Thank you all for clicking on this blog. This is going to be a preview of the G1 Climax, a discussion of the announced cards for the 19 show tournament, and my quick thoughts on what you should look for as far as results, surprises, and can't miss matches. So, let's review the G1 concept first...
What is the G1?
The G1 is a round-robin tournament in which wrestlers are divided into two blocks. They have to face EACH wrestler in their block and are competing for points.(I believe it is 2 points for a victory and 1 point for a time-limit draw.) The men with the most points in their block face each other on the final night to determine the winner of the tournament. The winner of the tournament gets a contract to wrestle the IWGP Heavyweight Champion (New Japan's major title) at the big Wrestle Kingdom event in the Tokyo Dome on January 4th.
Why should you watch it?
The matches are very competitive from night to night, with 19 shows all taking place within a 1 month time period. Old rivals face off, friends and stablemates are forced to compete against one another, and older wrestlers have that great one last tournament to earn glory. Upsets are common place in the tournament, as well as champions being defeated to set up future title matches after the tournament. For the most bang for your buck in live wrestling, NJPW World during G1 is unmatched. Period.
What's happening this year?
To answer that, I'm going to refer you to a great wrestling website (of which I am a Patreon): POST Wrestling. They break down the nights and the brackets of the G1. So, check that out first. And then, come back here, and I'll break it down for you quickly.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/06/19/new-japan-release-the-full-cards-for-the-g1-climax-tournament/
First off, for a wrestling quality, these arrangements for the blocks are amazing!!! Each show looks to have at least 1-2 must watch matches.
The thing to keep in mind for these tournaments, especially the last 3 I've paid attention to, is the final nights in each block are everything. There has been an instance where the main event match resulted in a tie and another person in the block advanced to the finals (Goto in 2016). But for the most part, the main event matches on the final night determined who was going to the G1 Finals.
From that, I infer that it's going to come down to Tanahashi and Okada in the A Block and Omega and Ibushi in the B Block. Based on that, I have Kota Ibushi upsetting his Golden Elite stablemate Kenny Omega and Hiroshi Tanahashi upsetting Kazuchika Okada to get to the finals. And I'm predicting Ibushi beats Tanahashi in the finals to lead to Ibushi facing Omega at Wrestle Kingdom. The fly in the ointment to this theory is Tetsuya Naito in the B Block. I can see a scenario where Naito gets enough points to where if Omega and Ibushi tie, Naito gets the B Block victory and goes on to the finals. But I don't know if Naito is going to face anyone but Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom. And I don't want to see Okada-Omega again for a while. Could we see Tanahashi vs. Omega at the Tokyo Dome?
As you can see, the G1 is so much fun booking wise because SO MANY things can actually happen. I'd love to be a booker in this tournament to go over all the variables, the different seeds to plant for title matches after the tournament, and planning out the surprises to shock everyone (example: Evil being the first person to pin Okada in a year during last year's G1).
As for surprises, I'm predicting Kenny Omega loses to both Senada and Zack Sabre Jr before losing to Kota Ibushi in the finals of the B Block. This could set up matches for Omega leading up to and including Wrestle Kingdom (if my prediction is correct).
Here are the matches I'd watch just to enjoy a great match during this tournament:
July 14th
Okada vs. Jay White (CHAOS vs. CHAOS)
Tanahashi vs. Suzuki
July 15th
Omega vs. Naito
Ibushi vs. Sabre Jr.
July 19
Naito vs. Ishii
July 21
Sanada vs. Sabre Jr.
July 22
EVIL vs. Bad Luck Fale
July 26th
Ibushi vs. Sanada
Omega vs. Juice (Juice upset him last year in G1)
Ishii vs. Sabre Jr.
July 27th
Suzuki vs. Elgin
July 28th
Ibushi vs. Ishii
Omega vs. Sanada
July 30th
Suzuki vs. Evil
August 1st
Omega vs. Sabre Jr.
August 2nd
Okada vs. Suzuki (went to draw last year)
Tanahashi vs. Evil
August 4th
Omega vs. Ishii
Naito vs. Ibushi
Sabre Jr. vs. Juice
August 5th
Okada vs. Evil (Evil upset Okada in G1 last year)
Tanahashi vs. Elgin
August 8th
Naito vs. Sanada (LIJ vs. LIJ)
August 10th
Tanahashi vs. Okada
Suzuki vs. Fale
August 11th
Omega vs. Ibushi
Naito vs. Sabre Jr.
Ishii vs. Sanada
_ _ _ _
As I wrote earlier, I will be most likely missing the first week due to vacation. But I will report on the G1 matches from the first several shows once I get back. And once I get caught up, I'll post a daily report as the tournament continues to unfold... and advancing my carpel tunnel.
I hope you've enjoyed this post. Leave feedback if you want. Check out the earlier posts and look out for more posts over the course of the week. Until next time, wrestling fans, take care of yourselves and spread some awesomeness.
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