[5.0] "pretty standard. Grapple, limb work (that goes nowhere and doesnt factor into the finish), the bad NJPW crowd fighting that is a lot of walking - throw someone on the chairs - take a ridiculously long time to walk away and run at them. Some signature moves and kickouts then the finish. Done well, but bland. Neither guy brought a ton of emotion and the crowd sucked. 2.75 stars"
[5.0] "Callum Newman is probably the worst wrestler on NJPW roster and he somehow got away with the win. This match was entirely carried on by Yuya who created everything. All sequences, spots and attacks with the exception of 10 seconds of brawling in the beginning were created entirely by Uemura while Newman did absolutely nothing."
[8.0] "While I was hoping for a Yuya Uemura win, the result masks sense in the game scheme of things. A really classy match. SINGLES RECORD: Callum Newman 2-1"
[8.0] "After defeating Uemura, Newman became the arrogant champion, etc. This was Uemura's opportunity for revenge. We saw Newman do a good job as a heel (running away, spitting, provoking the crowd). Newman is improving month by month; it's a pleasure to watch him evolve. He's becoming Uemura's nemesis."
[8.0] "Well these two might be my new favourite pairing New Japan has discovered have crazy chemistry alongside Fujita/Wato in the juniors. Uemura tries to keep the match technical for the most part but when he tries to counter Newman with Newman's style he faulters and is caught with a Make Way. Newman is improving every month with his heel antics and selling improving massively from the beginning of the year. This match was also very intense as the hatred from Uemura losing out the New Japan Cup was there. Definitely a match they should revisit once Uemura gets V4 round his waist. (****)."
[9.0] "[4.5 Stars] Yuya and Newman have had two matches this year--both absolute bangers--and honestly, no one could have predicted that the two would work so well together."
[7.0] "****1/4 Very good match, a very good fight although clearly below his Cup match, very good chemistry, they work very well together and Uemura manages to bring out the best in Newman although Newman sometimes exaggerates, little by little he is gaining more skill, very good sequences, very good intensity, very good pace, the match works and is quite dynamic with a good escalation and a good finish, Newman gets the Make Way to defeat Uemura"
[8.0] "These two went to war, every time I see these two wrestle I'm guaranteed a barnburner and this was no different. While I may not be a big Callum Newman fan, he still delivered but I'm most impressed with Yuya Uemura, who is my personal pick to win this G1. Highly recommend this. ****1/4"
[7.0] "[3.5 Stars] Don't think it was quite as good as it could have been considering how good both men are but still a very fun match. Might have engaged with it more if the English commentary feed wasn't so damn quiet"
[8.0] "pretty great wrestling match. they blended the striking and technical wrestling together really well but as well as kept some extreme elements like the dropkick on the chairs. the last segment with the finishers back and forth was really intense."
[8.0] "Newman felt really mature here. It is the only match from the entire show that I felt the wrong guy won but his performance was so good that I let it slide. Solid selling, much more solid than his usual. Uemura did his basic (excellent) stuff."
[7.0] "Fantastic back and forth match, really felt like either could have taken the win and walked away with the points here, Yuya looked incredibly convincing against the recent IWGP Heavyweight Champion and I feel as though this was quite a big levelling up performance from him, with him being on top for much of the match and getting in some brilliant offence. great stuff."
