As reported by PWMania.com, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) has announced the complete list of competitors for this year’s G1 Climax 36. The lineup for both blocks of the tournament was revealed during the NJPW Dominion event on Sunday morning. All competitors have been announced, except for the play-in participants, who will be added to each block.
NJPW recently confirmed the play-in matches for June 23rd and July 6th as part of the company’s Road to G1 Climax 36 tour. The June 23rd event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, featuring the first two play-in matches.
In one of these matches, Taichi, who finished at the bottom of his block in the G1 Climax 35 tournament, will face Yuto-Ice. Yuto-Ice has not yet appeared in the G1 Climax and was set to compete this year until he lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship. The second play-in match on June 23rd will feature NEVER Openweight Champion Aaron Wolf taking on YOSHI-HASHI, who also finished last in his block last year.
NJPW will return to Korakuen Hall on July 6th to determine the final two spots in the G1 Climax. OSKAR, Yuto-Ice’s tag team partner, will compete for a berth and will face Yujiro Takahashi, who has lost play-in matches for the past three years. The other match will feature Ryohei Oiwa and El Phantasmo—both last-place finishers from last year’s G1—competing to determine the last entrant in this year’s tournament.
The NJPW G1 Climax 36 tournament is set to begin on July 11 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The play-in matches will occur during the Road to the G1 Climax series, starting on June 19 in Nagano, Japan. All of these matches will be broadcast live on NJPW World.
