Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 35 Night 14 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 35 Night 14

August 8^th, 2025 | Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama, Japan | Attendance: 2,448

We’ve got a solid crowd on hand for B Block action.

B Block: El Phantasmo [6] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [8]

This is one of those late G1 matches that doesn’t really matter. YOSHI-HASHI is alive but we know he’s not going any further, while ELP is already eliminated. It doesn’t surprise me that this wasn’t the most locked in performance of either wrestler. They just went out there and had a basic back and forth match. They hit the usual stuff like a Lionsault, tornado DDT, dragon suplex, and CR2, basically going through the motions. After a lot of very average wrestling, ELP won with Thunderkiss 86 at the 12:30 mark. Totally skippable, yet not something awful. [**¼]

B Block: Drilla Moloney [8] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [10]

Both guys are still alive though the winner seems obvious. Two guys who I’ve enjoyed in the tournament and their interactions here were pretty damn good. Both guys worked over the arm at the start and their stuff was smooth. The lengthy feeling out process was ended when Drilla delivered a powerslam, upping the ante. About 10 minutes in, Drilla hit a big piledriver and added a Spear before ZSJ retaliated with a string of European uppercuts. The Zack Driver got him a near fall. They again protected the Drilla Killa (as you should), with ZSJ blocking it rather than taking it, and then using a Triangle Choke to pull out the victory in 14:01. A good match though I was hoping for more given who was involved. [***¼]

B Block: Ren Narita [10] vs. Shingo Takagi [6]

Due to bad booking, Shingo is already eliminated. Ren is alive but there’s no way he’d end up ahead of ZSJ so this was another match with an obvious outcome. After starting the tournament with a very good outing against ZSJ, Ren has gone back to resorting to House of Torture bullshit and that was the case here again. As good as Shingo is, he can’t save us from that dread and they decided to drag this out for 17:10. That’s nasty work. Same old, same old and again, I don’t have the energy for them. Shingo won with Last of the Dragon. Let’s move on. [*]

B Block: Konosuke Takeshita [10] vs. Shota Umino [8]

This hasn’t been a good night for B Block so maybe these two can turn it around. Both guys were bringing the big offense early, with a fisherman suplex, DDT, neckbreaker, and STF all done within the first 10 minutes. That’s different from a lot of New Japan main events that like to do a bunch of nothing for 10 minutes. That said, there wasn’t a lot behind any of this and it felt hollow for the most part. That trend kind of continued through the next 10 minutes, with them hitting good moves and nothing more. Like, a highlight reel of this match would look dope but in actual execution, it wasn’t fully clicking. They traded Bret’s Rope suplexes and Takeshita applied a rear naked choke before getting two on a Blue Thunder Bomb. When Shota kicked out of a Tombstone, I wondered if they’d do a draw since we were hovering around 22 minutes. Alas, Shota countered Raging Fire into a rollup and then hit a Brainbuster to win in 25:46. Too long for them and like most Shota matches, it was kind of just there. [***]

A Block	Points	B Block	Points
Yuya Uemura	10 (5-3)	Zack Sabre Jr.	12 (6-2)
EVIL	10(5-3)	Konosuke Takeshita	10 (5-3)
Yota Tsuji	8 (4-4)	Ren Narita	10 (5-3)
Ryohei Oiwa	8 (4-4)	Shota Umino	10 (5-3)
Boltin Oleg	8 (4-4)	Drilla Moloney	8 (4-4)
Hiroshi Tanahashi	8 (4-4)	Shingo Takagi	8 (4-4)
David Finlay	8 (4-4)	YOSHI-HASHI	8 (4-4)
Callum Newman	8 (4-4)	The Great-O-Khan	8 (4-4)
Taichi	6 (3-5)	El Phantasmo	8 (4-5)
SANADA	6 (3-5)	Gabe Kidd	0 (0-9)

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

A disappointing night of wrestling. B Block has typically been a bit more solid but here we got four matches that were all underwhelming.