Gabe Kidd Earns His Tenth Point and Catapults Into First Place in the G1 CLIMAX 36 B Block

By: Lewis Carlan

The New Japan Pro-Wrestling G1 Climax 36 tournament continued on Aug. 2nd at the Fukuoka International Center with an announced crowd of 2,306 in attendance.

The main event saw AEW star and IWGP Global Champion Gabe Kidd go to war with HENARE in which the winner would take over first place of the B Block. The two warriors engaged in a hard hitting affair as expected and the fans were deeply invested in the match from start to finish.

In the end, it was Kidd who was able the defeat HENARE after over twenty minutes of hard-fought action with a Leg Trap Piledriver. With the victory, Kidd earned his tenth point and now holds sole possession of first place of the B Block.

In classic fashion, Kidd made these comments during his backstage post-match interview:

“Who’s the real winner? Who will everyone keep talking about for days on end? Who will stick in the minds of the guys watching NJPW WORLD at home? The fight never ends. That’s what you guys in EMPIRE just don’t get. I’m sick of this country and all you shitty wrestlers.” (Translated via Deepl.com)

Photo Credit: New Japan Pro Wrestling

In other action, Zack Sabre Jr. ended his three match tournament losing streak with a win over OSKAR and earned his fourth point.

Here are the full results for NJPW G1 Climax 36 on Aug. 2nd courtesy of purolove.com:

• G1 Climax – Block B: Callum Newman [8] defeats Shota Umino [0] by forfeit.
• Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson defeat Hirooki Goto & Tatsuya Matsumoto (6:01) after a Senton from Jackson against Matsumoto.
• SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeat Yuto-Ice & Gedo (5:40) after a figure-four leglock by Kanemaru against Gedo.
• Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young defeat Jake Lee & Zane Jay (6:19) after O-Khan’s honkai against Jay.
• Oleg Boltin, KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & Toru Yano defeat Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Daiki Nagai (6:33) after a horizontal cradle by Yano against Nagai.
  
• G1 Climax – Block B: Aaron Wolf [6] defeats Drilla Moloney [8] (13:11) with an angle slam.
  
• G1 Climax – Block B: Zack Sabre Jr. [4] defeats OSKAR [8] (15:58) with after a jave.
  
• G1 Climax – Block B: Ren Narita [8] defeats Yuya Uemura [6] (20:00) with a cross-style cross kneelock.
  
• G1 Climax – Block B: Gabe Kidd  [10] defeats HENARE [8] (20:35) with a leg trap piledriver.

Here are the updated standings for the NJPW G1 Climax 36 courtesy of purolove.com:

Block A

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

Block B

• 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] * Shota Umino suffered a head injury with suspected concussion and is out for the entire tournament.