Open The Forbidden Gate

New Japan ran Day 19 of G1 CLIMAX 32 today, the penultimate day of the tournament featuring the Semifinals.

Today’s event was held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese and English.

The announced paid attendance was 3179. This event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2022 on TV Asahi.

Match 1: Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Lance Archer. Yoh pinned TAKA after Direct Drive.

Match 2: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Royce Isaacs & Ton Lawlor. Sabre beat Isaacs with a crucifix armbar.

Match 3: Bad Dude Tito & Jonah beat Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe. Jonah pinned Honma after a lariat.

Match 4: Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale & Juice Robinson beat Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Owens pinned Henare after a package piledriver.

Match 5: El Phantasmo, Yujiro Takahashi, KENTA & EVIL beat BUSHI, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi. KENTA beat BUSHI with Game Over.

Match 6: KUSHIDA, David Finlay, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Taiji Ishimori, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson & Jay White. Yano pinned Gallows.

G1 CLIMAX Semifinals:
Match 7: Kazuchika Okada beat Tama Tonga.
Main Event: Will Ospreay beat Tetsuya Naito.

The Final is tomorrow and will be Okada vs. Ospreay. Okada will be going for his 2nd straight G1 win. The full card will be announced later today. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET, but it may briefly go live 20 minutes earlier for the JAM Project live performance.

UPDATE: Talk about motivation…in a post-event Twitter post, Ospreay revealed he nearly died from a serious kidney infection in May & June that caused him to miss 2 weeks in RevPro and Warrior Wrestling. Now he goes for the G1 tomorrow and a chance to perhaps headline Tokyo Dome-could he become the next double champion? (Ospreay is the current IWGP US Heavyweight Champion)

UPDATE: Here is the card for the Finals tomorrow:
Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto vs. Sho, Yujiro Takahashi, Dick Togo & EVIL
Jonah & Bad Dude Tito vs. Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaacs
Aaron Henare, Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan vs. Juice RObinson, Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale
BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi, Lance Archer & Zack Sabre Jr.
Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi vs. El Phantasmo & KENTA
David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson
Tama Tonga & KUSHIDA vs. Jay White & Taiji Ishimori
G1 CLIMAX 32 Finals: Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay. Okada is going for his 2nd straight and 4th career G1 title. Ospreay is going for his first.
All matches are 20 minute time limit except the main event, which is no time limit.

New Japan ran Day 18 of G1 CLIMAX 32 today, the final day of preliminary action. It’s all G1 today with the final matches to hopefully settle everything.

Today’s event was held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese and English.

The announced paid attendance was 3227. Today’s event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2022 on TV Asahi. El Desperado was today’s guest on Japanese commentary.

All matches were G1 CLIMAX matches, 30 minute time limit.
Match 1: Block D-Will Ospreay beat Juice Robinson. As a result, Ospreay wins Block D and advances to the Semifinals.
Match 2: Block D-El Phantasmo beat Shingo Takagi.
Match 3: Block C-EVIL beat Hirooki Goto.
Match 4: Block C-Tetsuya Naito beat Zack Sabre Jr. As a result, Naito wins Block C and advances to the Semifinals. This one only went 118 seconds.
Match 5: Block B-Tomohiro Ishii beat SANADA.
Match 6: Block B-Tama Tonga beat Jay White. As a result, Tonga wins Block B and advances to the Semifinals.
Match 7: Block A-Jonah beat Bad Luck Fale.
Main Event: Block A-Kazuchika Okada beat Lance Archer. As a result, Okada wins Block A and advances to the Semifinals.

The Semifinals are tomorrow, it will be Okada-Tonga & Naito-Ospreay. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.

In other news, New Japan announced a return to London, England for events on October 1 & 2. The two events will be held at the Indoor Arena at Crystal Palace’s National Sports Center. Fans can sign up for a mailing list for event info and ticket pre-sales at www.njpwuk.com.
More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: Masaaki Endo, one of the members of JAM Project, will miss the group’s live performance as part of Thursday’s event. Coronavirus. The rest of the group will still appear and the performance remains on.

UPDATE 2: As of 10 PM ET/7 PM PT the full card for 8/17 has been announced:
Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii vs. TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Lance Archer
Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaavs vs. Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Bad Dude Tito & Jonah
Great-O-Khan, Aaron Henare & Jeff Cobb vs. Juice Robinson, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
BUSHI, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi vs. EVIL, KENTA, El Phantasmo & YujirO Takahashi
KUSHIDA, David Finlay, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Taiji Ishimori & Jay White
G1 CLIMAX Semifinals: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tama Tonga
G1 CLIMAX Semifinals: Tetsuya Naito vs. Will Ospreay

New Japan ran Day 17 of G1 CLIMAX 32 today, the final event before the tournament-ending tripleheader. Although they have run in Nagano before, today was the first time a G1 event was held in the city’s domed stadium used for the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Today’s ecent was held at White Ring in Nagano and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese and English.

