G1 Climax 36 is back in Tokyo for a second evening at EBARA WAVE Arena Ota. Tonight’s show features the B Block, and it is probably the show that has been most compromised by Shota Umino’s injury – the main event of this one was supposed to be Umino vs. Yuya Uemura in a battle of potential aces, but, unfortunately, it was not to be. So, not only is Umino not on the show, but now Uemura isn’t either, which is a pretty big blow to what should have been one of the bigger shows of the tournament.

B Block: Aaron Wolf (4 points) vs. OSKAR [Unbound Co.] (4 points)

The story of this match is that OSKAR is jealous of Wolf because of his Olympic success (OSKAR was apparently a track athlete of some renown who didn’t reach that level) and because he didn’t really have to go through the dojo, which is fair, I guess. There’s probably going to be a lot of this kind of story with Wolf going forward.

This one starts off with OSKAR using his size to control Wolf, culminating in a Camel Clutch sequence (during which Chris Charlton says OSKAR is “trying to humble” Wolf). Wolf turns the tables with a uranage, and the two go back and forth with power moves. Wolf goes for the Angle Slam, but OSKAR rakes the eyes to escape, then hits a big boot, a running tombstone and the Nightmare Sleeper for the ref stoppage in what has to be considered an upset. Afterward, OSKAR presents Wolf with Wolf’s NEVER Openweight Championship and challenges him for a title match. This was really good, and it’s been fun to see both guys improve during this tournament.

What’s next? OSKAR (6 points) wrestles his faction-mate, Drilla Moloney, on Night 9, which takes place in Takamatsu on Friday, while Wolf (4 points) wrestles Yuya Uemura on the same show.

B Block: HENARE [United Empire] (6 points) vs. Ren Narita [HOUSE OF TORTURE] (4 points)

Narita has Dick Togo with him, so shenanigans are back on the menu, boys. The story here is that HENARE blames Narita for the knee injury that kept him out for more than a year, saying that the initial injury took place in a G1 match between the two. (The catastrophic injury actually took place in a preview tag months later against LIJ, which I remember clearly because it’s one of the only times I’ve seen Tetsuya Naito drop character in public, if only for a moment.)

Of course, Narita spends much of this match working on HENARE’s knee, but HENARE periodically responds with power moves. Midway through the match, both HOUSE members hit HENARE with chair shots, but this only fires him up. Narita nearly gets a submission with a kneebar, but HENARE uses the Maori Death Grip to break free, then wins with the HENARE Bomb after a strange sequence that was a result of either a tiny bit of miscommunication or simply HENARE selling the knee. Regardless, this was fine, and the HOUSE business was minimal.

What’s next? HENARE (8 points) has the Shota Umino Memorial Night Off for the next B Block show, so the next time he wrestles will be against Gabe Kidd on Night 11, which takes place in Fukuoka next Sunday; meanwhile, Narita (4 points) wrestles Zack Sabre Jr. on Friday.

B Block: Drilla Moloney [Unbound Co.] (6 points) vs. Callum Newman [United Empire] (6 points)

This one starts with an extended crowd brawling sequence, culminating in one of the craziest spots I’ve seen in a long time, as Newman charged a seated Moloney from the length of the ringside area, but Moloney got up and threw Newman into the chairs. Ah, to be 23 again, when doing that spot would not sound like the stupidest thing you ever heard in your life. A couple minutes later, Newman actually hits the diving dropkick onto a seated Moloney, jumping over the guardrail to do so. Crazy bastard. Back in the ring, Newman works over Moloney for a while, but Moloney comes back and they go back and forth until ref Marty Asami gets bumped. Moloney has Newman in position for the Drilla Killa when Zane Jay interferes, but Daiki Nagai evens the odds by taking out Jay and hitting a crazy pop-up DDT. Moloney lands a kick, but Jay pulls Asami out of the ring before he can count three. Nagai takes out Jay again, but Newman takes the advantage, landing Kiss the Crown and trying for Make Way, but Moloney flips out of another Kiss the Crown attempt and hits the Drilla Killa for the pin. This was really good, and it set these guys up for a fun rivalry moving forward.

What’s next? Moloney (8 points) wrestles OSKAR on Friday, while Newman (6 points) wrestles Kidd on the same show.

B Block: Zack Sabre Jr. [TMDK] (2 points) vs. Gabe Kidd (6 points)

The start of this one is very, very physical, with lots of stiff strikes from Kidd. After a good 10 minutes of this, Sabre cuts off Kidd and starts working on Kidd’s knee, suggesting he’d been utilizing a rope-a-dope type of strategy. However, Kidd wills the match into becoming a slugfest again, which gives him the advantage, and after fighting off a number of attempts at submissions, he wins with a piledriver, a Death Rider and another piledriver in a super heated 26-minute match. Afterwards, Kidd says he’s looking forward to entering a real tournament – AEW’s Continental Classic. This was excellent; these two really put on a hell of a show to perhaps take a bit of the edge off of the live crowd missing Umino vs. Uemura.

What’s next? Kidd (8 points) wrestles Newman on Friday, while Sabre (2 points) wrestles Narita on the same show.

And there you have it. The tournament hits the road again after this show and reconvenes with an A Block show in Osaka on Wednesday. See you then!