[7.0] "Very enjoyable match from Newman who is somebody I never am the highest on. Uemuera is my pick to win this year. Great competitive match. (***1/2)"
[9.0] "Quelle incroyable prestation de Callum Newman et Yuya Uemura au G1 Climax. Le travail effectué par Yuya sur le bras de Callum est tout simplement bluffant : la manière dont Callum vend cette blessure est tellement crédible qu'on en vient presque à penser que son bras est réellement touché. Yuya maîtrise parfaitement le rythme et le déroulement du match, imposant son contrôle avec un travail méthodique et intelligent sur le bras de son adversaire. Chaque action semble avoir un objectif précis, mettant Callum dans une situation de plus en plus difficile. Malgré la domination de Yuya, Callum trouve constamment des moyens de survivre : il parvient toujours à se positionner parfaitement par rapport aux clés de bras et à placer son pied dans les cordes au dernier moment pour échapper aux prises. Ces petits détails renforcent encore plus la crédibilité du combat et montrent l'intelligence des deux lutteurs. L'alchimie entre les deux hommes est évidente. Ils semblent toujours avoir une réponse à l'action de l'autre, avec des combinaisons et des contres totalement imprévisibles qui rendent chaque séquence passionnante. Callum Newman est un heel sensationnel, parfaitement dans son personnage, capable de transformer chaque ouverture en opportunité pour revenir dans le match. De son côté, Yuya Uemura incarne à merveille le rôle du babyface, avec une détermination et une résilience qui rendent chaque moment de souffrance et de remontée captivant. Ces deux hommes représentent ce que le futur du catch peut offrir de meilleur : des talents uniques, avec un potentiel véritablement générationnel."
[7.0] "A very solid G1 Climax match that showcased the potential of both Callum Newman and Yuya Uemura. The match had good pacing, strong athletic exchanges, and a nice contrast in styles, with Newman bringing his explosive speed and Uemura displaying his technical ability and determination.The match built well, with both wrestlers fighting to prove themselves in a major tournament setting. There were some good counters and convincing near falls, especially toward the closing stretch. While it was not a match that reached the level of the best G1 encounters, it was an enjoyable and competitive bout that helped establish both wrestlers. Newman continues to show why he is considered a promising young talent, while Uemura looked like someone ready for bigger opportunities. A very good tournament match, but missing that extra emotional intensity or memorable moment to make it truly stand out."
[7.0] "Great match from these two! I love the way Uemura wrestles. He's so dynamic and fluid in the ring, and he's just a joy to watch. Everything he does feels smooth and natural, which makes his matches incredibly engaging. On the other hand, I still find it a bit difficult to connect with Newman. It's obvious that he's incredibly talented, and his potential as a heel is clear, but for some reason he just doesn't quite click with me yet. Still, a really enjoyable match and another strong performance from both guys."
[7.0] "A very good match with a number of drama peaks sprinkled through out and a traditional New Japan sprint finish complete with numerous reversals and kick outs, which I love, but with a large amount of this match spent with one or both wrestlers on the mat selling when it didn't match the potential drama of the match, I couldn't score this higher than 7. Still I'd recommend this match to others."
[5.0] "Kinda a hot mess of a match, the dynamic really could do to be enforced a little more since it winds up with face Uemura working over Newman's injured shoulder for half the match which doesnt really line up, Newman couldve done with a little more arrogance to make it work. Still, pretty exciting stuff, just kinda built on a flaw that takes away a lot of the stakes."
[7.0] "This was very good. I still haven't fully clicked with Newman yet but he was still very good here and is clearly starting to put the pieces together. Some good arm selling from him in this and he did manage to get some solid heat from the crowd here too. Yuya was obviously great in his role too. I don't think ive seen a singles performance from him in the past year that i haven't enjoyed and this was another great one from him. Great at fighting from underneath and i really enjoyed his struggle to hit the Deadbolt at the end as well. Took a while to fully click, but once it did, this was a very good match. ***1/2"
[8.0] "I'm a big fan of Newman and Yuya together, to me they stylistically gel and get good performances out of each other. Not up to the level of their NJC match, but it's Round 1 of the tournament so to me that's to be expected."
[7.0] "Definitely one of the better performances I've seen from Callum, better than his Tsuji title matches for sure. He's more focused and gets some nice heat on Yuya early on; I loved that Yuya didn't milk the count-out to 19.9 like every other guy in the company does and hustled to go from the crowd into the ring by 17. I do wish he got the win here but that finishing stretch was really nice. ***1/2"
[8.0] "Not as good as the previous match between them in the final of the New Japan Cup 2026, Yuya Uemura and Callum Newman delivered a great match, two of the favorite of the block B collided in this match. Yuya Uemura is so impressive, definitively a main favorite this year in the G1 for me, I am impressed by him match after match after match, it's just unbelivable."
