Top 5 most likely to win the 2018 G1 Climax
The G1 Climax 28 this year is looking to be a show stealer. With the likes of Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Minoru Suzuki, Kota Ibushi, Kenny Omega and many others taking part, who could be winning this prestigious tournament and going onto the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 13?
The G1 Climax tournament takes place once a year over the summer and tends to last roughly 3 weeks, with the finals this year taking place in the Nippon Budokan, a venue New Japan hasn't used in 15 years.
With the G1 this year being a huge occasion in NJPW's calendar, and the winner going on to face possibly Kenny Omega, the current IWGP Heavyweight Champion in his first reign in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom, let's see who I believe is going to step up to the plate, win the briefcase and the coveted G1 trophy.
#5 Tetsuya Naito
The year of 2018 hasn't been kind to Tetsuya Naito. After winning the G1 Climax 27 and successfully defending the case against old foe Tomohiro Ishii, he went on to the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 12, and lost to Kazuchika Okada, much to the disappointment of the fans.
After this, he entered a short feud with Yoshi-Hashi, and then another short feud with Suzuki-Gun member - Taichi. He may have won these feuds and a match against Minoru Suzuki at Dontaku for the IWGP Intercontinental championship, but this ultimately resulted in nothing.
He may have had a tremendous feud with Chris Jericho, after Y2J returned on 4th May, but Naito lost this huge marque match as well as lost the Intercontinental Title.
I believe Naito will make it far in the G1, collecting quite a few points along the way and hopefully regaining majority of the momentum he's lost over this year, but since he won the tournament last year, and is facing Kenny Omega on the second day of this year's G1, I don't think Naito is winning this year, but could surprise fans by making it to the finals.