The field for the G1 Climax has expanded by two with the additions of Yuto-Ice and Aaron Wolf.
Tuesday’s Road to G1 Climax event at Korakuen Hall was headlined by former IWGP tag team champion Yuto-Ice defeating Taichi in a nearly twenty-six-minute affair.
Yuto-Ice overcame a Vertical Drop Brainbuster and Black Mephisto and battled his way back to finally hit Cruella for the win. He joins the A Block.
Yuto-Ice will be joined by Olympic gold medalist Aaron Wolf, who defeated YOSHI-HASHI with an Inverted Triangle, registering the longest singles match of his career.
The match saw the rookie ascend to the top turnbuckle and land a splash, and nearly won with an arm-triangle. YOSHI-HASHI escaped the submission but fell to the Inverted Triangle when Wolf applied the hold and punched his ticket to his first G1 tournament next month as part of the B Block.
The last two spots in the G1 will be determined with play-in matches on July 6 when OSKAR faces Yujiro, and El Phantasmo takes on Ryohei Oiwa.
Tuesday’s show also featured a 4-way No. 1 Contender’s match to determine YOH’s first challenger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
Francesco Akira had his arm raised by defeating SHO, Master Wato, and Kosei Fujita by using the Crown Fall and pinning Wato after more than fifteen minutes.
YOH was on Japanese commentary for the match and will defend the belt against Akira on July 6 at the same building.
Road to G1 Climax – June 23 at Korakuen Hall:
- G1 Climax A Block Play-In Match: Yuto-Ice over Taichi in 25:54
- G1 Climax B Block Play-In Match: Aaron Wolf over YOSHI-HASHI in 19:45
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight No.1 Contender’s 4-way Match: Francesco Akira over Master Wato, Kosei Fujita & SHO in 15:35
- DOUKI, Ren Narita, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro over Yota Tsuji, OSKAR, Shingo Takagi & Daiki Nagai in 8:47
- Shota Umino & Satoshi Kojima over Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson in 10:06
- Great O-Khan, Jake Lee, Jakob Austin Young & Zane Jay over Hirooki Goto, YOH, Ryusuke Taguchi & Tatsuya Matsumoto in 10:15
- Yuya Uemura, El Desperado & Masatora Yasuda over Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Taisei Nakahara in 8:47
