NJPW G1 Climax 31 - Night 2 (September 19th) Preview, Statistics, And Notes

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Climax 31 will kick off B Block action from EDION Arena in Osaka on September 19th (or late on September 18th, depending on your time zone). The main event will feature a clash of the titans with a reboot of the most important rivalry in modern professional wrestling as Hiroshi Tanahashi will face Kazuchika Okada for the fifteenth time in just over 9 years. The semi-main event will see tag team specialists face off as IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Taichi faces off against perennial G1 dark horse and NEVER Openweight Six Man champion, Hirooki Goto. The middle of the card will feature SANADA vs. Tama Tonga and Jeff Cobb vs. Chase Owens as Cobb looks to establish himself as a dominant force in this his first G1 Climax as a member of The United Empire. G1 action will kick off with YOSHI-HASHI facing off with Bullet Club – House of Torture leader, EVIL.

If you’re looking for a G1 Climax primer or some deeper historical data points or facts you can find that for the A Block in this post, and for the B Block in this post. There will be some redundancies between those posts and this one as some of those notes are the most relevant bits that I have for this particular night. For that, I apologize for repeating myself. You will also find tournament-to-date results included in today’s post, though there have been no matches completed. Enjoy the zeroes now because they’re never coming back.

This, of course, isn’t the last you’ll hear from me for this year’s G1. In daily preview posts, I’ll dissect each tournament matchup, including 2021 and recent singles performance, individual head-to-head histories, and miscellaneous applicable research. Round robin tournaments are great equalizers for data: each wrestler competes in the same schedule throughout the tournament by facing each other wrestler once. So, as the tournament goes on and data points become more relevant, I’ll be including some advanced metrics and probabilities for each card as well. I’ll also help to dissect the complicated tiebreakers and other tournament nuances as they come up.

Of course, you can find interactive tables for NJPW’s 2021, detailed results and statistics of all 1560 G1 Climax matches to date, and This Year’s Tournament at SportOfProWrestling.com, and you can let me know what you find when you drill down by dropping me a line on Twitter @TheChrisSamsa.

NJPW G1 Climax 31 Night Two (B Block)

Date: September 19, 2021
City: Osaka
Venue: EDION Arena Osaka
Time: 2:00pm JST
Watch: NJPWWorld (With Live English Commentary)
Local Time Conversions:

G1 Climax 31: B Block Results To Date

G1 Climax 31: B Block Table

G1 Climax First Matches

Five of the last ten G1 Climax champions lost the first match of their tournament. Though nobody in the last ten years has gone 0-3 and gone on to become G1 Climax champion.
- Lost first match, went on to win tournament: Ibushi (2020), Ibushi (2019), Omega (2016), Naito (2013), Nakamura (2011)
- Won first match, went on to win tournament: Tanahashi (2018), Naito (2017), Tanahashi (2015), Okada (2014), Okada (2012)
Hiroshi Tanahashi is 8-9-2 in the first match of his G1 Climax tournaments. In years he’d advance to the final, Tanahashi is 3-2-1 in the first match of the tournament.
Kazuchika Okada is 6-3 in the first match of his G1 Climax tournaments. He won his first match in both years he won the tournament. In 2014, he started with a 3 match winning streak
Hirooki Goto is 8-5 in the first match of his G1 Climax tournaments. Entering last year’s tournament, Goto had won six straight G1 Climax openers, but he lost to KENTA in his opening match of G1 Climax 30.
SANADA is 3-2 in the first match of his G1 Climax tournaments. He has started his tournament alternating wins and losses, so he is due for a victory in his first match this year.
EVIL is 1-4 in the first match of his G1 Climax tournaments, and he is on a four match losing streak to begin his G1s.

Main Event
G1 Climax 31 B Block Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi [0] vs. Kazuchika Okada [0]

It has been 806 days since Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada stood on opposite sides of the ring for a singles match. That is the longest such gap in the storied rivalry that looked to be teetering Okada’s direction permanently just over two years ago. But we find ourselves in the midst of a Hiroshi Tanahashi resurgence as he has held two separate singles titles since Okada last held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Okada enters this year’s tournament with the bitter taste of his loss to Jeff Cobb still fresh on his tongue, so it is sure that Okada will enter this year’s tournament with a chip on his shoulder. This is one of the most storied rivalries in professional wrestling, and this is sure to be another memorable chapter between two generational talents.

Recent History – 2021 Singles

Hiroshi Tanahashi enters his match with Okada on a two-match winning streak. Okada lost his last singles match to Jeff Cobb.
Tanahashi’s 8 singles victories are the second most in NJPW this year.
Only Shingo Takagi holds a better Win/Loss Differential than Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 12:03 in 2021. Okada’s 10:50 W/L Differential is fourth best in NJPW this year.

Recent History – Last 365 Days Singles

Recent History – Last 180 Days Singles

In the last six months, neither Tanahashi nor Okada has been able to win their longer matches, but they have both been tough to defeat.
- Okada’s average winning match length of 13:35 is over 18 minutes shorter than his average losing match length of 31:50
- Tanahashi’s average winning match length of 17:47 is over 20 minutes shorter than his average win.

Recent History – 2021 Individual Overall

Hiroshi Tanahashi’s +22 Fall Differential is fourth best in NJPW this year and doubles Kazuchika Okada’s +11.

