New Japan Pro Wrestling President Harold Meij spoke with Sports Illustrated and revealed that the promotion’s annual G1 Climax tournament is still scheduled to take place in autumn. Traditionally NJPW runs the G1 during the summer but the 2020 Olympics, which have now been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were set to take place in Tokyo and were the cause for the delay.
Meij goes on to say that venues and crowds for the tournament all depend on the local governments guidelines in response to the virus outbreak.
As a result of the now-postponed Tokyo Olympics, we had already decided to move our annual G1 Climax tournament, which traditionally takes place during the summer months, to the autumn,” said Meij. “It is still on the calendar, although again, venues and crowd capacity will be dependent on both our own and the local governments’ guidelines. As for our previously scheduled tours like Best of the Super Juniors, both fans and wrestlers alike were disappointed at their cancellation. All of those voices will be taken into account in the second half of the year as we look to present something to fans that matches, or even surpasses, our initial plans.
NJPW suspended all operations back in February due to COVID-19. They recently began operating empty arena shows for their New Japan Cup tournament, with the finals being determined earlier this morning.
Full interview is here.