New Japan's G1 Climax tournament set for first-time winner

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Over the past couple nights, New Japan Pro-Wrestling wrapped up the round-robin portion of its annual G1 Climax tournament. Each G1 field is broken up into Blocks, within which each wrestler faces every other wrestler with the winner getting 2 points and the loser none, or each getting 1 point in the event of a draw. This year’s G1 36 initially had two Blocks of ten men, but Shota Umino had to withdraw from B Block due to injury. Mr Ares, who does a much better job covering NJPW than anyone has around these parts since demand for Claire’s live blogging made her drop her puroresu habit a few years back, caught us all up heading into the always eventful final days of action: Those final days produced four semi-finalists for the G1 36 knockout rounds, and none has ever won the tournament before. For three of them, it will mean a shot at New Japan’s top prize, the IWGP Heavyweight championship. One of the semi-finalists already wears that belt; he’ll get to name his challenger should he win. The title matches usually happen on New Japan’s Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome show — but not always. Current champ Yota Tsuji emerged from A Block along with Ryohei Oiwa. AEW’s Konosuke Takeshita finished with the same point/win total, but lost head-to-head with Oiwa Wednesday (Aug. 12). Oleg Boltin was in the mix, but lost his final match to Great-O-Khan. A Block Update The road to Ryogoku is set! A Block belongs to Ryohei Oiwa and Yota Tsuji. Now all eyes turn to B Block#G1CLIMAX36 A Block report:https://t.co/G60n4ywmi4 Watch the replay:https://t.co/JCPGeCGUjM#njpw pic.twitter.com/mF50GGCQFy — NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) August 12, 2026 A Block Yota Tsuji (12) Ryohei Oiwa (12) Konosuke Takeshita (12) Boltin Oleg (10) Hirooki Goto (8) Shingo Takagi (8) SANADA (8) Yuto-Ice (8) Jake Lee (6) Great-O-Khan (6) Thursday in B Block, Yuya Uemura and Callum Newman emerged as semi-finalists. Each won on the final day of round-robin action to finish with 12 points apiece. Gabe Kidd had the same total, but lost his matches with the other two leaders. B Block Update Callum Newman and Yuya Uemura have joined Yota Tsuji and Ryohei Oiwa in the final four! Semifinals are set for Ryogoku! 🔥#G1CLIMAX36 B Block report:https://t.co/mlwfaCa8Fo Watch the replay:https://t.co/SSr3n3QHBv#njpw pic.twitter.com/iQRhckjU7y — NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) August 13, 2026 B Block Yuya Uemura (12) Callum Newman (12) Gabe Kidd (12) Drilla Moloney (10) Zack Sabre Jr. (10) Ren Narita (10) HENARE (8) Aaron Wolf (8) OSKAR (8) Shota Umino (0)* * Withdrew after Night One due to a concussion G1 36 wraps up this weekend with the semis on Saturday at Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, and finals at that same iconic venue on Sunday. Which first-timer with join the hall of G1 winners?