wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 35 Night 16 Review
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW G1 Climax 35 Night 16
August 13th, 2025 | Act City Hamamatsu in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka | Attendance: 1,730
With A Block ending in lackluster fashion, it’s time to settle B Block.
B Block: Drilla Moloney [8] vs. Shingo Takagi [8]
Just a match for pride here as neither can make the playoffs but one can finish over .500. They went right into trying to gain the advantage on a shoulder block battle and continued on by trading forearms. The fight spilled outside where they kept up a solid level of intensity for a midcard match. They were also busting out superplexes in the opening minutes. Down the stretch, they were trading big moves like a Pumping Bomber and a Gore. Interestingly, they didn’t go deep into the Drilla Killa teases that a lot of Moloney matches have seen in this tournament. Drilla kicked out of a Pumping Bomber to a pop but then Shingo beat him with Last of the Dragon in 12:06. A good, hard hitting match to kick things off. [***¼]
B Block: YOSHI-HASHI [8] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [12]
Zack has already clinched the playoffs but he’s not about to let YOSHI-HASHI get a win over him, so of course he came out with chops and submissions. YOSHI had to use quick bursts like a Blockbuster and an inverted DDT. It made for some quality back and forth stuff from bell to bell. They played into some of ZSJ’s history with YOSHIs buddy Hirooki Goto, including YOSHI busting out a Goto-like hand gesture. I thought YOSHI brought a lot of energy here and you could sense his desperation to finally finish with a winning record in the G1. YOSHI went into trying to match ZSJ on the mat, applying a cross armbreaker and the crowd was way into all of this. They love ZSJ but they really wanted to see YOSHI-HASHI get the win. Alas, Sabre trapped him in a brutal submission and YOSHI had no choice but to give up in 17:36. That was way better than expected. One of YOSHI’s best singles performances in front of a hot crowd. [***¾]
B Block: The Great-O-Khan [8] vs. Shota Umino [10]
A win for Shota gets him into playoffs but if he loses, I believe both Ren and Takeshita make it from the main event. And we know Gedo wasn’t going to give us a main event where nothing was on the line (even if it would mark a nice change of pace) so that took away any drama from this. That meant this felt like an exhibition where they were kind of just going through the motions. Mongolian chops from O-Khan, offense like a Shining Wizard from Shota. That’s kind of how this went. Shota survived the Eliminator and won with the Second Chapter at the 12:05 mark. Like I said, this was kind of just there. Solid, yet unspectacular, which describes both guys overall to be honest. [**¾]
B Block: Ren Narita [10] vs. Konosuke Takeshita [10]
The winner here joins Sabre Jr. and Shota in the playoffs. Again, I feel like this lacked drama because as bad of a booker as Gedo is, there was no way he was putting Ren Narita in the playoffs. Anyway, this wasn’t as bad as some typical House of Torture matches but it did follow a pattern we all know. The heel stable got involved, stacking the deck against Takeshita who had to rally and overcome those odds. Same old, same old. Thankfully, Takeshita is one of the best on the planet right now so he was able to make his comeback work well enough and had some good snap on some of his moves. After around 15:00, Yoshinobu Kanemaru got involved, using the whiskey bottle as a weapon. Takeshita kept going though, and eventually made Ren pass out to a rear naked choke in 20:50. Yeah, if you needed even more proof that the House of Torture are the worst, they got a mid match out of Konosuke freaking Takeshita. [**½]
| A Block | Points | B Block | Points |
| EVIL | 12 (6-3) | Zack Sabre Jr. | 14 (7-2) |
| Yota Tsuji | 10 (5-4) | Konosuke Takeshita | 12 (6-3) |
| David Finlay | 10 (5-4) | Shota Umino | 12 (6-3) |
| Yuya Uemura | 10 (5-4) | Shingo Takagi | 10 (5-4) |
| Boltin Oleg | 10 (5-4) | Ren Narita | 10 (5-4) |
| Ryohei Oiwa | 8 (4-5) | Drilla Moloney | 8 (4-5) |
| Hiroshi Tanahashi | 8 (4-5) | YOSHI-HASHI | 8 (4-5) |
| Callum Newman | 8 (4-5) | The Great-O-Khan | 8 (4-5) |
| SANADA | 8 (4-5) | El Phantasmo | 8 (4-5) |
| Taichi | 6 (3-6) | Gabe Kidd | 0 (0-9) |
