Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 36 Night 10 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 36 Night Ten

August 1^st, 2026 | Hiroshima Sun Plaza in Hiroshima, Japan | Attendance: 2,225

I’m still trying to catch up. At this moment, I have two G1 shows and two Grand Prix show to cover. So we’re still looking at shorter write-ups.

A Block: Boltin Oleg [6] vs. SANADA [4]

I think Boltin Oleg has looked better than ever in this tournament so far. Just a bad dude who is kicking ass at every turn. SANADA looked to start hot here, only for Boltin to throw him around, hit the double powerbomb, and win with the Kamikaze in 1:30. Kudos. I respect the balls to do a squash in the G1 rather than a fluke pin in a short match. [NR]

A Block: Jake Lee [4] vs. Yuto-Ice [4]

While several matches in this G1 have surprised me with how good they are, there’s still a fair amount of bad. Jake Lee is a big proprietor of that, which was never more clear than in this match. He brough handcuffs to the bout, had a pair taken by the referee, and then brought out another pair. Riveting. Yuto-Ice seemed to want to cuff himself to Lee but there was a lengthy struggle to get tape off the cuffs. It made for a match where the execution was horrendously slow and boring. After a bunch of shenanigans, Yuto-Ice won with his finisher at the 10:37 mark. That was painful. [DUD]

A Block: Great-O-Khan [4] vs. Shingo Takagi [4]

Speaking of painfully bad wrestlers, it’s 2026 Great-O-Khan. It takes a special kind of bad to make a Shingo match suck. This was filled with random plunder. All you really need to know is that the fight spilled to the back and into the actual bathroom, where Shingo’s head got put in a urinal. Yeah, that about sums up this one. The only spot that somewhat worked was a Tombstone on the floor on Shingo. Everything else, from the use of chairs to the exchanges, was pretty bad. Shingo won and put us out of our misery after 9:56. At least it wasn’t overly long. [½*]

A Block: Ryohei Oiwa [6] vs. Yota Tsuji [6]

We’re three matches into a G1 Climax show and I’ve given out half a star combined. That’s wild. Thankfully, these guys were here to turn things around. Yuya opened with a headlock and it got a significant pop because of what he did with that move against SANADA. It’s the kind of simple thing that wrestlers need to do more often because it’s so much more effective to me than hitting big spot after big spot. Oiwa worked the arm, while Yota targeted the ribs. When it came time for the Boston Crab, Yota was too banged up to really lock it in, opening the door for Oiwa to do more damage. It was some well-worked stuff. Oiwa actually dominated a fair bit of this and it forced us to see a more desperate Yota, which we don’t often get. The finishing stretch was great and it was built around the headlock. When Yota managed to deliver the Gene Blaster and secure a three count at the 19:37 mark, it felt  more like he survived Ryohei rather than defeat him. Ryohei has been an absolute joy in the G1 and Yota continues to deliver. The best match of the tournament to this point. [****½]

A Block: Hirooki Goto [4] vs. Konosuke Takeshita [8]

Hirooki Goto fully understands his role in the G1. He goes out there and wages a war for 12-20 minutes. The veteran can still go and that was clear here, taking the best wrestler in the tournament to the limit. They included the fighting spirit spots that Goto is known for, trading strikes, no selling lariats, and powering up. Goto dug deep into his bag of tricks, busting out a damn avalanche Code Red. I don’t see wrestlers in their primes attempt that, yet 47-year-old Goto was doing it. The pacing here was top notch and the quality was boosted by the crowd. They adore Goto, so when he got going with his big comeback, they were losing their minds. The closing stretch was everything New Japan is known for. Big counters, close calls, and heightened drama. In the end, Takeshita hit Raging Fire to win in 18:04, capping a great match. [****¼]

A Block	Points	B Block	Points
Konosuke Takeshita	10 (5-1)	HENARE	8 (4-1)
Yota Tsuji	8 (4-2)	Gabe Kidd	8 (4-2)
Boltin Oleg	8 (4-2)	Drilla Moloney	8 (4-2)
Ryohei Oiwa	6 (3-3)	Callum Newman	8 (4-2)
Shingo Takagi	6 (3-3)	OSKAR	8 (4-2)
Yuto-Ice	6 (3-3)	Ren Narita	6 (3-2)
SANADA	4 (2-4)	Yuya Uemura	6 (3-2)
Hirooki Goto	4 (2-4)	Aaron Wolf	4 (2-3)
Jake Lee	4 (2-4)	Zack Sabre Jr.	2 (1-4)
Great-O-Khan	4 (2-4)	Shota Umino	0 (0-9) Injured

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

What a tough show to rate. The last two matches are brilliant and take me back to a time when New Japan was an awesome place to find wrestling. The two prior matches are legitimately awful and remind me of how lackluster things are for the company now. I’ll split the difference I guess. Seek out Goto/Takeshita and Oiwa/Tsuji.