{"id":220085,"date":"2026-07-30T23:01:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=220085"},"modified":"2026-07-30T23:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:07:52","slug":"radicans-take-g1-climax-36-viewers-guide-to-the-top-matches-for-nights-1-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/07\/30\/radicans-take-g1-climax-36-viewers-guide-to-the-top-matches-for-nights-1-7\/","title":{"rendered":"RADICAN&#8217;S TAKE: NJPW G1 Climax 36 viewers guide to the top matches for nights 1-7"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3609464751\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Here is my look at the top matches from NJPW&#8217;s G1 Climax 36: Nights 1-7. These are what I consider to be the essential matches you should watch from each night of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> My commentary on each match may contain some very minor spoilers, but no results are spoiled.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NIGHT 1 (7\/11)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>(8) Yuya Uemura vs. Callum Newman<\/strong> (****): This was Newman&#8217;s first match back from injury and it was quite good. I consider Uemura to be a contender to possibly win the tournament this year. This was a strong effort from both men and Newman&#8217;s injured arm is likely to be a focal point for many of his matches during the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><strong>(10) Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita<\/strong> (****1\/4): This was a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 20 where they wrestled in the semi-main event spot underneath Hiroshi Tanahashi&#8217;s retirement match against Kazuchika Okada. This was a very good main event to cap off night one. The finishing sequence was tremendous.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/09\/SeanRadican-headshot-staff.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-204674 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/09\/SeanRadican-headshot-staff-260x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"126\" height=\"146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/09\/SeanRadican-headshot-staff-260x300.png 260w, https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/09\/SeanRadican-headshot-staff.png 422w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 126px) 100vw, 126px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>NIGHT 2 (7\/18)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>(7) Yuto Ice vs. Boltin Oleg<\/strong> (****): This match was going along like a typical good hard-hitting NJPW match and then things got crazy down the stretch. I had some doubts about Ice&#8217;s ability to put on quality singles matches during this tournament given that he&#8217;d been almost exclusively a tag team wrestler heading into the tournament, but this match erased those doubts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>(10) Hirooki Goto vs. Yota Tsuji<\/strong> (****1\/2): This was the first really good match of the tournament. Both men threw everything at each other in this match and it came down to who could get the job done in the end.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1017787136\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>NIGHT 3 (7\/19)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>(9) Yuya Uemura vs. Zack Sabre Jr.<\/strong> (****1\/2): Uemura and Sabre compliment each other nicely inside the ring with Uemura also usually targeting an arm to set up his Deadbolt finisher. This was a great technical match from start-to-finish that was paced perfectly to bring the crowd along for the ride as the action built to a crescendo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NIGHT 4 (7\/21)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>(8) Sanada vs. Yota Tsuji<\/strong> (****): Sanada had not looked impressive at all since returning to the ring in June. This match was the best he&#8217;s looked in ages. His performance reminded me of when he looked to have the potential to be a star in NJPW several years ago before his failed main event push.<\/p>\n<p><strong>(9) Boltin Oleg vs. Shingo Takagi<\/strong> (****1\/4): This was a great style matchup for Oleg, who loves to throw hands and trade power moves with his opponents. Oleg had another great performance in this match to build on his previous matches in the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Oleg seems to have found something with the new wrinkle to his persona where he gets mad and takes his aggression to the next level at a certain point during his matches.\u00a0Takagi is really good and is underappreciated because he flies under the radar in NJPW because he&#8217;s not pushed all that hard as a threat at the top of the card.