Along with a full night of championship bouts and other intrigue, one of the fun parts of NJPW Dominion 6.4 in Osaka on Sunday was the announcement of the G1 Climax 33 field. All 32 participants were revealed about halfway through the card, including a pair of fun entrants from outside NJPW.
One of them will be very familiar to North American wrestling fans: the Mad King himself, Eddie Kingston. He hasn’t been appearing much on AEW television as of late, but will be plenty busy in New Japan’s summer tournament.
The other outsider is Pro Wrestling Noah star Kaito Kiyomiya. The two-time GHC Heavyweight Champion will undoubtedly be in some dream matchups for fans of Japanese wrestling as the G1 plays out.
Here’s a look at the entire field in the order it was announced; no blocks have been revealed as of yet. Anyone marked with an asterisk is a first-time G1 Climax entrant.
G1 Climax 33 participants:
- Kazuchika Okada
- Tetsuya Naito
- SANADA
- Will Ospreay
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- David Finlay
- Shota Umino *
- Shingo Takagi
- Tomohiro Ishii
- Tama Tonga
- Tanga Loa
- Hikuleo *
- Hirooki Goto
- YOSHI-HASHI
- Toru Yano
- KENTA
- Zack Sabre Jr.
- Taichi
- Eddie Kingston *
- El Phantasmo
- Ren Narita *
- EVIL
- Chase Owens
- Jeff Cobb
- Great-O-Khan
- Aaron Henare
- Gabriel Kidd *
- Alex Coughlin *
- Shane Haste *
- Mikey Nicholls *
- Yota Tsuji *
- Kaito Kiyomiya *
The 2023 G1 Climax tournament begins on Saturday, July 15 and Sunday, July 16 in Hokkaido. The semifinals are set for Saturday, Aug. 12 and the final on Aug. 13 at Sumo Hall in Ryogoku.