World’s Best Booking

It is well known that Gedo (New Japan‘s booker) has risen to the top of the wrestling world as a booker. Having won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter award for ‘Best Booker’ in six of the last seven years, Gedo’s storytelling has reached an elite level that has not been seen in decades.

The G1 Climax is the showcase of all the best things that New Japan has to offer and one of the things that may go unnoticed is the unbelievable attention to detail that goes into the tournament. The tournament features 18 days of round robin competition, with five tournament matches on each show, which culminates in the tournament final on the 19th day. Some quick math will tell you that there will be 91 matches in a modern edition of the G1 Climax and that is 91 matches of details that need to be thought out ahead of time.

All 91 matches have finishes that are carefully planned with specific purposes to further the participants’ respective storylines. Due to the emphasis put on wins and losses in New Japan Pro Wrestling, the matches are always taken seriously regardless of who is involved. Whether it be the main event matches with the biggest stars in all of Japan or the opening matches with wrestlers found on the lower half of the card, the matches are smartly thought out and treated with great importance.

Even matches that may appear inconsequential, such as the recent Michael Elgin vs. Yoshi-Hashi match, serve a purpose in the grand scheme of the tournament. Because every wrestler has their own set of goals and motivations, it allows the matches to remain interesting even when someone involved is mathematically eliminated from the tournament. In the case of Yoshi-Hashi vs. Michael Elgin, Yoshi-Hashi had been the tournament’s biggest loser to that point and was fighting to earn his win. With the story being that he had been unable to take the chances and adapt in his prior matches he managed to take control and defeat Elgin with the support of the crowd behind him.

It is important that the stories told can connect with the crowd from top to bottom in the G1 Climax, because it is simply not realistic that every wrestler’s story can be that they are close to winning the tournament. After a few matches the fans are smart enough to know that Toru Yano and Yoshi-Hashi are not going to be a serious contenders. In order to keep the interest of the audience you need to be able to book stories that can connect with the fans despite the tournament standings.

This is something that other companies would struggle with, as a company such as WWE has repeatedly told they fans that wins and losses do not matter. The list of times wins and losses have been portrayed as meaningless is a mile long in WWE, where it is common for Roman Reigns to lose clean in the main event of WrestleMania and be given a rematch the next night. For a sports-based presentation such as the G1 Climax it is imperative that the booking makes sense, and for the biggest company in the world that has remained an issue in recent years.

The G1 Climax sets the tone for the main event matches that will occur for the remainder of the calendar year. It goes beyond the title shot that the winner receives at Wrestle Kingdom, and while that is the focal point of the tournament and the promotion, it is not the only thing being determined in the G1 Climax.

If a champion loses a match during the tournament it is likely that he will defend his title against the victor at one of the Autumn pay-per-views. This is significant because it adds drama to matches involving the IWGP United States Champion or the NEVER Openweight Champion, with the ever-present possibility of a future title match looming. This makes the poor start of Juice Robinson more intriguing as he should theoretically have a long line of challengers following the conclusion of the tournament, as well as the defeat of Hirooki Goto at the hands of Tomohiro Ishii who should be next in line to challenge for the NEVER Title.

The bottom line is that the 91 matches that form the G1 Climax are all portrayed at their appropriate level of importance with finishes and moments that are thought of far in advance. None of the shows are re-booked an hour before showtime. All twenty wrestlers have specific places that they need to reach by the end of the tournament and none of them will have an identical path to get to their destinations. The ability to book twenty different month-long storylines is something that sets Gedo, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the G1 Climax apart from the rest of the wrestling business as without the smart booking the tournament would be just a series of matches.

• tama tonga
• SANADA
• IWGP Heavyweight Champion
• togi makabe
• Tomohiro Ishii
• RAW
• Tetsuya Naito
• Toru Yano
• YOSHI-HASHI
• hangman page
• new japan pro wrestling
• kota ibushi
• Bullet Club
• Bad Luck Fale
• Hiroshi Tanahashi
• Jay White
• Juice Robinson
• Zack Sabre Jr
• EVIL
• Kazuchika Okada
• G1
• Michael Elgin
• G1 Climax
• Minoru Suzuki
• wrestlekingdom
• Hirooki Goto
• Roman Reigns
• New Japan
• NJPW
• Kenny Omega
• wwe

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