Goto vs. Tsuji Headlines Night Two Of NJPW’s G1 Climax

A week after New Japan Pro-Wrestling began its 36th annual G1 Climax tournament in Chicago, Illinois, the company continued the competition inside the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center in Sapporo to a reported attendance of 2,555 fans. The show featured five matches from the tournament’s A Block and one from the B Block.

Drilla Moloney surprised many in attendance by defeating his former BULLET CLUB War Dogs compatriot, IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Gabe Kidd, with a Drilla Killa after more than 15 minutes of action.

Following that, Great-O-Khan edged out SANADA in just over 11 minutes to earn his first two points of the tournament. Konosuke Takeshita then defeated Jake Lee with Raging Fire in under nine minutes to secure his first victory after falling to Hirooki Goto in Chicago. Oleg Boltin dominated Yuto-Ice, earning a referee stoppage victory after delivering multiple powerbombs.

Then, Shingo Takagi earned a victory by putting away Ryohei Oiwa with a Burning Dragon, while Hirooki Goto continued his impressive start by outlasting current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji and securing the victory with a Goto Revolution in 22:35.

Elsewhere on the card, Hiroyoshi Tenzan announced that his opponent for his upcoming retirement match on August 15 will be his former Tencozy tag team partner, Satoshi Kojima.

The G1 Climax will continue inside the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center on July 19, featuring matches between Drilla Moloney and HENARE, Gabe Kidd and OSKAR, Ren Narita and Callum Newman, with Zack Sabre Jr. taking on Yuya Uemura in the main event.

For more coverage from the tournament and everything surrounding New Japan Pro Wrestling, WrestlePurists will keep you updated.

G1 Climax 36 – Current Standings:

Block A:

Hirooki Goto – 4

Great-O-Khan – 2

Jake Lee – 2

Konosuke Takeshita – 2

Oleg Boltin – 2

Ryohei Oiwa – 2

Shingo Takagi – 2

Yota Tsuji – 2

Yuto-Ice – 2

SANADA – 0

Block B:

Aaron Wolf – 4

Callum Newman – 4

Drilla Moloney – 4

OSKAR – 4

Gabe Kidd – 2

HENARE – 2

Ren Narita – 2

Yuya Uemura – 2

Zack Sabre Jr. – 2

Shota Umino – 0 (Withdrew due to injury)

Elsewhere in relation to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, President Hiroshi Tanahashi recently detailed his ideal professional wrestler. You can read more about that here.