Ryohei Oiwa is the winner of the G1 Climax 36 tournament in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
On Sunday, Oiwa defeated Yuya Uemura in the tournament final after beating Callum Newman in the semis on Saturday. Oiwa now has a date with the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
There’s plenty to be said about Oiwa’s booking in this year’s tournament. He was clearly a top priority in what was a calculated effort on the part of New Japan to use the G1 this year to build up new stars — something the company has failed to do effectively since the departure of it’s last generation of top acts like Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, Jay White, and others.
The booking is the booking. There’s plenty of time to dissect Oiwa’s next few months and debate whether or not he’s a guy you want to crown as a top champion.
The match? The match was a god damn masterpiece and one of the most important in recent New Japan history.
Oh, so it must have had high spots, chairs, tables, and fight forever chants? Nope. Can I interest you in a headlock or wristlock, though?
There was something special in the air the moment Oiwa and Uemura locked up. It was your standard collar and elbow tie-up, but it meant something. The intensity was tangible.
Oiwa and Uemura went on to have a pristine match. A dramatic fight — or, exactly what pro wrestling is supposed to be.
Remember John Cena vs. AJ Styles from the Royal Rumble in 2017? That thing didn’t leave the ring for a second, but had the fans salivating for more and more action. Same thing here. The New Japan announce team called out the fact that the entirety of the match had exclusively taken place in the ring about 15 minutes into the fight. It was notable because so much of the G1 is fought around the ring and in the audience.
A wrestling match inside of a wrestling ring? Who would’ve thought?! There are other promotions and companies right now that would try to trot out a match like this one, but ultimately missing the mark because of a gimmicky presentation of “staying in the ring.” What Oiwa and Uemura did was special. It was organic. It was natural. Their match stayed in the ring because of course it did. The wrestling was what mattered and that’s it. They nailed the tone and tenor of that match choice and the announce team called it out without beating it into the ground and ruining it’s authentic nature.
I’ll get to the most memorable part of this match in a second, but we can’t talk about it without acknowledging just how clean it was. Oiwa and Uemura hit every move, spot, and strike with perfect execution. Bret Hart would be proud. These were artists hard at work. The movements made sense. Each of them feeding into different spots was logical and cared for.
It’s 2026. The headlock and wristlock don’t get much love anymore as legit moves that can finish matches. A shining part of this match was that they did.
The headlock and wristlock drove the entire story. Oiwa had the headlock and Uemura the wrist. Both guys battled with those moves. In order to pull it off successfully, the concept needed two things. History and selling.
By history, I mean that those moves had to have roots in the tournament. They had to be established as winners that were dangerous. Oiwa’s headlock had been a staple of his match finishes for weeks. They cashed in on that investment by making it the focal point of the victory.
As for selling, you can’t have a match like this one without it. This match was absent of crazy pace, high spots, and wild action — three key elements for a match’s drama to be built on. Without those, there had to be investment elsewhere. Oiwa and Uemura got it by selling.
Both men expertly used their facial expressions to sell pain. They were so effective in doing so, that the drama was built around that. It’s why the holds worked so well. The audience shrieked, hummed, and were restless as both guys writhed in agony. Like a high spot, this attracted the audience’s attention and focused them on the story.
All of this leads me to my own main event. The most memorable part of this match was everything that it wasn’t.
Oiwa and Uemura can do lots of wrestling moves. They know lots of holds. They are peak athletes that could work at a fever pace, while cramming spot after spot into their 30-minute encounter.
This match recognized the reality that it didn’t need any of that. Oiwa and Uemura were strong enough wrestlers and the G1 tournament winner is such a coveted prize, that the match simply needed to stayed locked in there. Bells and whistles? This had none, but the simplicity gave the audience something easy to lock on to and invest in. The outcome mattered and the in-ring physicality reflected it.
Look, I’m not a “get off my lawn” type of pro wrestling fan. Like whatever you want.
However, in the wrestling environment where shades of gray are the norm and pick your own adventure is a fad, it was a treat to sit back and watch pro wrestling be pro wrestling.
“We went over 30 minutes with headlocks, takedowns and arm drags,” Oiwa said in his press conference after the match. “That is professional wrestling in my view. That's the essence for me … Uemura and I wrestled a match like only we can. I was confident we could fire up Ryogoku, and it really proved to myself that I was right in my choice of style and my way of wrestling.”
Spoken like a confident new star. New Japan has needed this match. Badly.
They’ve needed a match that captured the aura of the New Japan style, while in the hands of it’s next stewards rather than those of aging nostalgia stars.
They got it. Maybe the future is now?
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media Newsletter HERE.
Follow Zack Heydorn on Bluesky @zackheydorn.bsky.social.