Wrestling Discussion Thread II

RIGHT. This is the big NJPW primer to get you up to speed.

The Rules

NJPW is split into two divisions – the heavyweights and the Jr. heavyweights. The Jrs. are flashier and fast paced, much like the cruiserweights in WWE. The juniors can choose to start competing in the main division, usually once they get enough of a following that the bosses want to see them going for the main prizes. Kenny Omega is the most recent famous example for that.

Nearly every match in NJPW has a time limit, so draws are something you see from time to time.

The count out for being outside the ring is a 20 count, but you'd probably realise that pretty quickly. The refs are pretty lenient for disqualifications too, often letting folks nail each other with chairs or throw people from tables. Outside interference and low blows will still warrant it, mind.

The Titles

IWGP Heavyweight Championship - The big one. This is their top title. Prestigious and you'll rarely find this changing hands.

IWGP Intercontinental Championship - Despite its name, it's a heavily respected belt just below the main IWGP belt. It's often held by their top guys who aren't gunning for the main belt, but being on the rung below means that it can get picked up by the lower guys too.

IWGP United States Championship – Their newest belt. It's probably going to be more important next year as NJPW is planning for a big US push, but it remains to be seen how this title will be used.

NEVER Openweight Championship – This is more of a midcard level belt. Your lower guys will often be scrapping over this, but the belt being Openweight means Juniors can gun for it too.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship – The top prize for the Jr division. Pretty damn prestigious in its own right.

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Championships – Tag titles for the heavyweights. Self-explanatory, really.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Championships – And also self-explanatory.

NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Championships – NJPW is huge on multi-man tag matches to either give folks a chance to rest during their busier tours. Because nearly every show had one or two six-man tag matches, they introduced these titles to gave those matches some more meaning. These titles change hands often, but they're not taken too seriously anyway.

The Events

Wrestle Kingdom – The main show. This is where NJPW finish up their big feuds for the year, where every title is defended. It's held in the Tokyo Dome, and trust me, it's important. Held at the start of the year in January.

The New Beginning – Held in February, this show literally is the new beginning of the year for New Japan. New feuds – it's kickstarting the year ahead.

New Japan Cup – Single elimination tournament held in March. The winner of this gets a shot at one of the singles belts of their choosing, usually the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Sakura Genesis – Their big show in April. Normally features the championship match for the New Japan Cup winner.

Wrestling Dontaku – Their big show in May. Held on a national holiday hence the name “Dontaku”, which is an obsolete Japanese word for holiday.

Best of the Super Juniors – Held in late May/June, this is a round robin tournament featuring the biggest names in the Junior division. The winner of the tournament gets a title opportunity for the Jr. Heavyweight championship. Wrestlers are placed into two blocks – you get two points for a win, one for a draw and nowt for a loss. The winners of each block go on to face each other in the finals.

Dominion – This is NJPW's big summer show held in late June. Expect bigger matches than at Sakura Genesis and Wrestling Dontaku.

G1 Climax – Arguably the biggest deal in NJPW besides Wrestle Kingdom. It's another round robin tournament like BotSJ, but this features the biggest names in the heavyweight division. Same rules in regards to two blocks of wrestlers, but the prize this time is a briefcase with a main event title opportunity at Wrestle Kingdom. Wrestlers are expected to defend this briefcase like a championship until Wrestle Kingdom. If a champion loses to somebody during the G1, expect them to defend their belt to whoever beat them in the month's to come. Big stakes, big matches.

Destruction – Held in September, these are a series of shows usually focusing on the fallout from the G1 eg. Title defenses from champions who lost during the G1, briefcase defenses. The IWGP Heavyweight title is usually left off these shows though because...

King of Pro Wrestling - ...it's normally defended at KoPW in October. Another big show for NJPW.

Power Struggle – The last big show before Wrestle Kingdom, held in late November. Expect things to be finalised for the main show, so title defenses and whatnot are the norm.

NJPW also features a number of other shows, namely Road To... shows in the run-up to big events. They're glorified house shows though, so don't expect big things to happen. There's also crossover shows with NJPW's North American partners in Ring of Honor and CMLL.

