Konosuke Takeshita Rises to Top of A Block After Brawl with Boltin Oleg in NJPW G1 Climax 36 Day 6

By Noah Leatherland

NJPW were in the Ota-City General Gymnasium for the sixth day of G1 Climax action, focusing on A Block. It is a tight race in A Block, but Konosuke Takeshita managed to push himself ahead of the rest with a bruising win over Oleg Boltin.

It had been earmarked as a hard-hitting match to look forward to when the G1 participants were first announced, and the two men delivered on that hope. Takeshita is rarely outpowered in the ring, but Boltin put that sentiment to the test in Ota. Takeshita and Oleg clattered each other with hard forearms, chops and lariats, wearing each other down in a true heavyweight clash. A Wagamama knee from Takeshita was eaten by Oleg, with Takeshita needing to deliver a second one to drop his opponent. From there, he was able to hoist Oleg up and over for the Raging Fire and score a pinfall.

Speaking in his post-match comments, Takeshita is looking ahead to the tournament finals already:

My body’s falling apart. But he’s the one opponent I least want to lose to—my “rival”, Oleg Boltin… I’ve got through this incredibly important fixture. From here on, I’m going to stay unbeaten all the way to my second consecutive championship. If I don’t lose from here on, I’ll make it to that second consecutive crown.

Though he was on the losing end of the bout, Boltin took the positives from this match:

I felt the sheer strength of the pro-wrestling world after facing Konosuke Takeshita, the strongest wrestler out there… But the way I lost today is the sort of defeat that will make me stronger. Losing today means I’ll achieve even better results in this G1 from now on. I’ll work even harder and put in a great performance.

(Quotes translated via DeepL)

While Takeshita now sits atop A Block, he does not have much breathing room, with much of the block sitting on four points. Great-O-Khan rose to four points thanks to an Eliminator on Hirooki Goto putting him down for the count. SANADA picked up another two points with a win over Jake Lee, trapping Lee at ringside to get a count out. Yuto-Ice scored a big win over his rival Ryohei Oiwa, the Cruella leading him to victory. Then, the main event saw the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Yota Tsuji, had a tough battle with Shingo Takagi, but managed to put The Dragon away with a Fire Blaster. With those results, Takagi now sits alone at the bottom of A Block with two points.

Here are the full results for NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 6:

• Yuya Uemura & Satoshi Kojima def. Taisei Nakahara & Toru Yano (5:56)
• OSKAR & Gedo def. Tatsuya Matsumoto & Aaron Wolf (3:46)
• Ren Narita & Dick Togo def. Jakob Austin Young & HENARE (5:34)
• Drilla Maloney & Daiki Nagai def. Zane Jay & Callum Newman (6:55)
• A Block: Great-O-Khan [4] def. Hirooki Goto [4] (10:42)
• A Block: SANADA [4] def. Jake Lee [4] (13:30)
• A Block: Konosuke Takeshita [6] def. Oleg Boltin [4] (14:20)
• A Block: Yuto-Ice [4] def. Ryohei Oiwa [4] (15:18)
• A Block: Yota Tsuji [4] def. Shingo Takagi [2] (24:12)