G1 Special in San Francisco

G1 Special in San Francisco is an upcoming professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The show will take place on July 7, 2018, in Daly City, California, the United States at Cow Palace. This is the third NJPW shows that the promotion had produced independently in the U.S. This will be the second event under the G1 Special name. The event's name refers to the annual G1 Climax tournament as the show also serves as a prelude to the 2018 G1 Climax.

Background
Since 2017, NJPW returned to presenting shows in the United States independently, following a direct response to WWE taking four wrestlers, including AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura, from NJPW in January 2016. The first show was the G1 Special in USA, which was a success, with tickets and meet-and-greets selling out within 2 hours after being available for purchase. NJPW even 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.

Following the success, of the first show, NJPW promoted a second named Strong Style Evolved, which was a success, with tickets sold out within hours, despite NJPW having not announced any matches for the two shows. During this time, NJPW opened their Dojo in the United States with Katsuyori Shibata serving as the head trainer and ROH wrestler Scorpio Sky serving as an assistant trainer. NJPW also filled a trademark in the United States over Strong Style, King of Sports, and Strong Style Evolved. However, they were initially refused due to not being signed, resulting in them being not properly verified. On March 25 at Strong Style Evolved, NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced that NJPW would promote a third show in the United States the G1 Special in San Francisco which will take place on July 7 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, the follow-up event to Strong Style Evolved. Dave Meltzer said that the date "The show is a giant test [...] the surprised me and the location was a good one [...] the last event in the Cow Palace was by WWE [...], since 2004, that was a long time ago [...] if they really sell it out it would be since 1999".

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. The show marked the third time NJPW presented shows in the United States independently, as opposed to partnering up with an American promotion.

On April 25, NJPW announced that they would put 10,000 tickets on sale on May 1, ranging from $40 up to $300. The show could be possibly the biggest professional wrestling event not promoted by WWE. Following the announcement, it was thought that it was initially that 4,500 tickets were sold given the amount of sold tickets displayed on Ticketmaster. It was later reported by Pro Wrestling Torch, that the number of tickets that were sold was 3,300, but it marked 4,500 tickets, due to 1,000 tickets being reserved for "Team NJPW" fan club, which they could purchase them when they want. NJPW management was upset with the initial sales and had to reach out to big names in wrestling to help to increase the sales. They also expected the sales to be around 4,000, if NJPW isn't able to secure a big name.

Storylines
G1 Special in San Francisco features professional wrestling matches that involved 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.