u/CranberryAssassin

30 points each! Is one of you Gedo?

Obviously OSKAR is hilarious, so many great quotes from him this G1 alone, but one thing I really enjoy about him is that he is a Dojo graduate - the stories and insights he provides are so interesting, and often funny too.

Struggling to think of any other Noge graduates we get on English comms? I guess Zane Jay during BOSJ but that was possibly the most unpleasant aural experience of my life.

I only just noticed, when block matches start, the faces of the two relevant wrestlers in the yellowed out G1 artwork on the stage are highlighted!

That's how I figured out which one Oiwa is supposed to be...

I won't be able to watch on the day as I'm travelling, and we've entered a zone of multiple shows in a row, so I'll definitely be letting you guys down. Will try to get back on it for Thursday's show.

Anyone who starts a discussion post in my stead will have my eternal gratitude and loyalty

Sorry, mega busy, I'm really failing at G1 discussion coverage! I've JUST managed to squeeze in the first two block matches from last night, and I feel like they both provided a great demo of new era NJPW's strengths. They weren't BANGERZ but the Lee/Boltin and Oiwa/SANADA matches were great for different styles and character progression. I really love how Lee is presented as a glass cannon - his kicks and knees are dangerous but he simply cannot absorb damage. He tried to play the hoss game with Oleg and suffered for it.

I bloody love the G1!

Hello! I'm back(ish), sorry for the lack of activity last few days.

Previews

Yasuda and Boltin Oleg vs Jake Lee and Zane Jay

• Someone pointed out that Zane Jay speaks in broken English to Lee?!
• Hopefully we'll see make up Lee, I don't think plain aggressive Lee will do well vs angry Boltin

Oiwa and Jackson vs SANADA and Nobu

• Big Jag probably drinks whisky for breakfast

Yano and Takeshita vs Mid O-Khan and JAY

• It's so weird, O-Khan actually doing fairly well
• I miss when he would actually wrestle well though

Matsumoto and Goto vs Shingo and Ishimori

• I'm really looking forward to this block match!

Nagai and Tsuji vs Gedo and Ice

• Very interested to see if Nagai and Ice are capable of not making this intensely personal

Block Matches

Aaron Wolf vs OSKAR

• Heart says Wolf, Head says OSKAR. Or is it the other way around?
• I reckon this will be a big test for Wolf (outside of Kayfabe)
• I keep forgetting to say - Wolf's denim vest that he enters with and silver/white gear are such a massive upgrade. He's looking badass

HENARE vs Ren Narita

• HENARE seems to be the one guy in UE who doesn't actively cheat, so this will probably be a more typical HoT match than some we've seen

Drilla Moloney vs Callum Newman

• Yet more angry English lads kicking the shit out of each other
• Drilla has really got the crowd on his side recently
• Callum is still a prick

Zack Sabre Jr vs Gabe Kidd

• ZSJ hates Essex. Does he hate Nottinghamshire?
• I mislike how badly ZSJ is doing. If Shota is out for a while, I think he'd be a great person to step in and take the title off Gabe, do the whole "defend it everywhere" thing and then put Shota over big-style
• I really want Gabe to tap out, even though this is the best version of him we've ever had

Hello NJPWworlders, this is the live AND post-show discussion for Night Four of G1 Climax 36. I will try to update this post with full results at some point in the evening of the 21st (UK time), but I make no promises.

Matches:
Nakahara & Yano vs Togo and Narita

• Shota is injured
• Gabe isn't doing previews (meta heel bullshit I assume)
• This match is utterly pointless

Yasuda & Uemura vs Drilla & Nagai

• I'm most interested to see how much of a little prick Nagai will be
• I can't think of any history 'twixt Drilla and Yuya

Gedo & OSKAR vs JAY & Henare

• Please, PLEASE just let OSKAR beat the shit out of JAY

ZSJ & Jackson vs Jay and Newman

• Looking forward to seeing how "vain" Zane fares against Big Jag
• Second battle of the English dudes of this G1

Hirooki Goto vs Jake Lee

• Rematch of 2nd round of New Japan Cup 2026 which Goto won handily
• Hopefully Lee will have more mental ammunition this time around

Ryohei Oiwa vs Great O-Khan

• Any other year with G1-O-Khan showing out this could be bloody incredible
• Alas.

Konosuke Takeshita vs Yuto-Ice

• Silly Ice may have bitten off more than he can chew
• Let's hope this one stays in the ring

Yota Tsuji vs SANADA

• Three years ago this would be an exciting match

Boltin Oleg vs Shingo Takagi

• Here's hoping that The Incredible Oleg shows up and tries to murder Takagi

Look at me almost getting a live show chat out on time!

