So we took a look at B Block and I learned a lot, had a lot of fun doing it, but it did take a hell of a lot longer than expected. I expect this to be a lot easier having heard of and seen most of this block wrestle previous to doing this run down, so I’ll have a much better idea of what I’m getting into.
Kazuchika Okada
The man who should really need no introduction, but for the purpose of this exercise, we will anyway. “The Rainmaker” is one of the most highly regarded of his generation, if not of all time. His is part of the current NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions, he is a 5-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, including the longest reign in history (his fourth reign) at 720 days and after that title was unified into the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, he would go on to hold that new title a further 2 times. He has also featured in the main event of 8 Wrestle Kingdom events (NJPW’s biggest show of the year) an incredible 8 times. For context, that is 8 main events out of 11 total Wrestle Kingdom shows since his return in 2012. Most importantly of all for this endeavour though, is that he has 4 G1 wins to his name, the second most in the history of the tournament behind Masahiro Chono who has 5 (third if you count Inoki as I detailed in my overview of the tournament). Further to that fact, Okada is also the current holder of the G1 trophy, winning not only last year’s tournament, but the year before that as well, he could make history this year by becoming the first person to win 3 straight G1 Climax tournaments.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Okada though, it almost always has in fairness, but there is one particular blunder I would like to mention because I find it absolutely mind-boggling and that would be Okada’s first foray into western wrestling. As is common practice in NJPW, early in his career, Okada was sent on a learning excursion to America, in February 2010, Okada would debut for TNA, where he would spend almost TWO YEARS. That is an awfully long time to get next to no opportunities to display your talent, he spent most of his tenure there wrestling in dark matches (matches in front of a live crowd but not recorded), wrestling on “Xplosion,” the web show TNA formerly produced, with his most notable TV being a Green Hornet inspired gimmick (and when I say that I actually mean that they saw he had an Asian sidekick called Kato) where he would wrestle under the name Okato, where he was revealed to be Samoa Joe’s sidekick that he had hired to secretly film a guy. So yeah, all of that’s really bad and pretty uncomfortable. So bad in fact that the company’s founder Jeff Jarrett called the whole situation “one of the company’s biggest missed opportunities ever” and I don’t even hate TNA, but there have been plenty of those, so that’s really saying something. To make matters worse, around 6 months after he departed TNA, he returned to NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom, defeated YOSHI-HASHI, called out then World Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi and then defeated him a month later to win the World Championship and the rest is history!
So massive unnecessary tangent over, but I love that silly story and surely Okada’s ridiculous set of accomplishments is enough to inform anyone that he isn’t to be taken lightly in this year’s tournament or at any point, honestly. I’m torn about how well I think Okada will do this year, however, part of me knows that he shouldn’t be ruled out and making history is something that just a part of who he is, so maybe he will go and win the bloody thing. Although, I just can’t kick this feeling that this year is going to someone else. Okada already has a couple of high profile losses to his name this year, he lost the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to SANADA at the Sakura Genesis event in April and lost in the main event of AEW x NJPW crossover event Forbidden door to Bryan Danielson, where he was forced to tap out for the first time in 8 Years! Couple that with the fact that there is so much new blood in this year’s tournament, I think there will be a few upsets and I think Okada is going to be involved in one of them.
YOSHI-HASHI
YOSHI-HASHI is a 15-year veteran, who has found late success in tag team wrestling. It seems as though he’s had to earn it the hard way too, YOSHI-HASHI failed the introductory test to join the New Japan dojo, where he wished to be trained, not once, but twice, but he was determined, he stick with it and finally passed on his third attempt, making his debut in July, 2008 against Tetsuya Naito. He had his excursion in Mexico-based CMLL, where he would be faced with a variety of different styles and most notably feuded with now AEW wrestler Rush, culminating in a hair vs hair match, which YOSHI-HASHI lost and was forced to shave his head. On his return to Japan, he saw some success, joining the popular faction “Chaos,” feuding with a number of New Japan’s other top factions, but he never seemed to prove a real championship contender, until recently…
2020 was a big year for YOSHI-HASHI, he finally won championship golf in the form of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships alongside Chaos stablemates Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto. Off the back of this title win, he and Goto would form the tag team “Bishamon” who would find continued success, winning the 2021 and 2022 World Tag League, the IWGP Tag Team Championships 3 times and the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships once.
However, YOSHI-HASHI’s G1 record is far less impressive, this will be his 7th appearance and he has never progressed to the knockout stage and never even totalled more than 6 points. Unfortunately, I think tag team wrestling is his niche and he’s very good at it, but it won’t help him here, so I don’t believe he will be shaking things up this year, I don’t expect him to progress last the blocks.
