wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 35 Semifinals Review
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW G1 Climax 35 Night 18
August 16th, 2025 | Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 4,558
Good attendance number here proving again that wrestling fans will show up even if the product is bad..
G1 Climax Semifinals: EVIL vs. Yota Tsuji
Their first G1 match this year sucked (DUD) as did their New Japan Cup outing (*). The smart booking would be Yota Tsuji winning since he and Gabe were the best choices from the start and Gabe is out with an injury. Yota is absolutely the guy they should build the company around. Unfortunately, New Japan doesn’t have someone known for smart booking. Anyway, I’ve told you all before that the House of Torture puts in no effort, so neither will I. We got a bunch of House of Torture shenanigans with interference from Don Fale and Dick Togo, it dragged on forever, and then, Gedo booked EVIL to win with a Sharpshooter that Yota passed out from because of all the damage done to him. This went 18:01 and I really don’t have much else to cover because if you’ve seen one bad House of Torture match, you’ve seen them all. [DUD]
I called out Gedo’s booking even during New Japan’s peak because you could tell it was bad if you really paid attention and weren’t blinded by the talent that he got by with. It became even clearer in 2019 with Okada’s bad reign and since the 2020s hit, he has legitimately been awful. I can’t think of a single person who thinks EVIL being in the Finals is good because he and that stable are the epitome of go away heat. They bring nothing of use to the table so even beating them in the finals means nothing.
G1 Climax Semifinals: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Their first match was really good (****¼) so we should get more of that here. They opened with the expected high quality feeling out process. ZSJ was in control as this was a technical section of the match, putting the focus on Takeshita’s right arm. That was smart as it made it so elbows and forearms from him had little effect. On top of that, ZSJ also focused on the leg, really handicapping Takeshita here. One of his leg submissions looked absolutely brutal and got a good reaction from the crowd. That set Takeshita up as something of a face in peril, especially when Sabre embraced his inner dickhead. Takeshita’s comeback was great because he would get bursts like a Blue Thunder Bomb and then Sabre Jr. had a way to stop his momentum, only for Takeshita to get going again. It made for some great back and forth. The closing stretch was fantastic and then the biggest spot of the night came, when Takeshita delivered a Brainbuster while they were fighting on the ropes. It was one of the wildest things I’ve seen in 2025. Takeshita added Raging Fire to win in 26:46. Spectacular wrestling between two of the best. [****½]