[6.0] "An enjoyable match, though it didn't quite reach the heights one might expect when two young talents face off during the G1 block stage. In-ring quality: 2/5. Stakes: 0.75/2. Justification: 1/1. Placement on the card: 1/1. Suspense: 1/1. Bonus/penalty: none. Total: 5.75/10. Match watched on NJPW World."
[9.0] "This match was awesome! I think Callum has already developed a lot since his New Japan win and losing to Tsuji and Dominion. This match was very exciting and had great exchanges. This is the point of the G1, to develop talent that is younger in the company, and while both are experienced, they have room to continue to improve. This match was a high point for both in the year, and Yuya/Callum continue to get better with more matches. The ending sequence was great with Yuya almost winning with the huricanrana then a dragon suplex bridge. Callum hits Kiss the Crown and the Make Way Finisher to win the match for his first 2 points. Rating: ****1/2"
[8.0] "(Grade:B/****) Definitely MOTN! Newman & Uemura put on a great performance, Uemura's offense was really on point like he's been training on hitting picture perfect moves i.e. Dragon Suplex, Diving Crossbody, That Signature, Deadbolt Suplex I can see why some thing this year he's taking the G1. Also not to forget Newman who recovered very well from his injury utilizing his speed and heavyweight strength to get an advantage on Uemura at one point catching him in a sling-blade type rear naked choke."
[6.0] "6.5 - Newman's title run clearly helped his confidence, but his heel antics are still change-the-channel off-putting. I'm weirdly rooting against Yuya in this tournament, so I'm hoping he proves me wrong, but once again he put in a true Tanahashi-lite performance."
[8.0] "Pretty good match this not as good as their match in the Cup but still a fun watch with great intensity, spots and drama. The match was well worked with lots of nice work on Callum's shoulder from Yuya to soften him up for the an eventually deadbolt suplex. He is such a good worker man everything he does is so clean at one point he hit a sick run of a diving crossbody, a frankensteiner and a dragon suplex getting in all the moves of former aces. He has to win the tournament if Gedo has any sense. Pretty good showing from Callum here not doing everything at 100 miles an hour definitely helped if i am honest. As it allowed him to build up the big moves which made them feel a lot more impactful than he normally does. Even his selling was pretty good for once. The finishing sequnece was pretty sick with Callum fighting out of the deadbolt hitting kiss the crown for a near fall before winning with the big slam. Yeah the second really good match on this card and a good opening for two men you would expect to go far in this year. (****)"
[7.0] "This was another strong match that this show really needed for me to stay excited for the show. Newman and Uemura have enough history between them to have a natural intensity going into this with the added layer of Newman nursing an injury against a technician. I much prefer the NJC final earlier in the year, this had to work in the tighter time constraints and wasn't able to crescendo towards the finishing stretch as impactfully. I like the nastiness that Newman continues to work with, even after losing the title he shows he in an obvious threat to the tournament. ***1/2"
[7.0] "Uemura debuts new gear with colors reminiscent of a certain Ace. He targets Newman's injured shoulder early before the fight spills to the outside. There Callum catches Uemura with a dropkick into the seating area though I have to wonder who took more damage from that spot. Uemura quickly regains control by going right back after Callum's shoulder. Callum tries to mount a comeback but there's only so much he can do physically with one good arm. He goes for mind games instead by spitting in Yuya's face only to pay for it with a brutal corner dropkick. Some of Callum's bumps looked almost comical especially the one on the underhook suplex. Then Yuya delivers a diving crossbody, a frankensteiner and a dragon suplex drawing a clear lineage from the past Aces to a potential future one. Unfortunately it still isn't enough and Callum pulls out the victory. I think the match works so well because Callum's offense is limited by his shoulder injury and they also pace it well, holding back the biggest sequences until the closing stretch. A really good match and match of the night for me."
