NJPW G1 Climax 29 Blocks Announced
New Japan Pro-Wrestling has just announced the entrants and blocks for the 29th G1 Climax tournament.
Each year, NJPW’s top wrestlers clash for an opportunity to challenge the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the following year’s Wrestle Kingdom. Last year’s winner, Hiroshi Tanahashi, defeated Kota Ibushi in the Final and successfully defeated Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 13 to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
This field was announced today during NJPW’s Kizuna Road show Sunday in Korakuen Hall via video package.
A Block
- Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champion)
- Zack Sabre Jr.
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Kota Ibushi
- EVIL
- SANADA
- Bad Luck Fale
- Will Ospreay (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion)
- KENTA
B Block
- Tetsuya Naito (IWGP Intercontinental Champion)
- Tomohiro Ishii (NEVER Openweight Champion)
- Juice Robinson
- Toru Yano (NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champion)
- Hirooki Goto
- Jay White
- Jeff Cobb
- Shingo Takagi
- Taichi
- Jon Moxley (IWGP US Heavyweight Champion)
Notable first-time entrants are IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay, as well as Shingo Takagi and KENTA, all of whom declared their intentions to enter the G1 at NJPW’s event this past week, Dominion 6.9.
Taichi of the Suzuki-gun faction and Ring of Honor’s Jeff Cobb are other wrestlers entering the G1 Climax for the first time. Unexpectedly, NJPW veteran Togi Makabe and Suzuki-gun’s leader, Minoru Suzuki, were excluded from this year’s tournament.
All wrestlers in each block will wrestle each other once during the tournament, and the most dominant wrestlers from each block will meet in the Final. NJPW will announce marquee matches for each day of the tournament in about 24 hours.
This year’s G1 Climax begins on July 6 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas (the first ever G1 Climax event to take place outside of Japan), and ends on August 12 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. The entire tournament will be available to watch live or on demand with English Commentary on NJPW World.
