Wrestling Is Fake

A Block: Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita

Tsuji is the IWGP heavyweight champion, and Take is the NJPW World television champion, but nobody's titles are at stake during the tournament. This is, of course, a rematch from the Tokyo Dome in January, where Tsuji dethroned Takeshita, taking the lead in their singles record with 2-1.

Tsuji was not thrilled with that Tokyo Dome title match being second from the top, and he's often bellyached about only defending the heavyweight belt in main events, or only going to the US if he's headlining, or not wanting to work with AEW. Well, buddy, you're in Chicago (-ish) in the tippy-toppy main event, and you're up against an AEW guy but your precious belt isn't on the line, and I'm sure they removed the brown M&Ms from your dressing room. None of that shit matters unless you can deliver the goods. Which is why Tsuji's whining never resonates with me, because the NJPW bookers do not protect him as much as they should, so he feels like a weak champion who can't back up his bluster.

Takeshita, on the other hand, doesn't complain even when he had to put up with Don Callis Family nonsense in AEW. He just glares at the obstacle and has a five-star match with it. I've seen him win, I've seen him lose, but I never feel like he didn't leave it all in the ring. They're both cool guys, but Tsuji takes me for granted while Take commands my respect.

Knowing New Japan, I sense Takeshita will get his win back to keep the series evened out for a future encounter. So a New Japan booker will decide the finish to this New Japan match against an "outsider" under a New Japan contract, and Tsuji will still probably blame AEW for it.

A Block: Oleg Boltin vs. Ryohei Oiwa

Boltin won the STRONG men's title back in February; they've been trying to make the belt a US-only thing, but this is the first US show they've run since he won it, and he won't be defending it until the G1 is over.

Oiwa's whole deal is being a hard-hitting mean guy and Boltin's whole deal is being a large muscley dude from Kazakhstan, so this oughta be a good "big meaty men slapping meat" match. I've long felt New Japan doesn't do enough with either guy, so I'm rooting for them both. But it's not New Kazakhstan Pro Wrestling, so I expect Oiwa to go a lot further. Boltin might get a win tonight, but Oiwa is on my shortlist of guys who could reach the final.

B Block: Callum Newman vs. Yuya Uemura

This is a rematch from the New Japan Cup final in March. Newman defeated Uemura there to earn a title shot, which he used to win the IWGP heavyweight title from Yota Tsuji, only to lose it back to Tsuji 71 days later. So that's a setback for the 23-year-old, but it's more than 31-year-old Uemura could even dream of since he returned from excursion in 2023.

Yuya is one of those young guys--along with Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji, Ren Narita, and Ryohei Oiwa--where New Japan can't seem to figure out how to shit or get off the pot. (The fact that Umino and Tsuji have both already headlined the Tokyo Dome and still feel like up-and-coming guys trying to prove they can hang at the top speaks to the severity of the problem.) Newman has leapfrogged over all of them, simply because New Japan needs a top gaijin heel and keeps cycling them out at an incredible rate. But the promotion seems to have forgotten how to create a top hojin babyface, except to bring in Takeshita from AEW. The point is, Uemura is on my shortlist of potential G1 finalists, but if he makes it to the end I'd consider it an upset if he won the whole thing.

As for this match, I get the feeling Newman will win. Callum's not winning the whole tournament, but I think his destiny is a big Tokyo Dome match against Will Ospreay, and they're going to want to protect him until they get there. Which means beating expendable midcard guys, and, well, that's what they think Uemura is.

A Block: Hirooki Goto vs. SANADA

Goto is the only guy left from the first G1 Climax I watched in 2015. Sanada was the cool new guy when I watched my second one in 2016. Both went on to win the top title, but in each case it felt like too little, too late. Goto can still go, but geez, he's 47. Sanada is working around nerve damage in his arm by doing House of Torture bullshit. I'm not expecting much here. I don't even get the sense they're trying to protect Sanada anymore, so he may be settling into a role like Don Fale or Yujiro Takahashi, where he could win in a fuck finish but he almost never does.

I'll be surprised if Sanada does better than 3-6 this year, but they might have him win here to create the illusion that he has momentum. I guess Goto might get to the semifinals if they need him to make somebody look like a credible finalist.

B Block: Shota Umino vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

This is a rematch from the 2025 Tokyo Dome main event, where Shota unsuccessfully challenged for Sabre's IWGP heavyweight belt. Both guys have fell off a bit since then. Recently Shota had a cup of coffee with the global title, and I expect him to get it back, but getting demolished by Gabe Kidd didn't do much to rehabilitate his image as a choke artist. Meanwhile Sabre has barely been on the radar in 2026, aside from losing to Kenny Omega at Forbidden Door.

