NJPW G1 Climax 26

For the uninitiated:  The G1 Climax is an annual round-robin-style tournament in New Japan Pro Wrestling that takes place over the summer.  Two blocks of competitors face each other with the point leaders squaring off the finals.  The winner earns the right to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Title at Wrestle Kingdom(New Japan's biggest show of the year) in January.  Last year's G1 was the first one I followed to any degree and I only recently got around to watching the matches from that tournament.

This year's tournament has a similar field to last year's, though the roster was obviously changed due to five major defections to WWE/NXT:  A.J. Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson, Luke/Doc Gallows, and Kota Ibushi.  Also dropping out of last year's field are Hiroyoshi Tenzan(who had won the tournament on three previous occasions) and Yujiro Takahashi.  Filling those spots are former Intercontinental Champion Kenny Omega, former Tag Champ Tama Tonga, CHAOS underling Yoshi-Hashi, Seiya Senada and Takaaki "EVIL" Watanabe of Tetsuya Naito's Los Ingobernables, and Naomichi Marufuji and Katsuhiko Nakajima from Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Block A:  Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Seiya Senada, Naomichi Marufuji, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi

Block B:  NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata, Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma, IWGP Intercontinental Champion Michael Elgin, Toru Yano, Tetsuya Naito, Takaaki "EVIL" Watanabe, Kenny Omega, Yoshi-Hashi, Katsuhiko Nakajima

The full match schedule hasn't been released yet, but several key matches have been announced:

7/18:  Tanahashi vs. Senada, Okada vs. Marufuji.
7/22:  Nagata vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Honma
7/23:  Tanahashi vs. Makabe, Okada vs. Senada
7/24:  Shibata vs. Nakajima, Honma vs. Yoshi-Hashi
7/25:  Makabe vs. Senada, Okada vs. Goto
7/27:  Naito vs. Yano, Elgin vs. Shibata
7/28:  Ishii vs. Marufuji, Goto vs. Senada
7/30:  Elgin vs. Omega, Shibata vs. Naito
7/31:  Makabe vs. Marufuji, Tanahashi vs. Goto
8/1:  Yoshi-Hashi vs. Nakajima, Naito vs. Honma
8/3:  Tanahashi vs. Ishii, Okada vs. Makabe
8/4:  Naito vs. Nakajima, Shibata vs. Omega
8/6:  Tanahashi vs. Marufuji, Okada vs. Ishii
8/7:  Omega vs. Nagata, Naito vs. EVIL
8/8:  Ishii vs. Senada, Tanahashi vs. Kojima
8/10:  Elgin vs. Honma, Shibata vs. Nagata
8/12:  Goto vs. Marufuji, Okada vs. Tanahashi
8/13:  Shibata vs. EVIL, Naito vs. Omega

Stories from last year's G1 Climax included:

-Elgin's quest for respect in his first major tour of Japan
-Honma's quest for any wins at all after going winless in the 2014 tourney (he scored one lone win toward the end of last year's G1).
-Nakamura overcoming an early elbow injury to battle his way to the finals.
-Okada's desire to be both the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the G1 Climax winner (meaning he would hand-pick his Wrestle Kingdom opponent if he remained champion).