NJPW reveals blocks for G1 Climax 32 tournament

By Bryan Rose
Published: 20 Jun 2022, 03:58

NJPW has announced the blocks for next month’s G1 Climax 32 tournament.

This year’s tournament will have four blocks of seven participants each. The winners of each block will then advance to semifinal matches on August 17, with the final match taking place on August 18. Both the semifinal and finals will take place at Budokan Hall.

The blocks are as follows:

A Block:

Kazuchika Okada
Toru Yano
Tom Lawlor
Jeff Cobb
JONAH
Bad Luck Fale
Lance Archer

B Block:

Jay White
Tomohiro Ishii
SANADA
Tama Tonga
Great-O-Khan
Chase Owens
Taichi

C Block:

Hiroshi Tanahashi
Hirooki Goto
Tetsuya Naito
Zack Sabre Jr.
Aaron Henare
KENTA
EVIL

D Block:

Will Ospreay
YOSHI-HASHI
Shingo Takagi
David Finlay
Juice Robinson
El Phantasmo
Yujiro Takahashi

The tournament will begin on July 16 at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center. The winner of the tournament will receive a briefcase with a contract for a IWGP World Heavyweight title match at Wrestle Kingdom 17.

Kazuchika Okada won last year’s tournament, defeating Kota Ibushi in the finals after Ibushi suffered an injury, causing the match to end early. He went on to defeat Shingo Takagi to win the IWGP World Heavyweight title on January 4, then retained it on January 5 against Will Ospreay.