Matches:

Hirooki Goto and Tatsuya Matsumoto vs Jake Lee and Zane Jay

• While I adore Jake Lee, I'm still not convinced by his interactions with his stablemates (as opposed to stable mate, which ironically he is not)

Ryohei Oiwa and Hartley Jackson vs GOK and JAY

• If this match ends in anything other than Big Jag absolutely flattening JAY, I'll eat my hat

Takeshita and Yano vs Ice and Gedo

• TAKE has swapped RR for Toru Yano lol. Massive upgrade.
• Has Ice ever shared the ring with Yano? Has Gedo with TAKE?

Tsuji and Nagai vs SANADA and Kanemaru

• Just 2 Guys vs some unaffiliated bad boys
• Remember when SANADA beat Tsuji handily to retain the WHC? lol

Oleg and Yasuda vs Takagi and Ishimori

• Ishimori!
• I wonder if we'll see any follow up from Oleg hulking out yesterday and trying to murder Ice

BLOCK MATCHES

Drilla vs HENARE

• I'm hoping the crowd is as hot for Drilla as they were vs Gabe
• Interesting to see if there's any residual bad blood from HENARE after the War Dogs/UE cage match a few years ago

OSKAR vs Gabe Kidd

• I'm genuinely struggling to think of any block matches I'd be happy for Gabe to win. Certainly not this one.
• Looking forward to seeing more of beardy goth OSKAR

Callum Newman vs Ren Narita

• I do enjoy seeing someone be such a piece of shit that it even annoys Callum
• Overloading this block with white boys means the semi main isn't exactly a match you'd ordinarily expect the crowd to be hot for. I assume this is where Shota vs Wolf would've been.

Yuya Uemura vs Zack Sabre Jr

• Fuck yeah. That's all I have to say.

Hello njpwworld, sorry for the late post.

Before I recap the matches, a few side thoughts and quotes from OSKAR’s performance on comms:

For the most part, you’d hardly know that he’s in the same faction as Takagi, Drilla, Tsuji and (formerly) Kidd – he only really seems to have any connection to Ice.

On America: “We went to Target. We went to Chilli’s. And let me tell you something. Don’t ever go to Chilli’s.”

On Wolf’s Boston Crab: “If I were a young lion and I had that fat ass sat on me I would tap out very quickly.”

After passionately railing against SANADA’s sartorial choices: “and there goes my passion away… Great O-Khan.”

Did anyone catch exactly what he said about all the white boys in B block?

OSKAR intends to let Gedo deal with Big Jag in his preview with ZSJ.

OSKAR hates SANADA, GOK and Jake Lee, but likes Takeshita. I wonder if he posts on r/njpw? UPDATE: it sounds like he doesn’t watch AEW, so probably not.

Matches:

Wolf and Matsumoto def Yano and Nakahara. Somehow Matsumoto and Nakahara already hate each other. Why does Wolf keep blowing on his hands? Poor circulation? Wolf and Matsumoto have a cute special handshake.

Narita and Togo def Young and Jay. Fun heel vs heel match, UE get the benefit of not being dumbass babyfaces, but “vain” Zane Jay lacks experience and Callum’s shoulder injury is a massive target. VZJ eats a nut shot and magic killer.

Jackson and ZSJ def Uemura and Yasuda. Yasuda has apparently been a young lion since 2020. Poor bastard! ZSJ had a truly beautiful pin attempt against Uemura, but the big news is YASUDA BODY SLAMS JACKSON AND PUTS HIM IN THE BOSTON CRAB! … But then quickly falls to the Jagged Edge.

Drilla def Kidd. Kidd wants nothing to do with his Global belt, repeatedly tossing and smashing it up. He steals the mic a couple times to inform the crowd that AEW is number 1. I really like Kidd’s attitude here, he’s the only AEW wrestler who’s had the balls to present himself as an outsider heel. Really hard hitting match, early frontrunner for MOTT. Moloney has finally figured out how to hide his blading.

O-Khan def SANADA. OSKAR truly hates O-Khan, like A LOT. It’s very entertaining. I don’t have time to type out all the horrible things our German giant says about the human meme. Count-out finish. Despite all the chair shots and the finish, not the worst match ever. You wouldn’t know that SANADA is the one in HoT.

Takeshita def Lee. Lots of fun, Lee got a lot out of his clown silliness, orchestrating the crowd and some quite violent offence. TAKE wipes Lee’s make up off and prompts a more aggressive, serious Jake to come out. If you don’t get Lee, pro wrestling might not be for you.

Oleg def Ice, ref stoppage after multiple powerbombs. Eeesh! Angry Oleg. Sold feeling bad for how aggressive he got. Really good match.

Takagi def Oiwa. How good do you imagine this match would be? It was that good. Oiwa continuing to incorporate his aggressive shoulder wrenches.

