Two weekends ago, pro wrestling’s biggest and most critically-acclaimed tournament, the G1 Climax, kicked off.  The G1 is New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual summer tournament that decides who will headline Wrestle Kingdom in January.  The pool is comprised of twenty of NJPW’s best which usually leads to the most exciting matches you’ll see all year.  You can watch them by signing up over at njpwworld.com.  I assure you it’s worth the subscription.

I’ll give you a quick run-down if you are new to the product.  Wrestle Kingdom is their biggest show of the year so this is like the Royal Rumble except it lasts a month.  The talent pool is divided into two separate blocks of 10 competitors each.  It’s a round robin style tournament so each wrestler will have at least 9 matches (one match against every man in their block).  A win is 2 points, a loss is 0 points, and each man is awarded 1 point in the event of a 30 minute time-limit draw.  The competitor with the most points in the A Block and B Block will face each other on August 12 to determine the winner.  If you want the an in-depth analysis of every night of G1 action, check out the articles by The Chairshot’s Andrew Balaz and Mathew Sarpraicone.

I understand that it’s A LOT of wrestling.  The most hardcore fans will struggle to find time for even half the matches.  The purpose of this guide is to give you the most efficient viewing experience possible.  Every week of the tournament I’ll be listing the matches I think every fan would enjoy.  I’ve decided to categorize them by Storytelling Matches, Character Matches, and Quality Matches.  Storytelling matches are matches that incorporate a current or past angle into a match, Character matches will help you become invested in certain wrestlers, and Quality matches are all of the above.  These are essentially the best the product can give you, in my opinion.  This first part will cover Night 1 (7/14) through Night 8 (7/26).

Storytelling Matches

• Hangman Page v. Bad Luck Fale (N1, 7/14)
• Jay White v. Kazuchika Okada (N1, 7/14)
• Kazuchika Okada v. Bad Luck Fale (N3, 7/16)
• Jay White v. Hiroshi Tanahashi (N3, 7/16)
• Hirooki Goto v. Kenny Omega (N4, 7/19)
• Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Bad Luck Fale  (N5, 7/20)
• Tama Tonga v. Kenny Omega (N6, 7/21)
• Tama Tonga v. Tetsuya Naito (N8, 7/26)
• Juice Robinson v. Kenny Omega (N8, 7/26)

You may notice the frequency of the Bullet Club on this list.  If you are unaware, that’s because the BC underwent a transformation in San Francisco when the Tongan sect of the faction turned on the rest of the group, forming The Firing Squad.  Since most of the BC was bordering as a babyface faction in recent memory, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Bad Luck Fale decided to split and go back to their roots.  They’ve essentially hijacked the G1 tournament.  They’ll make a statement at all costs, especially against their former Bullet Club stablemates.  I honestly got chills when Hangman was walking down the aisle to confront Fale for the first time.  Speaking of making a statement, Tama made sure to take a shot at Roman Reigns and their Twitter beef before his match against Naito which was fantastic.  Something similar is happening in CHAOS.  When Jay White joined as the only heel in the faction back in January, he promised that he would face Okada one day and claim CHAOS as his own.  After his quest for dominance, he met Tanahashi in a Wrestle Kingdom rematch.  To top it off, we got to see a rematch of the 2016 G1 Finals when Kenny Omega and Hirooki Goto squared off as two different men this time around.  Most recently, Kenny and Juice had their rematch of last year’s meeting where Juice shocked the world.  This time, both men had lingering injuries to worry about.

Character Matches

• Minoru Suzuki v. Hiroshi Tanahashi (N1, 7/14)
• Toru Yano v. Tomohiro Ishii (N2, 7/15)
• Minoru Suzuki v. YOSHI-HASHI (N5, 7/20)
• Toru Yano v. Kota Ibushi (N6, 7/21)
• Juice Robinson v. Tetsuya Naito (N6, 7/21)
• YOSHI-HASHI v. Michael Elgin (N7, 7/22)
• Bad Luck Fale v. EVIL (N7, 7/22)

Toru Yano is going to be plastered all over my watch guides.  Few leave me more entertained when he steps between the ropes.  He’s the type of comedic relief perfect for these long tournaments when every match needs a change of pace.  Many of you know Suzuki is the ultimate sadist so his matches against fan favorite Tanahashi, and ultimate underdog, Yoshi-Hashi were the perfect complements to his style.  Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero were really emphasizing Yoshi-Hashi’s lack of success in his bout with Elgin so it was really easy to get invested and root for him in that one.  Juice and Naito were originally going to be on my list of quality matches but the heel work and fighting spirit displayed in the match was too good to overlook.  EVIL brought Bad Luck Fale and the rest of the Bullet Club over to this part of the watch list because he was doing a really good job at handling the numbers disadvantage.  LIJ are technically supposed to be heels most of the time but it was refreshing to see EVIL work as the clear babyface in his matchup against Fale.

