NJPW announces G1 Climax 29 participants and blocks

Participants and blocks have been announced for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Climax 29.

Cancel all your beach getaways, backpacking excursions and plans for sitting half-naked directly next to the air conditioner, because the event of the summer is fast approaching. Yes, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 climax 29 is set to commence on July 6 in Dallas, Texas.

If you don’t know, the G1 is one of, if not the most, prestigious tournament in all of professional wrestling. Participants compete in a grueling, month-long series of round robin matches, broken up into two blocks. After everyone has wrestled everyone, the two wrestlers with the highest point totals — two for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss — from their respective blocks then face off in the finals, with the winner receiving a guaranteed* match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom.

(*They actually receive a contract — housed in a briefcase that doesn’t infringe on existing copyrights — and typically have to defend that contract against anyone who defeated them during the course of the tournament.)

https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/status/1140288265104384000

This year’s field boasts 20 participants, including current champions, past winners, tournament veterans and notable debuts. Check out the full rundown of this year’s blocks and start salivating at the idea of some of these matchups:

A Block

• Kazuchika Okada
• Zack Sabre Jr.
• Hiroshi Tanahashi
• Kota Ibushi
• EVIL
• SANADA
• Bad Luck Fale
• Lance Archer
• Will Ospreay
• KENTA

B Block

• Tetsuya Naito
• Tomohiro Ishii
• Juice Robinson
• Toru Yano
• Hirooki Goto
• Jay White
• Jeff Cobb
• Shingo Takagi
• Taichi
• Jon Moxley

Some random immediate thoughts:

– One hell of a slate of wrestlers making their tournament debuts in Will Ospreay, KENTA, Jeff Cobb, Shingo Takagi, Taichi and Jon Moxley.

– From the high of last year’s triumph to the lows of recent injuries and overall looking like he’s breaking down before our eyes, it will be interesting to see how Tanahashi fares overall.

– Will Ospreay now has the chance to become the first person to ever win both the BOSJ and the G1. Good thing he spent all that time studying the blade.

– Ibushi and Naito are thankfully in different blocks, so if they want to finally, actually murder each other, it will have to wait until the finals.

– Still insane that Jon Moxley went from floundering aimlessly as Dean Ambrose a few months ago to IWGP US Champion about to tear it up in the G1. Bartender, one Jon Moxley versus Tomohiro Ishii, please.

As we said earlier, start cancelling all previously-made plans now. The G1 Climax kicks off in Dallas — the very first time the tournament will go international — on July 6, and culminates at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on August 12. You can watch the entire tournament on New Japan World. AXS TV is also providing same-day coverage of the G1 Climax, starting with the Dallas event.