The G1 Climax 32 road has reached its destination at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, but there’s still a bit of business left before the tournament crowns a champion.
A full slate of block matches on Aug. 16 decided the four semifinalists, and as usual, it’s a star-studded group. On one side of the bracket, A Block winner Kazuchika Okada, a multiple-time winner and the defending G1 Climax king, takes on Tama Tonga. The two men know each other well, and Okada has a big edge in their meetings in this particular event, but this is a different, seemingly reborn Tonga. Will that be enough against the Rainmaker?
The other semifinal matchup is a first-time singles clash between a man who is desperate to win the G1 Climax in what he’s said could be one of his last real shots, and an opponent who is experiencing a deep run for the first time. Tetsuya Naito will have to bring his ‘A’ game to have any hope of defeating Will Ospreay, who’s said that winning it all would be the final NJPW singles accomplishment he’s yet to achieve.
Before the semifinals, there’s a full card of tag team, six-man and eight-man bouts. One nice thing about Night 19 is that wrestlers who haven’t been seen for the entirety of G1 Climax are back in the mix, including veterans and junior heavyweights. Perhaps most importantly, Hiromu Takahashi returns to action, joining his LIJ stablemates in an eight-man tag against a Bullet Club/House of Torture foursome.
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