The announced paid attendance was 1728.

Match 1: Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Kosei Fujita, Ryohei Oiwa, Yuto Nakashima & Hirooki Goto. Sho beat Fujita with an armbar.

Match 2: Aaron Henare & Will Ospreay beat Bad Dude Tito & Jonah. Ospreay pinned Tito after Hidden Blade. After the match, Juice Robinson attacked Ospreay and stole the IWGP US Heavyweight Title belt again.

Match 3: El Phantasmo, Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale & Juice Robinson beat BUSHI, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Owens pinned BUSHI after C Trigger.

Match 4: Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada beat TAKA Michinoku, Zack Sabre Jr. & Lance Archer. Yano pinned TAKA.

Match 5: Jado & Tama Tonga beat Gedo & Jay White. Tonga pinned Gedo after Gun Stun. After the match, White laid out Tonga with a chair and Bladerunner.

G1 CLIMAX:
Match 6: Block D-YOSHI-HASHI beat David Finlay.
Match 7: Block B-Great-O-Khan beat Taichi.
Match 8: Block A-Tom Lawlor beat Jeff Cobb.
Main Event: Block C-KENTA beat Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Standings:
Block A:
1-Okada, 4-1, 8 pts
2-Archer, 3-2, 6 pts
3-Jonah, 3-2, 6 pts (OUT)
4-Lawlor, 3-3,, 6 pts (OUT)
5-Cobb, 3-3, 6 pts (OUT)
6-Fale, 2-3, 4 pts (OUT)
7-Yano, 1-5, 2 pts (OUT)

Block B:
1-White, 5-0, 10 pts
2-Tonga, 4-1, 8 pts
3-SANADA, 3-2, 6 pts (OUT)
4-Khan, 2-4, 4 pts (OUT)
5-Taichi, 2-4, 4 pts (OUT)
6-Owens, 2-4, 4 pts (OUT)
7-Ishii, 1-4, 2 pts (OUT)

Block C:
1-Sabre, 4-1, 8 pts
2-Naito, 3-2, 6 pts
3-Goto, 3-2, 6 pts
4-KENTA, 3-3, 6 pts (OUT)
5-Tanahashi, 3-3, 6 pts (OUT)
6-EVIL, 2-3, 4 pts (OUT)
7-Henare, 1-5, 2 pts (OUT)

Block D:
1-Ospreay, 3-2, 6 pts
2-Takagi, 3-2, 6 pts
3-YOSHI-HASHI, 3-3, 6 pts
4-Finlay, 3-3, 6 pts
5-Takahashi, 3-3, 6 pts
6-Robinson, 2-3, 4 pts
7-Phantasmo, 2-3, 4 pts
The winner of each block advances to the Semifinals. Block A comes down to Okada-Archer. The winner advances. Jonah is out because while he beat Okada, he lost to Archer and head-to-head result is the main tiebreaker. Block B comes down to White-Tonga, winner advances. Block C likely comes down to Sabre-Naito. Sabre advances with a win but Naito has a chance with a win. But if both Naito and Goto win (Goto has EVIL), it gets complicated because of tiebreakers. A 3-way likely would be necessary because everyone went 1-1 against the other two. Then there’s Block D…the simplest scenario is if Takagi beats Phantasmo, that settles it. Ospreay must beat Robinson (oh snap) and Phantasmo must beat Takagi for Ospreay to advance. If both Takagi & Ospreay finish tied, Takagi has the tiebreaker. If both lose…well…has there ever, in the history of wrestling, been a SEVEN-WAY MATCH? That might be necessary!

Day 18 is Tuesday at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, where the final 3 days will be held consecutively. Tuesday will have all the remaining preliminary tournament matches. The Semifinals will be Wednesday. Live streaming on New Japan Word will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET. On Thursday (final day), JAM Project, who composed and performed this year’s and last year’s G1 theme song, will perform live during the event.

In other news, Robbie Eagles challenged CMLL Middleweight Champion Dragon Rojo Jr. at Friday’s CMLL event in Mexico City but was unsuccessful as Rojo won to retain the title. Eagles will remain in Mexico to participate in an upcoming trios tournament in CMLL with Rocky Romero & Tiger Mask, who is headed to Mexico after successfully defending the All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Championship earlier this week.