Update: G1 Climax Rankings, Scores

When The Wrestling Estate staff decided to join in on a competition in seeing who could accurately predict the G1 Climax, we all knew that we wouldn’t be perfect, but we didn’t know that there would be this many surprises along the way. While we will be determining the true winner based on point predictions for all wrestlers involved, it’s always good to see how everyone is doing on a nightly basis. I’ll go sports style with this in showing how well each staff member has done based on the standard 5-game record, i.e. 5-0 or 0-5.

As we are now through eight nights, four nights for each block, the competition heats up as we head towards the halfway point. Early storylines for the G1 include the currently undefeated Okada, Kenta and Moxley. The leader of Bullet Club, “Switchblade” Jay White, is winless. Yano has already edged out victories over both leaders of Bullet Club and LIJ, White and Naito. The rise of the junior heavyweights in Shingo and Ospreay has been fun to watch. There are many more headlines to come with 10 more nights of round robin competition to go and of course, the finals set for August 12.

Night 1 in Dallas saw victories from Okada, Kenta, Archer, Bad Luck and Sanada. Three of these wins were surprises to our staff, as I was the only one to predict an Archer victory over Ospreay and Sam was the only one to predict Sanada to outwrestle Sabre. Surprisingly, nobody predicted that Bad Luck Fale would defeat Evil on the first night, but there are always some upsets early in the tournament. On this night, Neal, Sam and Juan all finished within one match of breaking even at either 2-3 or 3-2. John finished with a 1-4 record, correctly picking Kenta’s win over Ibushi. Steven sadly fell short this night going 0-5.

There were more surprises on Night 2 when B-Block took the stage for the first time. Juice, Ishii, Yano, Goto and Moxley all won their opening matches. Nobody predicted the shocker that was Yano defeating Naito by employing his unusual tactics. Steven came out as the smart one of the group as the only one taking Goto getting his revenge on White and scoring 2 points. For our staff this night, Steven ended at 1-4 with that Goto victory. The rest of the staff finished one match within breaking even at 2-3 or 3-2.

Night 3 would see two members of the staff finish the night at 4-1. Sam and I would fall short of perfection while Okada, Kenta and Archer all remained unbeaten for their second night of action. Evil and Ospreay would finally secure their first wins. I took Ibushi over Evil, which cost me my spot at perfection while Sam took Bad Luck over Archer. The rest of the staff would see Juan and John go 2-3 and Steven have a winning record finally at 3-2.

The second night of B-Block was an even split among the staff as no one did any better than 3-2, but nobody did worse than 2-3. Juice, Ishii and Moxley won, keeping them undefeated while Shingo and Taichi got their first 2 points. The shocking stories at this point revolved around the winless streaks beginning for both Jay White and Tetsuya Naito. The leaders of two of New Japan’s most premier stables are struggling to stay above water right out the B-Block. History has shown that slow starts usually lead to better results down the home stretch, though. Last year, Okada started 0-2 and finished second in his block, which was won by Tanahashi. Oh, by the way, he lost his opening match last year to Jay White. It may pay in this tournament to start slow and finish strong. Steven, Sam, John and I all finished 3-2 for this night while Juan was just behind at 2-3.

The event on July 18 featured five matches, all of which contained their own separate storylines. Tag team partners and stablemates collided when Evil defeated Sanada. Okada continued his winning ways knocking off Bad Luck. Tanahashi would finally secure a G1 win when he beat Sabre, who dropped to 0-3 in stunning fashion. Kota Ibushi would get his Wrestle Kingdom revenge on Will Ospreay. Finally, Kenta would end the fairytale story of Archer by winning their match, while also keeping his winning streak alive. Our staff had their own winning streaks as nobody had a losing record for these five matches. Sam would record the first perfect day at 5-0 while John, Juan and I would go 4-1. Steven would sit at 3-2.

Night 6 on July 19 would feature one of the hardest hitting matches in NJPW G1 history when Moxley defeated Ishii in the main event. While Moxley remained undefeated, White continued his winless streak after falling to Yano. Cobb would get his first win in the tournament knocking off Juice in a match built on respect. For our staff, Juan would be the one to stand out on this day going 4-1. His only mistake was picking Jay White over Yano, but if it helps him feel better, nobody picked Yano. (Talk about playing spoiler in more ways than one.) Sam, Steven and John would go 3-2 while I would finally have a losing day, going 2-3.

In what is considered a candidate for match of the year, the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Okada would go to 4-0 defeating fellow Chaos stablemate and current Jr. Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay. Kenta would also stay unbeaten, just edging Evil in a good match while Tanahashi would get his second straight win over Archer. The stage is now set for Night 9 on July 27 for the battle of the undefeated between Okada and Kenta. Someone is likely to suffer their first loss and whoever it is, it might be their only loss for the tournament. In the event of a tiebreaker being needed between these two, this match would mean an extra point ahead for the winner. I would bounce back from a bad Night 6 and go 4-1 alongside Sam and John. John and I both thought that Ospreay would finally exorcise the demon of not being able to defeat Okada and Sam believed in the rising star of Sanada to beat Ibushi. Steven would end the day at 3-2 and Juan would finish 2-3.

With the recent events of Night 8, Moxley stays unbeaten in a great match with Shingo. Meanwhile, White finally gets his first 2 points winning over a very game Cobb. Juice would get 6 points and second place with a win over Yano. Naito would get to 4 points winning the main event over Ishii and Taichi low blows his way to 4 points over Goto. John would do his best Moxley impersonation and go unbeaten on this day picking every winner correctly. Juan would only lose out on predicting a Yano victory over Juice. Steven would get his only victory of the day taking the “Switchblade” over Cobb. Neal and Sam would finish 3-2.

That’s the big update so far, as on Saturday we will be officially half way through the G1. While we can’t get a good indication of how well everyone will do on a points level until the tournament reaches its end on August 12, we can still keep track of our predictions right here on The Wrestling Estate. Stay tuned for how we do on the road to the G1 Climax finals and the road to Wrestle Kingdom.