Senton. Spinning around Nagai atop his shoulders, Finlay dizzily stumbled to a tag with Gedo.
Nagai struggled back to his feet, grounded firmly by Gedo’s neck hold. Takagi tagged in, but had little luck when Gedo and Finlay unified their sights on him. Nagai came to Takagi’s aid, resulting in a plancha to Finlay. Gedo hit the ground stunned after Takagi’s Dangerous Driver. WAR Special locked in, Gedo submitted to the merciless hold of Takagi.
House of Torture (SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) defeated War Dogs (Drilla Moloney & Taiji Ishimori)
(House of Torture win, but at least I got a kick out of Ishimori noticeably taking out Kanemaru on the outside away from the camera. Combined with the whiskey spray from the War Dogs and the sound the guitar made on Moloney popped me. That said, I hope the resulting blood wasn’t too serious. He staggered off in the end as it streamed down his face.)
SANADA was dressed from head to toe in a full-body reflective suit. Glimmering in the light, he looked like a human disco ball.
Both teams wasted no time as they brawled before and after the bell. Moloney and Ishimori went to work on Kanemaru in the corner. SANADA pulled Moloney away, bashing him against the hard, blue steel guardrails near the crowd. Kanemaru and SANADA applied pressure with their legs, driving Ishimori into the corner turnbuckle. Ishimori leapt to a comeback with a dropkick to Kanemaru.
Moloney with the tag, scouted SANADA’s each move temporarily downed him. Kanemaru prevented any follow-up courtesy of a leg pull. Ishimori equalized Kanemaru on the outside, loudly and off-camera. SANADA clutched the referee when Moloney hoped to suplex him. Kanemaru sought to spray whiskey in Moloney’s eye but he ducked in time. The War Dogs imbibed the whiskey, spraying it into the House of Torture. SANADA blasted Moloney’s skull with his guitar, deeply embedding it. This earned House of Torture a pin.
House of Torture (DOUKI, Ren Narita & SHO) defeated TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa)
(Fujita and Oiwa didn’t get much time, but Jackson put up a valiant effort. I wasn’t a fan of this match once it became clear and predictable, try as everyone might.)
House of Torture struck Fujita and Oiwa, but had a hard time with Jackson. SHO and DOUKI bullied Fujita on the outside. Narita added to this in the ring, driving Fujita’s head along the rope. DOUKI overwhelmed the exhausted and worn Fujita, capitalizing with a double-stomp. Wearily, Fujita turned the tables at last with a dropkick.
Oiwa blasted off with a fury, dropkicking Narita and punishing him with utmost focus on the left arm. Even though he raked Oiwa in the eye, he found himself again in the throes of agony courtesy of another arm hold. SHO joined Narita to torment Oiwa, both men dropped to a double-clothesline.
Jackson threw his weight at Narita. Suffering knee targeting, Jackson’s friends aided him into landing a senton on Narita. Clinging the referee to the rope, Narita distracted him so SHO might harm Jackson more with a wrench. Thanks to this, a poke in the eye, and DOUKI’s pipe, House of Torture quelled Jackson’s Jagged Edge. Narita locked in a figure-four leglock to tap Jackson out.
G1 Climax Semifinal Matches
EVIL defeated Yota Tsuji
(Disappointed with the finish. It feels like a crime. And voice my misgivings as I might, I think there’s nothing stopping NJPW from booking EVIL versus Zack Sabre Jr at Wrestle Kingdom 20.)
Tsuji got the better of EVIL initially, but Dick Togo pulled him into the steel guardrail outside. EVIL flung him into it, toppling over someone in a production desk. Wrapping a microphone around Tsuji’s neck, EVIL demanded he declar him the winner. Shingo Takagi and Daiki Nagai joined Tsuji’s side to urge him back up. There htey stayed through the match.
EVIL hoped to take advantage of the recent woes he inflicted on Tsuji, but he persevered. Sinking in a figure-four leglock, EVIL inevitably relinquished his hold. Hurling his opponent in the corner, he powerbombed the limping Tsuji. The two battled for a vertical suplex, with Tsuji grittily pulling through.
