NJPW G1 CLIMAX 35 RESULTS – NIGHT 18 (8/16): Wells’s results & analysis of both semifinal matches in the G-1 Climax

NJPW G1 CLIMAX 35 NIGHT 18 REPORT
AUGUST 16, 2025
TOKYO, JAPAN AT ARIAKE ARENA
AIRED LIVE ON NJPW WORLD

Walker Stewart and Chris Charlton were on commentary. Only two matches of note were on the show, the two playoff matches to see who makes the semifinals of the G1.

(KICKOFF) TOGI MAKABE & TIGER MASK & TATSUYA MATSUMOTO vs. SHOMA KATO & MASATORA YASUDA & ZANE JAY

Matsumoto & Jay are fresh from the Noge Dojo and are making their debuts in Japanese tag matches (and Matsumoto is making his tag team match debut, period). Jay tapped to a Boston Crab from a noticeably older-looking Makabe, who was looking old already.

WINNERS: Makabe & Tiger Mask & Matsumoto at 9:47.

(1) SHOTA UMINO & YUYA UEMURA & YOSHI-HASHI & EL DESPERADO & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. TAICHI & SATOSHI KOJIMA & TORU YANO & YOH & MASTER WATO

Looks like everyone’s back for the Ariake shows. Intros were seven minutes long for the all-Hontai affair. Taguchi of all people got the rollup victory on Master Wato, his former tag partner. Taguchi made the belt motion at Wato, who’s one-third of the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Champions.

WINNERS: Taguchi & Umino & Uemura & Yoshi-Hashi & Desperado at 8:54

(2) BOLTIN OLEG & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (Don Fale & Yujiro Takahashi)

Time to see if Oleg can work miracles. Grenade & elbow drop finished for Fale on Honma. The heels laid out Oleg afterward and Fale laid on Oleg while Takahashi made the three count, suggesting a NEVER Openweight Title match that would be pretty painful.

WINNERS: House of Torture at 4:39.

(3) HIROSHI TANAHASHI & EL PHANTASMO & KATSUYA MURASHIMA vs. THE UNITED EMPIRE (Great-O-Khan & Callum Newman & Jakob Austin Young)

Tanahashi milked his entrance as his career continues to wind down. Newman hit the Firebolt on Murashima.

WINNERS: The United Empire at 9:39.

(4) SHINGO TAKAGI & DAIKI NAGAI vs. BULLET CLUB WAR DOGS (David Finlay & Gedo)

Takagi dusted off the WAR Special submission to finish Gedo. Apparently we’re going right into another David Finlay losing streak storyline right after they told a comeback story in the G-1 just to have him get knocked out in the first playoff match.

WINNERS: Takagi & Nagai at 6:35.

(5) BULLET CLUB WAR DOGS (Drilla Moloney & Taiji Ishimori) vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

Kanemaru distracted referee Kenta Sato so Sanada could hit Moloney with a guitar shot. The guitar got stuck around Moloney’s head and Sanada had to break it off while Sato remained turned around. Sanada got the win as a result. Moloney bled quite a bit after the spot.

WINNERS: House of Torture at 6:27.

(6) TMDK (Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita & Hartley Jackson vs. THE HOUSE OF TORTURE (Ren Narita & SHO & DOUKI)

Narita tapped out Hartley Jackson after a long leg submission. The House of Torture are 3-0, making this show a real crowd-pleaser.

WINNERS: House of Torture at 8:32.

(7) YOTA TSUJI vs. EVIL (w/Don Fale & Dick Togo) – G-1 Climax 35 Semifinal match

Shingo Takagi & Daiki Nagai entered with Tsuji, but didn’t stay. Will they ever learn? Evil jumped Tsuji and Marty Asami called for the bell. Evil charged Tsuji in the corner twice, but Tsuji nailed Evil with a facebreaker. Rope run and a headscissor takedown by Tsuji. Togo yanked Tsuji out of the ring to boos, and the heels charged Tsuji into a barricade, sending the ring announcer to the floor in a spot they haven’t done in a while. Evil grabbed the mic and told Tsuji to proclaim him the winner.

They went back inside and Evil worked the Nagata Lock, even doing the Nagata salute, drawing boos. Tsuji slowly got to the rope to break, and Asami had to count Evil down to actually get the break. Evil charged Tsuji in a corner and Tsuji kicked him away. Tsuji tried a dropkick out of the corner but Evil caught him for a powerbomb for two. Evil tried a suplex, but after two efforts, Tsuji turned it around and hit one. Both guys sold on the mat as the crowd clapped for Tsuji.

Corner splash by Tsuji. Scoop slam and a big splash got two. While running the ring, Tsuji sold the work on his leg. Big palm strike by Tsuji, then another, then a third. A fourth laid Evil out. Evil begged for mercy, then poked the eyes. Evil took Tsuji to the outside and charged him to the barricade, laying out Abe a second time. Poor guy. Evil wen back to the ring quickly while Asami started the count. Togo kicked the barricade as Tsuji tried to walk over it, causing a close call to be totally last second as Tsuji hobbled into the ring at 19. Takagi was there to equalize, so either he’s been hanging back or he returned at some point.

Evil worked a half-crab. Tsuji milked this one before finally reaching for the bottom rope to break. Evil called for the end, but Tsuji caught him with some combo strikes and a curb stomp. Tsuji flopped to his back afterward and both guys sold on the mat. Tsuji put up Evil in a corner and joined him there. He hit Spanish Fly from the top, which was quite the visual with the large Evil. Cover for two. Tsuji fired up.

