11 Things We Learned From The 2018 NJPW G1 Climax

11. New Japan Has A 50/50 Booking Problem

Hiroshi Tanahashi YOSHI HASHI
NJPW

This isn’t exactly a new discovery, but long league-style tournaments always bring this to the fore in New Japan. WWE is often criticised for its 50/50 booking, with everybody beating everybody and nobody getting over. New Japan seems to get a pass when it engages in similar tactics, but it is getting close to infuriating levels now.

As unpredictable as these tournaments tend to be, one thing that is almost certain is that multiple wrestlers will be in contention going into the last day. This is to remove all predictability from the blocks, although the unpredictability itself has become somewhat predictable.

The 50/50 tendencies aren’t simply for the top of the blocks. Almost 50% of the entire field ended with six points. It really was a case of the top guys being the best, and everyone else being on the same level. Competitiveness needs to be apparent, but did YOSHI-HASHI have to beat Michael Elgin? If nobody really loses, then nobody really wins.

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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.