We’ve finally arrived at the end of this year’s G1 Climax tournament, and the final show takes place once again at Ryogoku. Once again, I had hoped to cover this whole show, but this is a very busy weekend for me and my family, and since it appears that everything else on the show is a preview tag setting things up for Destruction, I’m okay letting it go. The newsworthy things from the undercard are that Jeff Cobb is back and is with Unbound Co. in spite of Callum Newman, Shun Skywalker is challenging Konosuke Takeshita for the NJPW TV title, Drilla Moloney is challenging Gabe Kidd for the IWGP Global title (perhaps at All In), the Knockout Brothers and the Most Violent Players appear to be challenging United Empire for the IWGP tag team title, and the main event for Destruction appears to be an IWGP title match between Yota Tsuji and Hirooki Goto; Destruction might be a bit early to capitalize on the Street Fighter promo blitz, but oh well.

The final segment of the show begins with Hiroshi Tanahashi announcing the winners of the fan poll – outstanding achievement goes to Boltin Oleg, fighting spirit goes to Yuto-Ice, and technique goes to Ryohei Oiwa. Tanahashi then introduces Hiroyoshi Tenzan, who will be joining the Japanese commentary team for this match; Tenzan cuts a short promo thanking the fans for yesterday and gets the fans fired up for the match.

G1 Climax 36 Final: Yuya Uemura vs. Ryohei Oiwa [TMDK]

Oiwa is once again wearing the Tenzan horns and has Zack Sabre Jr., Hartley Jackson and Kosei Fujita with him. Uemura is accompanied by Taichi and El Desperado.

Red Shoes says Oiwa gets the better fan reaction, but only just. Uemura starts off with an extended side headlock sequence, which seems like poking the bear a bit. After several minutes, Oiwa gets a side headlock of his own and begins trying to grind down Uemura. Uemura, meanwhile, goes after Oiwa’s arm in an attempt to compromise Oiwa’s ability to use the side headlock. After a very long time, Oiwa manages to counter an armdrag with a head scissors, and, in another example of the NJPW’s camerawork being superior to everyone else’s, you can see Sabre artfully framed in the background celebrating Oiwa’s excellent technical wrestling. After about 18 of the quickest minutes you’ll ever see in a wrestling match, there’s a double-down, and Uemura decides to go in for the kill with strikes and suplexes. Uemura gets two with a single underhook suplex, but Oiwa kicks out at two. Oiwa counters with some power moves of his own, including a Doctor Bomb that gets two. Uemura hits a cross-body and a back suplex, but Oiwa responds with a Tenzan suplex, which leads to another double-down. After they recover, they trade Germans and Uemura hits the Dragon Suplex for two, followed by the High Fly Flow for another near-fall. Oiwa counters the Deadbolt with a belly-to-belly, which gets two, but as Uemura kicks out, Oiwa grabs the side headlock. After a long struggle, Uemura tries a back suplex, but Oiwa holds on, and Red Shoes nearly stops the match. Eventually, Uemura manages to power out due to the injured arm and hits the Deadbolt, followed by the Lion Elbow, but he misses the Lion Shiner and is back in the side headlock. Uemura pushes him off the ropes and counters The Grip with an armdrag into a cross-armbreaker, which he transitions to a wristlock. Oiwa powers out with multiple clotheslines, but Uemura grabs the wristlock again. Oiwa slams Uemura, but Uemura holds on; Oiwa Germans Uemura, but Uemura holds on. Finally, another Tenzan suplex causes Uemura to break the hold. Ryogoku is going crazy for this. After they get to their feet, Oiwa manages to hit two Grips, but Uemura kicks out of the second one at two. Oiwa grabs the side headlock again, and after a long, long struggle, Uemura finally taps out. Tenzan is in tears at ringside. This was absolutely fantastic – a brilliant pro wrestling match.

During his promo, Oiwa says that he’s going to challenge for the IWGP title at King of Pro-Wrestling (which is apparently still going to be the name of the event – there was some question about that, since “King of Pro-Wrestling” was, at one point, a Bushiroad trademark and not an NJPW one) on October 12, once again at Ryogoku.

Well, that was a hell of a thing. I’m guessing there will be announcements for Destruction and the Road shows in the coming days, and I’ll pop in when there’s something to report. In the meantime, AEW has already announced that HENARE and Francesco Akira will be on Dynamite teaming with Will Ospreay on Wednesday, so that’s something to look forward to. See you soon!