Everything You Need To Know About The NJPW G1 Climax

10. What Is It?

The greatest professional wrestling tournament on the planet, that's what!

Okay, a little hyperbolic, but the standard in the G1 Climax over the last few years has been astounding. The tournament has a rich history, dating all the way back to 1974 where it was known as the World League. This morphed into the MSG League in 1978, which became the International Wrestling Grand Prix in 1983 and, finally, one year as the World Cup Tournament in 1989. 1990 saw a break, before it returned as the G1 Climax in 1991.

Antonio Inoki dominated the tournament (much like he did New Japan in general) all the way up until 1989, winning it on 10 occasions. Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant also picked up wins in the 1980s, which shows you just what a big deal it is/was.

Other former winners of the tournament include Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kensuke Sasaki, Keiji Mutoh and many more. Since reverting to the G1 Climax format only two non-Japanese wrestlers have made the finals in Rick Rude (1992) and Karl Anderson (2012).

Authored by John Bills

Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.

Posted On: 29th Jun 2016

In this post:

New Japan Pro Wrestling