[8.0] "The match of the night so far, of course, as one of the top heels of NJPW dukes it out with a guy who I think has a claim to the title of best pure babyface in the world today. Unfortunately, I am a simple man: I see Yuya Uemura lose a match and I think BOOO. Still, fast paced, energetic, and played off the good psychology of Callum's bad shoulder against Yuya's arm-killing signature move, even if I wished it had paid off in his favor. Hopefully this is just Yuya getting his adversity out of the way so he can be behind the eight ball while he slowly makes his way to the finals, and if not, I'll cry."
[8.0] "This was a solid match and better than their last outing that I watched from them. Callum is most likely going to make a pretty deep run this G1"
[7.0] "Easily MOTN for the first night of the 2026 G1 and thus the default leading MOTT as well. I actually thought this was about on par with their NJ Cup Final from earlier in the year, since while this match didn't have the same stakes as that match, their work was still equally impressive AND there was a good new focus here with Uemura targeting Newman's apparently IRL injured arm. That was especially cool because one of the best parts about Uemura and his matches is how he always targets the arm, from which he wonderfully has the option to either go for an arm-submission finish (armbar, kimura, etc.) or to use all that arm-targeting to set up his Deadbolt suplex via the overhooks grip, so with Newman's built-in arm injury there was always a tonne more interest each time Uemura went after it. While there was a good deal of limb-targeting, they both still made sure to impress with their speed and athleticism the whole time. I was worried this might lead to Newman no-selling his arm but he thankfully didn't do that at all, as he instead made many efforts to remind us of the pain and the physical limitations he was struggling with even outside of Uemura's real-time targeting, seen by him constantly grabbing at the arm in pain after almost every general bump he took and shaking it out afterwards, and he also made other smart moves like holding the arm rather limp at his side when delivering strikes with his other arm. The only period where I could see any legitimate criticism of his selling would be in their big trades at the end, since that was when he was using the arm more and not highlighting its limitations much, but even then, it's not like he was outright directly using the arm to hit big strikes or to hoist Uemura up for power moves, as it remained the 'support' arm more than anything compared to his other arm that did the bulk of the (at times literal) heavy lifting. Uemura also deserves a lot of props, since he was a great all-rounder as per usual with how compelling the energy was in his selling and his fire-ups, plus how impressively smooth and athletic he was with all his otherwise 'classic' sort of wrestling moves, making him impossible to not cheer for and get invested in. It was a shame about their few 'fighting spirit' no-sell moments, since those looked kind of stupid and it's annoying that seemingly every big NJPW match has to have them stuffed in somewhere, but everything else surrounding those moments looked really good. The match continued to impress as they went for their bigger trades, with Uemura's power moves and arm-submission transitions as well as Newman's power moves and big strikes all looking really good, even if they all came with a rather generic 50/50 'your turn, my turn' structure that I find quite limited these days. They continued to have very good chemistry as they went back and forth with many impactful and well-timed big moves and counters in the final few minutes, resulting in some genuinely good near falls before the finish finally came. It was great to see these two guys prove that you can have a big NJPW match with the usual bombs and near falls but while still including some actual strategy and meaningful storytelling, since it far too often seems that those latter ideas are ignored. ***1/2"
[7.0] "Newman is a lot more enjoyable in his role without the IWGP title, as I found this match to be quite good. Not much of a shoulder injury shown in this one, so it was about as good as their NJC final a few months back. Really do love how Uemura utilizes the Deadbolt and the reversals for it in his matches, Newman had a really nice transition into a rear naked choke as well"
[7.0] "[3.5*] Another great match. Newman's getting better and better at building stuff up and slowing the pace when necessary, so his big matches are becoming increasingly better. Yuya Uemura is literally the perfect prototype and he should just win the tournament at this point because he's just the best. Given the fact that this wasn't even one of the major matches on the card, the bout over delivered. Ending stretch was sick and Newman's selling was not bad, while Yuya's limb work was very good."
