wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 36 Night 4 Review
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW G1 Climax 36 Night Four
July 21st, 2026 | Sendai Sun Plaza in Sendai, Miyagi | Attendance: 1,612
It’s time for some A Block action, with one of my most anticipated main events of the entire tournament. These shows are certainly piling up around the rest of my life, so some reviews are likely to be shorter than others. This is one of those.
A Block: Jake Lee [2] vs. Hirooki Goto [4]
The Jake Lee gimmick continues to be very bad. I know it’s not something we need to keep saying but it’s true. The early portions weren’t bad and it looked like we might get something decent. Alas, Lee took over on offense and slowed things to a crawl. Most of the action was just mindless brawling and a lot of odd stalling around that, like a table spot that took forever to set up. The payoff wasn’t even good. The finish also took forever, as Lee faked an injury yet they waited too long to do the reveal of the obvious phony sell. He then hit a boot and won in 9:55. Just some bad wrestling. [*]
A Block: Great-O-Khan [2] vs. Ryohei Oiwa [2]
I feel like Great-O-Khan was a solid G1 guy early on. The gimmick was goofy and he was inconsistent but we’d get a few strong matches from him. The past couple of years, he seems to give little to no effort, which was the case here again. Ryohei did what he could to bring him up to something good but it didn’t click. O-Khan cheated a fair bit, which allowed the crowd to get more invested in Ryohei. That played into the ending, as O-Khan ended up getting sent into the turnbuckle he exposed and Oiwa rolled him up to win in 13:27. Inoffensive and nothing more. [**]
A Block: Konosuke Takeshita [2] vs. Yuto-Ice [2]
I think this was a very interesting match for the overall story of Yuto-Ice. He’s basically having to give everything out there to have a chance and it’s kicking hiss ass. Takeshita is tough to take on when you aren’t over exhausting yourself. Yuto-Ice started with momentum, only for Takeshita to plant him with a DDT outside. From there, Takeshita kind of dominated him, yet Yuto-Ice kept throwing everything he could at his opponent. Of course, he didn’t have enough to pull off the major upset. It’s also interesting that he didn’t get pinned and instead, the referee called for the bell when he passed out in a camel clutch like move after 12:04. I wouldn’t call it a great match, yet it gave me an intriguing story. [***]
A Block: SANADA [0] vs. Yota Tsuji [4]
SANADA’s gold outfits are a choice. The guy has been an absolute snore for years, yet something was different on this night. There was a sense of desperation to him and at one point, he pulled out a moonsault and the crowd got way behind him. It became a sympathetic thing where you wanted to see this guy who is past his prime somehow pull out of the big upset. The fact that the fans go so behind SANADA made for an odd, yet kind of beautiful environment. Whenever he had a counter for Tsuji, they ate it up. Fans fully believed he’d lose to the Boston Crab but he countered it into a pinning combination. When SANADA used a low blow, the crowd wanted it, and he then added his DDT finisher for the upset in 15:23. I was so invested in the story that I’ll bump up the score. SANADA hasn’t hit this level since pre-COVID probably. [****]
A Block: Boltin Oleg [2] vs. Shingo Takagi [2]
On paper, INJECT THIS INTO MY VEINS. Big meaty men slapping meat. I really liked their New Japan Cup match last year (***¾). This gave me vibes, on a lesser level, of Shingo and Ishii going to war when Shingo first entered the G1. They came out and beat the hell out of each other from the opening bell. It hit something of a lull at points after the opening five minutes. Shingo seemed a bit winded. Boltin held serve where he could there and more than held up his side of things. Shingo gathered himself to set up an exciting final third of the match. Boltin seemed a step ahead and that forced Shingo to be resilient, which he’s very good at. The finish was good as it saw Shingo grip the top rope to block the Kamikaze but Boltin was just too strong. He hit the Kamikaze anyway to get two points in 19:10. Very good main event and on par with their prior outing. [***¾]
| A Block | Points | B Block | Points |
| Konosuke Takeshita | 4 (2-1) | Aaron Wolf | 4 (2-0) |
| Yota Tsuji | 4 (2-1) | Yuya Uemura | 4 (2-1) |
| Ryohei Oiwa | 4 (2-1) | Drilla Moloney | 4 (2-1) |
| Boltin Oleg | 4 (2-1) | Gabe Kidd | 4 (2-1) |
| Jake Lee | 4 (2-1) | HENARE | 4 (2-1) |
| Hirooki Goto | 4 (2-1) | Ren Narita | 4 (2-1) |
| Shingo Takagi | 2 (1-2) | Callum Newman | 4 (2-1) |
| Yuto-Ice | 2 (1-2) | OSKAR | 4 (2-1) |
| Great-O-Khan | 2 (1-2) | Zack Sabre Jr. | 2 (1-1) |
| SANADA | 2 (1-2) | Shota Umino | 0 (0-9) Injured |
