Misplaced Pages

#775224

56-587: The event's name refers to the annual G1 Climax tournament as these shows also served as a prelude to the 2017 G1 Climax . The event is notable for the crowning of the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion . In December 2016, Pro Wrestling Insider reported that New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) was planning to hold the first two nights of the 2017 G1 Climax in the United States with New England –based wrestling personality George Carroll and wrestler Rocky Romero reportedly doing ground work for

112-494: A single-elimination tournament , it is usually – and currently – held as a round-robin , with the most victorious wrestlers in each pool wrestling in a short tournament to decide that year's winner. Since 2012, the winner of the tournament earns the right to challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at the following January's Wrestle Kingdom show. In its current format,

168-414: A double countout or double disqualification would result in zero points for both competitors. This was a double countout, and so neither Chono nor Nakamura received any points. The 2005 G1 Climax was another 16-man round-robin tournament, held from August 4 to August 14. It returned to the format of 2003, eliminating the "quarterfinals" seen in 2004, and simply bringing each block's top two scorers into

224-627: A final match. Following the event, it was noted that there were issues with AXS TV's production and commentary. Tama Tonga commented on the announcing, stating that it "sucked", adding that Kevin Kelly , the regular English announcer on NJPW World who did not announce the shows, "at least [...] knows the storylines and our f#cking names". Kenny Omega also voiced his support for Kelly and his broadcast partner Don Callis . Dave Meltzer reported that Kelly and Callis were in Long Beach and wanted to announce

280-462: A four-man mini-tournament to decide the winner. Masahiro Chono advanced out of his block despite being tied with Ric Flair because of his faster match winning time over Shiro Koshinaka. The 1996 G1 Climax was held from August 2 to August 6, 1996, and was a round-robin tournament featuring two blocks of five. Junji Hirata suffered an injury during his match with Kensuke Sasaki , which caused him to forfeit his remaining matches. The 1997 G1 Climax

336-437: A four-man tournament to decide that year's winner; it was held from August 7 to August 13. Also note that the points system was modified from the original: 1 point for a victory, and zero points for a draw or loss. Additionally, head-to-head tiebreakers did not decide numerical ties; the winners of Block A and Block C were decided by tiebreaker matches, even though there was a clear winner in the two participants' league match. This

392-620: A subsidiary and running extended tours in the United States with California as the base, while also establishing a dojo for training Americans in Los Angeles , run by Rocky Romero. The full-scale running of the American market was set to launch in 2018. According to NJPW owner Takaaki Kidani , the plan was a direct response to WWE taking four wrestlers, including AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura , from NJPW in January 2016. Tickets for

448-516: A tournament first, the exact tie for first place in Block A between Togi Makabe and Hiroshi Tanahashi was decided by a coin toss. The 2010 version of the G1 Climax tournament was announced in late May 2010 and was the 20th anniversary of the G1 Climax tournament. The tournament took place over eight shows between August 6 and August 15, 2010. Naomichi Marufuji was scheduled to participate in

504-795: The 2016 G1 Climax . The second night would see Hiroshi Tanahashi defend the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Billy Gunn. Gunn had arrived in NJPW during the 2016 World Tag League as part of Yoshitatsu 's Hunter Club stable. In May 2017, Yoshitatsu relayed a message from Gunn to Tanahashi, requesting a match between the two. After capturing the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tetsuya Naito at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, Tanahashi immediately nominated Gunn as his first challenger. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship would be defended during

560-629: The 2020 G1 Climax took place in October due to the Summer Olympics originally intended to be held in Tokyo when the tournament is usually held, making this the first time the tournament took place in the Autumn. The longest match in tournament history is Kota Ibushi vs. Sanada in the 2020 finals at 35 minutes and 12 seconds. The longest match with a decisive winner in the block stages of

616-553: The G1 horse race. Though considered a continuation of the previous tournaments, officially NJPW does not recognize the earlier tournaments as part of the G1 Climax lineage. The first G1 was held from August 7 to August 11, 1991, at Tokyo's Ryōgoku Kokugikan . The winner of the tournament, assuming they are not already the champion, has traditionally earned a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Since 2012,

