Aaron Wolf Battles Yuya Uemura In Thrilling G1 Climax Night 9 Main Event

The ninth night of New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s G1 Climax took place on Friday inside Takamatsu City Gymnasium in Takamatsu, Japan. The card featured four tournament matches and saw Aaron Wolf headline his first singles main event. Before the tournament matches, fans were treated to some preview tag bouts featuring wrestlers from the other block, as well as others not competing in this year’s G1.

The first tournament match of the evening featured Drilla Moloney, who’s been one of the surprising successes of the tournament so far, taking on the German behemoth OSKAR. Both Unbound Co. members had a pretty ordinary mid-tournament match. They kept a good pace throughout the contest, with OSKAR in particular doing a great job utilising his sheer size and dominance over the smaller Moloney.

The Englishman, in contrast, showed a lot of heart in trying to keep his strong showing in the G1 going. However, his momentum was constantly halted by OSKAR before he could find an opening. OSKAR eventually wore Moloney down with a Tombstone Piledriver followed by his patented Alptraum to score the win at 10:40. With the victory, OSKAR is tied at the top of B Block with eight points.

Following that fun opener, we had something dramatically different, and not in a good way. Zack Sabre Jr., who is not only one of the best wrestlers on this roster but in the world, took on Ren Narita in an effort to turn his momentum around. ZSJ arrived in Takamatsu riding a three-match losing streak after winning his opening match in Chicago. In the amount of time it took to read that sentence, Narita rolled Sabre up with a schoolboy following some shenanigans from Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the match in an embarrassing 2:45. I try to be as objective as possible when writing these shows up, but man, was this a deflating match to watch.

The show would continue, nevertheless, with an all-English matchup pitting United Empire leader Callum Newman against former War Dog Gabe Kidd. Kidd jumped the gun before the bell rang, attacking Newman’s second, Zane Jay, with a furious dropkick that triggered Newman into a brawl he simply wasn’t ready for.

Kidd kept up the advantage for much of the opening stages of the match. Luckily, Newman was able to draw from the new mean streak he’s been developing to put Kidd on the ropes for a while in the middle of the contest. A Kiss the Crown lariat rocked the Death Rider for a moment, but Kidd was able to stop Newman from following up with more potentially devastating offence.

After surviving the flurry, Kidd rocked Newman with a crazy piledriver. However, in a shocker, Newman actually managed to kick out at two. Using what felt like the last of his resolve, Newman hit Kidd with just about everything in his toolbox, including a pair of German suplexes, the Excalibur, which is a running two-foot stomp, and a Prince’s Curse, which is a single underhook brainbuster. However, Kidd somehow kicked out of all of that as well. Even so, Newman would soon win the match at 12:18 thanks to a low blow and an inside cradle. With the victory, Newman moves up to eight points alongside Drilla Moloney, Gabe Kidd, HENARE, and OSKAR.

History was made in the main event as it marked the first time Aaron Wolf, who made his pro wrestling debut on January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 20, had wrestled a singles main event. Across the ring from him was Yuya Uemura, who was looking to keep pace at the top of the block. Both men came into the match with a great deal of support from the fans. Wolf found success early on by utilising his judo throws alongside a variety of slams and suplexes, while Uemura continued to chip away at Wolf’s arm to weaken his resolve.

When his arm started to give him problems, the Olympian wisely took the match to the ground in order to halt Uemura’s progress as best he could. This strategy worked well for a while until Uemura was able to escape Wolf’s hellacious Anaconda Vice with a rope break. After getting back to their feet, both men started trading hard strikes before Wolf forced the match back to the mat. He came so close to earning a seismic submission victory with his triangle-style hold, but a brief lapse in concentration allowed Uemura to regain his strength just enough to survive a little longer. After a flurry of potentially devastating suplexes from Wolf, Uemura was able to counter his Angle Slam attempt into a Deadbolt Suplex for the three-count at 19:20. This was far and away the most satisfying match on the card, and a wonderful moment for Wolf, even in defeat. I think everyone should check this match out if they get the chance.

New Japan will return for Night 10 of the G1 Climax on Saturday from Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall in Hiroshima. The card will feature B Block action, including Boltin Oleg vs. SANADA, Yota Tsuji vs. Ryohei Oiwa, and Hirooki Goto vs. Konosuke Takeshita in a highly anticipated main event clash.

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

G1 Climax 2026 – Current Standings:

A Block:

Konosuke Takeshita – 8 points (4-1)

Boltin Oleg – 6 points (3-2)

Ryohei Oiwa – 6 points (3-2)

Yota Tsuji – 6 points (3-2)

Great-O-Khan – 4 points (2-3)

Hirooki Goto – 4 points (2-3)

Jake Lee – 4 points (2-3)

SANADA – 4 points (2-3)

Shingo Takagi – 4 points (2-3)

Yuto-Ice – 4 points (2-3)

B Block:

Callum Newman – 8 points (4-2)

Drilla Moloney – 8 points (4-2)

Gabe Kidd – 8 points (4-2)

HENARE – 8 points (4-1)

OSKAR – 8 points (4-2)

Ren Narita – 6 points (3-2)

Yuya Uemura – 6 points (3-2)

Aaron Wolf – 4 points (2-3)

Zack Sabre Jr. – 2 points (1-4)

Shota Umino – 0 points (0-9)

NOTE – Shota Umino withdrew from the competition after suffering a concussion and forfeited his remaining tournament matches.