Welcome to the most interesting (and insane) schedule for wrestling fans.
That being said though I am looking forward to the tournament this year with the new entrants, making me feel there could be quite the few Match of the Year contenders with all the talent involved.
Half-related, but John, Wai and Park ranking the G1 competitors in terms of attractiveness has made for wonderful listening. More handsome men chat please, lads!
You should watch WWE with me and my wife. I’ve become quite well versed in her and her friends’ “power rankings” of the roster in terms of attractiveness.
Can’t wait for this. Of course my part time job I work maybe twice a month schedules me for this Saturday. Looks like I’m avoiding internet for the day. Who does everyone got in the finals? Ibushi over White for me. Moxley will have a good run but I think Juice will play spoiler.
Ah, G1 season. That time when wrestling fans need to build endurance for watching a handful of amazing wrestling matches every day, without getting desensitized to it.
That said, for now, I’m looking forward to it. I don’t know how I’ll feel smack in the middle of the tournament, but for now, I’m excited. Particularly looking forward to seeing how KENTA rebounds in New Japan, how Moxley meshes in the B-Block in a grueling series of matches, and how Takagi and Ospreay are handled in the tourney.
Last year’s Tanahashi win kills my confidence in predicting anything, but might as well: now that he’s locked up with NJPW, I’ll go with Ibushi.
Going into this I’m feeling confident in my picks that I have Ospreay winning the A block and Naito winning in the B block as of now. Given how strong Osreay has lolked I put him winning it with his losses being Okada to set up the story for WK, Ibushi and or ZSJ to make his run going into the main event much stronger
I’ve got Ospreay in Block A after beating Tanahashi in the A block final and Okada/Ibushi going to a draw. Naito in the B Block after beating Jay White in the B Block final.
Naito over Ospreay in the final.
I have Ibushi bearing Okada in the Block A final and Naito bearing White in Block B
Setting up Naito beating Ibushi furthering their rivalry. Then you have Naito challenging to be a Two-belt guy at the Dome and also Ibushi gets Okada leading up to that since he holds a W over him with the story being Ibushi could beat Okada setting up a final showdown between Ibushi and Naito in a winner take all match which would cap off an insane year long feud.
I also have 3 Draws:
Okada - Tanahashi continuing right where last year left off. I 60 minutes of G1 action with no winner
Evil - Sanada as partners who know each other too well
Okada - Sanada as the story continues with a Sanada getting closer to beating him and while he doesn’t lose this time he doesn’t win.
If that played out you’d have 2 Draws a piece for Okada and Sanada which plays into my final Block A night: Sanada winning earlier in the night and gets to 12 points, Okada with a chance to get to 12 by beating Ibushi and Ibushi already at 12 with a chance to win outright. The ties will ultimately have prevented Okada and Sanada from winning the Block whereas Ibushi has a clean look at the win. Little wrinkles and stories to make the tornament
I can see Sanada/Okada being a draw, but I have Sanada winning. I just dont see the other 2 going to draws. I dont think it is cool to have the first big match in the United States between Okada/Tanahashi and you dont give the fans a winner. There is no way I see Evil/Sanada drawing, they arent big enough stars in my opinion to go 30 minutes against each other and keep it entertaining.
For my fantasy booking scenario, I have Ospreay and ZSJ going to a draw, in which throwing the fantasy idea aside, it can set up those two for Royal Quest.
I have Shingo beating Naito in Osaka 
I’ve got that as well. I’ve also got Lance Archer beating Okada 
I’ve got ZSJ edging out Ibushi for the A block by head to head tie breaker and Naito just beating Shingo in the B block
2 draws Okada/Tanahashi (which I’ll get to see live!!!) and Shingo v. Moxley
Love the suspense of picking the entire tournament and then watching all of your picks go horribly wrong over the course of a month. Haha
did Anyone else fill out the pool coming up with plots and subplots and thinking about future booking ? I really enjoyed playing booker for a half hour today
Just finished mine, don’t expect to do well in A-Block, think I forgot to book Okada & Tanahashi strong 
oh well.
Gaahhh… I missed the POST G1 prediction contest deadline. I’m in a different timezone than the contest-clock so I didn’t make the (local) midnight cutoff.
Anyway, in trying to come up with my predictions I realized they all hinged on one decision that NJPW has to make: Is there another championship run in store for Naito, or not.
If there is, then I have Naito winning the B block and Ospreay winning the A block, and thus Naito going over Ospreay in the finals.
If there is no future championship run for Naito, then I have Ibushi winning the A block, and White winning the B block, and Ibushi going over White in the finals.
So if I had not missed the POST competition deadline I was going to do two separate entries, one for each scenario.
Anyway, Naito’s future is the key to the whole tournament, I propose.
Those of us who like NJPW style of wrestling are often drawn to the product because of the quality of the matches, but I think also important to remember that in recent years the bookers (Gedo plus others) pretty much keep their champions strong, with little parity booking.
This enforces the idea of hierarchy (important in Japanese society). The young lions are at the bottom, and Okada is at the top. This dynamic, instead of making things boring, actually makes matches more dramatic as we’re always hoping for the protagonist (baby-face) to move up the rankings, if they’re fighting from below.
Anyway, keeping that in mind, plus the fact that NJPW is running the final G1 shows in a large venue, hence the need to sell tickets, and thus the need to build drama to the final night, if one is booking from the end then making the final night of the G1 B block as dramatic as possible is important.
With that in mind, here are my predictions (since I failed to make it in under the deadline for the POST contest):
and
I expect NJPW to keep their champions strong. The above scenarios are with the idea that Naito will face Okada (for one last time) in the Tokyo Dome.
For the last night of the G1 B block there will be four guys in contention, and only with Moxley losing, and Naito going over White, can Naito win.
For long term story arcs, I think the B block is more obvious in regards to booking: US Champion Moxley has to lose to future US contenders, Taichi will be victorious over Chaos, tension will build between Evil and the rest of LIJ, etc.
The A block is more challenging because the idea that Ibushi is the next in line may seem obvious but there are problems with that (mostly due to the nature of Ibushi and how he works.) Tanahashi may be a sentimental favorite but he has to fade.
Also, while a lot of people seem to think their favorite matches will be in the A block, I’m most looking forward to the B block, especially with Moxley and Takagi going head to head, as well as facing Ishii and Naito.
I’ve got Ibushi vs Ishii pegged as the final, with Ibushi going over.
Is there any way I could submit my picks late? I miss informed myself thinking it was due July 5th and not July 4th.