As previously reported, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) has officially announced the complete list of competitors for this year’s G1 Climax 36 tournament. The lineup for both blocks of the tournament was revealed during the NJPW Dominion event on Sunday morning. All competitors have been announced except for the play-in participants, with two to be added to each block.
NJPW recently confirmed the play-in matches scheduled for June 23rd and July 6th, which will occur as part of the company’s Road to G1 Climax 36 tour. The event on June 23rd will take place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, and will feature the first two play-in matches. Taichi, who finished at the bottom of his block in the G1 Climax 35 tournament, will face Yuto-Ice. This will be Yuto-Ice’s first appearance in the G1 Climax; he was originally set to compete this year but missed out after losing the IWGP Tag Team Championship. The other match on June 23rd will see NEVER Openweight Champion Aaron Wolf take on YOSHI-HASHI, who also finished last in his block last year.
NJPW will return to Korakuen Hall on July 6th to finalize the last two spots. OSKAR, Yuto-Ice’s tag team partner, is looking to earn a berth in the G1 and will face Yujiro Takahashi, who has lost play-in matches for the past three years. The other match will feature two more last-place finishers from last year’s G1: Ryohei Oiwa and El Phantasmo will compete to secure the final entry in this year’s tournament.
The NJPW G1 Climax 36 tournament is set to begin on July 11 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The play-in matches will take place during the Road to the G1 Climax series, starting on June 19 in Nagano, Japan. All of these matches will be available for live viewing on NJPW World.