New Japan: G1 Climax Update

At this point, there is only three days left of this years G1 Climax with Monday giving us the finals of the G1 Climax. For me we have seen performances based on the status of champion with no champion really sticking out with a poor performance. It is interesting to see the current IWGP World Champion Kazuchika Okada as the World Champion never really sticks out as the top performer during the G1 Climax. This tournament is normally designed to set up the main event of Wrestle Kingdom the following year. 

In my opinion, this is the reason that the WWE has forgotten how important a tournament can be as it allows the company to book for the long term. Much like in a battle royal the company build feuds out of the tournament. Seeing Kota Ibushi, Jay White, and SANADA defeat Will Osprey, Jon Moxley, and Okada respectively this normally leads to a future title match for the victors against the champions. The one name that sticks out for me is Hirooki Goto cause he holds a victory over both Jon Moxley and Tomohiro Ishii during the tournament. His victory over Moxley was one of Mox's only two loses since debuting in New Japan ahead of the tournament. 

Overall if Kota Ibushi gets a victory over Okada then there will be a tie in the A Block and we need to see the breaking of a tie in the B Block. Part of me thinks that Okada could take the win in the tournament and they could find another way to set up the Wrestle Kingdom main event as a way to do something different. Another part of me thinks that they could be trying something different by giving either Goto or Ibushi as these two have never been given that chance and they could take the next five months to prepare them for the spot. 

​A BLOCK --  Saturday, Aug. 10 -- Tokyo -- Nippon Budokan 
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Will Ospreay
KENTA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 
EVIL vs. Lance Archer
SANADA vs. Bad Luck Fale
B BLOCK --  Sunday, Aug. 11 -- Tokyo -- Nippon Budokan 
Juice Robinson vs. Jon Moxley
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Taichi
Toru Yano vs. Jeff Cobb
Hirooki Goto vs. Shingo Takagi
Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White
FINALS -- Monday, Aug. 12 -- Tokyo -- Nippon Budokan
A Block winner vs. B Block winner