How to ‘get into’ the G1 Climax. Pt. 2: The Wrestlers
This is a follow-up to P1. 1: The Basics, which you should really read if you’re new to this whole thing. I’m about to get very deep and nerdy, but this is the kind of human interest context that I think is the key to enjoying wrestling.
So who the hell is in this thing?
The G1 field this year is a particularly good one for a newcomer, because it’s deep. The last two years, the G1 has contained arguably the top four biggest stars and best wrestlers in New Japan. This year, two of them left for WWE — AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. New Japan has responded by trying to establish new stars, which means old faces in more prominent positions, and new faces given a chance in the G1 for the first time (plus a few scrubs have been demoted). To freshen up the field and increase the tournament’s prestige, New Japan will also bring in guys from outside the company on short-term deals. As a result, the G1 Climax is a pretty neat showcase of Japan’s upper tier of wrestling.
One note about these guys: a lot of them are affiliated with the three big factions in New Japan: CHAOS, Bullet Club, and Los Ingobernables de Japon. These groups are like gangs of wrestlers who hang out together, second each other at ringside and generally avoid fighting each other outside of tournaments. More about them in the bios.
A BLOCK
Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champion)
(CHAOS)
Okada is The Rainmaker, and the new ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Since he debuted as a full-time heavyweight in 2012, he has torn through the company, winning the G1 twice and becoming IWGP Heavyweight Champion four times — including his current reign. He has also become the leader of the CHAOS faction, a dominant gang of the ‘cool’ guys of New Japan who are more badasses than squeaky-clean heroes.
He’s also had some amazing matches, including a series with older veteran Hiroshi Tanahashi that can be compared to the Federer/Nadal rivalry. I’d feel pretty comfortable calling their big match at Wrestle Kingdom 2015 the second-greatest match of the modern wrestling era — only surpassed by their rematch at the same event this year. They haven’t wrestled in a one-on-match since, but they’re in the same block in G1, and trust me, it’s reason enough to be excited for the whole thing.
Okada is great athletically — a tall guy who can throw a stunning drop kick and whose finishing move, a wrist-lock short-arm lariat called the Rainmaker, is so devastating that it has only failed to defeat an opponent three times.
But to me, his real asset is his subtle character work. He came into New Japan as a cocky upstart, and cemented a reputation as an egotistical bad boy. Broken by his inability to overcome Tanahashi in their 2015 main event, he reached his nadir — before a coming-of-age storyline in 2015 that ended with Okada decisively vanquishing his rival in front of 30,000 people at the Tokyo Dome at the start of this year, and assuming the mantle of company ace.
In turn, his reign as heavyweight champ has been troubled by another upstart, Tetsuya Natio (more later), who even took the belt from Okada for a time. Reaching the top is one thing, but staying there is another, and one of the things to watch in the G1 is how the young-at-28 Okada grows into his role as company star.
Hiroshi Tanahashi
If Okada is the new ace of New Japan, then Hiroshi Tanahashi is the veteran. He has the most heavyweight title reigns ever at 7, and he was the top guy for years before Okada showed up. While Okada has a darker, moodier undercurrent, Tanahashi is a goofy, family-friendly hero, like WWE’s John Cena — although he’s not afraid to be a dick on occasion, like when he defeated Okada at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom and taunted him from the ring while the younger man walked to the back crying.
While he might celebrate wins with the fans by playing air guitar for literally minutes, Tanahashi also commands the respect of nerds. Through a long career being the top guy in the company, he has always performed when it matters — and the G1 matters.
The round robin format lends itself to Tanahashi’s strength — he can have a good match in any style with anyone. Even aside from his classics with Okada, he’s renowned for being able to drag an exciting match from the 400 pound Bad Luck Fale. He can and still does jump to the outside of the ring, but can wrestle you to the ground. And let’s face it, his hair is luscious.
Tanahashi had to drop out of match a month ago from injury, but that was probably self-preservation rather than a serious problem. The 39 year-old can be forgiven for taking it easy, especially when he has a history of turning it on again in the G1 — and he won the G1 last year, to set up his last match with Okada. He may not be the ace anymore, but Hiroshi Tanahashi will be one of the top performers in this tournament.
