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The G1 Climax is finally here. Tetsuya Naito is the reigning champion of wrestling’s greatest tournament, so who better to run down this year’s field with? njpw1972.com spoke with Naito at the end of June to preview G1 Climax 28!

G1 CLIMAX 28: LIVE STREAMING, Event Tickets, Schedule & more info at http://g1climax.jp/en/

— So the G1 is upon us; this year there aren’t really any surprise entrants, with a ‘home grown’ field of NJPW wrestlers.

Naito: That’s a good thing.

–Oh, so you’re on the positive side of the fence.

Naito: What? There’s a negative side to that?

–Well, I think there are some people who take it as a negative.

Naito: I mean, surprises are surprising, and I appreciate that fans like a big surprise name in there. But to be able to do a tournament like the G1 Climax with the regular NJPW roster is definitely a good thing. To run in these big buildings every night and be able to fill them.. It’s all very well to be able to do that because you’re leaning on curiosity value because of an outside name, but to have enough interest in your core crew that you can have a G1 Climax without a special guest there, that speaks to how good a state the company is in. We don’t need a ‘surprise’. I’m happy with that.

— The G1 this year is on a bigger scale than ever. Finals in the Budokan, two nights in Ota starting the tournament, two nights in Osaka as well. But of all these shows, there’s one match that everybody is talking about. Your thoughts on ‘that match’ getting all the attention?

Naito: What match?

— August 11, Nippon Budokan, Kenny Omega versus Kota Ibushi.

Naito: I don’t really have any thoughts on that one way or the other. It’s what the fans wanted, isn’t it? They’re getting it. Fine. I have more of a bone to pick with the choice of entrants this year.

— The block drawing isn’t an issue with you, it’s who was picked to enter in the first place?

Naito: Right. I said the same thing last year, but there are 19 shows in this tour. So because of that, the decision was made to have 20 wrestlers, right? All that’s happening is that entrants are being picked to fill out spaces on the cards. We have to have 19 shows, so we have to have 20 wrestlers, so we have to have two blocks of ten. You do that and it’s a given; there’s always going to be entrants that don’t have a chance of winning the tournament.

— A-ha. For example..?

Naito: For example, somebody in the same block as me: Toru Yano.

— Like usual, you aren’t holding back.

Naito: Him, and guys who aren’t around all that often on tours. Someone like Tama Tonga. I get that you have to have Ibushi and Omega, but Tonga hasn’t done much recently.

— I see.

Naito: Look, all I’m saying is that this line of thought- ‘we have this many shows so let’s choose guys to fill the spots,’ that’s weird, isn’t it? This is the G1 Climax. We should be thinking ‘these are the absolute top guys that are really ‘grade one’, so we’ll decide the number of shows in the tour based on that’. But I get it. It’s not about that. It’s about being able to book all those buildings, really, isn’t it?

— Venues have to be booked a long way in advance.

Naito: So my idea isn’t really feasible. So here’s the thing. If you’ve racked up achievements recently, if you have the track record, the results, then no problem, you’re in. But those iffy guys, those guys on the bubble, they should have to have qualifying matches or something. Otherwise you have an issue like with Taichi this year. Even me as a wrestler, I was thinking, ‘why isn’t Taichi in there’?

— Spoken like someone in touch with the fans.

Naito: ‘cuz I mean, Yano is in, Tonga is in, so why shouldn’t Taichi be in?

— On the other hand, you might be lighting a fire under Yano or Tonga here.

Naito: Well, hot damn, I need to watch out! (laughs). Hey, Yano is very entertaining. He’s funny. He’s a goof. But does that make you ‘grade one’? Really? Isn’t that what this is about?

— If you think of it like the battle of the elite few then maybe it’s not quite…

Naito: It’s not at all. Exactly.

— Well, let’s take a look at your G1 opponents. First of all, in Ota on July 15, you face Kenny Omega. Omega recently commented to press that he feels the Japanese talent take it too easy. That’s something that’s angered a lot of the roster, including in the core NJPW camp. How did you feel about that statement?

Naito: I was angry. Absolutely. But I think he said that anticipating the reaction he got.

— Ah, that’s one way of looking at it.

Naito: It might be playing into his sh** stirring, but if you’re a Japanese wrestler, you hear that and you don’t get pissed off, then there’s something wrong with you. If you don’t speak up about it or try and prove him wrong, then you’re admitting that yeah, you are taking it too easy. If you feel that way, then go ahead. But really if you don’t get mad then there’s something wrong with you, pretty much.

— It wouldn’t have surprised me if everybody had responded all at once.

Naito: When it came to what he said, from what I read in interviews and the backstage reports, I just saw Hiroshi Tanahashi and EVIL’s comments I think.

— Hiromu Takahashi talked about it as well, before G1 Special in San Francisco.

Naito: Ah, yeah, he did. Look, it comes back to something I say a lot: it doesn’t matter what you think, if you don’t speak your mind, nothing will come of it, right? So if you haven’t said anything about this, then that means you admit Kenny has a point, right?

— Okada has been conspicuously silent.

Naito: When it comes down to it, Tanahashi was Tanahashi. He stepped up like he does.

— You’re speaking quite highly of Tanahashi lately. At any rate, this match with Kenny is the first of your campaign, there’s the desire to get a good start, plus these comments being an issue as well. You really want to get the win here.

Naito: Well, I’ve wrestled him twice before already. Being honest, and set aside this comment stuff for a second, I really like wrestling him.

— Ah, you have said as much before.

