Tetsuya Naito has participated in 14 consecutive G1 Climax tournaments. He is in the D Block for G1 Climax 2023, with July 16th being his first tournament match against Jeff Cobb.
While doing a recent interview, Naito noted he’s not a fan of the changes NJPW made to the tournament this year as it will feature 32 participants, up from last year’s tournament, which had 28 entrants. The bouts have also decreased from 30 minutes to 20 minutes.
“I don’t want to deny everything, it may be good in the sense of giving various players a chance, but the image of the G1 climax in my mind is the strongest warrior championship that only selected players can participate in.
“Other sports talk about shortening game time, and in baseball, pitch clocks are introduced, so you don’t want to change to a two-out change because you want to shorten it. It may be fresh, and it may be interesting because the game time is short, but if the fundamental rules are changed without any explanation, there is a danger that the original fun of G1 will be lost.”
H/T to Tokyo Sports