With the G1 CLIMAX 36 now in the books and a 2-week break underway, New Japan held the traditional post-blowout event presser today in Tokyo featuring G1 winner Ryohei Oiwa. He will get the customary IWGP Heavyweight Championship shot for winning the G1 and will take it at KING OF PRO WRESTLING in October…but in a surprise development, he’s not the next challenger for Yota Tsuji. Hirooki Goto is. That match will happen at DESTRUCTION on 9/27 at Kobe World Hall in Kobe. Then whoever is champion after that defends on 10/12 vs. Oiwa. No guarantee that the 10/12 winner goes into Tokyo Dome on 1/4 as champion, they probably have to get through POWER STRUGGLE in November then the focus shifts to the World Tag League, typically held in November & December before the final week-long event stretch before 1/4.
Also announced for 9/27 were IWGP Global Champion Gabriel Kidd vs. Drilla Moloney for the title, NJPW WORLD TV Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shun Skywalker for the title and Jeff Cobb vs. Callum Newman. Skywalker debuted in New Japan this past weekend after leaving Dragon Gate earlier this month while Cobb returned after being released by WWE earlier this year (and presumably sitting out a 90-day no compete clause).
Elsewhere, the result of a tag match yesterday, where Taiji Ishimori pinned Yoh, led to Ishinori making an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship challenge. That match will happen on 9/23 at Sapporo 46 in Hokkaido.
Speaking of Ishimori, he was also announced for a Sayaka Unagi Produced event on 9/2 at Tokyo Dome City Hall where he will tram with Rina Yamashita to face Unagi & Minoru Suzuki in the main event, which also may be a Unagi 40th Birthday match.