So happy we get Mox and Naito at FD. Ishii was a lot of fun at Dominion. Did not watch the whole show as NJPW is def in a low period now.

Some interesting news ahead of Forbidden Door weekend: STARDOM and NJPW have officially merged.

Not sure yet if they will continue on as two separate promotions or if they will merge rosters and have the same shows. Pretty groundbreaking stuff for Japanese wrestling.

RIP they can never recover from this.

King of Pro Wrestling

Four days ago the big autumn NJPW show took place, a show that could very well change the landscape of the company. The main reason for that is the outcome of the main event, which @ness so eloquently alluded to, but that will come in time, and in its own separate post.

Until then, I'll cover the rest of the card.

KUSHIDA and Kevin Knight defeated Clark Connors and Drilla Maloney to become the NEW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champions. A shocking result because it felt like the War Dogs were never going to lose, certainly not to what seemed to be a filler team. The Junior Tag League is right around the corner, I wouldn't be surprised if the War Dogs won the tournament to earn a rematch.

Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste def. Bad Luck Fale and Caveman Ugg to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. The defiition of filler challengers. After the match they were challenged by The United Empire's Great O-Khan and Henare.

Shingo Takagi def. Ryohei Oiwa to retain the NEVER Openweight Championship. Oiwa is TMDK's newest member, who recently completed an excursion in NOAH under the tutelage of Kiyomiya. Zack recruited him to TMDK, and Oiwa immediately challenged Takagi after Takagi wrestled the championship from Henare earlier in the month. Takagi, celebrating his 20th anniversary as a pro-wrestler, made quick work of his young challenger.

Ren Narita def. Jeff Cobb and Yota Tsuji to become the NEW NJPW WORLD TV Champion. Previously Tsuji and Cobb wrestled a 15-minute draw which had the fans begging for a rematch. Narita got involved the dirty way, attacking both men with a weapon, and so the triple threat was born. Narita's plan worked to perfection as he picked his moment to eliminate the referee, strike Cobb with a weapon, and pin the champion under a chorus of boos.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, El Phantasmo and Shota Umino def. EVIL, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Yujiro Takahashi. Hiroshi Tanahashi scored the winning pinfall, before taking the microphone. The president announced that he will wrestle his final match at Wrestle Kingdom 2025. House of Torture attacked Tanahashi, EVIL declaring that he will decide when Tanahashi retires.

DOUKI def. SHO to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. A shocking match. There were no entrances as the battle initiating with SHO attacking DOUKI backstage. SHO hit DOUKI with a chair and his finisher on the floor. SHO brought DOUKI to the ring and made a fatal mistake. He removed DOUKI's face covering, unleashing a malevolent demon! DOUKI spit red mist in SHO's face, then hit his finisher twice in a row to retain in 14 seconds.



The referee helped to replace DOUKI's mask, prompting Kanemaru to attack the champion. Suddenly the audience lit up as Master Wato returned to chase away House of Torture before challenging DOUKI at the Tokyo Dome.

Awesome development. Master Wato was on the brink of becoming a top tier junior heavyweight before an untimely injury. And while he was injured, DOUKI took it upon himself to seize the crown from the former top dogs in El Desperado, Hiromu Takahashi and Taiji Ishimori. DOUKI vs Wato is a fresh match between the new top stars of the division.

David Finlay def. Hirooki Goto to retain the IWGP Global Heavy Championship. An emotionally charged contest since Goto's children were in the front row. Naturally Finlay took every opportunity to taunt, jeer, yell and curse at his challenger's offspring. Goto showed his samurai spirit as always, hoping to repeat the victory he achived in the G1. It was not to be. Finlay found a moment to strike Goto with the shillelagh, and while that didn't end the match immediately, there were no further heroics as Finlay hit a powerbomb and Overkill to retain the championship, causing the challenger's daughter to burst into tears.



Finlay shrewdly called out the injured Yuya Uemura as his next challenger. Of course Uemura didn't answer, but his factionmate Taichi stepped up to the place. No doubt a filler defense before Uemura returns for January 4.

Stay tuned for the main event...

