You may have noticed by now that New Japan Pro Wrestling‘s much deserved expansion outside of Japan has included more shows, well, outside of Japan. They had the G1 Special in Long Beach last July, a tour of Australia, and Strong Style Evolved in Long Beach in March (where With Spandex staff members participated in the post-match interviews). Now, NJPW will expand in the United States BEYOND LONG BEACH for a show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on July 7, 2018.
We don’t know what the matches will be at the aptly named “G1 Special In San Franciso” yet, but we do know where fans in the U.S. can watch it live (besides the Cow Palace): AXS TV.
AXS officially announced the live broadcast via press release:
AXS TV announced today that it will exclusively live broadcast New Japan Pro Wrestling’s third U.S. event-the G1 SPECIAL IN SAN FRANCISCO-on Saturday, July 7 at 8pE/5pP. The G1 SPECIAL continues the network’s partnership with the fast-growing wrestling promotion and its Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi, building on the success of AXS TV’s presentation of STRONG STYLE EVOLVED in March 2018 and G1 SPECIAL IN USA in July 2017, along with its award-winning Friday Night NJPW series.
The event marks NJPW’s most ambitious foray into the U.S. market to date, with a crowd of over 10,000 expected at the historic Cow Palace in Daly City, California. Wrestling Hall of Famer Jim Ross and former UFC Heavyweight Champion and NJPW veteran Josh Barnett will call the action ringside as the best wrestlers in the world, including “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Tanahashi, enter the ring at the G1 SPECIAL IN SAN FRANCISCO.
This release confirms that the four wrestlers on the promotional poster — Okada (who is on the poster twice, because he’s had the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for OVER 700 DAYS NOW and can do ANYTHING), Omega, Naito, and Tanahashi — will be there. I’d expect at least a partial card announcement after Dominion, because at that point, telling us what almost any member of the NJPW roster will be doing in July won’t be a massive spoiler for the title matches.
