Boltin Oleg Pins IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji at NJPW G1 CLIMAX 36 Day 12

By: Noah Leatherland

NJPW packed the house in Korakuen Hall for the twelfth day this year’s G1 Climax. In what is arguably the biggest win of his career, Boltin Oleg pinned the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Yota Tsuji.

Both Oleg and Tsuji walked into Korakuen Hall on eight points. With the block leader Konosuke Takeshita falling to Shingo Takagi in the semi-main event, being pinned off of the Last of the Dragon, his place spot alone at the top was under threat. A win would place either Oleg or Tsuji right beside Takeshita in the front of the pack. Both men fought tooth and nail to put another win on their scorecard, risking it all to climb the ranks.

With both men landing their heaviest offence on the other, it came down to Oleg landing a Kamikaze off of the turnbuckle. The massive impact put the world champion down for the count, with Oleg emerging victorious.

Speaking on the microphone after the bout, Oleg heaped praise onto Tsuji and reasserted his passion for the sport:

Tsuji! Hang on a sec. Tsuji, well, to put it bluntly—and I know I shouldn’t be praising you—but you’re a real man. The strongest man, a true New Japan Pro Wrestling warrior! You’re the sort of man who gives it his all, just as you’ve always said, so I’m going to follow you too. I’ll keep up with you and won’t let you beat me! New Japan is going to get even stronger! And it’s all thanks to you!

 

Also, of course, I didn’t win today on my own. I’ve become a monster partly thanks to you, but it’s also thanks to all of you!

 

I’d like to wrap this up with a few words in Kazakh. Simply put, in the pro-wrestling I love, in pro-wrestling matches, through the pro-wrestling I love, I want to become the strongest wrestler! From now on, I’m going to win the G1 and… Auga! Auga! Augaa!!!!

Oleg expanded on these thoughts in his post-match comments

I think Tsuji is this year’s MVP. He’s incredibly strong and works really hard; seeing that makes us realise we have to give it our all too. No matter how weak a person may be, thanks to the wrestling fans, they can become stronger, turn into a monster, and give more than 100 per cent. That’s something you only find in pro wrestling.

(Quotes translated via DeepL)

Elsewhere on the card, other members of A Block have put the heat on Tsuji. Takagi’s win over Takeshita ties him on eight points with Tsuji. Plus, Ryohei Oiwa’s Big Lock led him to victory over Hirooki Goto, moving him up to eight points.

All kinds of antics were seen in the other block matches. Once again, Yuto-Ice suffered a KO loss in this year’s G1 Climax. This time, it came from SANADA distracting the referee and smashing a guitar over Yuto-Ice’s head. Then, United Empire nearly imploded in the bout between Jake Lee and Great-O-Khan. Lee managed to sneak the win, faking a chair attack by O-Khan to get his stablemate disqualified. Luckily, Jakob Austin Young managed to cool things down and make sure United Empire stayed united.

Here are the full results for NJPW G1 Climax 36 Day 12, courtesy of purolove.com:

• HENARE & Jakob Austin Young def. Yuya Uemura & Masatora Yasuda (6:51)
• Ren Narita & Dick Togo def. Aaron Wolf & Tatsuya Matsumoto (6:01)
• Callum Newman & Zane Jay def. OSKAR & Gedo (8:27)
• Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson def. Drilla Moloney & Daiki Nagai (10:23)
• A Block: SANADA [6] def. Yuto-Ice [6] (8:10)
• A Block: Jake Lee [6] def. Great-O-Khan [4] (1:47)
• A Block: Ryohei Oiwa [8] def. Hirooki Goto [4] (8:26)
• A Block: Shingo Takagi [8] def. Konosuke Takeshita [10] (19:44)
• A Block: Boltin Oleg [10] def. Yota Tsuji [8] (24:35)

Here are the updated standings for the NJPW G1 Climax 36:

A Block

• Boltin Oleg [10]
• Konosuke Takeshita [10]
• Ryohei Oiwa [8]
• Yota Tsuji [8]
• Jake Lee [6]
• SANADA [6]
• Shingo Takagi [6]
• Yuto-Ice [6]
• Great-O-Khan [4]
• Hirooki Goto [4]

B Block

• Gabe Kidd [10]
• Drilla Moloney [8]
• HENARE [8]
• Callum Newman [8]
• OSKAR [8]
• Ren Narita [8]
• Yuya Uemura [6]
• Aaron Wolf [6]
• Zack Sabre Jr. [4]
• Shota Umino [0]