NJPW: Predicting The G1 Climax 32 Finals And Winner

The 32nd G1 Climax is well under-way in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The top stars of NJPW and future stars are fighting it out to win this prestigious tournament. Out of the 28 men fighting for the prize, who will be the one to take it home?

Wrestling fans around the world are excited as NJPW’s annual G1 Climax is underway once again. The 32nd tournament includes 28 of the best athletes in the company from both Japan and United States rosters looking to headline Wrestle Kingdom 17 for the world championship. The four blocks of the tournament are stacked as always including three-time winners Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada, who is the latest winner of the 31st tournament. Among the crowd is the former two-time tournament winner Tetsuya Naito, the reigning IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White, and IWGP United States Champion Will Ospreay.

The tournament is already stacked and that is only five of the competitors involved. While many competitors are G1 veterans at this point, there are five rising stars in New Japan Pro-Wrestling that are getting their first shot in the G1 Climax: Aaron Henare, David Finlay, El Phantasmo, Jonah, and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor. Out of the rookies in the field, Aaron Henare made an immediate impact in the tournament by picking up a massive victory over Hiroshi Tanahashi. With a surprising victory on night one, fans were already shown to expect the unexpected.

You can never really know what to expect in a tournament as interesting and complex as the G1 Climax. We are only a few days into the tournament and there are still plenty of “tournament days” to go until we reach the finals on day twenty. However, it that it just happens to be a month away. The field is nearly even at this point with only a few competitors with two points so far. As the old saying goes, it is still up for anyone to win at this point. However, out of the 28 competitors, let’s take a look and predict who will be in the finals.

In the finals, the winner between the A and B blocks faces the winner between the C and D blocks. While that does help predict things a little easier, each of the four blocks still contains seven tremendous athletes. To start off the process, we are going to have to name a winner of each individual block to get down to the final four. Starting with the A block, the field includes many of the powerhouses of the tournament including Jonah, Bad Luck Fale, Lance Archer, and Jeff Cobb. However, this block most importantly includes the predicted winner of it, last year’s winner, Kazuchika Okada. It is hard not to put your bet on Okada in the A block.

In the B block, we will see a bit of stable warfare as five different stables are represented. The leader of The Bullet Club Jay White and Chase Owens represent their club. While we will see Sanada representing the Los Ingobernables de Japón, Great-O-Khan representing The United Empire, Tomohiro Ishii representing Choas, and Taichi representing Suzuki-Gun. The only member of the B block not in a stable is Tama Tonga and that is only because he was kicked out of The Bullet Club. That will be fun on night 18 when White and Tonga meet. However, in the end, only one man can win the block and that has to be world champion “Switchblade” Jay White.

As we reach the C block, we see two of the multi-time winners in Tanahashi and Naito while another Former 2008 winner Hirooki Goto will join the field. They are joined by an IWGP World Champion Evil. Besides the former winners and former world champion Evil in the block, there are three more men who easily could be world champions. A competitor like Aaron Henare, who is already shocking fans in the first tournament, is joined by two of NJPW’s most impressive stars Zack Sabre Jr and Kenta, who had a classic match on day two. When the smoke all clears in the end, Hiroshi Tanahashi will stand tall in the C block.

Last but not least, the D block contains the most members of The Bullet Club: Juice Robinson, Yujiro Takahashi, and El Phantasmo. Speaking of Juice, his former tag team partner David Finlay will join him on the block and we can’t wait until they meet. They are joined by former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi, former multi-time tag champion in NJPW Yoshi-Hashi, and the reigning IWGP United States Champion and the eventual winner of the D block Will Ospreay. With it down to our final two matches of Okada versus White and Tanahashi versus Ospreay, let’s move straight into the pick for the 32nd G1 Climax finals.

G1 Climax 32 Finals: Will Ospreay versus Kazuchika Okada

In the end, it has to be these two fighting in the finals of the G1. They are two of the best in the world and they already have a story between them. Last year’s winner, Okada will be fighting to be a back-to-back winner and step closer to making history with his fourth G1 Climax win. He would then only be one more victory from tying most victories with “Mr. G1” Masahiro Chono. However, Will Ospreay has just as much, if not more, to fight for. Just when Ospreay became IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in 2021, he suffered a neck injury and it was all taken away.

By winning the G1 for the first time, he will have a shot to win back the title that he never actually lost. However, when it comes down to the eventual finals match between the two, the record favors Kazuchika Okada. While they have fought and even teamed in tag team matches, Okada and Osprreay have only fought one-on-one on seven occasions: six in NJPW and once in RevPro. Out of the seven matches, Okada has won six of them, it is safe to say he would be the clear favorite. That fact alone could be enough for Ospreay to step up his game even more, which is a task for somebody who is argued as the best in the world.

However, that same argument is made about his opponent. As we have seen on seven other occasions, this would be a five-star classic. However, this time, Will Osppreay has to put another tally by his name. He has to beat Okada to win his first ever G1 Climax and remind the world just how good he is. Then we can see Will Ospreay make his way to Wrestle Kingdom 17 to fight whoever the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is at the time and possibly become the first person to hold the championship twice. And hopefully, he will hold it a bit longer the second time.

G1 Climax 32 Winner: Will Ospreay