Blocks And Schedule Revealed For NJPW G1 Climax 2023

The full line-up is here for a truly stacked edition of NJPW's G1 Climax.

by Andrew Pollard
NJPW G1 Climax Eddie Kingston
NJPW

With last weekend seeing the entrants for this year's G1 Climax announced, there's now an update on which wrestlers are in each block, plus the full schedule for this year's G1.

Complete with an announcement that block matches will this year have a 20-minute time limit on them, the four blocks for G1 Climax 33 are as follows:

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Block A: SANADA, Chase Owens, Hikuleo, Ren Narita, Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji, Gabe Kidd, Kaito Kiyomiya

Block B: Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI, Taichi, KENTA, Great-O-Khan, Will Ospreay, Tanga Loa, El Phantasmo

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Block C: David Finlay, Tomohiro Ishii, EVIL, Tama Tonga, Shingo Takagi, Aaron Henare, Eddie Kingston, Mikey Nicholls

Block D: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Hirooki Goto, Zack Sabre Jr., Toru Yano, Jeff Cobb, Shane Haste, Alex Coughlin

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This year's G1 Climax will kick off on 15 July, with the block matches concluding on 9 August. From there, 10 August will see the the block winners and second places face off, with the semi-finals happening on 12 August and then the final on the following day. As per tradition, the winner of the G1 Climax will earn themselves a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom next January.

For the full rundown of who will be facing who on what date during the block section of the tournament, that extensive information can be found here on the New Japan Pro-Wrestling website.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.