Evil threw Asami in front of him for two Gene Blaster attempts, and Tsuji put on the brakes. On a third attempt, Evil did it yet again and this time Asami got speared. Perhaps a disqualification, Asami? No? Don Fale and Dick Togo got involved and hit the karate chop to the nether regions on Tsuji. Takagi and Nagai got involved and there was a long train of low blows, bringing an air of dignity and class to our match (admittedly, it was funny how long it went on).

Tsuji ran station-to-station and hit a flash knee. Marlowe Crash got a long two. Tsuji fought off a setup move as well as Everything is Evil and hit a bulldog on the reversal for two. Tsuji took Evil up in a corner but Dick Togo was holding back new referee Kenta Sato so Don Fale could hit the Don Fall on Tsuji. Evil trapped on the Darkness Scorpion and…got the immediate tap? Was he passed out? What fresh hell is this?

WINNER: Evil at 18:03. (**1/2)

(Wells’s Analysis: I have long said that Evil was an effective guy in the playoffs because people want to see him get beat, but it’s simply not believable that he would go to the finals, as they’ve exclusively had great classic wrestling matches in the finals and that’s not what they ask of House of Torture. Apparently it’s a brave new world, as Evil now gets one step closer. I still think either guy in the main event would beat him tomorrow (and at the outset of the tournament I picked Sabre to win and invite Goto to the Wrestle Kingdom main event) but with this win, I guess anything can happen)

(8) ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA – G-1 Climax 35 Semifinal match

The two spent some time before locking up. They went to mat stuff early, as expected, and made a number of clever reversals before a quick rollup for one by Sabre leading to a reset. Sabre worked Takeshita’s arms behind him and wrenched back, and rolled through every attempt to break until Takeshita reversed, Sabre escaped, and they reset again.

Sabre worked a quick headlock. Rope run and a few blocks by each guy, and one by Takeshita laid out Sabre. Takeshita worked a headlock on the mat. Sabre calmly tried to reverse as Takeshita did some Sabre-style repositioning in response to each of his reversal attempts. Takeshita clapped Sabre’s ears and they separated. Sabre worked an arm wringer over the top rope until referee Red Shoes Unno counted it down. Unno only worked this match tonight; they may not have wanted him to take the bumps Asami did in the semi-main.

Sabre worked the digits for a bit, then kicked Takeshita out to the apron. He managed a big kick that sent Takeshita to the floor, but Takeshita tripped Sabre and yanked him out to the floor, where they both laid on the mat around the ring for a bit until Takeshita rolled Sabre inside and followed. Takeshita hit a running boot and German suplex. Takeshita hit a running tackle but missed a big kick in the corner and got hung up. Sabre kicked the back of the prone knee to take control, and Takeshita crumbled to the mat. Sabre continued to work semi-heel as he worked Takeshita’s knee around the ropes as long as Red Shoes would let him. The announcers said this year, Sabre was “embracing his inner dickhead” rather than doing this for the people this year.

The two went to a forearm exchange, naturally won by Takeshita as Sabre was knocked to the mat. Exploder by Takeshita, then another. He covered for two. Sabre took down Takeshita and worked one of his explanation-defying submissions, but Takeshita broke it and hit a Blue Thunder Bomb for two. Sabre transitioned into a simple ankle lock, and then added his own legs for torque. He repositioned Takeshita a couple times to keep him from the ropes, and Takeshita rolled with it and his momentum finally got him to a rope to break.

Sabre kicked the back of Takeshita’s worked arm and flipped off the fans. He ended up running into a big forearm by Takeshita. Takeshita hit a Zack Driver for two. The two went to some quick rollups and reversals on the mat and got near-falls. Sabre hit a few of his classic trap pins but Takeshita kicked out of each. Takeshita hit a German suplex but lost his grip on the bridge, and the two sold for a bit.

DDT by Takeshita. Zack Driver by Sabre got two. He transitioned right ino a triangle, but Takeshita ended up falling straight into the ropes to break. Sabre laid in some kicks to Takeshita’s chest, then ran right into a running lariat by Takeshita that left both on the mat again. The two finally hit their feet and again exchanged rights. Sabre got the better of this one eventually as Takeshita crumbled after a loud strike. Takeshita set up a superplex but Sabre slipped underneath and worked a leg submission with Takeshita still draped up there. They again jockeyed up top and reversed and repositioned frequently until Takeshita hit Raging Fire from the top. Power Drive and Raging Fire on the floor were good to finish.

WINNER: Konosuke Takeshita at 26:47. (****1/2)

(Wells’s Analysis: We have perhaps the least likely final match available, with Evil – a guy who’s asked not to wrestle but to lay heat upon heat until he falls short – against Konosuke Takeshita, a near-perfect wrestler who isn’t actually signed full-time to New Japan. Takeshita can sleepwalk to three stars and typically reaches four with almost any opponent, but this is a very strange draw for him to finish this tournament)

-Evil hit the ring afterward to have the yearly finalist staredown. The whole crew was there. Evil said nothing, and eventually after the mind games, he took his leave. He said to the crowd he just had one thing to say: Keep your eyes on me, because I will make this interesting. He walked to the back with Rocky Romero after the quick mic time.

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FINAL THOUGHTS: In what felt at the outset like the hardest G-1 to predict in years, we ended up with a seemingly impossible final match. I know they love Evil and use him often in big spots, but historically they’ve really protected the G-1 final as a match easily capable of Match of the Year contender. That’s not likely to happen this year, but maybe we’ll get lucky and Evil will be turned loose for the sake of one match. I sit here jealous of Chris Lansdell, who last night ended up recapping the only show of the entire tournament with no House of Torture singles matches. All that out of the way, Evil is certainly effective in his role. The main event, naturally, was worth the price of admission and sits alongside last night’s main event as the best two matches of the tournament, unlikely to be eclipsed tomorrow. Thanks for checking out the Torch’s coverage of the G-1, and Sean Radican will recap the final show tomorrow.