By Jhester Metchado@SuperMastodon
It is that time of the year again where one of the most historic tournaments in professional wrestling takes place and that is the G1 Climax of New Japan Pro Wrestling!
Before we officially begin with the preview, for those new to NJPW or wanna get in to the company, here’s a brief history of the G1 specifically. The tournament dates all the way back in 1974 and was called “World League” since then it has gone through numerous name changes until in 1991 where it was officially called the “G1 Climax” and has stuck to that ever since.
Masahiro Chono is often dubbed as “Mr. G1” for holding the record at 5 G1 Victories in his illustrious career! The rules are simple: it is a round robin tournament compromised of 20 wrestlers divided into 2 blocks. A 30 minute time limit is set for every match with the finals having no time limits. A win counts as 2 points while a draw counts as 1 for both wrestlers, obviously the loser of a match gets 0 points. At the end of the rounds, the winners of each blocks face each other in the finals and will most likely headline Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome to face the IWGP Heavyweight Champion!
Last year’s G1 was great but it seems like every year New Japan continues to outdo itself and this year we are all in for a treat! One of the few negatives or complaints if you will regarding the tournament is the “stagnant” group of wrestlers competing. We usually get the same main stays from New Japan with the ocassional ROH foreigner every now and then. This time however, it is different. Most wrestlers who are considered as “fillers” are primarily gone and we have many wrestlers making their G1 debuts as well!
So without further ado, let’s get straight into the action and meet the 20 wrestlers entering the 29th G1 Climax Tournament!
A BLOCK
Kazuchika Okada
The previous G1, Okada was in a different mental state. He loss his most prized posession that being the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but at Madison Square Garden earlier this year he has finally defeated Jay White and become the champion once again after winning the New Japan Cup! Okada is without a doubt the no. 1 guy in New Japan right now, he is the face of the promotion and has a lot to prove in the upcoming tournament.
Okada at this point of his career is familiar with the landscapes of the G1 tournament. He has appeared in 7 of them and won twice. If he does win this tournament, he gets to pick his eventual challenger at Wrestle Kingdom for the belt. The Rainmaker we are all familiar with is back, and while Chris Jericho may have gotten into his head on Dominion, he will set his sights focus for that G1 trophy.
Zack Sabre Jr.
The reigning RevPro British Heavyweight Champion enters in his third G1 Climax in a row. For what seems like the short time he has been in NJPW, ZSJ has already a vast experience in the tournaments of the company. He pulled an upset two years ago by winning the New Japan Cup and did quite well in his past 2 G1 appearances too.
With his master and faction leader Minoru Suzuki looking to retire in the tournament, ZSJ is aiming to lead and represent Suzuki-Gun at the top of the G1! He may not be anyone’s pick to win the entire thing, but always remember when doing your pick’ems that ZSJ will pull off upsets over everyone’s favorites!
Hiroshi Tanahashi
“The Ace” Hiroshi Tanahashi sets another record for going into his 18th straight G1 Climax appearance! Last year, everyone including yours truly counted out Tanahashi as to thinking he was past his prime and could no longer hang with the new breed of wrestlers, but boy were we all proven wrong. He did not just deliver quality match one after another, but won the entire tournament as well!
Tanahashi is a 3x G1 Winner and I won’t repeating the same mistake as I did last year to doubt The Ace. Yes he is looking a bit bad going into the tournament and isn’t in the 100% best shape of his career right now, but fans said the same thing last year as well. After losing his comeback match to Jay White, Tana is looking to gain some momentum again and prove to the fans that he still has it, and as long as everyone’s Love and Energy exists, he will persevere!
Kota Ibushi
Speaking of Tanahashi, the man he faced and defeated at last year’s G1 Climax will be joining him in the same block this time and that is Kota Ibushi! A lot of fans doubted the status of Ibushi going in to the G1 after that brutal match against Tetsuya Naito at Dominion for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship! But Ibushi, just like Tana, is not going to back down from any challenges. He too desires to gain momentum after losing the title and this time stakes are even higher for he is “alone” essentially with Kenny Omega not around anymore.
Many have Ibushi as their favorites to win the entire tournament right now, especially after losing the IC Belt. He certainly could very well be as a singles match against Okada has been heavily protected, until now of course. But he has a lot of tough challenges to get through before potentially headlining the Tokyo Dome!
EVIL
At G1 Climax 27, “The King of Darkness” EVIL had a breakout performance and really set him apart from the roster of New Japan! But last year however, he had a sort of “quiet” tournament if you will, nothing really stands out and that goes for his entire run in the company so far. He is relegated to the tag team division which is really “dead” at the moment as there is nothing going on there.
But now things are different, it’s the G1, there’s no time for worrying about the tag-team belts, it’s all about yourself and reaching the top of the food chain as they say! EVIL has a tough track ahead of him and he may not end up winning his block at all, let alone the entire tournament, but with grueling and amazing performances, he could once again steal the entire deal! We have to wait and see.
