We’re taking a closer look at each competitor before heading into New Japan’s annual double round-robin tournament, the G1 Climax, that begins on July 6 live from Dallas at 6 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Pacific on AXS TV.
Tomohiro Ishii (NEVER Openweight Champion)
The Stone Pitbull moniker works for him, but Tomohiro Ishii is more comparable to being one solid brick of tough. He deserves more credit among mainstream wrestling fans because of his Brock Lesnar-esque aura packed into a 5-foot-7, 220-pound body.
Ishii has had a rather quiet year so far, after tripping out of the gate with a tap to Zack Sabre, Jr. and losing the RevPro British Heavyweight title. He had a good run in this year’s New Japan Cup where lost to eventual Cup winner Kazuchika Okada in the semi-finals. He recently knocked off Taichi to capture the NEVER Openweight championship, a title he’ll wear into G1 29 this year.
Ishii’s run in last year’s G1 is a textbook definition of “damned with faint praise.” The only reason Ishii doesn’t receive as much credit as he probably should for his performance in last year’s G1 is because of how undeniably good Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega’s runs in the same tournament were. Ishii’s matches with Omega last summer, and particularly his G1 match with Omega, were some of the best wrestling matches of the year, so it’d be wise to revisit some of the aforementioned run on NJPW World before this year’s tourney kicks off.
Jeff Cobb
Jeff Cobb’s entry into this year’s G1 Climax is a high mark on the wave of momentum he’s been riding ever since signing with Ring of Honor. He was fast-tracked into the company’s TV Championship picture after signing with the company in 2018 and been positioned as a monster competitor pretty much wherever he goes, be it with ROH, PWG or in NJPW, where he even had a recent stint with the IWGP NEVER Openweight title, albeit a short one.
Cobb’s wrestling style and unreal athletic ability creates a number of interesting matchups this summer, and pretty much all of them will have a different flavor, too. Cobb paired with Naito, Shingo Takagi, Tomohiro Ishii or Jon Moxley are dream matches for any fan of excellent wrestling, and all on paper have a different feel to them just at a glance. Cobb’s ability to adapt to other styles is remarkable and will make for a unique G1 run, so be sure not to sleep on him this summer.