Gabe Kidd is officially out of the G1 Climax tournament.
The IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion competed on the first night and lost to Konosuke Takeshita. The next night, Kidd came out in crutches and explained that he hyper extended his knee and was unable to compete. However, the 28-year-old didn’t give up his spot as Gabe Kidd hoped to recover before it’s too late.
Unfortunately, on the fifth night of the G1 Climax, Gabe Kidd was forced out of the G1 Climax. Kidd currently has zero points, so it wouldn’t have mattered if he was able to come back on night six as there’s no way he would have gotten enough points to make it into the finals.
“I was really hopeful that I could come back and power through this and continue in this G1 Climax, but I’ve spoke to the doctors and there is no way I can be cleared, so I have no other choice [but] to withdraw from the G1 Climax,” Kidd announced. “And this is sh*t, man. It really f*cking sucks. It’s been a mental battle these past few days since I found out this information.”
At this time, New Japan Pro-Wrestling officials have kept the IWGP Global Heavyweight title on Kidd. There’s not much information on how serious his injury is or the length of time that he’ll be out, but given that the promotion kept him in the tournament, it’s likely that they didn’t expect him to miss much time.
“A positive note is that I’ve received hundreds of messages from these people — the fans — and they’ve said they want me to rest and come back stronger,” he said. “And I can only promise you one thing, is that when I am back fighting on this blue mat that it is going to be the best version of Gabe Kidd that you’ve ever f*cking seen.”
Hopefully, Kidd recovers quickly and resumes his spot on the New Japan roster. It’s not exactly clear when the injury occurred, though given that he competed on the first night then it’s likely that his match against Takeshita is when the injury happened. That’s just pure speculation on my end.