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Tetsuya Naito Wins NJPW G1 Climax Tournament

By John Canton • Published 13th August 2023
tetsuya naito njpw g1 climax 2023

The winner of the grueling 2023 NJPW G1 Climax tournament was Tetsuya Naito, who gets a big reward for winning the prestigious tournament.

On Sunday in Ryogoku, Tetsuya Naito had a major showed with Kazuchika Okada to see who would win the 33rd G1 Climax tournament.

Naito and Okada’s road to the finals saw them each beat some big NJPW names. Naito defeated Hikuleo in the quarterfinals along with a win over Will Ospreay in the semifinals in a match that took place on Saturday.

Okada made it to the finals after winning Block B. Okada picked up wins over Zack Sabre Jr. in the quarterfinals and Okada defeated Evil in the semifinals to set up the match against Naito in the finals.

The two former IWGP World Heavyweight Champions had a very competitive 35-mintue match. There were a lot of counters throughout the match, but Naito hit three Destinos to finally put Okada down to win.

It was Tetsuya Naito’s third time winning the G1 tournament win since he previously won in 2013 and in 2017 as well.

Tetsuya Naito Has Earned An IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match

The prize for winning the NJPW G1 Climax 33 win is an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom in January 2024, which is NJPW’s biggest show of the year.

The current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is SANADA, who used to be a teammate of Naito in the Los Ingobernables de Japon group.

There are still over four months to go until Wrestle Kingdom, so SANADA could lose his title and Naito could lose his title shot, but as of this writing, that’s the title match at Wrestle Kingdom in January 2024.