Naito and Liger are literally speaking God’s words.
Jyushin Thunder Liger: "G1 Climax is the biggest tournament in New Japan and is the pinnacle of competition, but I think there were a little too many people this year. I think it would have been better to narrow down the field a little more."https://t.co/MZ3mAFz5XU pic.twitter.com/Z7cQSQVYbd
— Ciarán (@CiaranRH93) August 17, 2023
5 comments
Dumb. 32 man tournament is best.
Not gonna lie i see why it has been said. 32 with 20 midcard players the actual tournament is about who will play spoiler to each of the 12 who actually had a chance at winning. 32 with champions fron each company in union to join the g1 wouldve been the true way to get the g1 back on the map, this year was more g1 flacid.
Give some roh,impact,aew champs spots even if its just each companies tag champs and tv champs Aussie open, samoa joe, house of black, ftr, luchasaurus , subcult and kenny king suddenly the half of your young boys and usual jobbers are out for rest and more training to get better showings. 12 added to the top 20 njpw wrestlers and they dont need protecting because they can always just defend the title in a cross promotion match at a ppv and get some more eyes on both guys.
The reality is that the wrestling dynamic has changed since let’s say 2019.
Njpw put time and resources into dojo products with the hope that it pays off later. They literally lost a dojo product to the wwe over a g1 spot. Thus making all those resources wasted. Njpw just cannot sit on dojo products or they risk losing them to promotions in the west who are more aggressive about signing talent. They sat on finlay and henare way too long.
So the choice is aggressively cut wrestlers who they aren’t going to extract much more from (guys over 40 who aren’t mega draws) or expand the field. Now a lot of this sub likes the 40 year old midcarders
I understand, but at the same time the final 7 nights were amazing because there was so much more at stake. The issue comes in the selection of wrestlers, but at the end of the day you need the math to work and some guys are gonna need to be pin eaters.
I’m fine with expanded leagues of the talent included is worthwhile. The problem is this year they really weren’t. Chase and Tanga were horrible this year. KENTA/Loa and Chase/Hikuleo will go down as some of the worst G1 matches ever. A Block was really top heavy and one of my fav G1 blocks I’ve ever seen. B Block had some great workers but then Tanga and KENTA who were not good this year. C and D I’d honestly call mostly bad. There was a handful of CD shows that I think were just straight skips.
The frustrating part is that they have the talent available to them to put together some pretty good line ups, they just decided not to use them. I put [this together](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1095867474085429423/1141869084976365698/9F254F54-677B-4489-AF02-7C352BAEB1E3.jpg) as a hypothetical lineup next year (accounting for Yuya Uemura) and I think it’s pretty good. D Block is the only one I think is a bit subpar, but with tournaments formatted like this you will also suffer from the bigger names being spread thin.
Also just for the sake of expectations I did not include a single AEW guy in this. I’m sure if they go forward with this format you’ll get Lance or Eddie or any of the “AEW guys who secretly wish they were in NJPW” guys.
And yes that is a double retirement block for Tanahashi and Kojima. Was maddening seeing Kojima on commentary for the G1 this year but not included. Honestly think he’s more mobile than Tanahashi.