Head To Head History

It has been 806 days since Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada last wrestled each other in a singles match. This is the longest Okada and Tanahashi have ever gone between singles meetings.
Kazuchika Okada leads this classic series 6-5-3.
Okada holds a 1-0-3 record over Tanahashi in G1 Climax matches. His only victory was their last G1 Climax meeting in 2019 when Okada defeated Tanahashi in 22 minutes and 4 seconds.
While Tanahashi dominated the early part of this rivalry, he has only been victorious once in his last six meetings with Kazuchika Okada, and only twice in their last ten meetings.
The only time a wrestler won back-to-back matches in this series was Wrestle Kingdom 7, when Tanahashi defeated Okada after defeating him at Dominion 2012.
There have been 24 Time Limit Draws in G1 Climax history. Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi faced each other in three of those draws.

History in EDION Arena Osaka

Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi have wrestled here in EDION Arena Osaka twice, including the infamous Rainmaker Shock at New Beginning 2012. Tanahashi avenged his loss to Okada by winning back the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion later in 2012.
Hiroshi Tanahashi is 29-17-1 in singles matches at EDION Arena Osaka and he is 9-9-1 in G1 Climax Matches in tonight’s venue.
Tanahashi enters tonight’s match on a four match losing streak at EDION Arena Osaka dating back to his IWGP Heavyweight Championship loss to Jay White at The New Beginning in Osaka 2019.
Dating back to his “Rainmaker Shock” at The New Beginning in Osaka 2012, Kazuchika Okada is 12-8 in singles matches in EDION Arena Osaka. Seven of his 8 losses here have occurred in G1 Climax tournament matches. The Rainmaker is 3-7 in G1 matches here.

G1 Climax 31 – Tournament To Date

G1 Climax – All Time

Hiroshi Tanahashi – G1 Climax 31

This is Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 20th consecutive G1 and his 20th overall.
Tanahashi’s 20th G1 ties him with Yuji Nagata for second-most G1 Climax tournaments. Hiroyoshi Tenzan holds the record with 21 tournaments.
Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 151 G1 Climax matches are the most all-time. Toru Yano, at 121 matches, has the next most among this year’s G1 participants.
Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 40 hours, 15 minutes, and 40 seconds of total G1 Climax match time is the highest all time, and nearly ten hours longer than Yuji Nagata (30:59:56), who has amassed the second most G1 match length. Among this year’s competitors, Tetsuya Naito has the second most G1 Climax ring time at 26 hours, 15 minutes, and 3 seconds.
Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 11 point average over the last five tournaments is the second-highest average points per tournament, only behind Kazuchika Okada’s 12.6.
Tanahashi is one of three three-time G1 Climax winners (Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan)
Tanahashi has reached six G1 Finals, tied for the most all-time with Masahiro Chono.
Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 7 time limit draws in G1 competition are by far the most all-time. Kazuchika Okada’s 4 are second-most among competitors active in this year’s G1.
Tanahashi has lost eight G1 matches by submission, most of this year’s competitors and third-most all time.
Hiroshi Tanahashi has two first time matches in this year’s B Block (Jeff Cobb & Chase Owens)
Tanahashi is one of four B Block competitors with a historical winning percentage against his block opponents over .500.

Kazuchika Okada – G1 Climax 31

This is Kazuchika Okada’s 10th consecutive G1 and his 10th overall.
Kazuchika Okada won the G1 Climax tournament in 2012 and 2014 and he has not appeared in a G1 Final
Okada only has one first-time matchup in this year’s B Block (Chase Owens).
Okada has defeated every wrestler in the B block that is not a first-time match for him.
Kazuchika Okada has been the IWGP Heavyweight Champion during five of the last eight G1 Climax tournaments.
This year marks the first time that Kazuchika Okada has participated in consecutive G1 Climax tournaments without the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Kazuchika Okada holds the highest average points over the last five years of G1 competition at 12.6. He has not reached the finals during that time.
Only Masahiro Chono (1994-2002) and Hiroshi Tanahashi (2007-2015) have won multiple tournaments at longer intervals than what would be Okada’s seven-year drought if he were to win this year’s tournament.
Only Kenny Omega (.690) and AJ Styles (.737) hold better all-time G1 Climax winning percentages than Kazuchika Okada (.675)
Okada’s 56 G1 Climax wins are seventh-most all-time, and fourth-most among this year’s field (Tanahashi-87, Naito-60, Goto-59)
In the last 5 years, only Tetsuya Naito (31) has more victories than Kazuchika Okada (30)
SANADA and Kazuchika Okada participated in the longest G1 Climax match to ever render a decision when SANADA defeated Kazuchika Okada in 29 minutes and 47 seconds during G1 Climax 29.
Okada is one of four B Block competitors with a historical winning percentage against his block opponents over .500
Between 2014 and 2015, Kazuchika Okada won nine-straight G1 Climax matches, a streak that was finally broken by Hirooki Goto.
Between 2018 and 2019, Kazuchika Okada went 13 straight G1 Climax matches without suffering a loss, though Tanahashi and Okada did go to a Time Limit Draw to end the 2018 tournament. This streak was finally broken by SANADA in the longest G1 Climax block match to render a decision.

Match Five
G1 Climax 31 B Block Match
Hirooki Goto [0] vs. Taichi [0]

Taichi looks to avenge his first round loss in the New Japan Cup by defeating Hirooki Goto on the first night of B Block action. Goto is traditionally a strong starter, and he has won 6 of his last 7 G1 Climax opening matches, certainly leaving Taichi as the underdog to the extremely experienced Goto.