NJPW Announces 16 of 20 Competitors for 2025 G1 Climax Tournament & Return of Play-In Tournament for Final 4 Spots

During Sunday’s Dominion 2025 event in Osaka, Japan, New Japan Pro Wrestling officially announced sixteen of the twenty competitors for this year’s G1 Climax tournament, which takes place from July 19 to August 17 in Japan.

In regards to surprise entrants for this year’s tournament, it was announced that AEW talent Konosuke Takeshita will be making a return and competing in this year’s tournament for the second year in a row. Takeshita was announced to be competing in B Block.

Similar to last year’s tournament, it was also announced that a Play-in Tournament will be held to determine the final four entrants for this year’s tournament with two for A Block and two for B Block. The competitors for this upcoming Play-in tournament were not revealed.

🚨特報🚨

『G1 CLIMAX 35』エントリー選手(20選手中16選手)とブロック分けが決定‼️
残りの4選手は、6月23日後楽園、7月4日東京武道館、一発勝負の「出場者決定戦」で決定‼️

視聴＆登録⏩https://t.co/Tj7UBINesh#NJPW #njpwworld #G1CLIMAX35 pic.twitter.com/z8UadyuCqq

— NJPW WORLD (@njpwworld) June 15, 2025

G1 Climax 35 entrants and blocks revealed!
A Block:
Yota Tsuji
El Phantasmo
Hiroshi Tanahashi
SANADA
David Finlay
EVIL
Yuya Uemura
Boltin Oleg

B Block:
Hirooki Goto
Konosuke Takeshita
Zack Sabre Jr.
Great-O-Khan
Ren Narita
Shingo Takagi
Gabe Kidd
Shota Umino

Plus, 4 more… pic.twitter.com/mY8tfsdqhm

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) June 15, 2025

A Block:

• Hirooki Goto
• Boltin Oleg
• Yuya Uemura
• Yota Tsuji
• David Finlay
• EVIL
• SANADA
• Hiroshi Tanahashi
• First winner of A Block Play-in Tournament
• Second winner of A Block Play-in Tournament

B Block:

• El Phantasmo
• Shota Umino
• Shingo Takagi
• Zack Sabre Jr.
• Great-O-Khan
• Gabe Kidd
• Ren Narita
• Konosuke Takeshita (AEW)
• First winner of B Block Play-in Tournament
• Second winner of B Block Play-in Tournament