G1 Special in USA

G1 Special in USA is an ongoing two-day professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The two shows are scheduled to take place on July 1 and 2, 2017, in Long Beach, California, United States at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. These will be the first NJPW shows that the promotion has produced independently in the U.S. NJPW will crown the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion during the weekend. The event's name refers to the annual G1 Climax tournament as these shows also serve as a prelude to the 2017 G1 Climax.

Background
In December 2016, Pro Wrestling Insider reported that New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) was planning to hold the first two nights of the 2017 G1 Climax in the United States with New England-based wrestling personality George Carroll and wrestler Rocky Romero reportedly doing ground work for the dates in Long Beach, California. On January 4, 2017, during Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, NJPW officially announced the shows for July 1 and 2, 2017, taking place at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. These shows, however, would not be part of the G1 Climax, but would instead serve as a prelude to the tournament, which takes place between July 17 and August 13. The shows would mark the first time NJPW presented shows in the United States independently, as opposed to partnering up with an American promotion. NJPW had previously partnered with Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) for the NJPW Invasion Tour 2011 and since 2014 they have been partnered with Ring of Honor (ROH), co-producing shows annually in North America.

After announcing the Long Beach shows, NJPW went public with their plan of an American expansion, which included establishing a subsidiary and running extended tours in the United States with California as the base, while also establishing a dojo for training Americans in Los Angeles, run by Rocky Romero. The full-scale running of the American market was set to launch in 2018. According to Takaaki Kidani, the plan was a direct response to WWE taking four wrestlers, including AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura, from NJPW in January 2016. Tickets for the shows as well as meet-and-greets were put on sale on April 1 and sold out within hours, despite NJPW having not announced any matches for the two shows. Tickets were purchased in 37 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Three days later, NJPW announced the first group of wrestlers taking part in the event; Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenny Omega. In May, NJPW put additional seats for the shows on sale, which were also quickly sold out. NJPW later claimed that the original tickets sold out in two hours and the additional tickets in two minutes.

On May 12, during the third night of the NJPW and ROH co-produced War of the Worlds tour in New York City, it was announced that NJPW would hold a tournament to crown the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion during the G1 Special in USA weekend. It was also announced that both the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships would be defended during the weekend. On May 18, NJPW held a press conference in Los Angeles to announce further details for the shows. This included the addition of 36 wrestlers to the shows, including Jay Lethal, The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) and War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) from ROH and Dragon Lee, Titán and Volador Jr. from the Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion. It was also announced that both the IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships would be defended during the weekend in addition to the previously announced titles.

The two shows will air live through NJPW's internet streaming site, New Japan Pro Wrestling World, and will feature English commentary. However, the first night would only air live outside of the United States, where both nights air on the AXS TV network; the first night live and the second night on tape delay on July 7. Both nights on AXS TV will feature English commentary by Jim Ross and Josh Barnett. On June 21, the Canadian Fight Network announced that it would also air the first night live.

On June 12, NJPW announced the full card for the first night as well as a partial card for the second night. The release of the cards brought with them some negative reactions, mostly centered around American wrestlers Cody and Billy Gunn receiving shots at the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships, respectively. Dave Meltzer wrote that "having two guys who were in WWE but not pushed to the top there [...] going after two singles titles feels like the booking mistake TNA would do. I've got no issue with Cody in the spot because there are so many storyline ways to go and it feels like New Japan sees him as a long-term star. But two of them on the same weekend amplifies the idea it's guys who weren't on top in WWE getting shots at New Japan's two top titles".

Storylines
G1 Special in USA will feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The first night would be headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Cody. The match was set up on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, where Cody, after defeating Michael Elgin, challenged Okada. After the main event of the show, where Okada had successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by wrestling Cody's Bullet Club stablemate Kenny Omega to a 60-minute time limit draw, Cody repeated the challenge, which was accepted by Okada. Cody debuted for NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2017, and went undefeated in his three singles matches in the promotion prior to the Long Beach show. Okada, while admitting he still did not know Cody or what he was capable of, accepted the challenge due to Cody being an American and his popularity in the United States. On June 23, Cody captured the ROH World Championship, turning the main event into a rare battle of world champions from two major promotions. The last champion versus champion match of this type took place in 2005 between IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima.

In the second title match of the first night, Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa) were set to defend the IWGP Tag Team Championship against War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe). This would be a rematch from Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, where the Guerrillas of Destiny became the new champions through cheating after Roa hit Rowe with a steel chair behind the referee's back.

The first night would also feature all four first round matches in the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament. The first match would take place between ROH wrestlers Hangman Page and Jay Lethal, who were the first two wrestlers to show interest in being part of the tournament, when the title was announced. The second match would see Juice Robinson take on Zack Sabre Jr. The two met as part of a NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship gauntlet match at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall. After Robinson had eliminated Sabre's Suzuki-gun team from the match, Sabre attacked Robinson and locked him in a submission hold. In the third match, Tetsuya Naito would take on Tomohiro Ishii in a rematch from Wrestling Dontaku 2016, where Naito successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Ishii. Naito had previously criticized the idea of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, claiming that it would hurt the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, which he held at the time. Naito had even brought up the idea of retiring the Intercontinental Championship prior to losing it and now stated that upon winning the tournament, he was going to immediately retire the United States Heavyweight Championship and throw the title belt in the garbage. In the final first round match Kenny Omega was set to take on Michael Elgin. Elgin went into the match holding two straight victories over Omega with their most recent match against each other having taken place during the 2016 G1 Climax.

The second night will see Hiroshi Tanahashi defend the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Billy Gunn. Gunn had arrived in NJPW during the 2016 World Tag League as part of Yoshitatsu's Hunter Club stable. In May 2017, Yoshitatsu relayed a message from Gunn to Tanahashi, requesting a match between the two. After capturing the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tetsuya Naito at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, Tanahashi immediately nominated Gunn as his first challenger.

The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship will be defended during the second night with champions The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) taking on Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero). This is another rematch from Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, where The Young Bucks captured the title from Roppongi Vice.

The second night will also feature the conclusion of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament with two semifinal matches and a final match.

Results

 * Night 1


 * Night 2