Posted in: Games, NJPW, Pop Culture, Sports | Tagged: G1 Climax, new japan, new japan pro wrestling, njpw
New Japan Pro Wrestling Announces Everyone In The G1 2019
The road to the Tokyo Dome in 2020 starts in Dallas, Texas as New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced all the G1 2019 competitors. After having several successful events in North America, including their recent dual show with Ring Of Honor at Madison Square Garden, the annual tournament will kick off in the United States for the first time ever at the American Airlines Arena on July 6th. This weekend, the company officially showed off who was in every block of the tour. The A-Block will consist of Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champion), Zack Sabre Jr. (RPW British Heavyweight Champion), Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Evil, Sanada, Bad Luck Fale, Lance Archer, Will Ospreay (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion), and Kenta. The B-Block will be made up of Tetsuya Naito (IWGP Intercontinental Champion), Tomohiro Ishii (NEVER Openweight Champion), Juice Robinson, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto, Jay White, Jeff Cobb, Shingo Takagi, Taichi, and Jon Moxley (IWGP United States Champion).
That entire field of wrestlers is a lot different than in years past as we're getting many new and younger talents into the mix. The outsider pool is nearly half the participants as there are eight non-Japanese wrestlers in the bunch, but there's still a strong chance this year's winner and the eventual main event matchup at Wrestle Kingdom 14 will be back to having two Japanese stars. The schedule itself looks hectic as hell this year as all 20 wrestlers will have matches every night of the tour, a single's match one night and a tag match the other night, almost every night for an entire month. The G1 Climax is also one of the most popular tournaments in the company and draws big numbers, so we'll see how starting in the states works for New Japan Pro Wrestling this year.