Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/06/17/list-of-participants-for-the-g1-climax-tournament/
During Sunday’s Kizuna Road card, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the participants for this year’s G1 Climax tournament, which begins Saturday, July 14th and concludes with three straight nights at Budokan Hall on August 10th, 11th, and 12th.
Below is the list of this year’s participants:
*Kenny Omega, IWGP heavyweight champion
*Michael Elgin
*Jay White, United States champion
*Hiroshi Tanahashi
*Togi Makabe
*Juice Robinson
*Kazuchika Okada
*Hirooki Goto, NEVER Openweight champion
*Tomohiro Ishii
*Toru Yano
*Yoshi-Hashi
*Bad Luck Fale
*Tama Tonga
*Hangman Page
*Tetsuya Naito
*EVIL
*Sanada
*Minoru Suzuki
*Zack Sabre Jr.
*Kota Ibushi
The 20 entrants match the same number of participants as last year’s G1.
Jay White and Hangman Page will be entering their first G1 and replacing Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima from last year’s lineup.
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I can’t wait for this. Last year was the first full G1 I ever watched, and it was awesome following all the different stories being told in the tournament. This year’s G1 looks even better with Page and White being added. Add to that that NJPW just announced that all the G1 shows will have live English commentary. I can’t wait to see what they pull off here. My prediction is Kota Ibushi with a 2nd choice being Okada.
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I’m calling Ibushi/Naito final with Ibushi winning. I see Ibushi, Okada & Suzuki as the top guys of one block and Omega, Naito & Tanahashi as the top guys in the other.
I see either Tama Tonga or Bad Luck Fale pinning Omega, to set up a championship match. I think Tanahashi pins Omega to set up a championship match and Omega/Naito go to a 30 minute draw on the final day.
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I think Ibushi is the clear winner here. We’ll get the Golden Lovers at Wrestle Kingdom and it will be glorious!
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Outside of Yoshi-Hashi, Fale, Yano, and to a much, much lesser extent Makabe, this is incredibly strong, and I see potential for so many good to great to blowing Metlzer’s mind awesomeness. I foresee Kota winning, but would be happy if someone else did this year, and they spend next year building up to Kota/Kenny at the dome. It’s really weird to say, but I don’t feel 6 months is enough time to properly build that feud, unless you want to have it as a double main event, have it be face vs face, friends having a sporting contest, and over the course of 2019 have one turn on the other leading to the emotional match at the dome in 2020.
My first introduction to New Japan was back to back Okada/Tanahashi main events. I would be super okay with back to back Kenny/Kota main events!
I had the exact same thoughts. If Omega and Naito draw, that would make them 1-1-1 in the G1, which could lead to a tiebreaker for the title at next year’s Dominion possibly
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Its a shame that they couldn’t get Jericho and Cody in this, while The Blocks will be different, I just don’t like the fact that 18 of the 20 were in last years G1.
I’m just wondering whether they should be going after some more talent to change things up a bit.
I really thought Jeff Cobb was going to be in it, maybe instead of Yoshi-Hashi.
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The block divisions are on NJPW World right now, it’s a free video so anyone can watch.
Block B will feature Omega vs. Ibushi!
(Full info also on NJPW thread I now realise 
)