Zack Sabre Jr. Continues Losing Streak as B Block Race Tightens at NJPW G1 Climax 36 Day 9

By: Noah Leatherland

The ninth leg of the NJPW G1 Climax saw the B Block take centre stage in Takamatsu. Former G1 Climax winner Zack Sabre Jr.’s losing streak continued, while the top end of the block becomes ever more tense with five men tied on eight points.

Sabre Jr. has been having a rough go of it in this year’s G1 Climax. With his only points coming from a win over Shota Umino on the opening night, that victory has essentially been nullified. With Umino pulling out of the tournament with injury, his forfeited matches gave the rest of B Block two points. Since then, Sabre Jr. has suffered losses to Yuya Uemura, Callum Newman and Gabe Kidd. In Takamatsu, the technician came up against Ren Narita. The House of Torture inevitably interfered, with Dick Togo and Yoshinobu Kanemaru getting involved. Amidst the chaos, Narita rolled Sabre Jr. up and pinned him before the clock had even reached three minutes.

Speaking in his post-match comments, Sabre Jr. was apoplectic:

Four losses! In a row! I got tortured! House of f*cking Torture! F*ck me! I take it back. It would be less degrading to sh*t yourself in the middle of a moshpit than it is to lose four G1 matches in a row. F*ck me sideways! I’m gonna find the little c*nt and give him a good spanking.

While Sabre Jr. wallows at the bottom of the block, the race at the top grows ever tighter. Drilla Maloney and Gabe Kidd both entered Takamatsu on eight points, tied at the top with HENARE. A win for either man would have seen them become block leaders. For Maloney, he ran into the German giant, OSKAR. That match culminated in a referee stoppage after OSKAR choked Maloney out in the Nightmare Hold, moving OSKAR up to eight points. Kidd came up against his fellow countryman Callum Newman. Newman’s dark arts came into play, with a low blow and a roll-up scoring a win over Kidd. The victory also bumped Newman up to the eight points total. As such, five men sit on eight points in B Block.

Then, in the main event, Yuya Uemura battled the NEVER Openweight Champion, Aaron Wolf. The crowd was split between the two combatants. With both men starting the night on four points, a win would help them catch up to the rest of the pack. In the end, the match was decided by Uemura landing the Dead Bolt suplex and following it up with a Lion’s Shiner splash to earn the win.

Speaking after the bout, Uemura spoke on the importance of pro wrestling in hard times:

Right now, I know there are lots of people in Japan who are going through a tough time due to disasters and the like, but it’s precisely in times like these that we should watch pro wrestling to lift our spirits and keep going. With that in mind, I intend to continue giving my all to win matches and shouting “3, 2, 1, Oshaa!”

Meanwhile, Wolf looked towards the future, now a little over six months into his wrestling career:

Uemura, I may not be able to shine as brightly as the sun, but I’ll find my own way to shine here in this New Japan Pro Wrestling ring. There’s still half a year to go—but it’s still half a year. I’ll channel the frustration of losing here into my next match, and when we face each other next time, I’ll make sure you get a taste of an even stronger me.

(Quotes translated via DeepL)

Here are the full results for NJPW G1 Climax 36, Day 9, courtesy of purolove.com:

• SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Boltin Oleg & Masatora Yasuda (4:37)
• Konosuke Takeshita & Toru Yano def. Hirooki Goto & Tatsuya Matsumoto (3:40)
• Jake Lee, Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young def. Shingo Takagi, Yuto-Ice & Gedo (8:39)
• Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson def. Yota Tsuji & Daiki Nagai (5:38)
• B Block: OSKAR [8] def. Drilla Moloney [8] (10:40)
• B Block: Ren Narita [6] def. Zack Sabre Jr. [2] (2:45)
• B Block: Callum Newman [8] def. Gabe Kidd [8] (12:18)
• B Block: Yuya Uemura [6] def. Aaron Wolf [4] (19:20)

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

A Block:

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

B Block:

• Callum Newman [8]
• Drilla Moloney [8]
• Gabe Kidd [8]
• HENARE [8]
• OSKAR [8]
• Ren Narita [6]
• Yuya Uemura [6]
• Aaron Wolf [4]
• Zack Sabre Jr. [2]
• Shota Umino [0]