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of &#8220;Wrestling Night in America,&#8221; part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/wrestling-night-in-america-aew-redemption-post-show-parks-zilem-discuss-six-way-ladder-match-ospreay-moxley-vs-young-bucks-more--73188722\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wrestling Night in America - AEW Redemption post-show: Parks &amp; Zilem discuss Six-Way Ladder Match, Ospreay &amp; Moxley vs. Young Bucks, more\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=73188722&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NIGHT 5 (7\/22)<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2148198519\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>(8) Yuya Uemura vs. Drilla Maloney<\/strong> (****): Maloney is doing his best work as a singles wrestler during the tournament so far. He is carrying himself in the ring working a style that people want to see in NJPW, which will get people behind him as a singles act both in Japan and abroad.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Uemura is coming into his own. This was a really fun look in on both wrestlers and where they are at this point in their respective careers with both being on a relatively similar level, although Uemura is the more experienced of the two. They brought the best out of each other here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>(9) Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Callum Newman<\/strong>\u00a0(****1\/4): Newman is a much different wrestler than he was last year when he faced Sabre in G1 Climax 35. He is now a former IWGP Hvt. Champion and the leader of United Empire. They really pushed the pace from the start here and it seems that NJPW is developing a theme where Sabre gets out of his comfort zone and has mixed results when he pushes the pace.<\/p>\n<p>This didn&#8217;t reach the highs I was expecting from the UK imports, but it was a really good match that showed Newman is likely not leaving the top of the card anytime soon despite dropping the title back to Tsuji at Dominion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NIGHT 6 (7\/25)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>(7) Konosuke Takeshita vs. Boltin Oleg<\/strong> (****1\/4): Oleg continued his string of great performances against Takeshita. It&#8217;s hard to have a bad match against Takeshita, but Oleg has been strong with his in-ring work during G1 and this was another example of why I would consider him one of the most pleasant surprises of the tournament. His work has been a level above of where I thought it would be at this point in his career.<\/p>\n<p><strong>(9) Yota Tsuji vs. Shingo Takagi<\/strong> (****1\/2): This is close to my pick for match of the tournament. It&#8217;s between this match and the Sabre vs. Kidd main event from night 7. They had some great hard-hitting exchanges during the match, as the Unbound Company stablemates did not hold back against each other. They built the match up to the point where the fans were going crazy when the finishing sequence began. I said it earlier and I&#8217;ll say it again, Takagi is one of the best of the world and if you don&#8217;t look out, matches like this one will catch you by surprise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NIGHT 7 (7\/26)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>(9) Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Gabe Kidd<\/strong> (****1\/2): Kidd has been really good as an antagonist throughout the tournament. I didn&#8217;t think I would be excited to see his matches, but he&#8217;s working a really good style as a heel brawler. Seeing him heel on the NJPW fans and toss around the IWGP Global Hvt. Championship has been a lot of fun during the tournament. Kidd&#8217;s heel work with Sabre fighting from underneath throughout the match made for a great formula. I have this match tied with the Tsuji vs. Takagi from the previous night for match of the tournament so far.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Sean Radican has been Pro Wrestling Torch for over 23 years. He has covered the independents, ROH, and NJPW in-depth over the years in addition to also watching all the major promotions in the U.S. PWTorch VIP members get access to his weekly Radican Worldwide podcast looking at a variety of news topics from the past week and then an in-depth Go-Home segment with a guest on a big topic of the week. You can contact him at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. You can follow him on X @SR_Torch and on Bluesky @SeanRadican.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AEW Redemption - PWTorch Post-show w\/Greg Parks &amp; Brian Zilem\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-Qun20N1tfA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1182959916\"><div id=\"pwtor-551026620\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Here is my look at the top matches from NJPW&#8217;s G1 Climax 36: Nights 1-7. These are what I consider to be the essential matches you should watch from each night of the tournament. Note: <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/07\/30\/radicans-take-g1-climax-36-viewers-guide-to-the-top-matches-for-nights-1-7\/\" title=\"RADICAN&#8217;S TAKE: NJPW G1 Climax 36 viewers guide to the top matches for nights 1-7\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,59,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-take_radican","category-opinion_stafftakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/03\/ZackSabre_MattCharlton.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220085"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220089,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220085\/revisions\/220089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}