This year’s G1 Climax tour finally makes its way to Tokyo for two shows at EBARA WAVE Arena Ota this weekend. This is the first, an A Block show with what should be at least three exciting matches. Let’s get to it.

A Block: Hirooki Goto (4 points) vs. Great-O-Khan [United Empire] (2 points)

Walker Stewart and Chris Charlton suggest that Goto may be looking at this match as a way to get back in the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship conversation. I couldn’t help but think, yeah, that’d be cool, I guess, but this guy just beat the IWGP champion a week ago – I think he might be hunting bigger game.

As with most of Great-O-Khan’s matches in this tournament, this one is paced very deliberately. Goto seems to have this one in the bag, but the ref gets bumped and Great-O-Khan tries a somewhat baroque chairshot setup that Goto manages to get out of. Goto threatens to hit Great-O-Khan with a chair, but Great-O-Khan begs off; Goto throws the chair away, but Great-O-Khan punches him in the nuts and then hits the Eliminator for the win. After the match, Great-O-Khan hits the chairshot spot on Goto, despite Tatsuya Matsumoto’s best efforts to protect Goto. This was fine until the ref bump, but the finish was right out of the HOUSE OF TORTURE playbook, and we don’t need any more of that. The finish also made Goto look like a chump for the second tournament match in a row, and if there’s one guy they should be protecting right now, it’s him.

What’s next? Great-O-Khan (4 points) wrestles Konosuke Takeshita on Night 8, which takes place in Osaka on Wednesday, while Goto (4 points) wrestles Shingo Takagi on the same show.

A Block: Jake Lee [United Empire] (4 points) vs. SANADA [HOUSE OF TORTURE] (2 points)

Lee has no clown makeup at all tonight. Charlton compares Lee’s relationship with the paint to those of Keiji Muto, Prince Devitt and TJP; I didn’t expect a tacit mention of the Aswang in NJPW in 2026, but here we are.

SANADA is the clear crowd favorite here, although Lee certainly has some supporters. Lee takes the advantage on the outside by tying SANADA’s right arm in the guardrail with the belt from Lee’s gear, and then hitting it with a running kick. Lee controls throughout by working on SANADA’s arm, which makes sense, but also dictates that this match is contested at Lee’s pace, which is slow, albeit not as slow as in the past. SANADA makes some headway going after Lee’s knee, and ultimately gets the countout win by tying Lee’s feet together on the outside with Lee’s belt. This was cute, but the timing on the finish was way off – it took so long to set up that ref Kenta Sato basically had to stop counting at about 17, and SANADA still never got Lee properly tied up.

Afterward, Charlton compares the finish to one of my favorite silly G1 finishes, which was in G1 Climax 28 – SANADA put Toru Yano in the Paradise Lock on the outside and went back inside to wait for the countout, but Rocky Romero, who was on English commentary, stepped in and tipped Yano over so Yano could escape (Yano and Romero were CHAOS faction-mates at the time); so, SANADA calmly went outside, put them both in the Paradise Lock, and then put Rocky’s headset on Rocky so the viewer could hear Rocky apologizing and asking for someone to get Milano to help him out of the hold (which Milano eventually does while shaking his head disapprovingly). As much as I liked that finish, it does kind of call into question why SANADA didn’t just try putting everyone in the Paradise Lock on the outside back when he had the Paradise Lock mojo (which seems to have largely transferred to YOH now), but that’s probably one of those wrestling questions I’m not supposed to ask.

What’s next? SANADA (4 points) wrestles Ryohei Oiwa on Wednesday, while Lee (4 points) wrestles Boltin Oleg on the same show.

A Block: Konosuke Takeshita (4 points) vs. Boltin Oleg (4 points)

Now we’re talking. The rivalry between these two was one of the best things in NJPW last year.

This is a fantastic, main event-quality match that has the Ota crowd rocking. Lots of physical striking, lots of high-impact moves and an epic feel that few tournament matches achieve, all while suggesting that a rematch could be even better. After about 15 minutes of a mighty struggle, Takeshita wins with Raging Fire. This felt like a throwback to when NJPW was hot, although in a very different way than, say, Tanahashi vs. Okada, or Naito vs. Ibushi, which is encouraging.

What’s next? Takeshita (6 points) wrestles Great-O-Khan on Wednesday, while Boltin (4 points) wrestles Lee on the same show.

A Block: Yuto-Ice [Unbound Co.] (2 points) vs. Ryohei Oiwa [TMDK] (4 points)

The story here is that these dudes hate each other going back to the dojo. This is a rematch of a really good first-round match in the New Japan Cup tournament, which Oiwa won with the Roy Clutch.

This starts off as a wild brawl that goes all around the arena. Back in the ring, they continue the fight, with each guy attempting to exploit the other’s injury – Oiwa’s ribs and Yuto’s neck – between stiff “big meaty men slapping meat” strike exchanges. This is a very good, extremely heated match that Yuto wins with Cruella after countering The Grip with a thrust kick. These last two matches have felt fresh in a way that NJPW hasn’t in a while, and it’s very exciting.

What’s next? Yuto (4 points) wrestles Yota Tsuji on Wednesday, while Oiwa (4 points) wrestles SANADA on the same show.

A Block: Yota Tsuji [Unbound Co.] (2 points) vs. Shingo Takagi [Unbound Co.] (2 points)

Despite being in the same faction, these two have been circling each other for a while, with Takagi issuing an IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge to Tsuji this spring. Of course, Tsuji lost the title to Callum Newman at Sakura Genesis before that match could happen, and Takagi unsuccessfully challenged Newman at Wrestling Dontaku, but here, finally, they face off against one another. After these last two matches, they have a hell of a standard to maintain.

The crowd seems to be behind Takagi, which is understandable, since he’s the underdog and has been very popular for a long time, but I still think Tsuji should be getting better reactions. This match is fairly slow – though certainly not boring – for the first several minutes, but it kicks into high gear afterward and becomes a very good, very physical match with lots of believable near-falls and a real main-event feel. There was even a moment when I thought they might be going the distance, but Tsuji wins with the Fire Blaster at around the 25-minute mark. This was excellent, and did, in fact, manage to rise to the level of its predecessors.

What’s next? Tsuji (4 points) wrestles Yuto-Ice on Wednesday, while Takagi (2 points) wrestles Goto on the same show.

Tomorrow’s B Block show emanates from this same arena, and if the block matches are anywhere near the quality of the ones on this show, it’ll be a lot of fun. See you then!