Goto def Tsuji. Very aggressive, bad-tempered match from these two. Crowd super in favour of Goto. Tsuji largely dominated, which is how it should be IMO, but I’m not a fan of the outcome unless it leads to a successful Autumn defence. Fucking brilliant match, somehow even better than everything that came before it.

Hello everyone. I won't be watching tomorrow (I'm going to see IRON FUCKING MAIDEN woop woop!) and won't have time to schedule a post with my usual razor-sharp insights. Would one of my fellow ultra-passionate World subscribers mind creating a live/post show discussion thread, perhaps? Ta muchly.

Apologies, my day is manic so I won't be watching or making a proper thread for this one. None of the tag matches are Chicago previews, for some reason, and interestingly ELP isn't present at all. Might he be totally done? The first match has Kojima and Nagata tagging with Shota - be interesting to see how those two interact given the upcoming show they'll be headlining.

Co-main events are TM IV's final two matches. I'll try not to keep my hater-hat on too long, but Rocky Romero being in the main event mystifies me - this would've been a great opportunity for the new black tiger. Perhaps the crowd has a connection to bt4 that I'm not aware of.

Anyway, enjoy!

(Note: I've scheduled this to appear 90 minutes before the opening bell... we'll see how my first mod action works out)

Hello everyone! This is our live and post-show discussion thread for the 6th July show on NJPW. As usual I won't be able to watch live but I'll join you later in the day to celebrate OSKAR's destruction of Huge Yuj / Co-ordinate to all cancel our World subscriptions if Gedo dares to take away YOH's title.

If you're new to r/NJPWWorld, this is where we discuss things that happen on NJPW World, NJPW's kickass subscription service where you can see everything except their rubbish NJOA shows. Come and join us! There are several of us. SEVERAL!

Matches

Hontai vs HoT four-man tag

Not even a G1 preview lol

Hontai vs Unbound Company four-man tag

Also not a G1 preview, but we do get Wolf's ~7th ever (I think) match against a not HoT opponent, so interesting nonetheless. Plus Goto may face off with Tsuji, which will play into Tsuji's comments about needing to beat previous Heavyweight title winners.

Tiger Mask and Jado vs Gedo and Ishimori and Kanemaru and Togo three-way tag

A bunch of junior legends collide in Tiger Mask's pen-penultimate match. Should be... interesting.

OSKAR vs Yujiro Takahashi G1 play-in

The winner will go on to face Ren Narita in the opening night in Chicago. Jesus Christ they wouldn't have Yujiro in the G1 in 2026, would they? Would they??

El Phantasmo vs Ryohei Oiwa G1 play-in

The winner gets the delightful prize of facing Boltin in Chicago. Should be a good one, if Oiwa loses we (I) riot.

Shota Umino vs Gabe Kidd Global Heavyweight title match

Depending on what Gabe Kidd we get, should be a very good match. No matters what he says, do NOT suck your mums.

YOH vs Francesco Akira Jr Heavyweight title match

Let us pray they don't put Zane Jay on commentary. Genuinely the worst English broadcast guest I've ever heard.

I'm sorry, I'm too excited, I've already done my rankings:

A Block

1. Yota Tusji
2. Hirooki Goto
3. Takeshita
4. Shingo Takagi
5. SANADA
6. Jake Lee
7. Boltin Oleg
8. O-Khan
9. Ryohei Oiwa (or ELP... but probably Oiwa)
10. Yuto-Ice

B Block

1. Zack Sabre Jr
2. Callum Newman
3. Shota Umino
4. Gabe Kidd
5. Ren Narita
6. Yuya Uemura
7. HENARE
8. Drilla Moloney
9. OSKAR (If Yuj gets in I might just quit watching njpw forever)
10. Aaron Wolf

Rankings based on heavyweight title wins/current champion, G1 wins, global title, heavyweight titles elsewhere, NEVER title, previous G1 performance, then a major Young Lion penalty for Wolf.

Fairly big show today, with iwgp Jr #1 contendership up for grabs and two G1 play-in matches for block spaces. I won't be able to watch until tomorrow, but thought I'd create this space for non AEWWE-centric discussion for those watching. Have at it!

I only really go to the other sub if I'm desperate to read a dozen different ice cold takes on how the forbidden door doesn't seem very forbidden, so news of Bushiroad's selling of their stake in njpw came as a surprise to me. Does anyone have any info on TV asahi's attitude to wrasslin, what percentage of ownership is moving between which companies etc? Or general thoughts on what this means for our favourite men's promotion. I'll listen to anyone! Unless it's an AEW wrestler's twitter account.

Starting a thread on here because 24 hours later the main sub is already more interested in AEW twitter accounts, quelle surprise.

