New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 28 2018 Participants Revealed and Winner Predicted!

New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 28 2018 Participants Revealed and Winner Predicted!

Today New Japan Pro wrestling revealed the participants for the NJPW G1 28 Tournament 2018.

G1 brings together the best of New Japan and pits them in Two Groups of 10, Block A and Block B and the Winners for those groups with face off in a match on August 12 2018  with the winner obtaining the G1 Briefcase which gives them a title shot. 

List of Participants 

Kenny Omega (IWGP Heavyweight Champion)
Jay White (IWGP US Champion)
Hirooki Goto (NEVER Openweight Champion)
Juice Robinson
Michael Elgin
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Togi Makabe
Bad Luck Fale
Kazuchika Okada
SANADA
Tomohiro Ishii
Toru Yano
YOSHI-HASHI
Hangman Page
Tama Tonga
Kota Ibushi.
Tetsuya Naito
EVIL
Minoru Suzuki
Zack Sabre Jr

Groups, Schedules and Match ups to be decided in the next few weeks. 

At this very early stage without groups being drawn its very hard to pick a winner, last year I picked Naito and Naito ended up winning, so a very good slice of luck. That's what I love about the G1 it is so open and there are so many people that could be successful that it makes for an interesting tournament. 

For me this year looking at the list of participants its very hard to pick a winner. So many of the participants have a reason for winning.

 I could make a case for so many however, I'm going to narrow this down to 5 Wrestlers initially and then based on what I have written try and pick a winner.

5 Possible G1 2018 Winners 

Kenny Omega (IWGP Heavyweight Champion)

I am a huge fan of Kenny Omega as many people know and I am of the belief that Kenny could well win G1 2018 and become the first ever x2 winner while holding IWGP Heavyweight Title. What's the reasoning for this? well Okada had such a huge, long and unique run that I think, you need to do something special with Omega right off the bat to create a new path for him, make him different to Okada and do what Okada couldn't do, Omega if he won G1 could then pick his own opponent, Maybe Kota Ibushi……..

Kazuchika Okada

Wouldn't it make logical sense? Okada after losing to Omega at NJPW Dominion and ending the longest title reign in modern pro Wrestling history. Okada wants redemption and he wants his title back, at match at Wrestlekingdom would make total sense, however what could Omega vs Okada 5 be? Ironman Match maybe? This feud could go even longer and there still could be many more chapters in this story, Okada has done the unthinkable many times, and maybe he is going to do the unthinkable once again and win G1 2018.

Kota Ibushi 

Kota Ibushi winning this G1 could set up the next biggest feud of the year and push Ibushi into the main event where he could become one of the top main staples of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Ibushi Wining the G1 makes total sense, Ibushi could then challenge his friend Omega and this could be friends becoming enemies or Ibushi fuelled by anger and Jealously wanting to take from Omega what Ibushi has never had. Whatever way New Japan would go with this, the matches, the emotional involvement and storytelling what be tremendous, this could also add a face into the mix of the main event and create and even bigger star out of Ibushi. 

Hiroshi Tanahashi

I'm a huge fan of Hiroshi Tanahashi and although now he is older and most fans feel that he wont have anymore title reigns I disagree. 

 I feel that Tanahashi could win this G1 and be someone who could have a great match with Kenny Omega. 

Tanahashi and Omega have had matches in the past but never had that huge feud due to Tanahashi being injured and Michael Elgin replacing win in the ladder match at Dominion 2016. 

Tanahashi hasn't been in the main event scene much over the past few years, with Okada taking centre stage, but Tanahashi showed when he face Okada at Dontaku 2018 that he still has skills, ability, charisma and character to be able to carry that IWGP heavyweight Title one more time. 

Evil 

This will be a strange choice and most people will say why have you chosen Evil over Naito? Reason being I think that Evil has ability to have a great singles run and although its an outside chance I think that Evil is new, Fresh, Different and brings something new to the party. 

NJPW main event scene needs and injection of new talent and matches and Evil has been constantly good and getting better and better all the time. Evil had an excellent matches with Okada at G1 Climax 27 and King of Pro Wrestling in October 2017 which really showed what he can do. 

So my prediction...…..

I cant go for two because in my Heart I believe its between Okada and Ibushi I think and believe due to versatility, the potential of the feud and what could be done

Kota Ibushi will be your G1 28 2018 Winner!

Thanks for Reading 

@jon422002

Jonathan Orchard