The 30th of NJPW’s G1 Climax tournaments kicks off in grand style over the weekend with a 2 night stint at the Edion Arena in Osaka. Despite all the problems NJPW has faced with the Coronavirus pandemic and having a large chunk of their roster stuck outside Japan the G1 this year has turned out to be largely unchanged. There’s no first time participants this year and 17 of last years field are returning.
As such the biggest change is in how the cards will function. The last few years has seen a night consist of one block having their 5 G1 matches at the end of the night while the first half of the card consists of preview tag team matches for the other block. The blocks would alternate this format throughout the competition. However, to cut down on health risks associated with the pandemic they have elected to have both blocks separate and stick to a rigid 6 match format that has been prevalent in most NJPW shows post lockdown.
This means that 5 matches of a block plus 1 Young Lions match will take place each night.
Osaka will kick things off with Block A beginning on Saturday 19th September and Block B on Sunday 20th September.
Yota Tsuji v Yuya Uemura
Effectively this year’s unofficial Block C is an all Young Lions affair with tonight’s opponents and Gabriel Kidd opening every show. These are always fascinating glimpses in to the future. Tsuji is one of the bigger guys on the New Japan roster and has great potential as a wild man heel with his shaggy hair and crazy eyed look whereas Uemura is much more chiselled and good looking guy who will make an excellent poster boy down the line. Expect a very solid and fundamentally sound match between these two and great fighting spirit. This could well be a G1 Climax final one day.
Will Ospreay v Yujiro Takahashi
Oh boy. The elephant in the room match of the tournament. There are people who will question whether either guy should be in the tournament, for very different reasons.
Yujiro doesn’t have the best win-loss record in the world and, let’s be honest, his job the last few years has been to eat the pins in multi man tags where Bullet Club loses. He basically filled the original Bone Soldier spot in BC. However, the return from lockdown meant Yujiro was the only active Bullet Club heavyweight, until Evil turned in the New Japan Cup anyway. As such he has been in a much more prominent spot this year, probably the most prominent since he first joined Bullet Club by helping AJ Styles win the IWGP title. Still, straight forward defeats to Okada, including in a 3 on 1 handicap match haven’t painted him as much of a hope.
For Ospreay things have a much darker tone. With the Speaking Out movement tearing through the wrestling business Ospreay was accused of blackballing Pollyanna from getting indy shots due to her assault allegations against Ospreay’s friend Scott Wainwright. Despite Ospreay’s denial of blackballing one indy fed did backup Pollyanna’s claims. His addition to the tournament and seeming lack of acknowledgement from New Japan have seen calls from some fans on social media to boycott the tournament.
I expect Yujiro is going to play a similar role to Toru Yano in the competition and basically be the spoiler. As one person on Twitter said to me however: Pieter has a better chance of winning the G1. Don’t expect a 5* classic and don’t expect it to last long. Do expect shenanigans however and Yujiro really needs the win to get some credibility here.
Jeff Cobb v Taichi
With rumours swirling that Cobb has signed full time for NJPW what a better way to announce than a big win in the G1 over an old rival? Cobb dropped the NEVER Openweight title to Taichi at Wrestling Dontaku last year. As you would expect, Taichi was ever the cad, making fun of Jeff Cobb’s weight and using every dirty tactic possible. Taichi has made a career out of been an utterly deplorable git and will no doubt try to recapture that here. If Cobb has officially signed then I expect NJPW to want to put an exclamation point on that by giving Cobb a strong start and battering Suzuki-gun’s resident absolute swine. But you know Taichi? He always a trick or two in the bag he got from Iizka….
Tomohiro Ishii v Minoru Suzuki
Perhaps an early contender for the most brutal match of the tournament. Ishii and Suzuki of course have a great tendency of not pulling punches and enjoying taking a few stiff shots in return. With the NEVER Openweight Championship around the waist of the King of Wrestling this puts an extra target on Suzuki. Traditionally a win over a champion will grant you a title shot down the line. Ishii has held the NEVER Openweight a joint record 5 times so, not only is this a fascinating tournament match, the potential of these two battling over the NEVER title is a possibility too. Just a shame the rules in Japanese arenas are preventing a sing-a-long with Suzuki though.
Shingo Takagi v Jay White
Shingo Takagi taking on Jay White sounds like a fun match. These two had a banger last year with Jay White picking up the 2 points. That’s fine and everything but the big talking points within the match are less about the match and more about what is Jay White going to do next? Is he still the absolute leader of Bullet Club? Has Evil taken that mantle or is it really a joint effort now? Is there any bad feeling with Kenta who, prior to lockdown, jumped ahead of White to the front of the Double Championship line?
We probably won’t get answers to these questions here but the intrigue will follow White around the whole G1.
Don’t write off Shingo though. He’s a top guy in the making. If NJPW want to pull a believable upset off then Shingo Takagi maybe a dark horse for the whole tournament. What we will see is a lot of chicanery on Jay White’s part to rile up the Rampage Dragon while Takagi will be looking to put King Switch through the mat. Sleeper match of the show? More than likely.
Kazuchika Okada v Kota Ibushi
Doesn’t get much bigger than this: a rematch from a lot of people’s Match of the Year. Ibushi came closer than ever at Wrestle Kingdom against the Rainmaker in an emotional and brutal classic at the Tokyo Dome. Okada owns the Tokyo Dome these days however and pulled through. However, Ibushi did beat Okada on the final night of block action last year on his way to winning his first G1.
Since their Tokyo Dome classic these two have taken trips down the card. Neither have received a shot at the Double Championship since. Okada did make the New Japan Cup Final but he’s floated around battling Yujiro Takahashi and Gedo or going for the NEVER Openweight Six Man Championship or even creating a totally brand new championship (KOPW2020). Ibushi on the other hand has gone into tag team wrestling. A short run as IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship alongside his hero Hiroshi Tanahashi was ended in decisive fashion by Dangerous Tekkers.
The big question here is on Ibushi’s mental state. We saw that dark side during their battle at Tokyo Dome but since then his tag title run saw him put under the stress of choosing between sacrificing his hero and partner Tanahashi or showing loyalty. He showed loyalty in the end but rumours of Ibushi turning heel at the end of this remain persistent.
What’s for certain is that this is one hell of a way to close the opening night of the biggest wrestling tournament on earth.
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