Last year, the tournament expanded partly due to the larger talent roster it seems. Comparing last year to this year, many wrestlers have left (Ospreay, Tonga, Okada, Hikuleo), but the roster is still large, meaning there are going to be some shock exclusions this year. Here’s how I think the field will look.
Qualifying directly
- Tetsuya Naito (G1 2023 Winner)
- David Finlay (Global Champion)
- Shingo Takagi (NEVER Champion)
- Jeff Cobb (TV Champion)
- Great O-Khan (KOPW Champion)
- Gabe Kidd (STRONG Champion)
- Shane Haste (IWGP Tag Champion)
- Mikey Nichols (IWGP Tag Champion)
- Yota Tsuji (NEVER Six-Man Champion)
- Masa Kitamiya (NOAH Rep)
- Claudio Castagnoli (AEW Rep)
- SANADA
- Zack Sabre Jr
- Ren Narita
- Shota Umino
- Yuya Uemera
- Tomohiro Ishii
- EVIL
In the qualifiers
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Hiroki Goto
- YOSHI HASHI
- Toru Yano
- Taichi
- KENTA
- HENARE
- Chase Owens
Excluded
- Yujiro Takahashi
- Callum Newman
- Oleg Boltin
- Satoshi Kojima
- El Phantasmo
I think the champions will go straight through and the big shock will be that Tanahashi will have to qualify and he won’t.
I took El Phantasmo out as well because he just finished his run with the Tongans, needs time to freshen up, and Gedo loves Chase Owens too much to replace him.
How do you think the field will look?
EDIT: Totally got the excluded section wrong, 4/5 of them in the qualifiers and ELP straight in.
I was correct that there would be an AEW and NOAH rep but got the wrestlers wrong.
My TMDK picks were wrong as well. Got Tanahashi in the prelims right at least
by TrainXIV
