Yota Tsuji & Ryohei Oiwa Advance To G1 Climax Semi-Finals

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji and Ryohei Oiwa clinched spots in the G1 Climax semi-finals on Wednesday after earning massive wins in their final block matches. Both finished the league portion with identical 6-3 records, with Tsuji holding the tiebreaker after defeating Oiwa on August 1.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling rolled into Act City Hamamatsu for Night 16 of the G1 Climax, featuring five A Block matches, three of which had major playoff implications. Before those matches got underway, the show featured a number of tags, as you’d expect, before moving into the first of two league matches where pride was the only thing on the line.

The first league match featured Shingo Takagi taking on SANADA. These two former friends from Los Ingobernables de Japón had a pretty solid match despite having little at stake, with the animosity between them seemingly being the only thing keeping the bout from feeling heatless. SANADA survived the Made in Japan, Burning Dragon, and Last of the Dragon before hitting a Deadfall and following it up with an O’Connor Roll for the three-count at 12:18.

With the victory, SANADA finishes his third consecutive G1 Climax with eight points, while Takagi’s eight points mark his lowest total since 2023.

The other league match without any playoff implications saw Hirooki Goto take on Yuto-Ice. These two definitely raised the intensity level, starting the match with a furious flurry of strikes before taking the fight to the outside and brawling into the crowd. Both men continued throwing everything they had at their opponent, with Ice hitting Goto with a crazy Bomboclat Knee and an Ambition, but Goto refused to stay down. Goto eventually pinned Ice after rocking him with a Goto-Shiki.

Goto finishes his 18th career G1 Climax with eight points, while Ice also finishes his first G1 with eight points.

The third match of the evening was the first to carry playoff implications, as Yota Tsuji attempted to become the second consecutive IWGP Heavyweight Champion to reach the G1 Climax semi-finals. Standing in his way was Jake Lee, who had been mathematically eliminated from contention a couple of days earlier. Tsuji took the fight to Lee almost immediately, but Lee answered with some tight limb work focused on Tsuji’s arm.

As this was a Jake Lee match in 2026, things would soon descend into schtick after Lee rubbed some “Joker paint” onto Tsuji’s face, seemingly causing the champion to “lose his mind” and adopt a more aggressive style. Unfortunately, the match spent far too much time on the Joker stuff, but at least Tsuji was able to put Lee away with a Fire Blaster at 13:58.

Tsuji concludes his fourth G1 Climax with a career-high 12 points and his third consecutive trip to the playoffs. With the defeat, Jake Lee finished his second G1 with six points, although he can at least brag about earning wins over Shingo Takagi and Hirooki Goto and avoiding the bottom of his group by any means.

The semi-main event featured Oleg Boltin, who was completing one of the finest blocks a wrestler has put together in recent G1 history, taking on Great-O-Khan, who was thankfully wrapping up one of the worst individual G1 performances of all time. An interesting wrinkle in this matchup was that it illustrated the two paths available to former amateur wrestlers who transition into pro wrestling. Boltin took the serious route and swiftly became one of the most exciting and talented wrestlers on NJPW’s roster, while GOK chose to lean into his character at the expense of his appeal as an in-ring competitor.

With that said, there was some hope that the United Empire wrestler would show something here, but that certainly didn’t happen.

Boltin attempted to do some actual wrestling here, but it was clear from the beginning that Great-O-Khan had no interest in that. Instead, the worst wrestler in this G1 dragged the match down with his usual shenanigans, including hurling Boltin into an exposed turnbuckle, throwing him into the ring post with a chair wrapped around his neck, and intentionally attacking referee Marty Asami. Unfortunately, Boltin was forced to somewhat descend to GOK’s level. While that helped him in short bursts, Boltin was clearly out of his element, which may have been exactly why GOK adopted this approach in the first place.

The Kazakh native would hit GOK with a Boltin Shake and two Verdicts, but these moves felt more disjointed than they had in more conventional matches. Boltin may be one of the best wrestlers on the roster, but he is still early enough in his career that he hasn’t developed the seasoning necessary to thrive in this particular style of match.

