On Sunday night, New Japan announced the following top matches for their G-1 Special at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California on July 7 airing live on AXS TV.
* IWGP Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Cody
* IWGP Tag Team Championships: The Young Bucks (c’s) vs. EVIL and SANADA
* IWGP United States Championship: “Switchblade” Jay White (c) vs. Juice Robinson
* Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI
More matches will be announced in the coming weeks.
Also announced was the top matches for the three Kizuna Road shows taking place from June 17 to June 19 at Koruaken Hall in Tokyo, Japan, all airing live on New Japan World.
On June 17th, new IWGP Jr. Champion Hiromu Takahashi will defend the IWGP Jr. Championship against El Desperado. Desperado defeated Hiromu on Night 4 of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, thus earning him the title shot. Also on that show, the 20 participants in the 2018 NJPW G-1 Climax tournament will be announced.
On June 18th, new NEVER Openweight Champion Michael Elgin will defend the NEVER Openweight Championship against former champion Hirooki Goto. Also on that show, the 20 participants in the 2018 NJPW G-1 Climax will be set into their respective blocks.
Finally on June 19th, there will be a retirement ceremony for NJPW legend Super Strong Machine, along with a special 10-man tag featuring Los Ingobernables de Japon against Ryusuke Taguchi leading a team that will all wear the famous Super Strong Machine mask. Also on the show, the top matches for the G-1 Climax will be announced.