Taichi
Taichi is a well travelled, experienced competitor, he has competed in All Japan Pro Wrestling, New Japan and Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan, made an appearance in TNA’s World X Cup 2004 in the US and even a stint in CMLL in Mexico (where he also wagered and lost his hair, is this a really common thing or just a massive coincidence?).
As far as his NJPW tenure goes, he’s a former 2-time NEVER Openweight Champion, 2-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and a 3-time IWGP Tag Team Champion (with Zack Sabre Jr. Dubbed “Dangerous Tekkers,” very nice). He is also the current KOPW Champion, a title with a very unique concept where the title is reset at the beginning of each year and only the person holding the belt at the end of the year is recognised as champion, the “provisional” champion must defend the title in the hope that they can end the year with it so their reign can be officially recognised, a kind of hot potato title, I guess. So I suppose technically Taichi is actually only the “provisional” KOPW champion, very odd, but I’m a sucker of overcomplicated stipulations, so I’m into it.
Taichi has never progressed past the blocks in the G1, with his highest point total being 8 and honestly, I don’t see him beating that this year, I expect him to finish towards the bottom of the block.
KENTA
Kenta only joined NJPW in 2019, but he has had a hell of a career prior to that point, Starting out in All Japan Pro Wrestling and then Pro Wrestling Noah, KENTA became a highly decorated competitor, winning multiple titles, almost everything Noah had to offer honestly. During his time with Noah, KENTA performed for American promotion Ring of Honor multiple times, even defending Noah’s GHC Heavyweight Championship in an ROH ring. Whilst we’re on the topic of ROH, it is worth noting that KENTA is credited with pioneering manoeuvres such as the Go 2 Sleep and the Busaiku Knee, popularised by CM Punk and Bryan Danielson respectively, he is often spoken of as a very influential wrestler. KENTA had one more stop before he found himself in NJPW and that would be global powerhouse WWE, where he would begin in their developmental brand NXT before featuring very briefly on RAW and largely 205 Live up until his departure in 2019. He wrestled under the ring name Hideo Itami and things never really seemed to click for him in WWE, he has been quoted as saying his time in WWE were “the most frustrating days of his life.”
Though things would improve upon his arrival in NJPW he returned with his sights set on the 2019 iteration of this very tournament, defeating Kota Ibushi in the opening match. He would start the tournament very strong beating Hiroshi Tanahashi, Lance Archer and Evil, before suffering his first defeat to then IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada. KENTA’s fortunes would once again change with him going onto lose his next 4 matches off the back of his first loss, causing him to fail to progress beyond the blocks. KENTA did feature in a match on the day of that years finals, a 6-man tag match teaming with members of the Chaos faction to take on the villainous “gaijin” Bullet Club stable. In the closing moments of the match, KENTA would turn on his teammates, joining Bullet Club in the process, a move that felt right given the fact that fans saw KENTA as an outsider due to his strong ties to Pro Wrestling Noah. His connection to Bullet Club would prove fruitful, with him winning the NEVER Openweight Championship, IWGP United States Championship and the Strong Openweight Championship (which he lost to C Block competitor and AEW wrestler Eddie Kingston earlier this month).
KENTA has a respectable short history in the tournament, finishing with points totals of 8, 10, 12, 6 between 2019-2022 respectively. I expect him to be a strong contender in this year’s tournament, with an outside chance of progressing from the block, however, this is a strong block with two competitors I feel would be hard to displace from those top two spots (one of which I have already spoken about in Kazuchika Okada), so it is difficult for me to predict anything higher.
Great-O-Khan
Great O-Khan is a bit of a wildcard to me, his main success in New Japan has come in the form of 2 reigns as IWGP Tag Team Champion with United Empire stablemate Jeff Cobb, which on the surface is quite impressive but hardly ranks him among the elite. However, there is just omething about him I’m drawn to, I love his presentation, I love his style of wrestling and with the support of the United Empire stable I believe he could be in a much stronger position on the card that he currently holds.
O-Khan, has not seen a lot of singles success, a little in the UK (where he had his excursion as a young lion), he is a former Rev Pro British Heavyweight Champion, which he only lost earlier this month to Michael Oku. His two appearances in this tournament don’t prove to much to write home about though, with totals of 6 and 8 points in previous years.
Although I don’t expect him to do particularly well in this G1, something that doesn’t sit totally well with me is his placement in this block alongside United Empire leader Will Ospreay. I love United Empire, I would hate for them to break up, but I just have this gut feeling that something is going to go down here between Will and O-Khan, perhaps the one thing that could throw off the other competitor I believe is nailed on for a spot in the knockout stage, Will Ospreay.
