The 27th G1 Climax tournament kicks off in July, and while we already knew the full field of combatants in the prestigious New Japan tournament, but we couldn’t REALLY start digging in and fantasy booking until we knew how the two blocks would shake out. Now we know!
Remember that this is a round robin format tournament. Each member of Block A will wrestle every other member of Block A, and ditto for Block B. Whoever racks up the most points in their respective block will move on to the finals, where it is one match for the G1 winner.
Block A:
– Hiroshi Tanahashi
– Togi Makabe
– Yuji Nagata
– Kota Ibushi
– Hirooki Goto
– Tomohiro Ishii
– YOSHI-HASHI
– Back Luck Fale
– Zack Sabre Jr.
– Tetsuya Naito
Block B:
– Satoshi Kojima
– Michael Elgin
– Juice Robinson
– Kazuchika Okada
– Toru Yano
– Kenny Omega
– Tama Tonga
– Minoru Suzuki
– SANADA
– EVIL
Last year’s winner was Kenny Omega, who went on to have two six-star-plus matches against IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada. Please note that Omega and Okada are in the same Block, so don’t be surprised to see Kenny get a non-title win over Okada during the G1.
It’s tough to say who will be the favorites in this year’s tournament, but for some reason I expect both Zack Sabre Jr. and Kota Ibushi to do very well in Block A, even though that Block is stacked to the gills with big names, including Tanahashi, Goto, Ishii, and Naito.