SANADA
Another representative of Los Ingobernables de Japon, “Cold Skull” SANADA is going into his third G1 appearance. Earlier this year SANADA reached the finals of the New Japan Cup but would wind up losing to eventual winner Kazuchika Okada. He would then face Okada once again at Wrestling Dontaku, this time for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and was close to becoming the champ himself but once again, close is not enough.
Since then he has been relegated into the tag division similar to EVIL. They are 2x IWGP Tag-Team Champions but it seems like we saw the last of that partnership for now at Dominion when they loss their match against Guerillas of Destiny. SANADA will face EVIL 1 on 1 again just like in the G1 two years ago, but this time the stakes are even higher for both men, as tensions continue to boil among the ranks at LIJ.
Bad Luck Fale
“The Rogue General” Bad Luck Fale, the Bullet Club original is back for his 6th G1 in a row! You may count Fale out of the tournament already but never forget that despite his midcard position, Fale is still a protected big man and will guarantee get a victory or two over the top guys of the company! So be wary on choosing your pick’ems, especially for first timers, as a Fale match is more unpredictable than you might think!
Last year him and Tama Tonga caused havoc among the tournament, they didn’t care about winning, they just wanted chaos and that they did! Disqualifications were a frequent occurrence for Fale last year as the rivalry inside Bullet Club was at its peak. This time Fale would most probably continue on his streak of gaining upsets for both the wrestlers and the fans!
Lance Archer
From one big man to another, “The American Psycho” Lance Archer returns to the G1 Climax after 6 years of absence! His long time KES partner, Davey Boy Smith Jr. is now gone from New Japan, so Archer is now focused once again in his singles career. He did have that unexpected killer match (no pun intended) against Will Ospreay at the New Japan Cup earlier which impressed a lot of fans! For a big man, Archer could definitely go just given with the proper platform and opponent.
Archer is a multi-time champion ever since leaving the WWE many years ago and has carved a decent career for himself. Expect him to pull off an upset or two here and there in this year’s G1 as he will represent Suzuki-Gun to the fullest as well!
Will Ospreay
After winning the Best of the Super Juniors 26, “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay is not finished in his goals of capturing more gold in his expeditions at NJPW! He is now entering himself at the G1 Climax for the first time in his career while also being the reigning IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion!
Ospreay is having an amazing 2019 so far! Many fans are already calling him the “Wrestler of the Year” and he certainly has the argument in being so with the resume of matches he has had the past several months! Now with the G1 ahead, it just stacks up more for him! This isn’t the first time we’re seeing junior heavyweights join in the G1 as the likes of Jushin Liger has done it before, but it has been a while since that happened.
KENTA
Finally to conclude the A Block, we have who I deem as my “dark horse pick” throughout the tournament and that is the debuting KENTA! He is back in his homeland where he reached the heights of his illustrious career at Pro Wrestling NOAH. Sadly due to being riddled with injuries and other unfortunate circumstances, things did not pan out well for him over at the WWE.
But now, Hideo Itami is dead, KENTA has been revived. It seems like the match against Naomichi Marufuji in his wrestling anniversary last year was a precursor to all of these! KENTA made his first appearance in NJPW at Dominion accompanied by his former tag-team partner: Katsuyori Shibata. KENTA is no stranger to tournaments similar to G1 as he has participated and won NOAH’s “Global League” which is essentially the equivalent to that of the G1 in NOAH. Will he be the same KENTA of 10 years ago though? Likely not. But this is a different KENTA, who wants prove to the world what they missed at WWE.
B BLOCK
Tetsuya Naito
Throughout the year Tetsuya Naito has one goal, that is to become the first man to hold both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at the same time. Two belts that are pretty much synonymous to his careers in a positive and negative aspect. He is one step closer to this goal having re-gained the IC Title from Ibushi after their hellacious match at Dominion!
Now Naito is looking to win the third G1 of his career and possibly headline the Dome once again with Okada, it could all potentially come full circle for the leader of LIJ!
Tomohiro Ishii
From the Intercontinental Champion, we move on to the reigning NEVER Openweight Champion: “Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii. Every year it seems like it always has been the same G1 for Ishii, beat up his opponents to a pulp and deliver classic matches one after another but still end up on the losing front.
But this year, he has loads of momentum heading in to this G1! After beating Taichi at Dominion, Ishii is now a 5x holder of the belt. A lot of great match ups for him as well in this block against his fellow CHAOS member: Goto, then you also got Moxley and Cobb!
Juice Robinson
One of the shining stars of this year, and no I’m neither talking about Primo nor Epico, but “The Flamboyant” Juice Robinson! But it is actually less flamboyant now and more of a serious Juice. Since the vignettes of a new challenger for his IWGP US Championship started airing, Juice was ready for an opponent bigger than those he has faced beforehand.
