Update On Possible AEW Involvement In NJPW's 2026 G1 Climax Tournament

The G1 Climax is New Japan Pro Wrestling's annual round robin tournament that sees the best that NJPW has to offer compete for a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Over the years, stars from different companies have made cameos in the gruelling competition, from Pro Wrestling NOAH, to DDT, to the company's former arch rival All Japan Pro Wrestling. A number of AEW stars have featured in the G1 in recent years like Eddie Kingston, Lance Archer, and the 2025 winner Konosuke Takeshita, but with the opening night of the 2026 tournament taking place in the United States, AEW could have a larger presence in this year's tournament.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has reported that a couple of AEW stars are slated to appear in this year's tournament. AEW stars like Kenny Omega, Bryan Danielson, and Will Ospreay have been use to promote the opening night of the G1 Climax, which takes place on July 11 at the NOW Arena in Chicago, Illinois, and while that does not mean that any of those three men will be in the tournament (Danielson is still retired from full-time action), using some of AEW's biggest names to promote NJPW's biggest competition of the year does imply that this year's tournament will have a heavy AEW influence. Meltzer noted that ticket sales on the day of release were under the 2,000 mark, but the number has since improved in the past week.

The opening night of G1 Climax 36 will mark the first time in seven years that NJPW's biggest tournament of the year takes place on American soil. The last instance was in 2019 when the 29th tournament kicked off in Dallas, Texas. That night was main evented by another instalment in the iconic rivalry between Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, with "The Rainmaker" coming away with the victory.