At yesterday's Dominion show, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the thirty-two participants that will take part in the 33rd G1 Climax tournament.
The tourney will run between July 15th to August 13th with the winner claiming a title shot against whoever is holding the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on January 4th 2024.
BetOnline has created an outright market with three joint-favourites in Will Ospreay, David Finlay and Zack Sabre Jr. Each wrestler is +200.
Following those names is last year's winner - Kazuchika Okada - and the current IWGP Heavyweight champ, SANADA, in joint-second at +300 apiece.
Then it's Tetsuya Naito at +400 continuing the list right through to the regular tournament joker - Toru Yano - who's +5,000.
Upon seeing the market, the first thing that stood out to me were the top three because they're all non-Japanese in a tournament that has only been won by one gaijin in the thirty-two G1s previous to the upcoming edition.
However, my mind raced immediately to the closing moments of last year's final.,
There was a focus on the losing finalist - Will Ospreay - coming up short against Okada. I made a mental note to remember that scene in case NJPW plans to write a redemption story this year.
Still - the fact that gaijins don't come out of these tournaments as winners- has made me look around other names in the running just in case last year's prediction turns out to be poor guesswork.
With SANADA as the current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, I looked at the odds for his former Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemates - Tetsuya Naito (+400) and Shingo Takagi (+600) - because the champ has already defended the strap against other LIJ members in Hiromu Takashi (May 3rd) and the new addition to the faction - Yota Tsuji (June 4th).
Could more former faction friends become title challenging foes as 2023 turns into 2024?
The entire list of entrants, along with their odds, can be viewed in the table below.
The thirty-two names will be allotted spots in one of four divisions. The eight wrestlers in each block will compete in the round-robin portion of the tournament. The winners of each block will then compete in the semi-finals. The A/B Block finalist will then wrestle the C/D Block finalist to crown this year's victor.
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