{"id":5702,"date":"2017-07-01T10:07:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T14:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=5702"},"modified":"2017-07-01T10:07:27","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T14:07:27","slug":"wwe-tournament-like-g1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2017\/07\/01\/wwe-tournament-like-g1\/","title":{"rendered":"What If WWE Did a Tournament Like the G1 Climax?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every summer, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)<\/strong>\u00a0hosts a tournament called the G1 Climax<\/strong>. It’s a round robin tournament where several wrestlers are broken into two groups, or blocks, and they’re awarded points. You get two points for a win, one point for a draw, and absolutely nothing for a loss. At the end, the two wrestlers with the most points in each block face each other for a chance to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which will be held by Kazuchika Okada<\/strong> until the end of time, because he deserves to.<\/p>\n

So what if WWE did a similar tournament? What if, instead of the Royal Rumble<\/strong>, the WWE had a tournament like the G1 Climax? Instead of blocks, you could have the brands, and whoever won the whole thing got to main event WrestleMania<\/strong>? This is purely hypothetical, and I’m not saying get rid of the Rumble, but hear me out.<\/p>\n

What If WWE Did a Tournament Like the G1 Climax?<\/h2>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Raw Block<\/h3>\n

The best thing about the G1 Climax is all of the crazy match-ups you get that you wouldn’t see otherwise. For instance, this year, we’ll get to see Omega vs. Okada III<\/strong>! The title isn’t on the line, but the stakes have never been higher, can they possibly top KOvKO II?<\/p>\n

On Raw<\/strong><\/em>, it would be no different. Sheamus<\/strong> and Cesaro<\/strong> are a tag team now, but with a shot at the title on the line? And who wouldn’t jump at the chance to see any two members of the Shield<\/strong> face off. Assuming Brock Lesnar<\/strong> isn’t the Universal Champion, he could run through the tournament as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The SmackDown Block<\/h3>\n

On SmackDown<\/strong><\/em>, the possibilities are even more plentiful. There are plenty of incredible match-ups. Shinsuke Nakamura<\/strong> vs. just about anyone sells itself, but John Cena<\/strong> and AJ Styles<\/strong> jump to the top of the list. And what about a rematch between Cena and Styles? The two have had a great rivalry over the last year and a half. And with the right stakes, who is to say Cena vs. Randy Orton<\/strong> wouldn’t be stellar?<\/p>\n

The best thing about these tournaments though, is the ability to create a new star. Imagine someone like Sami Zayn<\/strong> or Tye Dillinger<\/strong> pulling off a great upset. They don’t even have to win the tournament, but what if Sami Zayn beat John Cena? What if Tyler Breeze<\/strong> beat Randy Orton? It levels the playing field and allows for great storytelling.<\/p>\n

Is this going to happen? Likely not. The WWE have had great success with the Cruiserweight, and U.K. tournaments, and the Mae Young Classic is shaping up as well. A tournament with their established superstars? Could be a lot of fun, just saying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The blocks have been announced for NJPW’s G1 Climax, and since WWE has been ripping them off anyway, what if they had a similar tournament?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1347,"featured_media":5903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14,25,26,4,3],"tags":[145,946,165,105,117,77,106,76,148,47],"class_list":["post-5702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-njpw","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-aj-styles","tag-g1-climax","tag-john-cena","tag-monday-night-raw","tag-pro-wrestling","tag-roman-reigns","tag-sami-zayn","tag-seth-rollins","tag-smackdown-live","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}