Tomohiro Ishii
(CHAOS)
Okada’s the ace, Tanahashi’s the vet, but Ishii is the toughest sonofabitch in pro wrestling. This is a guy whose nickname is ‘Stone Pitbull’, for god’s sakes. He doesn’t work in a wide range of styles — he’ll elbow you in the face, forearm you in the mouth, then drop you on your head. He shows fighting spirit in its simplest form — this is a guy who’ll kneel down and yell at an opponent to kick him, just to prove he can take it.
Honestly, I love stiff wrestling, but I’ve seen Ishii matches that make me uncomfortable. He does a sickeningly real-looking headbutt spot and will foam at the mouth when caught in a headlock. He wrestled in the last G1 with his shoulder virtually held together by athletic tape, and seemed to compensate by having matches that were even more bruising.
Ishii is probably too short, stocky and one-note to ever be at the very top tier of New Japan, but the consistent standard of all his matches might be the best in the world. He’ll have a decent encounter with just about anyone, but his best work is against other tough guys who want to go blow-for-blow, like Togi Makabe or Hirooki Goto. He’s also in the same block as Okada, guaranteeing a rare one-on-one match between the two CHAOS members.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Tenzan is the Platonic ideal of a grizzled wrestling veteran — a beefy dude with a timeless dyed mullet who’ll grunt as he clubs you on the chest.
He’s also been around forever. At one time Tenzan was the top dog in New Japan — winning both the IWGP heavyweight title and the G1 Climax tournament. He also has the record for participating in the most G1 tournaments, a physical feat not to be underestimated. But time catches up with us all, and this was to be the year that he was put out to pasture, as he was initially left out of the field.
So why’s he here? In storyline, his friend and tag team partner Satoshi Kojima voluntarily gave up his spot so Tenzan could have one last crack. A noble act, particularly since Kojima is actually six months older — Tenzan smokes so much that he looks even older than he actually is.
That sets up a nice little storyline to watch in the tournament. What Tenzan’s matches have lost in athletic ability, they’ll make up for in emotion, as an old fan favourite effectively does his farewell tour as a serious contender. He won’t win, but expect him to go on a miracle run, possibly knocking off a few champions to set up title matches down the line.
Togi Makabe
He looks sort of like a pro wrestling Flintstone, doesn’t he? Makabe is another of the stoic, stocky tough guys who exemplify ‘fighting spirit’ in New Japan. He’s a former heavyweight champion, and was recently a tag champion with Tomoaki Honma, but these days he’s mainly kept around because of the attention he brings to New Japan with media appearances outside of the company. He’s solid if not spectacular, probably not someone who’ll ever be pushed on top to draw new eyes to the company, but a reliable second-tier guy and fairly popular amongst the Japanese fans.
Hirooki Goto
(CHAOS)
At one point Goto was tipped to be one of the next big stars of New Japan, but for whatever reason, it’s never really happened. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with him — he’ll give you a good match and he’s a perennial contender. But he doesn’t have that special something to break through in the eyes of the fans or the bookers. You can sum it up in one stat — he’s 0 and 8 in IWGP heavyweight title matches.
To New Japan’s credit they’ve taken this and tried to make something of it. Earlier this year, the story was that Goto had lost his mojo. He just couldn’t get a win and was mocked and emasculated in a rivalry with Okada (which he lost). Almost as an added insult, Okada offered him a spot in CHAOS — but if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, so Goto did. He’s gotten a bit of his fire back, and had a few wins, but in joining CHAOS, he’s become a firm second-tier guy behind Ishii and Okada, something sure to rankle him in the long term.
The G1 could go either way for Goto — a strong performance could be redemption for his character and see him going after some titles, or he could fall deeper into a funk.
Bad Luck Fale
(Bullet Club)
Every wrestling company has a spot on the roster for a big monster heel — and Bad Luck Fale is that guy in New Japan. He’s six foot four, billed at 330 pounds, and towers over most of his opponents — a perfect Goliath to make any Davids look better. The downside of super big wrestlers is that they’re very rarely ‘good’ wrestlers — at bigger sizes, they’re just not as athletic, and have to get by on their aura rather than their abilities.
