Drilla Moloney and Callum Newman are officially in the G1 Climax!
The first round of the Play-in matches took place on June 23. Tomohiro Ishii took on Drilla Moloney and these guys went to war for nearly 18 minutes. The crowd was hot for the former NEVER Openweight Champion and the Bullet Club War Dogs member; with Moloney hitting two drilla killa’s (a swinging piledriver) to get the three count. Ishii is currently the NJPW Strong Openweight Champion, so don’t be surprised if these two have a rematch for the title. This is Moloney's first G1 Climax.
Taichi vs. Callum Newman headlined the New Japan Soul show on Monday and it was another banger with an upset victory. The New Japan stars went nearly 25 minutes and it seemed that the match was over when Taichi dropped Newman with a devastating clothesline around 17 minutes.
But Callum fired back with a top-rope double stomp to the back and another one to the chest. Callum continued the assault on Taichi, who did manage to slip in a jacknife cover that got him a strong nearfall. In the end, Callum nailed the brainbuster for the three count. This is Callum's second G1 Climax. New Japan gave him a pretty good showing in the New Japan Cup earlier this year so it should be interesting to see how he's booked for the upcoming tournament. It's doubtful that he'll win, but a strong showing means that the company sees him as a future star.
There’s still two more Play-in matches on Friday, July 4:
Below is the updated list for the 2025 G1 Climax, which is scheduled to start on July 19.
A Block:
- Hirooki Goto
- Oleg Boltin
- Yuya Uemura
- Yota Tsuji
- David Finlay
- EVIL
- SANADA
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Callum Newman
- Ryohei Oiwa or Bad Luck Fale
B Block:
- El Phantasmo
- Shota Umino
- Shingo Takagi
- Zack Sabre Jr.
- Great-O-Khan
- Gabe Kidd
- Ren Narita
- Konosuke Takeshita
- Drilla Moloney
- YOSHI-HASHI or Chase Owens