Kambi's G1 Climax 31 Match Markets For Nights 1 And 2 Published Plus More

Match markets, for the opening two nights of this year's New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax tournament, have been published by the oddsmakers from Kambi.

All ten matches have been priced up with some attractive prices for underdogs when you consider that there have been upsets on opening nights in the history of the tourney. Especially recent history.

Below are the prices for the bouts for both nights.

Night 1

Kota Ibushi 2/13

Yujiro Takahashi 7/2

Great-O-Khan 7/20

Tanga Loa 19/10

KENTA 11/25

Toru Yano 8/5

Tetsuya Naito 1/3

Zack Sabre Jr 2/1

Shingo Takagi 1/2

Tomohiro Ishii 7/5

Night 2

EVIL 1/4

Yoshi-Hashi 5/2

Jeff Cobb 2/13

Chase Owens 7/2

SANADA 1/5

Tama Tonga 3/1

Taichi 11/25

Hirooki Goto 8/5

Kazuchika Okada 13/25

Hiroshi Tanahashi 13/10

The underdogs I've gambled on are:

Zack Sabre Jr. to beat Naito -with Naito as the favourite to win A Block, he can afford to stumble in the early stage. The scenario, of ZSJ scoring an opening match upset against Naito, has been done in the past, though.

Tomohiro Ishii to beat Shingo Takagi - a win for Ishii could set up a challenger for Takagi's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship sometime between October and the end of this year. Another thing a win for Ishii would do is have the champion starting out the tournament with a mountain to climb before making it to the final. More on that later.

Yoshi-Hashi over EVIL - I'm not completely sure whether I like this option or not, but felt that 5/2 was worth a small punt. One of Hashi's two wins from last year was on the opening night against SANADA. So, he has played opening night spoiler before.

Tama Tonga over SANADA - I placed an even lower stake bet on this one. At 3/1, I thought Tonga was worth a shout because of how SANADA lost early bouts last year, but managed to come back and make it to the final. 

In the most recent post in which I wrote about the G1 Outright markets, I noted that I had doubts about my early pick - SANADA. The reason why I have trepidations about his chance of winning the tournament is because of who he is scheduled to face in the final night of B Block's matches. 

A SANADA versus EVIL bout was done in 2020. It saw SANADA get the win - and the two points - to send him to the top of the Block. 

It feels somewhat repetitive to do that scenario again. I am entertaining the thought that EVIL could spoil his former Los Igobernables de Japon stablemate's chance of a second consecutive G1 final.

While looking through discussions about the matches, I came across a suggestion that Shingo Takagi should win the tournament, It made me think about it and a lot of things clicked.

Takagi won the title in a decider against Kazuchika Okada after the previous champion - Will Ospreay - had to relinquish it due to injury. 

If Takagi were to win the tournament, he'll get to choose his opponent for Wrestle Kingdom. It seems like an ideal opportunity to have Takagi pick Will Ospreay for January to put things back on track: either Ospreay regains the strap or Takagi beats the person who never lost the title in the ring.

Ospreay has been declaring himself the true champion since returning from his injury, so a Shingo Takagi versus Will Ospreay match is definitely going to happen sooner or later. It just seems so perfect to do it with Takagi winning the G1 and declaring Ospreay as his challenger for January 4th.

In Block A winner betting, Takagi has remained a 7/4 second-favourite while KENTA (6/1 into 5/1) and Tomohiro Ishii (20/1 to 12/1) have had their prices shortened.

Takagi's price to be the outright winner of the G1 is also unchanged from when it was first made available. He's in joint-third along with Kazuchika Okada at 7/2.

For what it's worth, EVIL (10/1 into 7/1), KENTA (15/1 into 13/1), Hiroshi Tanahashi (25/1 into 20/1) and Ishii (33/1 into 25/1) have all declined.

As far as the Wrestle Kingdom market is concerned, Takagi remains a 5/2 favourite to leave the three-night event with the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Ospreay, who was previously a joint 5/2 favourite, with the current champ, has risen slightly to 3/1.

View Kambi's Pro Wrestling Markets