SECTION 10

#1732783113776

672-559: The New Japan Cup , the G1 Climax features the then-reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion as one of the participants, except in 1992 , 2001 , 2004 and 2008 , when then-champions Riki Choshu (in 1992), Kazuyuki Fujita (in 2001 and 2004), and Keiji Mutoh (in 2008), respectively, did not compete in the tournament. Often being labeled as a favorite to win the tournament, the IWGP Heavyweight Champion has reached

728-600: The 1983 winner, Hulk Hogan , was awarded a championship belt , this is not the beginning of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship , but its early version that was defended annually against the winner of the IWGP League of the year. The current IWGP Heavyweight Championship arrived only in 1987, replacing the old version. In 1989, there was a World Cup Tournament ( ワールドカップ争奪リーグ戦 , Wārudokappu sōdatsu rīgu-sen ) , which included wrestlers from

784-476: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship by wrestling Cody's Bullet Club stablemate Kenny Omega to a 60-minute time limit draw, Cody repeated the challenge, which was accepted by Okada. Cody debuted for NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2017, and went undefeated in his three singles matches in the promotion prior to the Long Beach show. Okada, while admitting he still did not know Cody or what he

840-510: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Overall, Antonio Inoki holds the record for most tournament wins with ten, while Masahiro Chono with his five wins holds the record for most tournament wins under its G1 Climax name. Hiroyoshi Tenzan has taken part in the G1 Climax tournament a record 21 times. The opening night of the 2019 G1 Climax took place in Dallas, Texas, marking the first time the opening night took place outside Japan. The finals for

896-615: The IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament. The first match would take place between ROH wrestlers Hangman Page and Jay Lethal, who were the first two wrestlers to show interest in being part of the tournament, when the title was announced. The second match would see Juice Robinson take on Zack Sabre Jr. The two met as part of a NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship gauntlet match at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall. After Robinson had eliminated Sabre's Suzuki-gun team from

952-702: The Japanese against the Internationals. The top four finishers from both groups advanced to a second round of round-robin competition. The 1975 World League ran from April 4 to May 16, 1975. The tournament featured 16 wrestlers, but the Locals versus Internationals format was abolished. The top five finishers advanced to a knockout round, with the top finisher receiving a bye to the final. The 1976 World League ran from April 2 to May 11, 1976. The tournament featured 14 wrestlers. The top finisher advanced to

1008-556: The Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion. It was also announced that both the IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships would be defended during the weekend in addition to the previously announced titles. The two shows would air live through NJPW's internet streaming site, NJPW World , with English commentary. However, the first night would only air live outside of

1064-539: The United States, where both nights air on the AXS TV network; the first night live and the second night on tape delay on July 7. The English commentary for the shows would be provided by Jim Ross and Josh Barnett . On June 21, the Canadian Fight Network announced that it would also air the first night live. On June 12, NJPW announced the full card for the first night as well as a partial card for

1120-754: The World (Big) League tournament from the old Japanese Wrestling Association held between 1959 and 1972); the MSG League ( MSGシリーズ , MSG shirīzu ) (1978–1982); the IWGP League ( IWGPリーグ戦 , IWGP rīgu-sen ) (1983–1988), "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix (インターナショナル・レスリング・グラン・プリ, intānashonaru resuringu guran puri ). Most of these tournaments were dominated by NJPW's founding top star Antonio Inoki . Although

1176-550: The dates in Long Beach, California . On January 4, 2017, during Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome , NJPW officially announced the shows for July 1 and 2, 2017, taking place at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center . These shows, however, would not be part of the G1 Climax, but would instead serve as a prelude to the tournament, which would take place between July 17 and August 13. The shows would mark

SECTION 20

#1732783113776

1232-668: The event a big success, while announcing plans to tour the United States in March or April 2018 at the latest. He also stated that NJPW was going to open an office in Los Angeles before the end of 2017, with a dojo to be opened at the start of 2018. On November 5, 2017, NJPW announced Strong Style Evolved , the follow-up event to G1 Special in USA, which took place on March 25, 2018, at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. It

1288-404: The final five times, the first one being in 1995 when Keiji Mutoh won the tournament. Mutoh would repeat this feat again in 1999 , but would lose the final to Manabu Nakanishi . Other then-reigning champions to reach the final include Kensuke Sasaki in 2000 , Kazuyuki Fujita in 2005 and Yuji Nagata in 2007 . Mutoh and Sasaki are the only two wrestlers to have won the G1 Climax while holding