Will Ospreay
The Commonwealth Kingpin, the Billy Goat, flying the flag for United Empire, former World Champion, current United States Champion, Will Ospreay. It’s not secret that I am a big fan of Will’s, his matches are always a lot of fun, I love his ridiculous Essex boy turned up to 11 persona and he’s the leader of possibly my favourite faction in wrestling today, the United Empire. Will has already accomplished so much at age 30, on top of his previously mentioned accolades, he’s also a former 3-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, NEVER Openweight Champion, New Japan Cup winner and 2-time Best of the Super Juniors tournament winner. He’s also held the Rev Pro British Heavyweight Championship and even captured championship gold in the US in the form of the Ring of Honor Television Championship. He’s got a good record in this tournament given his limited attempts, scoring 8 points on his first in 2019, 12 on his second leading him to finish second in his block by just 2 points in 2020 and narrowly losing to Okada in the finals of last years tournament in an incredible match.
Ospreay is a phenomenal talent and I’m sure it’s easy to see why all of these previous accomplishments paired with the fact that he is coming into this off the back of regaining his IWGP United States Championship from Kenny Omega in one of the best matches I’ve ever seen at this year’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door event. I think Will is a great shout to progress past the blocks and potentially even win the whole thing this year, although I do have a couple of small hang-ups, the potential issue with Great O-Khan in his block although that may be totally amicable and all in my head, but also the fact that he is the IWGP United States Champion, there will be people looking for a shot at that title, maybe a roadblock in this tournament is produced by a potential contender for his title, something he must be wary of.
Tanga Loa
Tanga Loa is the first on our list to have got their first developmental contract from WWE, training in their former developmental brand FCW, he never wrestled on the main roster, but gained good experience from FCW and eventually NXT before departing the company in 2014. Tanga remained in the US next landing in TNA, where he enjoyed a more prominent position but still no great success. Things picked up after finally landing in New Japan, he is a 7-time Tag Team Champion alongside his brother Tama Tonga, dubbed Guerillas of Destiny (G.O.D), the pair also won the 2020 World Tag league and with 2 separate partners, have held the NEVER Openweight 6-man Tag Team Championships twice. They have even managed a Ring of Honor Tag Team title win whilst wrestling for New Japan, with the two companies having a good working relationship.
Tanga Loa does have one other appearance in this tournament, scoring 6 points and honestly, it’s close to what I expect from him this year, like others on this list, he seems something of a tag team specialist, which will not help him here and in contrast there are some stellar singles competitors that will prove too much for the likes of Tanga Loa.
El Phantasmo
Outside of a hilarious G1 press conference, I know very little about ELP, it seems he’s been floating around various indie promotions around the world before finally settling in New Japan in 2019, where he has found moderate success. He is a 3-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and 2-time Super J Cup winner. With one lone G1 performance, scoring 6 points, so there isn’t much to speak of there either.
There is one thing that stands out to me, that sets ELP apart from the “tag specialist bracket” I have previously identified and that is those Super J Cup performances. Although the Super J Cup isn’t the exact same format as the G1, it’s a single match knockout rather than a round robin and of course it is a tournament for junior heavyweights rather than heavyweights like the G1, there are elements that can be carried across, like crucially it is a singles tournament. Success in a singles tournament such as that will provide invaluable experience and is why I believe he will fair better than those who are pure, out and out tag team guys. Plus in the 2019 Super J Cup, ELP scored a win over current B Block counterpart, Will Ospreay!
Conclusion
Overall, I think there is quite a clear layout in B Block, it seems fairly obvious who should be finishing at the top, in the middle and at the bottom, but surely it can’t be that easy to predict, right? That’s the beauty of these kinds of tournaments, I’m sure we will see some upsets, so I’m keen to see what effect those might have on the overall standings of the block.
Key Dates
Opening Block Matches: Night 1, Saturday 15th July
Final Block Matches: Night 14, Sunday 6th August
My Pick for Most Intriguing Match: Will Ospreay v Great O-Khan (Night 7, Tuesday 25th July)
As I previously mentioned, I just have a feeling that this match, even if not with immediate effect, is going to have large implications for the future of the United Empire.
My Pick for Most Entertaining Match: Kazuchika Okada v Will Ospreay (Night 9, Thursday 27th July)
I mean, could I really pick another match? Two of the very best that New Japan have to offer, if it’s half as good as last year’s final, it will still be a very good match.
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