NJPW: G1 Special in San Francisco Preview and Predictions

Saturday’s NJPW G1 Special marks the next chapter in New Japan’s western expansion. The show promises to be exciting, unpredictable, and pivotal to many of the company’s central storylines.

10 Man Tag: Chaos vs Bullet Club

Making his first wrestling appearance since NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10’s preshow, King Haku is here. So that’s pretty cool I suppose. I’m expecting this to be a fun, but mostly inconsequential match. Bullet Club will probably pick up the win cause ‘Merica, but who knows? If I was booking, I’d use this opportunity to get Yoshi-Hashi some much needed G1 momentum. Have him get a pinfall over anyone not named Tama Tonga, but yeah… probably not.

Prediction: Bullet Club (Tama Tonga pins Gedo)

Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.

Ishii and Suzuki’s brawl at NJPW Dominion was an overlooked highlight of the show. The thing was wild, excellent, and really made me want a singles match between the two of them ASAP. Honestly, I wish we were getting that singles match here, but this tag will suffice. (I know they wrestled at SSE UK, but that didn’t stream in my neck of the woods. I’m bitter so I’m pretending it didn’t happen)

Expect Suzuki & ZSJ to go over here, with Toru Yano being the least protected guy in the match. However, The Sublime Master Thief (lol) recently suggested that we’d be seeing a more serious side of him in this year’s G1. Maybe we’ll get a preview of this new, less-comedic Yano, and he’ll pick up a shocking pinfall victory. Still, smart money’s on Suzuki Gun.

Prediction: Suzuki & ZSJ (ZSJ submits Yano)

Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA vs Hangman Page & Marty Scurll

Marty Scurll’s bizarre “legend killer” saga in NJPW continues here with another random tag match. Part of me wants to say Scurll will pick up the victory for his team because of his popularity in The States, but nah. Probably not. Tanahashi is High Fly Flowing someone for sure… Or I guess Hangman Page could pin KUSHIDA? Man, I don’t know. This is a weird match.

Prediction: Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA (Tanahashi pins Marty Scurll)

NEVER Openweight Championship: Hirooki Goto (c) vs Jeff Cobb

Like most Hirooki Goto matches, this is a dark horse contender to steal the show. Seriously, do not sleep on this match. Goto has been slowly but surely bringing prestige back to the NEVER belt after Minoru Suzuki completely ruined it last year (please don’t hurt me Mr. Suzuki), and I fully expect his streak of excellent championship matches to continue here against THE MONSTER MATANZA CUETO.

There’s a chance that Jeff Cobb could pick up the belt, freeing up Goto to be a slightly more believable G1 winner, but I doubt it. No one is really going to buy Goto’s chances in this year’s tournament either way, and I think Gedo is aware of this.

Prediction: Hirooki Goto

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (c) vs EVIL & SANADA

This is probably the most unpredictable match on the card. I didn’t expect The Bucks to win the belts at Dominion, but they did. Now we’re here and I don’t know what’s going to happen next. If Nick and Matt drop the belts it could begin a story of the team having to overcome the struggle of adjusting to the heavyweight division, but if they successfully defend against the former champs they will have completely bypassed any kind of adjustment period.

Regardless of which team goes back to Japan with the belts, there should be no doubt that these teams are going to have another fantastic match together. I guess I’ll go with The Bucks of Youth to retain so EVIL and SANADA can be viewed as primarily singles wrestlers heading into the G1.

Prediction: The Young Bucks

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs Tetsuya Naito & Bushi

While this match does involve three of NJPW’s biggest stars, I don’t expect it to end up being relevant to any kind of long term story. Still, this should be a solid showcase. Expect Bushi to take the pin.

Prediction: Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay (Ospreay pins Bushi)

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs Dragon Lee

Prediction: Hiromu Takahashi

IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs Juice Robinson

I’m praying to the wrestling gods that Juice gets his first title victory here. The guy has evolved into one of the best pure, underdog babyfaces in all of wrestling. He’s come so close to winning every other mid-card championship, putting on outstanding matches with Naito, Omega, and Goto. I understand why he didn’t come out on top in any of those matches, but this feels right. If he doesn’t win, I’ll be extremely disappointed.

It’s not that I don’t like Jay White. I know a lot of people are down on his NJPW run since returning from excursion, but I’m not one of those people. I think there are some really great subtleties to his character work that people are overlooking. Still, it’s gotta be Juice’s time. The crowd is going to explode for this if it happens. I can’t wait.

Prediction: Juice Robinson

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs Cody

Although their first match at Supercard of Honor was somewhat underwhelming, this has still been one of the most entertaining feuds in all of wrestling this year. This match could completely suck, and it would still be remembered as a great rivalry. Cody’s character work has been on other level, and the creativity put into the story through Being the Elite and Social Media has really elevated things.

I’m fully expecting this to blow their ROH match out of the water. Even though it seems obvious that Kenny will retain, you better believe that they’re going to suspend all of our disbelief. In the end, though, The Cleaner isn’t losing here. Crazier things have happened I guess, but I would seriously be absolutely shocked to see Cody stand tall at the end of the night.

Prediction: Kenny Omega

Next: Okada vs. Scurll Announced for All In

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Special in San Francisco airs live on AXS TV Saturday at 8/7c. Don’t miss it!

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