1344-435: The final four. The 2006 G1 Climax was a 10-man round-robin tournament held from August 6 to August 13. The 2007 G1 Climax, featuring twelve men in two blocks, was held from August 5 to August 12. The 2008 G1 Climax, featuring fourteen men in two blocks, was held from August 9 to August 17 over seven shows. The 2009 G1 Climax, featuring fourteen men in two blocks, was held from August 7 to August 16 over eight shows. In

1400-494: The final four. Jyushin Thunder Liger and Minoru Tanaka were the junior heavyweight invitees. The 2002 G1 Climax was identical in structure to the previous year's, and was held from August 3 to August 11. The 2003 G1 Climax was another 12-man round-robin tournament, held from August 10 to August 17. Jun Akiyama from Pro Wrestling Noah , along with freelancer Yoshihiro Takayama were invitees. The 2004 G1 Climax

1456-841: The final match of the tournament, to face the winner of a three-wrestler round-robin semifinal round. The 1977 World League ran from April 21 to May 30, 1977. The tournament featured 11 wrestlers. The 1978 MSG League ran from April 21 to May 30, 1978. The tournament featured nine wrestlers. The 1979 MSG League ran from April 27 to June 7, 1979. The tournament featured 10 wrestlers. The 1980 MSG League ran from April 25 to June 5, 1980. The tournament featured 10 wrestlers. The 1981 MSG League ran from May 8 to June 4, 1981. The tournament featured 11 wrestlers. The 1982 MSG League ran from March 4 to April 1, 1982. The tournament featured 14 wrestlers. The 1983 International Wrestling Grand Prix Championship League ran from May 6 to June 2, 1983. The tournament featured 10 wrestlers. The winner

1512-585: The final, with the winner becoming the first IWGP Heavyweight Champion . Tatsumi Fujinami missed the tournament due to an injury he suffered on the IWGP Champion Series tour, but acted as a commentator for the final match. The 1988 International Wrestling Grand Prix ran from July 15 to July 29, 1988. The tournament featured five wrestlers in a single block, with the winner becoming the number one contender to IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami for August 8. The 1989 World Cup Tournament

1568-600: The first time NJPW presented shows in the United States independently, as opposed to partnering with an American promotion. NJPW had previously partnered with Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) for the NJPW Invasion Tour 2011 and since 2014 they have been partnered with Ring of Honor (ROH), co-producing shows annually in North America. After announcing the Long Beach shows, NJPW went public with their plan of an American expansion, which included establishing

1624-441: The match, Sabre attacked Robinson and locked him in a submission hold. In the third match, Tetsuya Naito would take on Tomohiro Ishii in a rematch from Wrestling Dontaku 2016 , where Naito successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Ishii. Naito had previously criticized the idea of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, claiming that it would hurt the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, which he held at

1680-415: The now retired IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt was given to G1 winner Kazuchika Okada instead of a briefcase. In 2015 , the tournament format was changed with NJPW reducing the number of G1 Climax matches per show, giving the participating wrestlers more time to rest between matches. This increased the tournament's length to four weeks. In 2016, Kenny Omega became the first non-Japanese wrestler to win

1736-495: The quarterfinals, due to a shoulder injury suffered by his scheduled opponent Hiroshi Hase on August 3. The 1993 G1 Climax was once again a 16-man single-elimination tournament, held from August 3 to August 7, 1993. NJPW invited several non-NJPW wrestlers to participate in the 1993 tournament, including Hiromichi Fuyuki , Ashura Hara , Takashi Ishikawa and The Great Kabuki from WAR , and Yoshiaki Fujiwara from Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi . The 1994 G1 Climax returned to

G1 Special in USA - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-424: The round-robin format, this time with two blocks of six. It was held from August 3 to August 7, 1994. Guest natives included Yoshiaki Fujiwara from Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi and Yoshiaki Yatsu from Social Progress Wrestling Federation (SPWF). The 1995 G1 Climax was another eight-man round-robin tournament held August 11 to August 15, with the addition that the top two scorers from each block would advance to

1848-414: The scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. The first night would be headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Cody. The match was set up on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall , where Cody, after defeating Michael Elgin , challenged Okada. After the main event of the show, where Okada had successfully defended

1904-399: The second night with champions The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) taking on Roppongi Vice ( Beretta and Rocky Romero) in another rematch from Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, where The Young Bucks captured the title from Roppongi Vice. The second night would also feature the conclusion of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament with two semifinal matches and

