New Japan Pro Wrestling begins the G1 Climax 33 tournament with SANADA vs Hikuleo and Will Ospreay vs. Taichi as the featured matches on the opening night.
Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb headlines the 2nd night along with the highly anticipated Kaito Kiyomiya vs Yota Tsuji match on Sunday morning. The prestigious tournament will feature 32 entrants this year instead of the regular 20 entry field and both New Japan brands will be represented during the G1 climax this summer. There are quite a few first-time entrants like newly crowned NJPW STRONG Openweight champion Eddie Kingston, NOAH’s Kaito Kiyomiya, Hikuleo, Shane Haste, and many others.
Whoever wins the tournament this year will get the right to challenge for the IWGP World championship at WrestleKingdom 18 next year on January 4th. I don’t realistically see SANADA still being champion by the time January 2024 rolls around but here’s the card for the opening G1 Climax weekend.
G1 Climax 33 Opening Weekend Card
July 15th
SANADA vs Hikuleo in the main event
Will Ospreay vs Taichi, Yota Tsuji vs Kaito Kiyomiya
Kazuchika Okada vs Great O-Khan , Shota Umino vs Ren Narita
KENTA vs Tanga Loa
Chase Owens vs Gabe Kidd
YOSHI-HASHI vs El Phantasmo
July 16th
Tetsuya Naito vs Jeff Cobb
EVIL vs Tama Tonga
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Zack Sabre Jr
Shingo Takagi vs Eddie Kingston
Alex Coughlin vs Shane Haste
Mikey Nicholls vs Aaron Henare
Hirooki Goto vs Toru Yano
Tomohiro Ishii vs David Finlay
The tournament doesn’t resume again until next Tuesday morning in Yamagata with a double shot of Kazuchika Okada vs El Phantasmo and SANADA vs Shota Umino live on NJPW World. The G1 this year will have English commentary for every show. This year has a slight format change as there will be two finalists from each block since it’s a four-block format.
Who is your pick in the G1 Climax 33? Sound off in the comments.
Header photo – NJPW. 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 rewatch all 2021 NJPW events and plenty more tremendous wrestling content from New Japan Pro-Wrestling on NJPWWorld.com; The King of Sports Streaming.