You’ve gotta think of Fale as a character actor playing a role, rather than a leading star. His job in New Japan is to be the scary big guy, and he does that as well as can be expected. Luckily for viewers, he’s been placed in the same block as Okada and Tanahashi — the only two guys in the company who’ve proven they can drag a good-to-great match out of him.
Bad Luck Fale was also one of the founding members of Bullet Club — a group of rebellious foreign bad boys who ran roughshod over the conventions of honour and sportsmanship in New Japan. Fale was perfect as the enforcer of the group — nicknamed the Underboss, he was the brawn behind their shenanigans, and a perfect foil for any plucky underdog hero to come up against. Although Bullet Club’s importance to the company has diminished after many of them jumped ship to other companies, they were a red-hot outfit for a few years and you’ll still see a heap of people in the crowd wearing their iconic t-shirts.
Tama Tonga
(Bullet Club)
Tama Tonga was another founding member of Bullet Club, but it’s fair to say he was a bit of a lackey in the group, never really shining on his own. He’s always shown glimpses of ability, and it seems like this is the year the company wants to give him a shot. He actually won his first title, a tag team championship, with his brother Tanga Loa earlier in the year, but the run was a pretty dismal failure in terms of match quality and popularity (although you could blame that on Tanga Loa who is definitively a scrub).
This is Tama’s first G1 and his first real chance he can make it as anything more than a lower-tier Bullet Club guy. It’s make or break for him, and though he probably won’t even come out of it with a winning record, his performances in these matches will be worth keeping an eye on.
Naomichi Marufuji
The G1 Climax is such a big deal that New Japan will bring in wrestlers from outside the company on short-term deals, just to bolster the field. Marufuji is one of these ring-ins, coming from Pro Wrestling NOAH (actually owned by New Japan’s parent company, which probably makes the negotiations a bit easier).
Over in NOAH, Marufuji is one of the top names — a multiple-time heavyweight champion and a regular in main events. And he’s competed in the G1 before, so you know he’ll rise to the occasion. While it would be unheard of at this point for New Japan to book an outsider to win the tournament, and in the process make all their own guys look like losers, Marufuji offers a special attraction and a bunch of fresh match-ups in the G1.
SANADA
(Los Ingobernables de Japon)
SANADA only debuted in New Japan earlier this year, after failing to make it in the States. He came in as a surprise, a new member of the enigmatic Los Ingobernables de Japon faction, with a badass ensemble of leather jacket, black baseball bat and skull mask. Unfortunately it seems they’ve decided to run with the nickname ‘Cold Skull’, but not everything can be perfect.
He hasn’t done all that much since arriving, apart from helping out his LIJ buddies and losing to Okada in a singles match. But what he has done in the ring has been solid, he has a good reputation from outside the company, and Los Ingobernables have become the hottest group inside it. This G1 is really his first chance to make a name for himself.
B BLOCK
Tetsuya Naito
(Los Ingobernables De Japon)
Right now, Tetsuya Naito is the hottest star in New Japan — and he doesn’t give a shit. How did this happen? It’s complicated.
A couple of years ago, Naito won the G1 and the company started pushing him as a big star in the leadup to his resulting title shot. The fan response was tepid, and in a public vote, the match was dropped to the semi main-event slot of the big Wrestle Kingdom — an embarrassing rejection of Naito (didn’t help that he lost the match). Arenas in Osaka openly booed this guy, and even in wrestling where that can be a good thing, this wasn’t it.
Naito turned lemons into lemonade — bitter and wounded, he headed on a wrestling excursion to Mexico where he hooked up with a group of cool and unruly bad guys called Los Ingobernables. Suffice to say, they were a bad influence.
Naito returned to Japan with a changed attitude. He’d run his mouth like a disgruntled NBA star in press conferences and interviews, stroll down to the ring with a vacant, bored expression, refuse to cooperate with teammates, and attack his opponents before or after matches when their backs were turned. He didn’t care about pleasing anyone anymore, which obviously made the audience way more into him.
One by one, he brought new guys into the company to watch his back and help him cheat when got bored, and they formed a local Los Ingobernables offshoot. For a gang of bad guys, they move a lot of merchandise, which you’ll see in any crowd shot — and significant portions of that crowd were cheering him when he beat Okada for the heavyweight title earlier this year. His reign was defined by his newfound apathy — he’d drag this prestigious belt behind him on the ground and occasionally leave it in the ring, a big ‘fuck you too’ to the New Japan fans that had rejected him.
