After a grueling month-long run, G1 Climax 31 is finally coming to an end. Both the A Block and B Block have been decided as there will be history, legacy, and a Tokyo Dome main event on the line Thursday. New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) has counted on two of their best to deliver and they should prove that in the G1 Climax 31 Final. Here’s a look at the match ahead and how we got here.
G1 Climax 31 Final: Kota Ibushi vs. Kazuchika Okada
The G1 Climax is one of the most prestigious tournaments in all of professional wrestling and this year’s tournament is hoping to live up to that prestige with a worthy final. There are tons of factors to get into here as to what it means for each winner and so forth, but it wouldn’t be fair to disregard the journey of each competitor.
Beginning with Kota Ibushi, his road to the final has been anything but easy. After watching his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship slip through his grasps against Will Ospreay, he was going to get his second chance against current champion Shingo Takagi at Wrestle Grand Slam. As we know now, Ibushi’s illness stopped him from going through with that opportunity and has left him trying to work his way back to full health. Entering the G1 Climax was a questionable thought at the time for someone who had gone through what he did, but Ibushi was determined to make it to his fourth straight final.
On day one, Ibushi suffered one of the biggest upsets in the tournament when he lost to Bullet Club’s Yujiro Takahashi, questioning if he would even be in the discussion to win the G1 this year. However, Ibushi turned it around from there, only dropping one more match to Zack Sabre Jr. to keep him in the hunt going down to the A Block’s final day. In the main event, Ibushi solidified that he’s almost back to full form when he defeated KENTA to guarantee his spot in Thursday’s final.
The other side of this tournament saw the dominant return of “The Rainmaker.” After not being himself for the better part of the last two years, Kazuchika Okada tore through the tournament with a G1-opening win over long-time rival Hiroshi Tanahashi. He carried that momentum all the way, with his only loss prior to the final day being against Tama Tonga. A very interesting aspect of both Okada and Ibushi’s roads is that they were upset by Bullet Club members who were the underdogs heading in.
Moving to the final day of the B Block, Okada opposed his rival and the undefeated Jeff Cobb. The United Empire’s powerhouse had blazed through the rest of the competition, showing no signs of being stopped. That, of course, was until he ran into “The Rainmaker,” who would defeat Cobb to get to this point.
Now with both Ibushi and Okada attempting to win their third G1’s of their careers, we look at what they have done against each other in the past.
It was one year ago that Ibushi defeated Okada in the opening match of G1 Climax 30, which would ultimately lead to Ibushi winning his second straight tournament. That being said, Okada defeated him at Wrestle Kingdom 14 to successfully defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Going off of these two matches alone, it paints the picture that this is anyone’s game come Thursday.
The good news for “The Golden Star” is that he has two days rest on Okada, who will be going into the final fresh off his war with Cobb. “The Rainmaker” won’t use that as an excuse, as he’s shown that it doesn’t matter how much time he hasn’t had to rest, this is his tournament of destiny. Not only does he want to come out victorious in the G1 Climax for the first time since 2014, but he wants to paint his own vision onto the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship as he did with its predecessor.
There has might have never been as dominant of a run in the G1 as there has been in Ibushi’s current reign of terror, but one has to think that his streak of winning the tournament will now be coming to an end. 2021 will be remembered as the year that “The Rainmaker” returned and hopefully with that brings prestige back to NJPW.
Prediction: Kazuchika Okada
More from LWOS Pro Wrestling
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TNT and AEW Dark: Elevation (Monday nights) and AEW: Dark (Tuesday nights) at 7 PM ET on YouTube. AEW Rampage airs on TNT at 10 PM EST every Friday night.