Alas, that opponent turned out to be Jon Moxley! The two of them had a hellacious match at the BOSJ Finals, with it being Moxley’s debut in NJPW. While he did put up the fight of his life, Juice still wound up losing the match and the belt. Since then he is looking to avenge that loss and he has another chance against Moxley, being put in the same block at this year’s G1. It was a disappointing tournament for Juice last year, but what a difference 365 days can make to a man’s outlook for his career.
Toru Yano
You can’t have a G1 without everyone’s favorite DVD Producer: Toru Yano! Whether you appreciate comedy wrestling or not, it can’t be denied Yano’s importance in the entire tournament. He is always that “breather” match where wrestlers can lay back from the physically demanding tournament. Although it was actually quite a different scenario last year with Yano getting out of his “cheating ways” and preferred to wrestle in a more serious manner for the tournament, don’t think we’re going to be getting the same this time around but we’ll see.
Yano is another wrestler who can pull off an upset out of nowhere over the favorites of the tournament! He is a sneaky one after all, one low blow behind a referee’s back is all it takes for someone’s pick’ems to potentially get ruined!
Hirooki Goto
He has been absent for quite some time now but Hirooki Goto makes his return to NJPW entering in his 12th G1 Climax! Goto has been mainly involved in the NEVER Openweight title earlier this year having a “rivalry” of sorts with Jeff Cobb but other than that it has mostly been a quiet year for him.
Sadly Goto might take a lot of losses in this block but hey we never know, counting him out entirely is not a great idea. He is still capable of pulling off instant classic bouts especially with the fray he is involved!
Jay White
The Switchblade is back for his second G1 appearance but this time he is a bigger deal more than ever being the leader of Bullet Club and the reason for the unficiation between members of CHAOS and Sekigun (the unaffiliated wrestlers of NJPW.) He has done quite a lot in the short span of time, going even to becoming IWGP Heavyweight Champion upsetting Hiroshi Tanahashi in his first defense since beating Kenny Omega at WK13.
At the G1 Supercard in MSG however, Jay finally got defeated by Okada for the IWGP Title and has been wanting nothing more since then in regaining the belt! He is on the right direction though as he defeated Tanahashi once again, in his comeback match, making the fans despise him more, but for Jay, it’s simply motivation to take the Cut Throat Era back to the top.
Jeff Cobb
This year’s ROH star making his G1 debut is “Mr. Olympia” himself: Jeff Cobb! For the past few years, Cobb has made a name for himself across the independent scene in the United States, but recently he takes his talents across the borders and one of those places is Japan! He is already a former NEVER Openweight Champion and has had a rivalry against Hirooki Goto. Him and Ospreay also tore the house down in the opening of the G1 Supercard event earlier this year!
Already a staple in the US, Cobb is looking to do the same and make a name for himself in Japan. What better way to do that than in the G1 Climax!
Shingo Takagi
Ever since making his debut for NJPW, Shingo Takagi has been literally unstoppable going into a 96 match winning streak! The former face of Dragon Gate had an easy transition into NJPW, quickly rising in the ranks of junior heavyweight division. At Wrestle Kingdom he won the junior tag belts with his LIJ compadre BUSHI, then going on a tear at the BOSJ tournament reaching the finals without a single blemish but would ultimately lose for the first time against Will Ospreay in what many consider as a possible MOTY Candidate!
Now Takagi wants to fully transition into the heavyweight scene, he already got a taste of what’s to come by defeating the legendary Satoshi Kojima, now he has to face 9 other tough opponents, who are just as hungry for success in the G1!
Taichi
Finally! The Lord Emperor is making his G1 Debut! Since moving full time to the heavyweight divisions and surprising us all with his improved work rate, Taichi has been wanted by fans to enter the G1! With his master Suzuki out, his golden voice will now be heard throughout the entire tournament!
Unfortunately though, with him losing the NEVER Openweight belt to Ishii at Dominion, I could see Taichi be the one to take many L’s throughout the B Block. But he could very well take an upset or two as he has experience with most of the wrestlers in the block too. We could see more of the Toshiaki Kawada influence that is hiding behind Taichi all this time.
Jon Moxley
Last but not the least we got arguably the most talked about name in the world of professional wrestling right now that is Jon Moxley. Ever since his departure from the WWE, Moxley continues to boosts his name with many appearances in various platforms! First by debuting in AEW’s first ever PPV, beating up the wrestlers involved in the main event between Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho. He would then be the surprise challenger for Juice’s US Title which he eventually won!
After his match against Shota Umino in the opening of Dominion, Moxley shocks everyone again by announcing himself as a participant of the G1! It may be his first tournament ever, but let’s not forget that at one point he worked the most matches out of everybody in the WWE roster so he is familiar with physicality, plus with his death match background helps too. But the G1 is an entirely different animal as they say, we will see how Moxley will thrive and to see him face the other great top stars NJPW has to offer!