Okada won the title back, but the rivalry between the CHAOS and LIJ factions is still the hottest thing in New Japan, and Naito is a red-hot favourite to win the G1 and challenge Okada at the Wrestle Kingdom show at Tokyo Dome.
Naito can be a mixed bag to watch. He’s a talented wrestler, and can go with anyone when he wants to — but a method-like commitment to his apathetic character means he doesn’t always want to. Think of him like the smartass with the bad attitude, sitting in the back of the classroom and undermining the teacher.
Kenny Omega
(The Elite/Bullet Club)
Kenny Omega is the rare foreigner or “gaijin” to get a push as a big star in New Japan. He’s had a breakout year, moving from junior heavyweight to heavyweight, capturing the IWGP Intercontinental title (effectively the secondary championship of the company) and getting victories over two faces of the company, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura. He also usurped AJ Styles as leader of the Bullet Club, kicking him out of the company in storyline — meaning he basically defeated three of the top four guys in New Japan. Did I mention this all happened within a month?
Omega is the closest thing New Japan has to a comic book villain. As a member of the Bullet Club, and also the leader of the sub-group the Elite (gets confusing but basically it’s the three guys in Bullet Club who are any good), he’s one of the few wrestlers in the company who’ll cheat to win a match — it’s a lot less common in Japan than in WWE and makes him a clear bad guy. He calls himself ‘The Cleaner’ as in he’s cleaning the trash out of New Japan — but to hammer the point home he’ll come to the ring with a garbage can, sweeping a broom in front of him. He speaks fluent Japanese, but to get over as an evil foreigner, he only talks in English in his interviews — and, knowing full well that most of the crowd doesn’t really understand what he’s saying, he’ll put on a B-grade horror film accent and go off on fourth-wall-breaking tangents. He’s a huge video game nerd — like, a ‘does guest appearances on YouTube web series’ video game nerd — and I swear to God he has incorporated subtle Megaman references in his wrestling.
He presents himself with tongue firmly in-cheek, and he sometimes cops flack for it from purist nerds, but Omega can go, and he has always delivered good matches when the spot calls for it. This is his first G1, and if he cuts down on some of his antics, he could easily be the MVP of the tournament.
Omega recently lost the Intercontinental belt to Michael Elgin — a fellow gaijin but in every other way, Kenny’s polar opposite. They’re guaranteed to meet each other in the block, which will be their first rematch since the title change.
Katuyori Shibata (NEVER Openweight Champion)
Katsuyori Shibata is no-nonsense to the point of being amusing. He wears plain black wrestling trunks, power walks to the ring as quickly as possible and keeps his face in a Kanye-esque serious pout at all times. This is a guy whose only piece of merchandise for sale is a white t-shirt with black block text that says ‘THE WRESTLER’.
Shibata does his talking in the ring, and that’s where he has made a reputation as one of the coolest wrestlers in the company. Although he came up training in New Japan, he left the company for years for a largely unsuccessful MMA career, and returned with a style that incorporates some of its striking. Shibata will sprint from one corner of the ring to the other to dropkick an opponent in the face; his finishing sequence, the ‘Penalty Kick’, is just that, but with a seated human replacing the soccer ball.
It’s been a big year for Shibata, breaking a hoodoo and winning his first singles belt, a secondary title called the NEVER Openweight Championship that tends to be fought over by the company’s tough bastards. Despite his Terminator vibe making him very popular with the UFC geeks who also follow pro wrestling, he hasn’t quite broken through into the top ranks of New Japan. He’s a perennial dark horse in the G1 though — and while it’s been said before, a good run in this year’s tournament could see him break through.
Yuji Nagata
Yuji Nagata is the amiable dad of New Japan. Most of the time he’s good-natured to the point of dagginess, but when the time comes to lay down the law, he will discipline you. His finishing move is an armbar where he gets so caught up in bloodlust that his eyes roll back in his head, and at the right moment, this can make you fear for your life.
