NJPW announced today the 2 blocks in which the 20 participants of the G1 Climax 27 were assigned. During 4 weeks, from July 17 until August 13, they will square off in a robin-round tournament, fight every other man of their block and try to earn the most victories to gain enough points to reach the finals (two points for a victory, one point for a draw, and zero points for a loss).
The winner, if he’s not already the champion, is traditionally receiving a IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome that will take place on January 4, 2018. Last year, G1 Climax tournament’s winner was Kenny Omega.
Here are the list of the wrestlers of Blocks A and B.
A Block
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Togi Makabe
Yuji Nagata
Hirooki Goto
Tomohiro Ishii
YOSHI-HASHI
Bad Luck Fale
Tetsuya Naito
Zack Sabre Jr.
B Block
Satoshi Kojima
Juice Robinson
Michael Elgin
Kazuchika Okada
Toru Yano
Kenny Omega
Tama Tonga
EVIL
SANADA
Minoru Suzuki
Old enemies will have another chance to square off as Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada are both in Block B. In Block A, Testsuya Naito will face the man who grabbed his IWGP Intercontinental title last June, Hiroshi Tanahashi. Yuji Nagata will take part in his 19th G1 tournament, the final one.
CHAOS members Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi will have to compete in the same Block A while Kazuchika Okada will be in the B one. BULLET CLUB members Kenny Omega and Tama Tonga will have to compete in Block B as Tama Tonga will be in Block B. On SUZUKI GUN side, no competition expected until maybe the finals as Zack Sabre Jr. is in Block A and Minoru Suzuki in Block B.
The complete schedule of matches will be announced in the next few days on NJPW website.