New Japan Pro-Wrestling superstar Tetsuya Naito made it clear that he is not a fan of the changes that that have been made for the G1 Climax 33 tournament which is set to begin on July 15th.
This year, the G1 Climax will feature 32 participants up from last year’s tournament which had 28 entrants. In addition, the match time limits this year have been decreased from 30 minutes to 20 minutes.
On the increase of the number of participants for G1 Climax 33, Naito had this to say about the change:
“I don’t want to deny everything, it may be good in the sense of giving various players a chance, but the image of the G1 climax in my mind is the strongest warrior championship that only selected players can participate in.
Tetsuya Naito also questioned the shortened time limits for each G1 Climax 33 match:
“Other sports talk about shortening game time, and in baseball, pitch clocks are introduced, so you don’t want to change to a two-out change because you want to shorten it. It may be fresh, and it may be interesting because the game time is short, but if the fundamental rules are changed without any explanation, there is a danger that the original fun of G1 will be lost.”
Tetsuya Naito has participated in 14 consecutive G1 Climax tournaments and is in the D Block for G1 Climax 2023. His first tournament match is on July 16th against Jeff Cobb.
(H/T goes to Tokyo Sports for the transcriptions)
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