Quality Matches

• Zack Sabre Jr. v. Kota Ibushi (N2, 7/15)
• Tetsuta Naito v. Kenny Omega (N2, 7/15)
• Zack Sabre Jr. v. Toru Yano (N4, 7/19)
• Kota Ibushi v. Juice Robinson (N4, 7/19)
• Zack Sabre Jr. v. SANADA (N6, 7/21)
• Hirooki Goto v. Tomohiro Ishii (N6, 7/21)
• SANADA v. Kota Ibushi (N8, 7/26)

Zack Sabre Jr. keeps coming up for a reason.  ZSJ is truly at the top of his game.  He has a very distinct in-ring style yet makes it new and interesting with every one of his opponents.  He would have been a sneaky favorite of mine to make a run if he didn’t win the NJ Cup earlier this year.  Kota and Juice also continue to stand out in each of their matches just as I expected.  We were treated to the rematch of last year’s finals early as Kenny and Naito put together a hot one.  Both guys are accustomed to lengthy main event style matches but the 30 minute limit forced them to go all-out from the get-go.  Goto vs. Ishii and Sanada vs. Kota Ibushi were probably my two favorite matches of the tournament so far.  Those are just four guys that are masters in the art of wrestling and always know how to create a main-event level match.

Standings As of 7/26

A Block

1. Jay White (6 points)
2. Hiroshi Tanahashi (6 points)
3. EVIL (6 points)
4. Kazuchika Okada (4 points)
5. Togi Makabe (4 points)
6. Michael Elgin (4 points)
7. Minoru Suzuki (4 points)
8. Hangman Page (2 points)
9. Bad Luck Fale (2 points)
10. YOSHI-HASHI (2 points)

B Block

1. Kenny Omega (8 points)
2. Tetsuya Naito (6 points)
3. SANADA (6 points)
4. Kota Ibushi (4 points)
5. Zack Sabre Jr. (4 points)
6. Tomohiro Ishii (4 points)
7. Hirooki Goto (4 points)
8. Tama Tonga (2 points)
9. Toru Yano (2 points)
10. Juice Robinson (0 points)

What’s great about the G1 is that even the guys staring down 2 points or less have still put together great matches.  A lot of them have a decent shot to get on a roll too.  For example, I didn’t expect Okada, Suzuki, Fale, and Tama to be stuck at 2 points after three matches.  I also don’t think many expected Jay White to get off to a 3-0 start.  Juice Robinson is the US Heavyweight Champion and has started 0-4 so it looks like they’re going to continue the rhetoric that he’s a “streaky” fighter.  Tama and Fale have taken multiple DQ losses which are rare so I see them shaking things up and coming back strong, especially since they’re at the center of the freshest storyline.  I understand that their main objective is to make a statement but I think the best way to do that is to win against the best competition.  It’s working for Jay White so far.  Okada is poised to go on a furious tear.  He’s the clear favorite in his block and already got some of his toughest tasks out of the way.

It was announced this week that Kenny Omega has been wrestling with a fractured heel.  He confirmed it in this week’s episode of Being the Elite and said he plans to finish the tournament regardless.  I watched his match against Juice Robinson with this in mind and it was incredible how much pressure he continued to put on it.  Omega said it hurts to walk but I never would have guessed by watching that match.  If the pain becomes unbearable, it’ll be interesting to see what NJPW decides to do moving forward.  Pulling him from the tournament or compensating by building a story around the injury are the first things that come to mind.  Removing him from the tournament while he’s still undefeated would protect him in more ways than one.

I also wanted to mention how much I’ve loved the commentary team of Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero.  You can tell they have paragraphs of notes for each match.  They’ve kept a tab of the total match time for each competitor so they can reference their long-term durability for the rest of the G1.  They also like to detail all the significant past meetings of the men in each match, especially if they were G1 matches.  During Hiroshi Tanahashi’s match against Hangman Page, they explained that Tana has a poor record against first-time G1 opponents.  Way back on Night 1 Kevin Kelly made a comment about how the ring sounded different after a slam so a board might have gotten knocked loose from a suplex earlier in the match.  He elaborated that this was significant because it could make any future contact with the mat potentially more dangerous.  These are things I never would have thought about.  It’s amazing what a little more insight can do to elevate the prestige of the tournament as a whole.