NJPW G1 Climax 36 Opening Night Results: AEW Star Loses First Tournament Match

AEW/NJPW

Here are the results from the opening night of NJPW G1 Climax 36 action, with an AEW star coming up short in his first tournament match.

NJPW’s highly anticipated heavyweight tournament kicked off with a show in Chicago’s NOW Arena on Saturday, July 11.

With night one featuring nine tournament matches, the first show of the tour was headlined by one of the biggest matches set to happen in the A-Block, Konosuke Takeshita vs IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji.

Yota was ultimately victorious, defeating the AEW/NJPW/DDT-Pro triple contracted star to earn his first two points in the competition.

Here are the full results from the July 11 G1 Climax 36 tournament event:

Aaron Wolf def. HENARE – B-Block

Jake Lee def. Shingo Takagi  – A-Block

OSKAR def. Ren Narita – B-Block

Yuto-Ice def. Great-O-Khan – A-Block 

Zack Sabre Jr def. Shota Umino – B-Block 

Hirooki Goto def. SANADA – A-Block 

Callum Newman def. Yuya Uemura – B-Block 

Ryohei Oiwa def. Boltin Oleg – A-Block 

Yota Tsuji def. Konosuke Takeshita – A-Block 

With wrestlers earning two points from a victory, the current standings following night one are:

A-Block: 

Jake Lee, Yuto-Ice, Hirooki Goto, Ryohei Oiwa, Yota Tsuji – 2 points 

Shingo Takagi, Great-O-Khan, SANADA, Boltin Oleg, Konosuke Takeshita – 0 points 

B-Block: 

Aaron Wolf, OSKAR, Zack Sabre Jr, Callum Newman – 2 points 

HENARE, Ren Narita, Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura – 0 points. 

While nobody wants to start the tournament off with a loss, it’s all still to play for, with everyone who competed on July 11 having eight matches remaining to attempt to become the leader or runner-up in their respective block.

The leaders and runners-up from both blocks will face off in semi-final play-off matches, to determine who faces off in the tournament final on August 16.

Konosuke Takeshita’s opening match was always going to be a competitive one, not only because Takeshita won last year’s tournament and Tsuji is the current world champion, but also because both competitors have made it out of block action to playoff matches in both the 2024 and 2025 tournaments, with Tsuji notably beating Takeshita in their 2024 playoff bout.

Drilla Maloney and AEW’s Gabe Kidd are the final B-Block stars who have yet to compete, with the duo set to face off in B-Block action on July 18.

Kidd recently indicated that he is currently dealing with US visa issues.

To make sure you stay up to date with all the biggest wrestling and WrestleTalk news, follow us on Threads by clicking this link!

• AEW
• NJPW
• G1 Climax
• Konosuke Takeshita

Share this article with friends