Pantoja’s NJPW G1 Climax 36 Night 5 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 36 Night Five

July 22^nd, 2026 | Aore Nagaoka in Nagaoka, Niigata | Attendance: 1,555

Back to the B Block for four matches. Shota Umino was slated to face Ren Narita.

B Block: Aaron Wolf [4] vs. Gabe Kidd [4]

Gabe continued the antics he’s become known for in this tournament. He spent a lot of the match not taking Aaron Wolf too seriously. He taunted him and mocked his judo background. That ended up being a good setup, as it allowed Wolf to tap into those strengths. He showed confidence and tossed Gabe around, showing him who runs the show in that realm. It was one of the better Wolf performances to date. He was game to talk smack back to Gabe, which made him feel like he was on his level in some fashion. Some of Gabe’s antics weren’t really for me, as it can feel like he’s trying too hard. Alas, the wrestling itself was strong and in the end, Gabe hit a piledriver to win after 9:51. A good way to start the show. [***]

B Block: HENARE [4] vs. OSKAR [4]

This should’ve been a good old fashioned hoss fight but it wasn’t structured that way. I think part of the problem is that OSKAR has the old probably that so many bigs face these days. HANAKO, Hikuleo, and Raquel Rodriguez have all been guilty of it, where they don’t wrestle like a big. Some have overcome it, while others get trapped there. OSKAR has potential to get it right as he does it at points, yet he’ll inconsistently slip into something else and it makes for awkward sequences. At times, he matched up with HENARE and at other times, he got dominated there and sold like a much smaller worker. A lot of OSKAR’s work felt like he was desperate and HENARE was too much for him. HENARE ultimately won with an impressive sitout powerbomb at the 11:46 mark. There was something good in there, it was just too odd to really work. [**½]

B Block: Drilla Moloney [4] vs. Yuya Uemura [4]

On paper, this is a matchup I love. It’s two of the small group of guys in New Japan that I enjoy watching and their styles mesh well. However, their New Japan Cup match peaked at just good (***). Here, they grappled and had some evenly matched exchanges early on. The crowd was behind both wrestlers. Drilla and Yuya worked the mat like they belonged in TMDK or something. It was very enjoyable to watch, on a much smaller level than what we got from Yuya and Zack the other night. Some of the transitions were well executed and everything they did came off smoothly. I do think that the face/face dynamic meant the audience couldn’t get too far behind or against either side. The close calls late were well done and I bit on a few flash pins only for Moloney to score with the Drilla Killa for the win in 17:48. Better than the New Japan Cup outing, yet still not as good as they should deliver. [***¼]

B Block: Callum Newman [4] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [2]

I’ve heard people praise this heavily and while I liked it, I am not on the level of others. They went right after each other from the start and ZSJ seemed to be enjoying it. He took pleasure in wearing Callum down and twisting him into pretzels. He put the focus on the shoulder and Callum did a great job of selling. I think my issue is that when Callum gets going on offense, it’s just not super captivating to me. I could be in the minority in saying that, but hey, this is all about opinions, right? That selling was key, though, as Callum had to fight through the damage to hit his signature moves or fully get the leverage he wanted on pins. Callum fired up and dared ZSJ to kick the injured shoulder and he responded by slapping the hell out of him. ZSJ started to notice he was in trouble late as Callum refused to give up. His submission attempts weren’t quite as crisp and he made his moves obvious. Callum caught a PK and turned it into a pinning combination to secure a win in 20:11. Not the special match that I heard people suggesting it was, but still a very good main event. [***½]

 

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

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Maybe I need to rewatch that main event later. For now, it stands as very good and not great. The rest of the show also hovers around the middle. A good opener, disappointing follow-up, and a solid yet unspectacular third match.