NJPW Announces Details For 2016 G1 Climax

Somehow, the tournament looks even more stacked than usual.

by John Bills
New Japan Pro Wrestling NJPW CG1 Climax
facebook.com/newjapaneng

Lather yourselves up wrestling fans, it is almost time for New Japan Pro Wrestling's annual G1 Climax tournament. Lasting some four weeks, the tourney sees two groups of 10 wrestlers compete in a round-robin format, with the two group winners meeting in the final.

Past winners of the G1 Climax include current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Keijih Mutoh and many more.

NJPW has announced the competitors taking part in the 26th annual tournament, and needless to say the line-ups are mouthwatering. In Block A, Okada and Tanahashi will be joined by Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, SANADA and Naomichi Marufuji. A stacked block for sure, but expect Okada or Tanahashi to win it.

Advertisement

Block B is far more open however. Tetsuya Naito is the favourite, but a case could be made for Katsuyori Shibata or Kenny Omega winning it. Elsewhere in the block we find IWGP Intercontinental Champion Michael Elgin, Tomoaki Honma, EVIL, YOSHI-HASHI, Yuji Nagata and Katsuhiko Nakajima. Yes, that means we get to see Shibata and Honma attempt to murder each other.

The tournament begins on July 18th, and runs all the way through until August 14th. I cannot wait.

Advertisement
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.