1960-618: The second night. The full card for night two was revealed after the conclusion of night one. The release of the cards brought with them some negative reactions, mostly centered around American wrestlers Cody and Billy Gunn receiving shots at the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships, respectively. G1 Special in USA featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines . Wrestlers portrayed villains , heroes , or less distinguishable characters in

2016-602: The second title match of the first night, Guerrillas of Destiny ( Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa ) were set to defend the IWGP Tag Team Championship against War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe). This would be a rematch from Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, where the Guerrillas of Destiny became the new champions through cheating after Loa hit Rowe with a steel chair behind the referee's back. The first night would also feature all four first round matches in

2072-612: The shows "really bad", but AXS TV made the call to use their regular announce team of Jim Ross and Josh Barnett, adding that there was "a lot of infighting". Larry Csonka in his review of the first night for 411Mania , stated that Ross and Barnett "do a great job on the weekly, in studio and post produced calls for NJPW on AXS TV", but felt that the announcing on the live show was "really rough". Csonka also noted other production issues, including cameras missing important shots, bumper music playing over theme music and ring announcers starting and stopping their announcements. Takaaki Kidani dubbed

2128-427: The shows as well as meet-and-greets were put on sale on April 1 and sold out within hours, despite NJPW not having announced any matches for the two shows. Tickets were purchased in 37 states, including Alaska and Hawaii . Three days later, NJPW announced the first group of wrestlers taking part in the event; Kazuchika Okada , Tetsuya Naito , Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenny Omega . In May, NJPW put additional seats for

2184-606: The shows on sale, which were also quickly sold out. NJPW later claimed that the original tickets sold out in two hours and the additional tickets in two minutes. On May 12, during the third night of the NJPW and ROH co-produced War of the Worlds tour in New York City , it was announced that NJPW would hold a tournament to crown the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion during the G1 Special in USA weekend. It

2240-413: The then- Soviet Union . No tournament was held in 1990. With Inoki's dominance over NJPW gone, the promotion established the G1 Climax tournament in 1991 as a platform to showcase the company's top heavyweights and have them compete in round-robin matches where the winners of the two divisions would then square off in the tournament final. NJPW's then president Seiji Sakaguchi named the tournament after

2296-676: The time. Naito had even brought up the idea of retiring the Intercontinental Championship prior to losing it and now stated that upon winning the tournament, he was going to immediately retire the United States Heavyweight Championship and throw the title belt in the garbage. In the final first round match Kenny Omega was set to take on Michael Elgin. Elgin went into the match holding two straight victories over Omega with their most recent match against each other having taken place during

G1 Special in USA - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-513: The tournament is Sanada vs. Kazuchika Okada in the 2019 tournament at 29 minutes and 47 seconds, 13 seconds shy of the 30-minute time limit. Conversely, the shortest match is Hirooki Goto vs. Toru Yano in the 2020 tournament at just 18 seconds. The 1974 World League ran from April 5 to May 8, 1974 and has no relation to the G1 Climax which began in 1991. The tournament began with 16 wrestlers, eight Japanese and eight Internationals, placed into groups accordingly. All first round matches featured

2408-501: The tournament lasts four weeks. The winner of each pool is determined by a points system; two points for a victory, one point for a draw, and zero points for a loss or no contest. Under the current format, double decisions (such as double count-outs or double disqualifications) are treated as draws. NJPW had an annual tournament since 1974 under various names: the World League ( ワールドリーグ戦 , Wārudorīgu-sen ) (1974–1977, based on

2464-536: The tournament, but was forced to pull out after suffering an arm injury on July 25. On August 5, NJPW announced that Prince Devitt would replace Marufuji in the tournament. With his victory, freelancer Satoshi Kojima became the third man to have won both the G1 Climax and All Japan Pro Wrestling 's Champion Carnival . NJPW World Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

2520-599: The tournament. The G1 Climax tournament has often been used as a platform for NJPW to push their rising stars. Wins by young up-and-comers over Japanese legends would usually take their respective careers to new heights. The first tournament was specifically created to make stars out of Keiji Mutoh , Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto , three NJPW wrestlers who had just returned to the promotion from their overseas learning excursions. Past winners include Mutoh, Chono, Hashimoto, Yuji Nagata , Hiroshi Tanahashi , and others who have gone on to become wrestling superstars. Unlike