He’s been around for ages and was their top guy in the early to mid 2000s, arguably the worst time in New Japan’s history business-wise, but not for lack of effort from Nagata who threw down some epic matches in his time. He even trained up and competed in legitimate MMA matches during this period due to the company’s bizarre desire to promote both fake and real combat sports on the same events with the same guys. He got violently destroyed by actual fighters in some of them, so you can’t deny his commitment to New Japan. And despite his dad looks, he can still go in the ring, and has basically made a character out of defying premature proclamations of his senility.
Nagata even grabbed a title earlier this year — the tough guy belt, the NEVER championship. While Katsuyori Shibata won it back from him fairly quickly, but Nagata had demonstrated that even in his twilight years he’s worthy of respect. He’s certain to get at least one big win over a young star who underestimates him in this G1.
Tomoaki Honma
Honma is a perfect example of something you can’t find in actual competitive sports: a guy who is popular and successful despite losing all the time.
In fact, lovable loser is pretty much Honma’s character. Everything about him — his scarred forehead from brutal deathmatches, his receding hairline, his tryhard Hulk Hogan hair dye and tan, his confused, tortured facial expression — screams of a guy born to be runner-up. His finisher is a headbutt that he’ll deliver onto the ground, while running, or from the top rope, an utterly quixotic move that he loyally sticks with despite how often it misses or inflicts just as much pain on him. He’s never won a singles title, and while he has competed in two previous G1 Climaxes, he’s lost all but one match in the tournament.
But none of that matters. Because in the sixteenth minute of his last match of the tournament, with Honma fighting for his last chance for his only win of the damn thing, when he is thrown into the ropes and he flies back with a headbutt and by some god damn miracle actually CONNECTS with it, you’ll believe he can win. And when he pins his opponent to the crowd, and they kick out of the pin at the last possible hundredth of a second, and it’s the seventeeth time you’ve seen Honma in this exact same situation, you’ll still jump out of your seat with shock. He’s honestly that good.
Unfortunately Honma’s lovability is undermined by his shadiness. Last year his girlfriend came out with allegations that he committed domestic violence against her, which he denied. Nothing came of that, but he’s also had previous scandals of being involved with the yakuza. It’s lucky for him he’s so good at losing because New Japan seems very unlikely to put their faith in (and give big wins and titles to) a guy they can’t rely on to stay on the straight and narrow.
Is he a lovable but doomed loser in the ring? Yes. And is he a bad person outside the ring? It seems like it. He can wrestle well enough to make you forget the former, but it’s been hard to be fully invested in Honma the guy when you keep thinking of the latter.
Michael Elgin (IWGP Intercontinental Champion)
‘Big Mike’ is a god damn beast. He’s what you’d call ‘built like a brick shit house’. He’ll pick two guys up and throw them at the same time. He’ll hold you above his head and do squats. He’ll lift you over his head from the ring apron and throw you inside.
Elgin is a G1 success story — he basically revitalised his career when he debuted in last year’s tournament. A slightly stale wrestler in North America, his tough guy act fits in so well to strong style that he’s become a beloved gaijin amongst Japanese fans in less than a year — pretty impressive in the country where foreign wrestlers are normally evil invading outsiders.
He’s currently the Intercontinental champion, taking it off Kenny Omega in a rare all-gaijin title match. That will make this G1 a very different tournament from last year. No longer the unknown quantity, Elgin’s got a target on his back, and anyone who beats him in a one-on-one match here has a good claim on a title shot. Omega’s also in this block, and will probably get a rematch for his belt at some point — a win over Elgin would make that a certainty.
Toru Yano
(CHAOS)
Even a serious wrestling tournament needs comic relief, and in the G1 that tends to be Toru Yano.
I’ll describe to you how every Yano match will go. He’ll come out to the ring carrying a chair and trying to sell his self-produced backstage DVDs to members of the crowd. The second an opponent gets near him, he’ll dive to the ropes and holler “BREAK! BREAK! BREAK!”, forcing the ref to separate the fighters. The second the ref is distracted, Yano will go to untie the protective padding on the ring corner, or land a low blow. And just when his opponent is overwhelmed by all this nonsense, he’ll trap them in a rollup from behind and win via cheap pinfall, then walk to the back shrugging and laughing.
