New Japan Pro Wrestling would traditionally shortly be holding the G1 Climax tournament. The annual month-long event is arguably the second biggest in the company’s year, with January’s Wrestle Kingdom only just taking top billing.
One of the big draws of the G1 is seeing some top international stars take part in the tournament. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic causing chaos to travel; NJPW have had to rethink how they will be presenting the tournament in 2020.
G1 Plans
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently claimed that the ‘expectation’ was to bring back some overseas talent for the tournament.
“The expectation was that New Japan would bring back its foreign stars for G-1, and that was the plan at one point. Right now plans are up in the air due to concern that the situation in the U.S. is worse than New Japan had expected. And with cases also rising in Japan, the question is how would the country take bringing Americans in.”
It wouldn’t just be talent arriving from the United States that could potentially cause an issue, as Dave Meltzer would also mention UK star Will Ospreay’s potential appearance.
“If Americans, or Will Ospreay, coming from the U.K. are in the tournament? They would have to arrive by 9/5 and do two weeks of quarantine. That also means they would have to be paid for six weeks rather than four weeks at a time when revenue will be cut back, because it’s doubtful they’ll be allowed to run buildings at full capacity. And even if they can, the health restrictions for doing so will cost money.”
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