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Returning from excursion in earnest this past November, Shota Umino has perhaps kept the most consistently high profile in NJPW of all the debut entrants in this A Block. Not being afraid to butt heads with Kazuchika Okada, and bringing allies from AEW’s Blackpool Combat Club has kept the Roughneck in the headlines over the last several months, but with the exception of an impressive victory over Zack Sabre Jr. in the New Japan Cup, Umino thus far lacks a big trademark singles victory. The G1 Climax is just the place for that to happen, and with the potential of a brand new winner of the G1 higher than any other point in the last decade, Umino could potentially bring about the ‘paradigm shift’ he’s been referencing since coming back to Japanese rings.
Since his return to Japanese action in October, Ren Narita has made it his mission to instigate a ‘changing of the guard’ in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Alongside his Strong Style partners El Desperado and Minoru Suzuki, Narita was the first of his generation of talent to seize gold in the form of the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championships. Yet with Narita still to claim his first major singles win of 2023 having fallen short at the NJPW World TV Championship at Wrestle Kingdom and being eliminated in the first round of the New Japan Cup, it’s imperative for the Son of Strong Style to make his mark.
Both Narita and Umino have a shared desire to break down the old guard in NJPW and replace it with a new generation, but a shared goal does not an alliance make. The two young men clearly dislike one another, as evidenced by their butting heads through the New Japan Road tour, and in this one on one encounter the former Dojo rivals will be fighting to dictate the pace of the tournament at large.