A Wrestle Kingdom rematch at the G1 should feel like a big deal, but this just doesn't, and that's on New Japan. All these two can do is go out and make me forget that, and I look forward to seeing 'em try. I could see either of them reaching the semifinals, but at this point I don't think either man will go all the way.

I always think Umino should win, but experience has taught me to expect him to lose. They love having the key babyfaces struggle to get a win on the board in the early going, so I could easily see Shota having an 0-3 start.

A Block: Yuto-Ice vs. Great-O-Khan

Khan and his partner HENARE defeated Ice and OSKAR to capture the IWGP heavyweight tag title. Khan and Henare are also the NEVER trios champions with Will Ospreay, but I don't expect them to deal with that until Ospreay can get back to Japan. Ice is the baddest motherfucker to walk the face of the earth.

Listen, New Japan sold me a ticket to this show as soon as they put a shot of Navy Pier in the promo video seven months ago. But if anything in this company today is worth the price of admission, it's "The G1 Climax debut of Yuto-Icccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccce." Every time he and Oskar defended the tag title it was like a fucking war, and Yuto always makes it feel like he's fighting a war within a war with one guy on the other team. The real money is in seeing Yuto one-on-one with Henare, so of course they ain't giving us that anytime soon. But Ice vs. Khan? Yeah, let's get high on that.

These two are fixin' to beat the piss out of each other. I'm excited. I always liked Khan, but he's past his peak and I don't think he'll ever get any closer to winning the G1. But Yuto isn't just getting started, and I actually think it might be too soon for him to win it all. But if you want a truly great G1 final to remind people what the fuck the G stands for, I'd go with him.

Fuck it, I'm picking Yuto to go 9-0 in the block. Yuto-Ice sweep.

B Block: OSKAR vs. Ren Narita

With Evil off being Naraku in NXT, and Sanada being a shell of his former self, that leaves Narita as the de facto top act in House of Torture. His matches are less painful than the average House of Torture bullshit, but that's not saying much. Ideally he should just crash and burn in the block and get it over with. But knowing New Japan he'll win the whole tournament to piss me off.

Oskar is so overshadowed by Yuto-Ice that I'm tempted to call him the Marty Janetty of the team. But he definitely adds something to the act, and I'm very curious to see how he does as a singles guy for the next five weeks. With his height and look he seems like he should be German Undertaker, but he doesn't quite seem as badass as you'd expect. I'm thinking Dick Togo and SHO are going to run in here and he's going to stand around all confused and get hit in the crotch a lot.

Oskar ought to win this match, but I've got a bad feeling they want to make sure we know Narita is a genuine threat to the rest of B Block.

A Block: Shingo Takagi vs. Jake Lee

Lee has failed to impress me since he arrived in New Japan, but he has a strangely compelling charm to him so I can't turn away. It reminds me of Bray Wyatt in a way--I always recognized he had "it," but whatever "it" was didn't do anything for me after the bell rang. Jake is the designated weirdo in United Empire, but I figure sooner or later he'll betray them and end up in House of Torture.

Takagi is my guy, and has been for years, but at this point he's not a major focus and he's kinda settling into the Hirooki Goto role of being the "top" guy that make actual top guys look good. So this is a good matchup to make Lee look impressive on the opening night, especially if he's going to lose a lot for the rest of the tour.

You know what, I feel like I keep predicting the guys who suck are all going to win tonight just to fuck with me. So no longer. If anybody in this field could make it work to go 0-9, it's Jake Lee, so let him do that. Shingo wins because he's cool.

B Block: Aaron Wolf vs. HENARE

Wolf recently regained the NEVER championship, and with Henare that's like carrying a bag of meat into a fight with a grizzly bear. Henare, as noted above, currently holds the IWGP tag team and NEVER trios titles, but his real passion is the NEVER singles belt, which has long been associated with straight-ahead, smash-mouth slobberknockers.

I don't know if this show is being broadcast on Japanese TV, but I wouldn't be surprised, since Wolf is an Olympic gold medal judoka and a big draw in Japan. It's a tough situation, though, because he's too big of an attraction to not feature him, but he's extremely green. Most of his singles matches have been embarrassingly short and filled with House of Torture run-ins so he doesn't have to do very much. His title win over Ren Narita last month was decent and suggests signs of improvement, but he's in the deep end of the pool now. Henare needs to maul him and he needs to be able to sell and fight back and keep up with that pace. Even if he gets squashed here, he can't go back into hiding in multi-man tag matches for the rest of the tour. He has to deliver nine grade-one singles matches (even if he loses them all), or he'll be exposed as a total joke.

If Wolf can cut the mustard in the G1, he'll need an expendable guy to do the job for his next title defense; if he can't, he'll need a guy who can destroy him in three minutes to take the belt off of him. Either way, Henare is perfect for the role, so I'd have him win here to set up a rematch in September.

B Block: Gabe Kidd vs. Drilla Moloney