Zack Sabre Jr. defeats Tetsuya Naito to become the NEW IWGP World Heavyweight Champion!!!!



Rejoice, for the best wrestler in the world has finally achieved world championship glory!

Long live Sabreism! Long live the man who will bring NJPW to a brighter future!

An unfortunate but inevitable defeat for former champion Naito. It does feel like the beginning of the end for Naito, but fortunately he went out on a fantastic match. The benefit of facing Zack is that high spots are at a minimum, so Naito was able to show close to his best self.

The match was mainly technical, Naito managing to lock Zack in a few lucha-inspired holds, forcing the challenger to seek a rope break. However Zack was equally adept, tying Naito in several nasty holds. However, as Zack himself said in the post-match interview, he realised that Naito was too stubborn to submit. So instead of trying, he dropped Naito on his head with three Zack Driver's in a row to secure the victory that has eluded Zack his whole career.

Zack was highly complimentary of Naito, acknowledging that Naito was broken down, but only because he had given his body to NJPW for many years. Before Zack could say more, three men stepped up to challenge the new champion. First was SANADA, who already has a match booked with Zack for Royal Quest in London, TODAY. Zack quickly agreed to put his newly-won belt on the line. Second was Shota Umino, who was booed by the audience. Shota declared that since Tanahashi is retiring, he has to step up for Hontai (the white-meat babyface faction). Then came Shingo Takagi, who had previously declared he would challenge the winner of Naito vs Zack.

Zack diplomatically stated that SANADA has the first shot, and that he would think about his other challengers, before telling everyone to leave his ring. Zack then bid the crowd farewell and celebrated with the rest of TMDK. A glorious end to a glorious show.

The State of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

With a newly-crowned champion, and the promise of a brighter future, I feel a desire to reflect on New Japan Pro Wrestling's top championship.

The decision to merge the IWGP Heavyweight Championship with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship was controversial - especially since the company was quick to fill the void of the Intercontinental Championship with less prestigious champinoships. I won't dwell on that any longer, I want to focus on the booking, which started off well but gradually declined.

Kota Ibushi was the inaugural champion, who dropped it surprisingly to Will Ospreay in April 2021. A fantastic decision in itself, but it was cursed: Ospreay vacated the title a month later due to a neck injury. They instead pivoted to Shingo Takagi, defeating the Ace Okada to claim the belt. Again, not a bad decision. They clearly wanted someone besides Naito and Okada at the top, and while Takagi wasn't their first choice, he did an excellent job carrying the company in the second half of 2021.

Okada predictably won the G1 Climax and the championship at Wrestle Kingdom 16. I say predictably, because this booking pattern is seen over and over again. Usually the usurper to the throne is a gaijin or a Bullet Club leader. It happened with AJ Styles in approximately 2014, and EVIL in 2020. EVIL's betrayal, defeat, and subsequent loss to former LIJ-mate Naito was done for more shock value, a desperate attempt to gain interest during the pandemic. EVIL's reign was one of the worst top reigns in company history, but it did lead to House of Torture, which I have come to believe to be a great feature of NJPW. But I digress.

Getting back to the booking formula: Okada holds the belt until the summer of 2022, when Jay White returns from nowhere to defeat Okada at Dominion. A shocking result, and a welcome one for myself, a Jay White fan, but the writing was on the wall when Okada won the G1 Climax for a second year in a row, and you won't be surprised to hear that Okada won it back at Wrestle Kingdom 17.

None of this booking is particularly bad, and the Ospreay injury was terribly unfortunate, but at this point the Okada holding pattern was getting beyond tired; The Jay White saga a shallow rehash of an old rivalry. But who else? The answer was a man constantly referred to as Okada's rival despite having a 0-8 record. A man who was always the bridesmaid: SANADA. SANADA received a monster push, a new finisher, and repackage as he stormed through the 2023 New Japan Cup and dethroned Okada at Sakura Genesis in April. On paper, a great decision: suddenly I had interest in a wrestler whom I felt nothing but apathy before. Alas, hindsight revealed it to be an unwise choice. SANADA has a quiet, silent charisma, and even though he started talking as the champion, he never captivated the audience in the way that previous champion did. Indeed, the fans preferred him as chaser over champion: SANADA was always over prior to that. He quietly held the championship for the better part of the year, holding it for Naito o take at Wrestle Kingdom 18.