In his spirited comeback, Tsuji chopped down EVIL. In his ire, EVIL beamed Tsuji into and over the steel guardrail. Dick Togo kicked Tsuji’s leg into the barricade and fled behind Don Fale after Shingo Takagi gave chase. EVIL cinched in a deep Darkness Scorpion. Red-faced and unrelenting, Tsuji dramatically gripped a rope break.
Tsuji curb stomped EVIL, earning him enough time for a reprieve. A Spanish Fly begat an urgent rebound by Tsuji, leading EVIL to fling the referee in the way of a Gene Blaster. With the referee incapacitated, Fale and Togo frantically took out Nagai and Takagi so they could assault Tsuji. EVIL’s allies and Tsuji’s allies gave each other low blows. Tsuji and EVIL traded counter after counter. Attempting to send EVIL from the top rope, Tsuji tragically fell to Fale’s low blow. EVIL locked in one last Darkness Scorpion, enough to render Tsuji unconscious.
Post-match: Referee Kenta Sato rejected Takagi and Nagai’s appeals to overturn the finish, as Tsuji hadn’t tapped out.
Konosuke Takeshita defeated Zack Sabre Jr.
(Takeshita pulled out a miracle here. Off the cusp of the last match, he became Western fans’ last hope against EVIL with this win. Admittedly, NJPW should be investing more in their younger stock; they’ve quite an impressive crop to do so with. However, Takeshita makes his NJPW dates, and does more than I think most people realize. He is contracted to NJPW, after all. Him winning the G1 and potentially the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship would not be a bad call.)
Sabre started off this rematch by getting the best of Takeshita. However, the Alpha reversed this with a shoulder hold of his own. Sabrearms were tied around his neck as he struggled to maintain calmness. Soon, Sabre shouldered Takeshita to send him down. There, he cranked the arm of his opponent and bent his fingers back. Takeshita wriggled to a rope break.
Sabre aimed for a Penalty Kick on the ring apron, but Takeshita countered him with a DDT to the floor ringside. A German Suplex rendered Sabre momentarily stunned, and a flying shoulder tackle brought him back down. Sabre dodged Takeshita’s knee, kicking the back of it as he did so. To rub salt in the wound, he tied Takeshita’s weak leg against a bottom rope. Following a modified stretch to agonize it further, Sabre stomped on the knee.
Takeshita’s adrenaline propelled him to demolish Sabre with two consecutive exploder suplexes. Sabre snatched a comeback as he clutched an armbar. This essened the affect of a lariat. Out of nowhere, Sabre survived a Blue Thunderbomb to engage a triangle choke. Takeshita wept for frantic rope break attempts as Sabre tied his legs together. A loud clap followed a Rolling Elbow from Takeshita. He stole a Zack Driver to no avail. Desperately, Sabre tried many different holds and pins, but Takeshita escaped via a German suplex.
Sabre avoided a knee, landing a Zack Driver followed by an armbar. He maintained this with urgency as Takeshita miraculously earned a rope break. A lariat overturned Sabre’s Penalty Kick. The men sparred with Sabre slapping the taste out of Takeshita’s mouth. On the top turnbuckle, Sabre maintained a hold on Takeshita’s left arm but fell to the mat in Takeshita’s transitioned Raging Fire. A Powerdrive Knee and another Raging Fire tore Sabre apart for the pinfall.
Post-match: The entire House of Torture spilled to ringside. EVIL teased entering the ring, but smugly backed away and his lackeys joined him.
(I stress again the urgency of elevating the young, hot talent. So many could’ve qualified for the playoffs, semifinals, and finals. EVIL, no matter what his popularity in Japan may or may not be, should not be in this position in 2025. Hope beyond hope, Takeshita’s NJPW schedule could see him be a bigger deal in AEW and NJPW. The stars of the past cannot be relied on forever, especially in today’s wildly changing wrestling climate.)