Everything You Need To Know About The NJPW G1 Climax

9. How Does It Work?

New Japan Pro Wrestling NJPW CG1 Climax
NJPW

The set out of the tournament itself is pretty simple, to say the least. You have two groups called 'blocks' here. 20 wrestlers are divided into Block A and Block B, where they then fight each other over a few weeks in round-robin form. Think of it like a mini-league, where everyone plays each other once.

Two points are awarded for a win, and one point for a draw. All matches have a 30 minute time limit, although we haven't seen a time limit draw since 2010, when there were two (Naito vs. Tanahashi and Nakamura vs. Go Shiozaki).

The two men who finish on top of their blocks at the end of the round-robin stage go on to meet in the final. This match is scheduled for one-fall, with a 60-minute time limit. If two men are tied at the top of the block, the winner of their match goes through.

Nice and simple, none of this 'best third place' rubbish.

Contributor
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.