We’ve finally arrived at the end of the block phase of G1 Climax 36, just over a month after it began. Half the block is still in semifinal contention as this show at Korakuen Hall begins, although a couple of those wrestlers are just barely hanging on. Let’s find out who moves on to take on the A Block’s Yota Tsuji and Ryohei Oiwa on Saturday’s big show at Ryogoku.

B Block: Aaron Wolf (8 points) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [TMDK] (8 points)

Both of these guys were effectively eliminated by virtue of Tuesday’s results, although Wolf does have the slimmest of chances if he wins this and there’s a bizarrely huge tie at 10 points.

Wolf removes his boots to start the match, signaling that he wants a grappling contest with Sabre; perhaps notably, Sabre does not remove his boots. They spend about five minutes grappling, and it is very good, but eventually things get heated and a pro wrestling match breaks out. The pro wrestling portion of the match is excellent – as you’d expect, it’s more technical than hard-hitting, but it’s still very compelling. Toward the end, each guy gets their opponent in a seemingly impossible-to-escape predicament before they manage to make the ropes, and then Sabre ties up Wolf in a cradle for the flash pinfall. This was just terrific. Sabre ends his campaign with 10 points, which is a hell of a recovery from where he was a couple weeks ago, while Wolf finishes with eight.

B Block: Gabe Kidd (10 points) vs. Ren Narita [HOUSE OF TORTURE] (10 points)

Narita advances to the semifinals with a win, while Kidd needs to win this match and for one of Newman or Uemura to lose.

This one starts with a crazy brawl through the crowd. They battle all around Korakuen Hall for several minutes, and the crowd is solidly behind Narita. Eventually, Dick Togo and SHO show up and bring a table from ringside to the aisle in the large seating section, but Kidd manages to fight off both guys and then power-bombs Narita through the table. Kidd drags Narita back to the ring and the match finally starts about 10 minutes after these guys started fighting. Narita hits a low blow and the Double Cross and then ascends to the top to try for Hell’s Guillotine, but Kidd tosses ref Marty Asami into the ropes to knock Narita off and then hits a pair of piledrivers for the pinfall victory. Afterward, Kidd cuts a promo taunting Shota Umino. This was wild.

Kidd’s victory doesn’t necessarily eliminate Narita, but now Narita needs exactly the same thing that Kidd does, which is for both Yuya Uemura and Callum Newman to lose in the next two matches.

B Block: Yuya Uemura (10 points) vs. OSKAR [Unbound Co.] (8 points)

Uemura advances to the semifinals with a win, since he’s beaten both Kidd and Newman. OSKAR is essentially eliminated, but if both he and HENARE win, there’ll be a seven-way tie for second at 10 points that could be unbreakable and would require some sort of solution that would give him a shot, so he has a lot to fight for here.

That being the case, OSKAR jumps Uemura before the bell and dominates the early-going using his size and power advantages. However, Uemura gets back into it using his speed, avoiding OSKAR’s offense, and his technical wrestling, getting OSKAR down to his level on the mat and working over his arm. At one point, Uemura goes for a pretty out-of-control plancha that OSKAR didn’t seem to realize was coming until the very last second; OSKAR was just barely able to catch him, but it looked very awkward. Uemura eventually hits a body slam on OSKAR, but an attempt at a back drop results in OSKAR applying the Nightmare Sleeper, although OSKAR loses the hold when he tries to swing Uemura, since Uemura had worked over OSKAR’s arm pretty thoroughly, after which Uemura hits the back drop and nearly gets a submission with a double wristlock. OSKAR nearly gets a pinfall with a sleeper slam and then hits the one-man KOB, but instead of going for the pin, he tries for the tree slam, and Uemura reverses it with a hurricanrana and applies a cross armbreaker for the submission. This was very good, and even though he still has the occasional baby giraffe moment, OSKAR has improved a lot during this tournament. Hopefully he can avoid injury, because genuinely athletic big guys who “get” wrestling are vanishingly rare.

With the win, Uemura is through to the semis, and any hope of a seven-way pileup at 10 points is out the window. This means everyone except Kidd, Uemura and Newman is officially 100% eliminated.

B Block: Callum Newman [United Empire] (10 points) vs. HENARE [United Empire] (8 points)

Chris Charlton suggests that because HENARE is now eliminated, it would make a certain amount of sense for him to simply lay down for his faction-mate, but then says, of course, there’s no way that’s going to happen.

HENARE does a haka before the match starts. They start off very quickly, teasing finishers almost immediately. It slows down a bit as they start striking, then Newman hits Excalibur and drags HENARE to the outside. Newman lands his running dropkick into the crowd, hitting HENARE right in the nuts (perhaps accidentally) and then sets up a pair of tables at ringside. Newman tries to put him through the tables with Prince’s Curse, but HENARE blocks it and the match heads back into the ring. HENARE gets two with a Berzerker Bomb, but Newman sends HENARE to the apron with a thrust kick, and they trade shots there until HENARE drives Newman through the tables with the Rampage; the tables go into business for themselves, as NJPW tables are wont to do, and Newman’s back is hideously bruised almost immediately. However, HENARE can’t quite put him away, and Newman fights back with an OsCutter and a Prince’s Curse for a near-fall. They trade pinfall attempts with their signature moves, with HENARE even pulling out a Hidden Blade, but Newman eventually gets the win with Make Way. Afterward, Newman uses his promo time to talk down a bit to HENARE, suggesting that he’s more loyal to Will Ospreay than he is to Newman and perhaps setting the stage for a bit of a United Empire civil war. (It is notable that HENARE has not cheated at all during this tour, while the other three United Empire members in this tournament have all cheated extensively.) This was excellent, and for as good as Newman looked – and he always looks good – I have to give it up for HENARE, who has been a revelation this entire tournament. I wish he hadn’t had such bad injury luck through the years, because when he is healthy, he is great.

So, Newman wins B Block, which means he wrestles Ryohei Oiwa in the semifinals on Saturday; Uemura finishes second, which means he has Tsuji on Saturday, which is the renewal of a heated feud from a couple years ago. Lest we forget, Saturday’s show is also Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s retirement show, so there will be a lot happening at Ryogoku, which is already sold out for both Saturday and Sunday. I’ll see you then!