NJPW Announces Dates For G1 Climax 31
New Japan Pro Wrestling will run its annual G1 Climax tournament in September this year. The round-robin competition normally runs in August but scheduling changes have pushed it back the last couple of years due to the pandemic and Tokyo Olympic schedule.
According to the promotion’s Japanese-language website, the event will begin on September 18th and conclude on October 21st. This is similar to last year’s G1 Climax which ran from September 19th to October 18th. Kota Ibushi defeated SANADA in the finals of last year’s tournament.
NJPW has two “Summer Struggle” events this weekend. Night 1 of Summer Struggle takes place Saturday from Hokkaido. The main event of that show will feature El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Night 2 of Summer Struggle will be headlined by the Dangerous Tekkers defending their IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships against SANADA and Tetsuya Naito.
A Wrestle Grand Slam event from the Tokyo Dome has been scheduled for later this month on July 25th. That show is scheduled to be headlined by Shingo Takagi defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kota Ibushi. Japan has declared a state of emergency recently which could impact the promotion’s schedule, however.
