Tetsuya Naito forced to withdraw from G1 Climax 31 due to an injury

Tetsuya Naito has been forced to withdraw from the ongoing G1 Climax 31 tournament. New Japan Pro Wrestling released a statement regarding Naito's injury, stating that the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion suffered an injury to his left knee.

It claimed that the damage was incurred to Naito's left meniscus and MCL. Due to this, the leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon will be unable to compete in the remainder of the G1 Climax tour.

NJPW has also confirmed that, as of right now, there is no timetable for Tetsuya Naito's return to in-ring action. All of his remaining matches will be counted as losses via forfeit with his scheduled opponents getting an automatic two points.

It is also to be noted that Tetsuya Naito's remaining opponents will instead be competing in special singles matches. The company has updated the match cards with the likes of Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, and Naito's fellow stablemates BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi taking his spot across several match cards.

Here is the updated schedule from NJPW:

September 23: G1 Climax 31 Night 3, Ota-ku
1st Match: Yuji Nagata vs. Tanga Loa
September 26: G1 Climax 31 Night 5, Kobe
2nd Match: Yuji Nagata vs. Shingo Takagi
September 30: G1 Climax 31 Night 7, Korakuen Hall
1st Match: BUSHI vs. Yujiro Takahashi
October 3: G1 Climax 31 Night 9, Nagoya
2nd Match: BUSHI vs. Toru Yano
October 7: G1 Climax 31 Night 11, Hiroshima
2nd Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. KENTA
October 9: G1 Climax 31 Night 13, Osaka
2nd Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
October 13: G1 Climax 31 Night 15, Sendai
2nd Match: Satoshi Kojima vs. Kota Ibushi
October 18: G1 Climax Night 17, Yokohama
Satoshi Kojima vs. Great-O-Khan

Tetsuya Naito is a multiple time IWGP Heavyweight Champion

Tetsuya Naito is a three-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. The leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon is also a former dual champion, having held both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at the same time.

He also very recently won the IWGP Tag Team Championships with SANADA but the LIJ duo ended up dropping their belts to Dangerous Tekkers after only two weeks.

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).

In 2025, Soumik became an Assistant Content Manager at Sportskeeda, but continues to cover and write about the hottest and trending news topics.

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.

(Go SUBSCRIBE to his channel while you're at it): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfkg4VnUC7sLNc5jEzVYgOQ

Email: soumik.datta9@gmail.com
Twitter: @Thesoumikdatta9

Follow his Sportskeeda profile for wrestling news and content and subscribe to his YouTube channel.

Know More

Edited by Kaushik Das