History definitely has a way of repeating itself, one way or another.
On August 18th, 2024, TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr. from the United Kingdom has become the 2nd only non-Japanese talent to win the coveted G1 Climax 34 tournament against LIJ’s Yota Tsuji via submission, joining the record books along Kenny Omega (from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) who won G1 Climax 26 on August 14th, 2016.
This technical wrestler has come a long way, making sure he keeps his word in hopes to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Now, this may come to fruition sooner than we thought.
He announced after the tournament that since January 4th, the date of Wrestle Kingdom 19, is a long ways off, that he will be challenging for the title 2 months away in October, a surefire promise that he plans to main event Wrestle Kingdom 19 as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. The current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is Tetsuya Naito of Los Ingobernables de Japon, who won the title against Jon Moxley at AEW and NJPW’s crossover event, Forbidden Door, this past June.
Congratulations, ZSJ. It has finally come home.
You can follow Melody Leighton on Twitter @TheLadyLeighton.