GOK would eventually rock Boltin with an Eliminator from the apron through a table, winning the match via countout at 17:30. This was a frustrating watch, much like all of GOK’s matches throughout this tournament, and what made it even worse was that the result eliminated Boltin from playoff contention. Boltin finished his third G1 with 10 points, tying his career high and earning plenty of recognition for his incredible fighting spirit. GOK, meanwhile, finished dead last in A Block even with the victory and will hopefully never be in one of these again.

All of those matches served as the preamble to the main event, which saw Konosuke Takeshita and Ryohei Oiwa face off with both men needing a victory to reach the playoffs. Takeshita had a chance to qualify regardless of the result earlier in the show, but Yota Tsuji’s victory over Jake Lee ended that possibility, meaning he entered the match in the same position as his opponent.

Thankfully, this match made almost everything that came before it worth sitting through. These two had a genuinely fantastic match. Oiwa has always been a good wrestler, but he has quite simply evolved into something greater throughout this tournament. He attempted to dominate Takeshita with his raw power and ground game, locking in multiple headlocks early on. Takeshita, meanwhile, did what Takeshita does, which is practically everything. The man threw everything and the kitchen sink at his opponent.

Luckily for Oiwa, his more meticulous rhythm seemed to affect Takeshita almost as much as his own offense did, as the former AEW International Champion was unable to string together enough offense to establish true dominance at any point. Takeshita would slowly change his strategy, targeting Oiwa’s midsection in an effort to neutralize his core strength and limit his ability to breathe.

After some time, both men began hurling counters at one another before engaging in an impactful strike exchange toward the end of the contest. Oiwa seemingly won the exchange, hitting Takeshita with an elbow strike and lariat combination, but Takeshita answered with an elbow of his own before following it up with the Wagamama knee strike. Oiwa somehow escaped a Raging Fire and hit an O’Connor Suplex before trapping Takeshita in a Big Lock, which Takeshita was eventually able to escape twice.

However, the damage was already done, and Oiwa would level Takeshita with a Lariat to win the match at 15:11. With the victory, Oiwa earned a playoff spot in only his second G1 Climax, while Takeshita will miss the playoffs for the first time in his third G1.

If you only watch one match from this show, please make it this one. This was easily one of the best matches of the tournament and one of the best matches of Oiwa’s career, not to mention one of the biggest wins of his career. As for Takeshita, he will most likely be heading back to AEW in the near future.

Night 17 of the G1 Climax will take place on Thursday at Korakuen Hall, featuring the final four matches of B Block and determining who will join Yota Tsuji and Ryohei Oiwa in the playoffs. As it currently stands, every wrestler in the block is still technically alive, meaning every match will carry major implications. Aaron Wolf will take on Zack Sabre Jr., Gabe Kidd will face Ren Narita, Yuya Uemura will challenge OSKAR, and Callum Newman will battle his United Empire teammate HENARE.

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 (FINAL):

Yota Tsuji – 12 points (6-3) – ADVANCED

Ryohei Oiwa – 12 points (6-3) – ADVANCED

Konosuke Takeshita – 12 points (6-3)

Boltin Oleg – 10 points (5-4)

Hirooki Goto – 8 points (4-5)

SANADA – 8 points (4-5)

Shingo Takagi – 8 points (4-5)

Yuto-Ice – 8 points (4-5)

Great-O-Khan – 6 points (3-6)

Jake Lee – 6 points (3-6)

B Block:

Callum Newman – 10 points (5-3)

Drilla Moloney – 10 points (5-4)

Gabe Kidd – 10 points (5-3)

Ren Narita – 10 points (5-3)

Yuya Uemura – 10 points (5-3)

Aaron Wolf – 8 points (4-4)

HENARE – 8 points (4-4)

OSKAR – 8 points (4-4)

Zack Sabre Jr. – 8 points (4-4)

Shota Umino – 0 points (0-9)

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