NJPW G1 Climax 31 - Night 5 (September 26) Preview, Statistics & Notes

The A Block of G1 Climax 31 travels to Kobe World Hall for their third night of block competition on Sunday, September 26th, headlined by Zack Sabre Jr’s third consecutive Main Event to begin the tournament. Kobe World Hall was the site that many had circled on their calendar for their most anticipated match of the tournament as this card was originally headlined by Shingo Takagi vs. Tetsuya Naito. Naito was forced to withdraw from the tournament, so now Kobe World Hall will see a main event of Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi. Zack Sabre Jr. is the talk of the block right now after starting the tournament 2-0 with definitive victories over block favorites, Shingo Takagi and, of course, the now-injured Tetsuya Naito. ZSJ’s main event run was mostly unplanned, but he seems to have stepped up to the occasion.

The semi-main event will have Tomohiro Ishii looking for his first win of this year’s G1 Climax tournament in his first match against KENTA in almost two years. The block competition is rounded out by Tanga Loa facing off with Toru Yano and Great-O-Khan looking to stay atop the block against Yujiro Takahashi.

This, of course, isn’t the last you’ll hear from me for this year’s G1. In daily preview posts, I am dissecting 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 1571 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 Five (A Block)
Date: September 26, 2021
City: Hyogo
Venue: Kobe World Hall
Time: 4:00pm JST
Watch: NJPWWorld (With Live English Commentary)
Local Time Conversions:

G1 Climax 31: A Block Results To Date

A Block Standings Explained

Great-O-Khan leads the block outright with 6 points at 3-0.
A helpful column to keep an eye on for the A Block now that the schedule is imbalanced is the Max Points column. This column will account for how many tournament matches each wrestler has left on their schedule and it will communicate the maximum amount of points a wrestler could end the tournament with.
Zack Sabre Jr sits alone in second place. Although he is tied with five other wrestlers with four points, Zack Sabre Jr is the only wrestler of that group who still has 7 matches left, therefore his maximum points are still 18.
Tanga Loa and Tomohiro Ishii round out the bottom of active wrestlers, both with 2 points. They have both scored their only points via Tetsuya Naito’s forfeits, but Tanga Loa only has one loss because he was the first to lap his scheduled match with Tetsuya Naito, therefore his maximum points are higher.

G1 Climax 31: A Block Table

Main Event
G1 Climax 31 A Block Match
Kota Ibushi [4] vs. Zack Sabre Jr [4]

Zack Sabre Jr. and Kota Ibushi seem to be on completely different trajectories of late. Ibushi, still getting his stamina up after missing nearly two months to illness would normally be seen as the favorite in this match and in the A Block, but Zack Sabre Jr has come out of the gates white hot. He defeated (and injured) Tetsuya Naito on night one, and then he went on to defeat the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Shingo Takagi on night two. A curious point will be if ZSJ remains motivated to win the G1 Climax now that he’s slayed the dragon, and he could now justify challenging for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship without going on to win the grueling G1 Climax tournament.

Ibushi has dominated the all-time series against Zack Sabre Jr. 5-2, winning their last three matchups and winning all three of their G1 Climax matches. Maybe seeing ZSJ in the other corner is just what the doctor ordered for Ibushi to hit his stride as we cross the 1/3 point of A Block competition.

Recent History – 2021 Singles

Kota Ibushi’s ten singles victories are second-most in NJPW in 2021. Only Shingo Takagi has more than Ibushi with 15.
Zack Sabre Jr’s two G1 Climax tournament victories this year are the two longest singles victories of his NJPW career (27:17 – Shingo Takagi, 27:05 – Tetsuya Naito), accounting for nearly one-third of his singles match length this year.

Recent History – Last 365 Days Singles

Kota Ibushi’s .773 singles winning percentage over the last 365 days is the best among New Japan heavyweights. Only Hiromu Takahashi has a better winning percentage in the company over this timeframe (.800)

Recent History – Last 180 Days Singles

Most of Kota Ibushi’s success occurred over six months ago. In the last 6 months, Zack Sabre Jr. has a better singles record than Ibushi at 5-1-1, while Ibushi lands at 5-3.

Recent History – 2021 Individual Overall

Head To Head History

Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr have wrestled in seven singles matches. Ibushi leads the all-time series 5-2 including a 3-0 record in G1 Climax matches.

History in Kobe World Hall

Kota Ibushi is 2-0 in Kobe World Hall, including a victory over Tomohiro Ishii in last year’s G1 Climax.
This will be Zack Sabre Jr’s first singles match in Kobe World Hall.

G1 Climax 31 – Tournament To Date

Tetsuya Naito set the record for the longest G1 Climax of all-time with an average match length of 22 minutes and 53 seconds. Through two matches, Zack Sabre Jr has averaged 27 minutes and 11 seconds, nearly doubling his all-time average G1 match length of 14 minutes and 50 seconds.
Through two matches, Zack Sabre Jr’s matches have averaged nearly 13 minutes longer than Kota Ibushi’s two matches.

G1 Climax – All Time

Ibushi has reached the finals in his last three G1 Climax tournaments. He is the only wrestler to ever reach three consecutive finals.
Ibushi won the last two G1 Climax tournaments, he is one of three wrestlers (Chono, Tenzan) to ever go back to back in the prestigious tournament.
Ibushi’s .617 G1 winning percentage is the highest in A Block.
Ibushi’s 17:09 average G1 winning match length is the highest in the A Block.
Kota Ibushi has averaged 11.6 points per tournament over the last 5 years of G1 tournaments.
Kota Ibushi’s stamina and conditioning has been impressive through the last three G1 tournaments. His 2018, 2019, and 2020 tournaments are three of the six longest individual tournaments in G1 History.
Zack Sabre Jr has averaged 10 points in his four previous G1 Climax appearances. His 10 point average is the third highest in his block, only behind Tetsuya Naito (12), and Kota Ibushi (11.6)
Zack Sabre Jr has won 9 G1 Climax matches by submission, that is the most in this year’s tournament, and 5 more than the next highest in the A Block (KENTA-4).

Match Five
G1 Climax 31 A Block Match
Tomohiro Ishii [2] vs. KENTA [4]

Tomohiro Ishii looks to gain his first victory of this year’s G1 Climax tournament as he steps into the ring with longtime rival, KENTA. Ishii’s allegiances are loose to begin with, but KENTA did join Bullet Club by turning on Ishii during the undercard on the final night of G1 Climax 29, and in doing so, he staked his claim to a NEVER Openweight Championship match at Royal Quest that saw Ishii knocked silly and KENTA walking out of The Copper Box Arena in London victorious. Ishii asked for a rematch, knowing that he was not at his best in London, and he still fell short at Power Struggle, leaving him with an 0-2 mark against KENTA.

KENTA sits in the middle of the pack with four points in this year’s G1 and he could separate himself from some of the pack, namely Ishii with a win in Kobe World Hall on Sunday.