A pair of NJPW’s most popular veterans won’t be taking part in this year’s G1 Climax.
NJPW is holding a qualifier tournament to decide the final A Block participant and final B Block participant for the G1. On Wednesday, the semifinals were held at Korakuen Hall. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii were among those eliminated from contention.
YOSHI-HASHI defeated Ishii and Callum Newman defeated KENTA in the A Block semifinals. The B Block semifinals saw Boltin Oleg defeat Tanahashi and Taichi defeat TJP.
The qualifier tournament finals are taking place this Friday (July 5). It will be YOSHI-HASHI vs. Newman for the last A Block spot and Oleg vs. Taichi for the last B Block spot.
This will be the first G1 without Tanahashi since 2001 and the first G1 without Ishii since 2012. In addition to still competing in the ring, Tanahashi was named president of NJPW last December.
The G1 begins on July 20 and runs through August 18. Here’s the list of competitors for both blocks:
A Block:
- Tetsuya Naito
- Shota Umino
- Shingo Takagi
- SANADA
- Great-O-Khan
- Zack Sabre Jr.
- Gabe Kidd
- EVIL
- Jake Lee
- YOSHI-HASHI or Callum Newman
B Block:
- Hirooki Goto
- El Phantasmo
- Yota Tsuji
- Yuya Uemura
- Jeff Cobb
- Henare
- David Finlay
- Ren Narita
- Konosuke Takeshita
- Boltin Oleg or Taichi