2576-576: The winner has earned the " Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate ", a contract for a title shot at NJPW's largest event, Wrestle Kingdom in Tokyo Dome , held annually on January 4. Much like WWE 's Money in the Bank contract, the certificate is kept in a briefcase that the wrestler then has to defend until the end of the year. Since its inception, the contract has only changed hands one time, on November 7, 2020, at Power Struggle when Jay White defeated Kota Ibushi . In 2021,

2632-429: Was a 12-man round-robin tournament, held from August 10 to August 15. This was the first of two years (with 2000) where head-to-head tiebreakers did not decide numerical ties; the winner of Block A was decided by tiebreaker matches, even when there was a clear winner in the two participants' league match. The 2000 G1 Climax was a round-robin tournament, featuring four blocks of five, with each block champion advancing to

2688-431: Was a 14-man single-elimination tournament, with Kensuke Sasaki and Buff Bagwell receiving byes to the quarterfinals. The tournament was held from August 1 to August 3. The 1998 G1 Climax was another 16-man single-elimination tournament, held between July 31 and August 2. Genichiro Tenryu , who had separated from his own WAR promotion to become a freelancer since early in the year, was invited. The 1999 G1 Climax

2744-487: Was a two-block, sixteen-man tournament held from August 7 to August 15. As well as the increased number of participants, it introduced a format in which the second and third runners-up from each block would advance to a four-man tournament, the two finalists of which would advance to a second four-man tournament also featuring each block winner; the eventual winner of this tournament would win the G1 Climax. Also, it would seem that, for this particular year, matches which ended in

2800-532: Was also announced that both the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships would be defended during the weekend. On May 18, NJPW held a press conference in Los Angeles to announce further details for the shows. This included the addition of 36 wrestlers to the shows, including Jay Lethal , The Briscoes ( Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe ) and War Machine ( Hanson and Raymond Rowe ) from ROH and Dragon Lee , Titán and Volador Jr. from

2856-730: Was at that show that NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced there would be another G1 Special event taking place on July 7, 2018, in the San Francisco Bay Area at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California . G1 Climax The G1 (Grade One) Climax ( G1（グレードワン）クライマックス , Gurēdo Wan Kuraimakkusu ) is a professional wrestling tournament held each August by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. Though it has sometimes been held as

SECTION 50

#1732783113776

2912-464: Was awarded a championship belt (the original IWGP Heavyweight Championship ) defended annually against the winner of the IWGP League of the year). The 1984 International Wrestling Grand Prix Champion League ran from May 11 to June 14, 1984. The tournament featured 12 wrestlers, and was the first time that the tournament featured no sort of final round. The IWGP Champion Series ran from May 10 to June 15, 1985. The tournament featured 13 wrestlers, and

2968-515: Was capable of, accepted the challenge due to Cody being an American and his popularity in the United States. On June 23, Cody captured the ROH World Championship , turning the main event into a rare battle of world champions from two major promotions. The last champion versus champion match of this type took place in 2005 between IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima . In

3024-455: Was held from November 24 to December 7, 1989. The tournament featured 20 wrestlers in four blocks of five each. The inaugural G1 Climax was a round-robin tournament consisting of two four-man blocks, and running from August 7 to August 11, 1991. The 1992 G1 Climax was a 16-man single-elimination tournament , and was also for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship . It ran from August 6 to August 12, 1992. Terry Taylor advanced to

3080-613: Was single-elimination. This was the first time the tournament did not feature a points system. The 1986 International Wrestling Grand Prix ran from May 16 to June 19, 1986. The tournament featured the return of the points system, with 14 wrestlers in two blocks of seven each. The top two from each block advanced to a knockout stage. The winner won the vacated IWGP Heavyweight Championship (original version) . The 1987 International Wrestling Grand Prix ran from May 11 to June 12, 1987. The tournament featured 14 wrestlers in two blocks of seven each. The top finishers from each block advanced to

3136-445: Was the first time that two recognized junior heavyweights ; IWGP titleholder Tatsuhito Takaiwa and previous champion Jyushin Thunder Liger , were invited to compete in the heavyweight tournament. The 2001 G1 Climax was a two-block, twelve-man round-robin tournament held from August 4 to August 12. It returned to the original method of scoring, and also reintroduced the 1995 G1 's format of each block's top two scorers advancing to

#775224