We're now in 2024, the worst year NJPW's top belt has seen in a long time. Okada and Ospreay walked away, the SANADA experiment failed and suddenly Naito was lacking a dance partner. Fortunately, Naito has many points in his favour: he's a top star, he's incredibly over, beloved by all, a huge merchandise mover, a bonafide star. Unfortunately, his physical capabilities were declining at a rapid pace. He could no longer deliver these huge epic matches, especially since the quality of his opposition was not the best. The pattern occurred once more as Jon Moxley appeared from out of nowhere to defeat Naito, a result that nobody was expecting, a repeat of the EVIL blunder. Despite Moxley being handed the keys to the castle, he seemed uninspired in general, sleepwalking through a couple of defenses against House of Torture members Ren Narita and EVIL, before returning the belt to Naito in one of the worst NJPW main events in history.

Naito struggled through the G1, where his physical issues became part of the storyline, barely making it out alive, having a filler defense against midcarder Great O-Khan, before losing the belt to the G1 Climax 2024 winner, and the best wrestler in the world, Zack Sabre Jr.

My intention with this essay was to criticise NJPW's booking, but as I wrote I feel there's not too much to criticise. Almost all the booking decisions have been at least adequate. Gedo adheres to formula too much, but there are a number of brave decisions that bombed due to circumstances outside their control, or an inability to predict the future. Ospreay's injury, SANADA flopping, Okada and Ospreay leaving the company. The one true blunder was Moxley.

Looking ahead, I am intrigued to see who Zack Sabre Jr. defends against at the Tokyo Dome. Presumably it's either Shota Umino or Shingo Takagi. Personally my choice would be David Finlay, but I know they would never book gaijin vs gaijin at Wrestle Kingdom. My second choice would be Okada. The one man Zack could never beat.

Couple big developments at Power Struggle in Osaka last night. Using spoilers in case anyone is planning on watching the show still:

SPOILER: Click to show

Kenny Omega returned and cut a promo. Said he is close to being 100% and wants his first match back to be in Tokyo at WrestleDynasty. He said he wants to face someone young and the future of NJPW. After the show he was confronted by the Strong Champion, Gabe Kidd. Looking like that will be the match there.

After defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Zack Sabre, Jr. was attacked from behind by Ricochet. Shota Umino came out and made the save, but not before Ricochet said he wants to challenge ZSJ at WrestleDynasty for the title.

Speaking of Umino, he got cheered for beating SANADA earlier in the night, then got booed when he saved ZSJ. No idea what's up with that. I haven't been following close enough lately.

United Empire are once again tag champs. GOK & Henare beat TMDK. Funnily enough, the other two members of TMDK, Eagles & Fujita, won the World Tag League tournament.

Appreciate the spoiler RT.

I'm caught up now and you missed one huge development from Power Struggle.

David Finlay retained his Global Heavyweight Championship against Taichi. Taichi had the match won after hitting Black Mephisto but the referee was pulled out of the ring by...SANADA. That's right. Gedo whispered in SANADA's ear after his defeat to Shota Umino. After pulling the referee, SANADA stood at ringside and slowly removed his Just Five Guys jacket to reveal a War Dogs shirt. Taichi was understandably outraged, turned around into a Finlay shillelagh shot, and the win was academic.

SANADA has been in a slump for basically the whole year and, much like he did when he defected from LIJ, he changed factions in times of woe. Except this was a pure betrayal, not the amicable separation with LIJ. Honestly, the uber-stoic SANADA is a pretty poor fit for the wild and violent War Dogs. We'll see where it goes, but I'm not very optimistic.


Ricochet, ugh. They must be desperate if he's the best they have for Wrestledream. Ricochet talked mad shit backstage about how he's always been the man. What have you been smoking? This reeks of Ziggler and Riddle last year, who came in for a Wrestle Kingdom moment, talked a load of fake-passion bullshit, and disappeared the moment they lost. Kenny Omega is right there! Stick him against Zack.


