The participants have been revealed for NJPW’s annual G1 Climax tournament, which is set to begin later this month.
During the second night of Wrestle Grand Slam, the promotion revealed the members of both blocks for the 31st version of the tournament that began in 1991.
BLOCK A
– Kota Ibushi
– Tetsuya Naito
– Shingo Takagi
– Zack Sabre Jr.
– Toru Yano
– Tomohiro Ishii
– Yujiro
– KENTA
– Tanga Loa
– Great O-Khan
BLOCK B
– SANADA
– Taichi
– YOSHI-HASHI
– Hirooki Goto
– Jeff Cobb
– EVIL
– Tama Tonga
– Chase Owens
– Kazuchika Okada
– Hiroshi Tanahashi
This year, the tournament is notable for the many absences among the foreigners including former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay, who stated at the Resurgence event in Los Angeles that he would not be in the G1 this year.
The G1 begins on September 18th and runs until October 21st with the final two nights taking place at Budokan Hall.
Definitely looks like I’ll be skipping this year. This pandemic is really beating New Japan into the ground for me. Just no freshness to the product at all.
Damn, Chase Owens and Yujiro in the G1? It’s probably way too early for Hiromu to be in the tournament due to just coming back from the torn pec muscle injury. It’s also unfortunate NJPW wasn’t able to come to an agreement with AJPW or NOAH to bring some talent in for the tournament.
I’m just surprised they didn’t at least ask AJPW or NOAH to loan in some talent and bring in some fresh matchups. Just really disappointing and probably gonna pass on this G1 this year.
Definitely some disparities between the two blocks.
I can see Yujiro and Owens both going 1-8 in the tournament. Them being used for booking/scoring purposes isn’t enough for me to watch their matches. I still want to follow the tournament, but might be more selective in what I watch of it.
As much as I have loved NJPW it seems like same old shit. It’s the same people having the same matches over and over again that go one forever. Crowds also seem not to care making it seem dull. Not really going to watch other than finals
Better then I expected all things considered, really if they just replaced Yujuro and Owens and I’d be a happy happy man. I’ll enjoy it for what it is regardless. More looking forward to Noah’s N1 though honestly