Yota Tsuji & KONOSUKE TAKESHITA Advance To The NJPW G1 Climax 35 Semi-Finals

By: Lewis Carlan

When the New Japan Pro-Wrestling G1 Climax 35 kicked off on July 19th, there was a field of twenty participants. Each one of those entrants had aspirations of winning the tournament and raising that coveted G1 Trophy.

Nearly one month later, the G1 dreams now remain with only four competitors.

On Aug 14th at a sold out Korakuen Hall, there were two playoff bouts to determine who would join EVIL and current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr in the semi-finals of the tournament.

In the first playoff match, KONOSUKE TAKESHITA faced David Finlay. TAKESHITA made it to the G1 Climax 34 playoff last year but was defeated by Yota Tsuji. This year was a different story as Takeshita defeated Finlay at the 17:12 mark with his Raging Fire finisher to move on to the semi-finals.

Joining TAKESHITA in the semi-finals was Yota Tsuji. Tsuji faced Shota Umino for the final spot in the G1 Climax 35 semi-finals and was able to emerge victorious at the 28:18 mark following a Gene Blaster. This is Tsuji’s second year in a row making it to the G1 Climax semi-finals.

The G1 Climax 35 semi-finals are set for August 16th at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

Here are the two semi-final matches now set for August 16th:

• G1 Climax – Semi-Final: “King of Darkness” EVIL vs. Yota Tsuji
• G1 Climax – Semi-Final: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA

While it was once 20 participants that had hopes of winning the G1 Climax 35 tournament, it has come down to the final four. It will either be Zack Sabre Jr., KONOSUKE TAKESHITA, Yota Tsuji or EVIL raising that G1 Trophy on August 17th at Ariake Arena.

The G1 Climax 35 semi-finals and finals on Aug 16th and 17th will air live on NJPW World subscription streaming service.