Ranking all favorites to win the 2018 G1 Climax

#6 Kota Ibushi

Kota Ibushi shockingly announced his return to New Japan Pro Wrestling last year as part of the G1 27 and Ibushi’s participation in his second consecutive G1 Climax definitely comes in as a major booster for NJPW.

During last year’s G1, Ibushi competed in some absolutely stellar matches against the likes of Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi, but this year, is going to be a whole different and the major focal point is going to be Ibushi’s much-awaited showdown against fellow Golden Lover Kenny Omega in B block.

#5 Jay White

New Japan Pro Wrestling and Gedo in particular, has shown a lot of faith in the returning ‘Switchblade’ Jay White, who has already been awarded the IWGP US Heavyweight Championship since his return to the promotion last year.

White will be entering his first ever G1 this year and Gedo somehow needs to make sure that he doesn’t mess this up and provides ‘Switchblade’ with a formidable debut G1 run. Nonetheless, the Kiwi superstar is indeed expected to have a strong outing and surprisingly enough, we might just witness ‘Switchblade’ make it to the finals.

About the author

Soumik Datta is a professional wrestling journalist who has been following the business for more than a decade.

In 2017, Soumik joined the Sportskeeda Wrestling team and is best known for his work with the WWE team. He has previously contributed to the Sportskeeda AEW, MMA, and the football team where he specifically covered the Major League Soccer.

In 2024, Soumik crossed 50 million reads for Sportskeeda WWE. While working under Sportskeeda MMA, he interviewed prominent UFC fighters, including Justin Gaethje, Sean O'Malley, and Cory Sandhagen, among others. He is also being followed by John Cena on X (formerly Twitter).

Apart from his love for professional wrestling, Soumik also watches Football and has been a lifelong follower of Liverpool FC and Mohun Bagan. He has also been following the Indian Super League and remains the only content creator to have traveled across India to watch 7 ISL Matches in 7 Days, a video which currently sits at 26K views on his YouTube channel. His channel currently amasses over 120K views.

As aforementioned, Soumik also likes to make content for his YouTube channel and travel to various places either with family, friends, or solo, or go on road trips.

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Edited by Kishan Prasad