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NJPW Announces 2024 G1 Climax Competitors Including AEW Star

By John Canton • Published 16th June 2024
NJPW G1 Climax 34 2024

There will be 20 wrestlers in the field for this year’s NJPW G1 Climax tournament.

It has been announced by New Japan Pro Wrestling that they will be going back to their traditional roots in this year’s 34th edition of the NJPW G1 Climax tournament.

The G1 Climax 34 will return to the two-block, twenty-entrant form of competition, starting July 20 and 21 with Opening Weekend, where both nights will have ten league matchups. The finals will take place on August 18th at Sumo Hall.

There were 20-minute time limits during G1 33 last year. However, this year the league matches will be back to 30-minute time limits. It will continue to be two points for a win and one for a draw.

NJPW also announced that the top three finishers will advance in the tournament. The second and third-place finishers will face off in Makuhari on August 15, with the top point scorer receiving a bye to Ryogoku on August 17. That’s where the semifinals will determine an overall winner for each block, to compete in the grand final on August 18th.

Two wrestlers in the field are not full-time NJPW wrestlers. Those wrestlers are AEW’s Konosuke Takeshita and Jake Lee from Pro Wrestling NOAH. Both wrestlers will be making their G1 Climax debut this year. Takeshita lost to NJPW’s IWGP World Champion Jon Moxley at the AEW Double or Nothing PPV although it was not a title match.

The NJPW G1 Climax Field For 2024

At Sunday’s NJPW Soul tour, the company announced 18 of the 20 wrestlers in the G1 Climax. The wrestlers, including the 2023 winner Tetsuya Naito, are below.

Block A:

  • Tetsuya Naito
  • Shota Umino
  • Shingo Takagi
  • SANADA
  • Great-O-Khan
  • Zack Sabre Jr.
  • Gabe Kidd
  • EVIL
  • Jake Lee
  • TBA

Block B:

  • Hirooki Goto
  • El Phantasmo
  • Yota Tsuji
  • Jeff Cobb
  • Henare
  • David Finlay
  • Ren Narita
  • Yuya Uemura
  • Konosuke Takeshita
  • TBA

There will be A and B block tournaments to determine the final wrestlers in the G1 Climax. That tournament begins during the NJPW Soul and ends with the finals at Tokyo Budokan on July 5. The wrestlers in the tournament are below.

A Block tournament: Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Callum Newman, KENTA, Chase Owens, Yuijiro Takahashi

B Block tournament: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Oleg Boltin, Satoshi Kojima, Taichi, TJP

The winner of this year’s G1 Climax tournament will on to Wrestle Kingdom 19 in January 2025 to challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, which is currently held by AEW’s Jon Moxley, who continues to work for AEW and NJPW at the same time.