Naito: Kenny, Ibushi as well, I like wrestling them. I like their style. And with Kenny, he just beat Okada, he’s the champion, and I face him in the first match. It’s a situation where we’re both fresh, neither of us have any excuses, it’s just all out, go for it. I think it’ll be a high risk match, but a really exciting one.

— Neither of you are hurt, it’s starting from scratch.. That’s something that really appeals to you, right?

Naito: Absolutely.

— And then conversely, you face Ibushi on August 4 in Osaka. Speaking to Ibushi, he seems excited to face you. He was smiling all the time he was talking about you.

Naito: Oh, really! (laughs)

— It was around January or February this year that Ibushi mentioned you were ‘stalling’. I asked Ibushi to expand on that comment, and he said that you were ‘reverting back to your former self’ and that you would be ‘in freefall by autumn’.

Naito: Hah. Oh yeah? Well, that sound like something the professor of the Ibushi Wrestling Research Institute would say. He’s really done his homework on me.

— Ibushi definitely likes to talk about Tetsuya Naito.

Naito: Well, I’ll say this: I definitely don’t feel like I’m stalling.

— So how do you feel about Ibushi, then? He has said it’s a critical year for him, but he joined Kenny, reformed the Golden Lovers, and since then he’s been caught up with the internal strife in the Bullet Club. He hasn’t really had a stand out performance as his own man this year. This G1 seems vital for him, and he says he’s giving it all he has.

Naito: Hm. So he’s self aware then? He’s going around saying other people are stalling, but he’s the one in freefall.

— You think he’s the one that’s stalling?

Naito: I mean, he’s not on shows, he’s not wrestling, is he? When he’s around, people are excited to see him, but we’re having no trouble putting on shows without him. And if it keeps going like this, people are going to forget all about him soon enough. There won’t be room for him anymore.

— I see. And are you directing that at Kenny somewhat, too?

Naito: Yeah. I feel the same about the both of them.

— That’s perhaps a natural stance to take for someone like you or Tanahashi, who are on the road every tour.

Naito: Hey, everyone has their own way of looking at things. I’ve just felt for a long time that we need to work hard every night, every match. Not just when the big cameras are on. But hey, you do you, you know?

— It’s perhaps somewhat bitter riony to you then, but Kenny and Ibushi aren’t on every show, and that’s something that does make them special enough that they were the focus of all the attention when the G1 field was announced. It’s just another layer to Naito v Omega and Naito v Ibushi that make them such exciting match ups.

Naito: Right. I mean the thing is, being on the road and making all the towns or not, being on every show or not, I’m honestly not saying that there’s a right or wrong answer. You don’t see them in tags on the little towns, and that can make them more of a special attraction in these singles matches. The only thing I want to say is, with the situation being the way it is, don’t you dare try and say I take it easy. Because I damn well don’t. And when it comes to ring shape and physical condition, I can damn well smoke you.

— Toward the end of your campaign in Yokohama August 8, you have SANADA. This is your first singles match against each other, correct?

Naito: First singles match, yeah. But we have faced each other a couple of times in tags at All Together. The All Japan versus New Japan tag matches for our 40th anniversaries, in Ryogoku. Tetsuya Naito and Tama Tonga versus Joe Doering and Seiya Sanada.

— You have a great memory! So when the blocks were announced for the G1 at Korakuen, after your match, SANADA didn’t join in the customary LIJ fist bump, did he? Was that something that upset you at all?

Naito: Not at all.

— Is this match a particularly big deal for you? Or are you looking at it like a leader, that it shouldn’t be a big deal to face someone underneath you?

Naito: No, no, this match is definitely a big deal to me. I think it’s a bigger deal to SANADA than to me, but it’s definitely a big deal to me.

— When SANADA challenged Okada for the IWGP title back in February, we did see him take the mic after a lot of prodding from you. How do you think he’s been of late?

Naito: Well, like ever he’s a man of very few words. Not only that, but you just have a hard time understanding what’s on his mind. Even without him having to talk, he captures everybody’s attention, and that’s a good thing. But ‘how does he feel about facing Naito’? ‘Everybody seems to be saying LIJ is Naito’s unit, how does that make him feel’? When it comes to questions like that, I have no idea what his thought process is. Well, in Yokohama, we won’t need to talk, so we’ll find out about that stuff in the ring.

— But whenever I ask SANADA ‘who’s the guy you’re most conscious of?’ your name always comes up. So I do think that this match is a big deal for him.

Naito: Ah. I came out of the tags thinking ‘it doesn’t matter how hard I hit him, he still doesn’t make a sound’. Like a tree in the woods, but there were people there.

— You really like opponents who charge at you with a lot of fire. SANADA isn’t that kind of wrestler, so I’m intrigued to see how you handle him.

Naito: Of all my opponents in B block, SANADA is the only guy I’ve never faced one-on-one before. So I can predict a Kenny, I can predict an Ibushi. At least somewhat. But SANADA, I have no idea what kind of match that will turn out to be.

— You know him as a teammate, but as an opponent it’s something different? Is that fair to say?

Naito: It’s very different. When they announced the cards, there was a big reaction for that match being revealed. So it definitely means the fans are hyped for it and they are expecting a lot. But I’m expecting more from that match than even the fans are.

— So it’s match you are looking forward to, then.

Naito: Well, at the end of the day, Los Ingobernables De Japon are going to be tearing it up during the G1. Whatever happens, you can’t take your eyes off us.

G1 CLIMAX 28 schedule & tickets info: https://www.njpw1972.com/schedule/

All 19 events, LIVE STREAMING with English commentary on https://njpwworld.com

All photos taken by ©︎TAIKO KUNIYOSHI