New Japan ran the penultimate day of the G1 CLIMAX 36 today with the Semifinals, and it also featured the Hiroyoshi Tenzan Retirement Match & ceremony as the “Violent Bull” called it a career after 35 years, forced to walk away in large part due to injury.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World. This event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2026 exclusively on TV Asahi in Japan. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 7777, a legit sellout. SUPER JACKPOT!!! (Also reduced capacity setup as that’s just over half the venue’s full capacity)
Match 1: Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan & HENARE beat Taisei Nakahara, Masatora Yasuda, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Akira pinned Nakahara after Fireball.
Match 2: Sho, DOUKI, SANADA & Ren Narita beat Ryusuke Taguchi, El Desperado, Yoh & Konosuke Takeshita. Narita pinned Taguchi after DOuble Cross. Afterwards, a huge shocker as House Of Torture introduced a new member…Shun Skywalker! The former Dragon Gate wrestler apparently has jumped to New Japan!
Match 3: Wheeler Yuta (All Elite Wrestling) & Gabriel Kidd beat Daiki Nagai & Drilla Moloney. Yuta pinned Nagai.
Match 4: Master Wato, Yoh, Yuji Nagata, Toru Yano & Togi Makabe beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, OSKAR (The Grouch), Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) & Shingo Takagi. Yano pinned OSKAR.
Match 5: Kosei Fujita, Hartley Jackson & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tatsuya Matsumoto, Boltin Oleg & Aaron Wolf. Fujita pinned Matsumoto.
G1 CLIMAX Semifinals:
Match 6: Ryohei Oiwa beat Callum Newman.
Match 7: Yuya Uemura beat Yota Tsuji.
As a result, the Final is Oiwa vs. Uemura. The Final is tomorrow.
Main Event: Hiroyoshi Tenzan Retirement Match: Satoshi Kojima beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Originally scheduled to be a 5 minute match, it was changed to no time limit and went just over 9 minutes for one final TenKoji faceoff. Afterarwds, the retirement ceremony was held with a big surprise at first…CRAZY KOUZU!!! Takashi Iizuka is in the house! And…they made up and became friends! The legendary Masa Chono was a special guest at the ceremony along with fellow legend Keiji Muto and event he recently retired Tiger Mask 4 returned for an appearance. The 10 bell salute & final call followed to close the celebration and send Tenzan & the crowd home happy and the legend into retirement after 35 years.
The tournament ends tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin TONIGHT at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET. This will be an exclusive TV Asahi live broadcast in Japan.