Naito/Shingo/BUSHI vs. Juice/Yano/Liger announced for the G1 Dallas show

Welp...the G1 participants never eat pins in those prelim tags, so if LIJ are going over I'm done for. Gonna have to root for BUSHI to take the loss.

I think we pretty much will have a winner crowned on the Dallas show, even if neither guy loses there you have to believe there's no way Okada goes undefeated for the entire G1.

Roster for next season is looking like this:

MAGURO Block

[G1] Bad Luck Fale
BUSHI
El Desperado
[G1] EVIL
[G1] Hirooki Goto
Hiromu Takahashi
[G1] Hiroshi Tanahashi
[G1] Juice Robinson
[G1] Kazuchika Okada [TBC]
[G1] KENTA
[G1] Kota Ibushi
"New Girl" Mikey Nicholls
Minoru Suzuki
Ryusuke Taguchi
[G1] SANADA
[G1] Shingo Takagi
SHO
[G1] Taichi
(NPC Champion) Tama Tonga
Tanga Loa
[G1] Tetsuya Naito
Togi Makabe
[G1] Tomohiro Ishii
[G1] Toru Yano
YOH
YOSHI-HASHI
[G1] Will Ospreay
[G1] Zack Sabre Jr


TAMAGO Block

Chase Owens
Chris Jericho
Clark Connors [LA DOJO]
David Finlay
DOUKI
Dragon Lee
El Phantasmo
Gedo
Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Jado
[G1] Jeff Cobb
[G1] Jon Moxley
Jonathan Gresham
Jushin Thunder Liger [TBC]
Karl Fredericks [LA DOJO]
[G1] Lance Archer
Manabu Nakanishi
Marty Scurll
Ren Narita
Robbie Eagles
Rocky Romero
Satoshi Kojima
Shota Umino
TAKA Michinoku
Tiger Mask
Toa Henare
Tomoaki Honma
Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Yota Tsuji
Yuji Nagata
Yujiro Takahashi
Yuya Uemura


REMOVED:

Ayato Yoshida [-> K-Dojo]
Chris Sabin [Injured; Left ROH]
Colt Cabana [Irregular; ROH]
BitchBoy Smith Jr. [Released]
Hikuleo [Excursion; -> REV PRO]
Jay Briscoe [Irregular; ROH]
Mark Briscoe [Irregular; ROH]
"Mr POS" Michael Elgin [-> TNA]
Teruaki Kanemitsu [Retired]

Strategize away.

BUSHI, as usual, has ruined everything and delayed the next season.

Liger's clock will stretch until 17th August, expiring a few days after the Finals of the G1. He could appear at the final on 12th August to renew this but in order for the game to continue Okada will now have to go through the entire tournament without taking a pinfall of submission and also win the final. Seems unlikely, but since this is Okada it does not seem completely beyond the realms of reality.


Here's a quick run down of the potential game ending matches for Okada:

14/7 - Zack Sabre Jr
18/7 - Bad Luck Fale
20/7 - Will Ospreay
27/7 - KENTA
30/7 - Lance Archer
3/8 - SANADA
7/8 - EVIL
10/8 - Kota Ibushi

Okada's assigned tag partner for B Block dates is YOSHI-HASHI, which only compounds that there is 0% risk of him taking a fall in any non tournament matches.

Just eyeballing it, I'd guess his biggest threats are:

Fale (historically has beaten Okada in the tourney, albeit a countout loss is possible here)
SANADA (has come very close to beating him and now can do so in a non-title)
Ibushi (Kota would need to go over if he's winning the block)

Sabre or Ospreay could potentially beat him to set up the main event for Royal Quest. Everyone but KENTA, Archer and EVIL seem like they could.

Liger randomly appeared in the undercard today, fortunately he was facing some young lions.

I'm convinced Ospreay is going to be the one to eliminate Okada. If he managed to tape his neck back together of course.

Okada beats his G1 white whale Fale.

Still think he surely eats a pin eventually yet I could also see him lose via countout or something

Okada beats Ospreay

Starting to think Okada might actually go the distance

He's got to lose at least once before the Ibushi match otherwise the final day for A Block is a wash.

He'll lose, but I'm not totally sure it'll be by pinfall.

Go on KENTA!

VITO!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Already have people in mind but need to know if there any changes to block assignments for this year or do I just go off of the ones we had for this go around?

This is the updated list.

:-\ Missed out on Okada holding on for at least another day by 12 seconds.

At least Liger finally got to win the big one before he retired.