Look, he’s not considered a star wrestler, but Yano is a great role player and the G1 is when you need that role. Amidst the lengthy battles of attrition that occur on these shows, a short five-minute burst of fooling around can be a great palate cleanser. Plus, Yano match outcomes are unpredictable, because while he’ll never win the thing, he can plausibly beat anyone if he suckers them in. Look for him to spoil someone’s tournament chances on the final few nights, probably with a shot to the nuts.
EVIL
(Los Ingobernables de Japon)
If his name wasn’t EVIL enough, this guy comes to the ring shrouded in a dark cloak, holding a scythe and with laser pointers on his fingers. He also wears scary goth makeup and did I mention his finishing move is also just called EVIL?
Yeah, EVIL’s pretty goofy, but when you put the cosplay stuff aside he’s a reasonably good ‘big guy’, probably a successor to the current generation of tough guys in New Japan.
He’s also the brawn of LIJ, and getting a pretty decent rub from their hot streak. And he’s only been full-time with the company for about 10 months, arriving just after the G1 last year. His first G1 Tournament is also his first real shot at showing he can be a consistent talent.
Yoshi-Hashi
(CHAOS)
Poor Yoshi-Hashi is the runt of CHAOS. If you imagine them as a gang of children, Yoshi-Hashi is the slightly awkward younger one who runs with the older guys but is the butt of all their jokes, many of which he doesn’t understand. When the much cooler former leader of CHAOS Shinsuke Nakamura left the company, he gave an interview where he basically asked the other guys to “take care of Yoshi-Hashi for me, he’s a good kid”, and that illustrates Yoshi-Hashi’s role as the younger brother figure — eager but not quite there yet.
As the bottom feeder of the CHAOS hierarchy, his role has traditionally been the one getting pinned alongside his friends in tag matches. But of late, he’s started making some in-roads as a capable wrestler by himself. He’s been a useful foot soldier in the battles between CHAOS and LIJ, and even picked up the win for his team in a recent tag match. He’s been rewarded for his improvements by getting his first G1 spot, and it’ll be interesting to see how he performs in his first real shot at being a top guy, especially compared to other G1 newcomers.
Oh, I almost got through his whole bio without mentioning that his English nickname is ‘Loose Explosion’. Like, it’s written in English on his pants. I hope it’s some prank played on him by one of the CHAOS guys and he has no idea it sounds stupid.
Katsuhiko Nakajima
Nakajima is another guy from outside of New Japan — he also wrestles in Pro Wrestling NOAH. Honestly, I don’t know much about this guy, but he’s regarded pretty well. And who knows, by the end of this tournament I could know him a lot better.
When are the big matches?
As I’ve said, it’s a deep field, so every night has at least a couple of matches worth watching if you’re into it. Maybe, though, you’re not quite into it, so I’ve picked out some highlighted dates.
I’ll highlight a couple of particular nights. The opener (on 18/06) is always a doozy, and this year will feature English commentary. Recent rivals Shibata and Honma square off on 22/07, and 30/07 has a big B block double header, with Omega vs. Elgin and Naito vs. Shibata. Tanahashi vs. Ishii is on 03/08 — and then, on the final two block nights, 12/08 has a guaranteed must-watch match in Okada vs. Tanahashi, and 13/08 has Omega vs. Naito for the first time in a match that will probably decide the block. The final is on 14/08 and that whole show is normally jam-packed from top to bottom.
And there you have it.
If you made it through even a portion of this utter word dump, it hopefully piqued some interest and gave a primer for how to start enjoying this weird and wonderful sport. Any more questions, hit me up and I’ll answer as best I can. It wasn’t so long ago I was myself searching for these guides online to make sense of this strange captivating spectacle — they hooked me in and I haven’t looked back, so I hope you feel the same way.
Here’s a final few useful links:
http://njpwworld.com/ — New Japan Pro Wrestling’s online streaming service, natively Japanese but fairly easy to use with Chrome’s auto-translate
http://www.cagematch.net/ — extensive wrestling database, with schedules, lineups, results, and plenty of other statistical info.
http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/ — plenty of English-language G1 coverage, with podcasts, show reviews, previews and essays.