​

What a show! I'm slightly in disbelief that we had five title changes in a row, including a whole bunch of happy baby face endings. All of them were great, imo, even Wolf who looked the most confident he ever has. The crowd ate YOH up, as well they should.

​

Very few negatives - SANADA losing to captain AEW after such a massive entrance, yet more Gabe Kidd, and whatever the fuck was going on with Lee and ELP. Such a weird match, and not even in the normal Jake Lee sense.

​

Anyway, I'm very happy - we've had a great BOSJ, a great Dominion, looking forward to G1, even if some of those play in matches look dodgy af

Because the main sub is more interested in Gabe Kidd's twitter account than the second most important tournament in wrestling.

I didn't watch any previews, sorry.

English audio seems to have been recorded in the 1920s in a small metal tube, so I'm on Japanese audio today. Downside: no idea what's being said. Upside: I get to listen to Goto's sweet, sultry tones! Also I don't have to hear Walker Stewart using the word 'mental' as a noun.

Hyo def Kanemaru

Black gear Hyo shows up but he seems relatively genial even so. Side note: I really hate Kanemaru's heavy, voiced breathing. It's almost as bad as Douki's. Hyo went for a double stomp which Nobu reversed and slammed his knee, it was very cool. Nobu really is good enough to have won the junior triple crown. Towards the end SHO brought out Myon-myon followed by some Hot clown car shenanigans. I won't spoil how it turned out but it was fucking awesome, my jaw dropped. Bloody love Hyo. Because we're not allowed nice things, HoT sneak attack after the bell and kidnap Myon-myon AGAIN. OK, now this really is stupid booking. Gonna have to watch the post match comments I think.

Wato def Nagai

Usual aggressive start from nagai. He's such a little shit, he would've done well in LIJ if Naito had stuck around, despite the complete lack of chill. This was as good as you'd expect, intense and hard-hitting. Only bad bit was Nagai totally missing Wato's feet on a top rope reversal, some completely WWE-looking shit.

Guch vs Robbie Twitter

I'm writing this now before the match starts: I think this is when Guch breaks the BOSJ match wins record. Even with his fucking horrible centre parting. It's enough to make me hate Fujita. Robbie comes in with a vile wig, Guch sells it like death.

X def Guch

Well, I was wrong. There we go. Classic Guch silliness, much of the match centred around Ronnie's wig (or lack thereof) but it really worked. Brilliant match, definitely watch if you get the chance.

Wayne def Titán

Absolutely fantastic match. Wrong winner.

Fujita def Valiente Jr

Fujita just about stays alive in the tournament. Good match, quite likely to be the best of Valiente Jr's whole career.

I didn't watch any previews, sorry.

Druncle def drunkarisma

Nobu won this won almost completely clean - a single whisky mist did nothing but power Sasaki up. Sasaki meanwhile cheated nearly constantly including outside interference. At one point we had the two of them just pushing the ref back and forth in an attempt to open up an advantage. Silly harmless fun.

SHO def Hyo (cross arm breaker with multiple wrench shots)

Sho rocked up with myo-yo (sp? The plushy snow leopard) in a cage; Hyo showed up wearing black leggings instead of white lace. Aggressive match from Hyo which he worked really well, including using an honest-to-god cat o' nine tails and biting Sho's ear (I guess leopards eat cauliflower). SHO otoh brought two separate wrenches, so the outcome was inevitable. He left with myo-yo which is stupid - why give an opponent you've already beaten in rr format a reason to continue hostilities? Really ill-thought out booking. This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night.

El Desperado def Dangerously bland JAY (Pinche loco)

JAY dominated owing to jumping Despe before the bell and near constant interference from Zane Jay, including in full view of the ref for some reason. Better than I've made it sound.

Kushida def Yoh (bttf)

Not quite ad technical as the Eagles match, but still very good. Lots of aggressive toes-based offence from Yoh. Mr Socko action from both. Kushida tried to give his gross sock to a kid on the way out but he didn't want it. Lol.

Eagles def Ishimori (Ron Miller special)

Really good. Fast-paced, lots of technical back and forth. Respectful fist bump after the match

Akira def Kusai (crown fall)

Akira tried to jump Kasai with a fork, so red shoes refused to sound the bell so we got an extended brawl on the outside, which Kasai dominated. For some reason, Zane Jay only saw fit to interfere after the bell rang. Kasai bled early, then baited Akira into charging into Red Shoes so the weapons could come out to play - Akira joined Kusai in blood town, but Akira responded with a low blow, then we got skewer spots for both Akira and Jay. My favourite call of the night, when Akira stole Kusai's goggles: 'Akira taking a playbook out of Kusai here!' is walker Stewart drunk? Who knows.