Shota Umino has been negatively received for a while. I don't know the full picture but I'd guess it's because he's trying to force his way into the Tokyo Dome main event, a position he certainly hasn't earned. For a while he's adopted the attitude of "I'm the Ace, I'll do what I want, I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks". And he's being rejected. Not too dissimilar to pre-LIJ Naito.

Nov 10, 2024 21:21:10 GMT Emperor said:

Appreciate the spoiler RT .

I'm caught up now and you missed one huge development from Power Struggle.

David Finlay retained his Global Heavyweight Championship against Taichi. Taichi had the match won after hitting Black Mephisto but the referee was pulled out of the ring by...SANADA. That's right. Gedo whispered in SANADA's ear after his defeat to Shota Umino. After pulling the referee, SANADA stood at ringside and slowly removed his Just Five Guys jacket to reveal a War Dogs shirt. Taichi was understandably outraged, turned around into a Finlay shillelagh shot, and the win was academic.

SANADA has been in a slump for basically the whole year and, much like he did when he defected from LIJ, he changed factions in times of woe. Except this was a pure betrayal, not the amicable separation with LIJ. Honestly, the uber-stoic SANADA is a pretty poor fit for the wild and violent War Dogs. We'll see where it goes, but I'm not very optimistic.


Ricochet, ugh. They must be desperate if he's the best they have for Wrestledream. Ricochet talked mad shit backstage about how he's always been the man. What have you been smoking? This reeks of Ziggler and Riddle last year, who came in for a Wrestle Kingdom moment, talked a load of fake-passion bullshit, and disappeared the moment they lost. Kenny Omega is right there! Stick him against Zack.


Shota Umino has been negatively received for a while. I don't know the full picture but I'd guess it's because he's trying to force his way into the Tokyo Dome main event, a position he certainly hasn't earned. For a while he's adopted the attitude of "I'm the Ace, I'll do what I want, I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks". And he's being rejected. Not too dissimilar to pre-LIJ Naito.

Yeah I actually didn't see the SANADA turn until after I posted and forgot to come back and add it. Pretty cool for him. Fits him well.

I really hope he finds another gear now because I was actually pretty excited for his new look and world title run. But every time he stepped in the ring I immediately stopped caring.

As for Ricochet, he lost a lot of his aura in WWE working their protected style and basically being a jobber that is good at flips. And so far he hasn't shaken that because other than some callbacks in his match with Will Ospreay, he hasn't really done anything different since signing with AEW. Hopefully he finds his old self but I'm not holding my breath. I think his best days are behind him and he wasted most of them collecting paychecks in WWE.

The more I think about it, the more I dislike the Ricochet decision. The message is that a WWE/AEW midcarder for life is good enough to walk in and step into the main event of the Tokyo Dome. Imagine if they brought in Ospreay or Okada instead? I guess Tony doesn't want his top boys to lose against a British chap.

Shota Umino vs Zack is also a strange Wrestle Kingdom main event. Both men haven't even been close to that position before. I understand NJPW is going through a transition period and the top star Naito is too broken to reliably complete at that level, so they have limited options.

I do believe Zack is the best choice as champion, and he's been going the extra mile to learn Japanese and become a "foreign homegrown" star. Shooter, however, is totally forced. Yota Tsuji is the more natural choice, a man who was similarly forced into the main event at Dominion, but since proved that he has the most star quality of his generation. Shota he hasn't been given quite the same opportunities as Tsuji but Umino's best career moment was his defeat to Ospreay at last year's Power Struggle and he's been floundering since then. It feels like they had this plan for ages and refuse to divert from it despite Shota underdelivering. The company is also to blame since they had Shota be House of Torture's bitch boy for most of the year and booked him poorly in the G1 - he did beat Zack which is the only justification for the WK main event. But by that logic even Shingo would have been a better candidate. He has the tenure and he is a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Shota could have main evented Power Struggle instead.

Finlay vs Zack is another match with great potential. I understand why they are not running gaijin vs gaijin at Wrestle Kingdom, but that would be an awesome Dominion main event.