Quarterfinals set for NJPW G1 Climax 33
Two wrestlers advanced to the quarterfinals of NJPW’s G1 Climax 33 tournament on Wednesday on the final night of D Block matches.
Tetsuya Naito defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi in today’s main event to secure the top spot in D Block. Zack Sabre Jr. earned a spot in the quarterfinals as well by defeating Hirooki Goto in the semi-main event.
Naito and ZSJ both finished the round-robin portion of the tournament with 10 points, with Naito holding the tie-breaker by way of his victory over ZSJ on the August 2 show from Hiroshima.
United Empire’s Jeff Cobb just missed out on the top spot in the block after going to a double count-out with TMDK’s Shane Haste and finishing with nine points. Haste purposely got both of them counted out to prevent Cobb from reaching 10 points. Had Cobb won the match, he would have finished on top of the D Block with 10 points and tie-breaking wins over both ZSJ and Naito.
The quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday, August 10, from Chiba. The semifinals will be held Saturday, August 12, and the finals take place on Sunday, August 13.
Our full report from Wednesday’s show is available here.
The quarterfinals lineup for Thursday, August 10:
- A Block winner SANADA vs. C Block second place finisher EVIL
- B Block winner Kazuchika Okada vs. D Block second place finisher Zack Sabre Jr.
- C Block winner David Finlay vs. B Block second place finisher Will Ospreay
- D Block winner Tetsuya Naito vs. A Block second place finisher Hikuleo
The final D Block standings:
- Tetsuya Naito (5-2) – 10 points
- Zack Sabre Jr. (5-2) – 10 points
- Jeff Cobb (4-2-1) – 9 points
- Alex Coughlin (3-4) – 6 points
- Hiroshi Tanahashi (3-4) – 6 points
- Hirooki Goto (3-4) – 6 points
- Shane Haste (2-4-1) – 5 points
- Toru Yano (2-5) – 4 points
