New Japan Pro-Wrestling has announced the first 16 participants for its prestigious G1 Climax 35 tournament, which is set to begin on July 19. The list of competitors was revealed during the NJPW Dominion event on Sunday morning.
The tournament will see the legendary Hiroshi Tanahashi compete in his final G1 Climax before his scheduled retirement in January. He is joined by notable names like former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA and crossover star Konosuke Takeshita, who also competes in AEW.
The G1 Climax is NJPW’s signature annual tournament, with the winner traditionally earning an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom. This year’s tournament will be split into two blocks of ten wrestlers each. The final four entrants will be determined by a series of qualifying matches on June 23 and July 4.
The announced participants for each block are:
A Block: Hirooki Goto, Boltin Oleg, Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji, David Finlay, EVIL, SANADA, Hiroshi Tanahashi
B Block: El Phantasmo, Shota Umino, Shingo Takagi, Zack Sabre Jr., Great-O-Khan, Gabe Kidd, Ren Narita, Konosuke Takeshita
