NJPW announces G1 Climax play-in schedule
At Korakuen Hall on June 23 and July 6, we’ll find out the final competitors for G1 Climax 36.
Most of the field for this year’s G1 tournament was confirmed over the weekend at NJPW Dominion, but four spots were left open to be determined through play-in matches. The first two of those will take place on June 23 with Taichi vs. Yuto-Ice and YOSHI-HASHI vs. Aaron Wolf. We’ll then have the full list of competitors known on July 6 when qualifying ends with El Phantasmo vs. Ryohei Oiwa and Yujiro Takahashi vs. OSKAR.
Yuto-Ice and OSKAR still have a chance to earn their way into the G1 despite their IWGP Tag Team Championship loss to Great-O-Khan & HENARE from Dominion. The stakes of that match were that G1 spots were on the line in addition to the titles.
Five months into his career after debuting at Wrestle Kingdom, Wolf is now a two-time NEVER Openweight Champion with his victory over Ren Narita at Dominion. This would be Wolf’s first-ever G1 if he manages to qualify.
The G1 begins in Chicago on July 11 and runs through the final night in Tokyo on August 16. Here is the announced list of competitors:
NJPW G1 Climax 36 participants —
A Block:
- Konosuke Takeshita
- Yota Tsuji
- SANADA
- Shingo Takagi
- Jake Lee
- Oleg Boltin
- Hirooki Goto
- Great-O-Khan
- Winner of Taichi vs. Yuto-Ice
- Winner of El Phantasmo vs. Ryohei Oiwa
B Block:
- Callum Newman
- Zack Sabre Jr.
- Shota Umino
- Yuya Uemura
- Ren Narita
- Drilla Moloney
- Gabe Kidd
- HENARE
- Winner of YOSHI-HASHI vs. Aaron Wolf
- Winner of Yujiro Takahashi vs. OSKAR
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