[7.0] "It was a good match, but I can't praise it unreservedly. That's because Callum's shoulder injury seems to be quite serious, and it feels like he rushed his return. His output was significantly lower than when the two fought at the NJC this past March; his bold dropkicks outside the ring didn't land with any real impact, and the match's pace wasn't great either. That said, I think Yuya Uemura's old-school wrestling style--centered on arm locks and arm drags--brought out a new side of Callum Newman. The fast-paced back-and-forth in the final stretch was a sight to behold, and it really felt like the "G1 CLIMAX" at its best. I hope Callum will be in top form for his next match."
[8.0] "How anyone could have watched this and not realised Uemura should be getting the spot on the card and the praise Umino gets is beyond me. Now this wasn't some MOTY contender but these two were so much more engrossing and exciting than ZSJ/Umino. Uemura is really developing some crowd connection too. ****"
[8.0] "Kinda surprised Callum is competing after suffering a dislocated shoulder injury, hope his shoulder holds up throughout this whole tournament. Absolutely loved their match back in March during the New Japan Cup, so I was excited for this match and all I can say is this was another great match between the two, wasn't as good as the New Japan Cup match, mainly due to the injury to Newman so the match took a halt at one point, but they still delivered with this. It was fast pacing at points and had great strikes, sequences, maneuvers, and more. Callum perfectly locked in a rear naked choke on Yuya, the timing on that lock in was smoothly done."
[8.0] "Great match that felt like an actual G1 match on a show that didn't feel like a true G1 Climax in intensity and star power. I know NJPW is rebuilding, I hope they get behind Uemura rather than the other choices they have at their disposal. I see future star in his future where I don't see that for Shota or Tsuji."
[7.0] "Unsurprisingly the best bout of the night up to this point. Two guys in their physical prime being told to go out there and give it their all does tend to lead to that. Poor Callum nearly breaks his damn neck when he does the third row running dropkick and the chairs don't budge an inch. That's a spot he won't be doing after age twenty-five. Other than that scary moment this was an enjoyable modern style bout."
[8.0] "Started off quick, and had the usual crowd brawling we've come to expect in Newmans matches. Yuya goes for the arm as expected to test that shoulder. Hard hitting stuff with a good deal of disrespect to supplement the action. Surprised they had Callum beat Uemura twice now. The execution wasn't as good as the ZSJ match but I appreciated the urgency. 3.75*"
[7.0] "Exemplary performance from Uemura here. Newman is fine, but his arm selling is pretty fucking bad. He does all right with everything else and is a consummate survivor like always. This is a much, much better match than their New Japan Cup finals due to accomplishing everything that match did in half the time."
[5.0] "I don't know. I just feel like they could have gone about this another way. Newman's shoulder is pretty clearly fucked up but it's not a major focus of this and instead, they just go for an abridged version of their cup final. This just doesn't really make sense. The match is... fine but this just feels generic and formulaic, rather than adjusting to the situation with Newman not being at 100%. **3/4."
[7.0] "First time on this show I felt urgency in a match. Callum Newman tries to end this early, as he's dealing with the shoulder injury. He puts himself at risk to try and do so. That never really gets taken advantage of or sold, which is the one main flaw with the match. That aside, it's good."
[7.0] "It was an acceptable match considering Newman's circumstances, although the execution was occasionally hampered. However, the speed and intent of a match with intensity and personal animosity were present. Uemura is, of course, a limited wrestler, and a wrestler as skilled as Newman makes him look much better than he actually is. The New Japan Cup final was obviously a superior match, starting with the fact that they had more time."
[9.0] "These two have such awesome chemistry. And callums willingness to just die adds so much to it. The shoulder injury angle added a lot and there were multiple sick sequences. Great follow up to the NJC final"
[7.0] "Not their New Japan Cup match but it's still a pretty solid war between two of New Japan's rising young stars. Uemura is arguably one of the wrestlers of the year and he gives another solid individual performance in this match. For someone just coming off a shoulder injury, Callum Newman looked pretty good as well; though I do believe Uemura probably should've won."
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