And now...

The Wrestlers

A big thing about NJPW is the focus on stables. Nearly everybody is in a group of some sorts and even the few who remain unaffiliated with a group are said to be fighting for the honour of New Japan. It's probably easier to go group by group rather than listing everyone A to Z.

Chaos

Chaos are the longest running group in NJPW. Founded by Shinsuke Nakamura, these guys started off as a bit of a villanous group but have since morphed into something more heroic. They're not as popular as they once were and they don't really have a huge identity beyond being a group of NJPW's longer tenured and better known wrestlers.

Kazuchika Okada  – Okada is NJPW' top guy right now. He's held the belt for well over a year and he's showing no sign of dropping it anytime soon. Okada is known as “The Rainmaker” - he's their money maker. He's pretty much NJPW's chosen one and they play this up by having him managed by their head booker, Gedo. Okada is supremely confident and will often look down on his opponents as he feels he's near untouchable. To be fair, with the year he's had he's not really wrong.

Okada is currently the IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

Tomohiro Ishii – Known as “The Stone Pitbull”, Ishii is a no-nonsense brawler. He'll beat you up and go looking for the next fight after he's finished with you. Ishii hasn't seen a huge amount of championship success, but his matches are always fantastic and it won't be long before he's holding some gold. One to keep an eye on.

Hirooki Goto – Look, he's basically a samurai. Honourable warrior sums him up nicely. Goto went through a long losing streak a little while ago, but he's started to do pretty well. He's won a few singles belts and reached the finals of the G1 last year. Another hard-hitting hoss much like Ishii, except Goto has a kick ass theme song to boot.

Toru Yano – Yano is a loveable cheating git. He comes to the ring trying to shill merchandise, normally his latest DVD and whatever t-shirt he's got out before trying to cheat and blunder his way through a wrestling match. He's the dirtiest player in the game, but the crowd loves his antics. He's easily NJPW's funniest wrestler.

YOSHI-HASHI – Don't know a lot about this guy beyond the fact he comes to the ring with a cane and he's a pretty average wrestler. He's got fluffy hair, I guess. For some reason that I can't discern, he's known as the Headhunter.

Gedo – One half of NJPW's booking team, but also an on-screen character. He's Okada hype man/manager, but he'll also wrestle from time to time. When he's in the ring, much like Yano, Gedo likes to cheat and cuss up a storm to boot. He'll tag every now and then with...

Jado – ...the other half of NJPW's booking time, Jado. Jado also likes to cuss up a storm and cheat along with pinching Ric Flair's “woooo” and Hogan's flexing.

Will Ospreay – UK wrestler, flip master extraordinaire. He's a big fixture in the Jr. Division and is controversial for being a bit of a “let me do flips” kind of wrestler. He's really fucking good, mind.

Rocky Romero – US wrestler, been wrestling primarily in the Jr. Tag Division for ages. He wears an eye patch and is hella popular as he's been there for ages. Wrestles as part of Roppongi Vice with...

Beretta - ...Beretta! Formally in WWE as Trent Beretta, he's going to be making the move to the Heavyweight division soon, which might spell the end for RPG Vice.

Los Ingobernables de Japon

LiJ are one of the newer factions in NJPW. They started off as a pretty villanous stable, disprecting everyone they faced as well as throwing about and damaging the titles they won. But because they're goddamn cool and charismatic, the fans have turned around on them and they're now the most popular group in New Japan. They started as a Japanese offshoot of a stable in CMLL, so they'll often deliver promos and catchphrases in Spanish.

Tetsuya Naito – Naito has had a long and storied few years in New Japan. Back in 2013, he won the G1 Climax, but back then Naito was bland and boring. The fans pushed back on him winning the G1 to such an extent that NJPW held a fan vote on whether Naito's IWGP Heavyweight title match with Okada or IWGP Intercontinental Match should headline Wrestle Kingdom. Naito lost the fan vote, and the match with Okada.

He went on an excursion to CMLL, created LiJ and transformed into a seemingly different person. He was cocky, disrespectful, cared little about the fans and after he won the championship, little about the belt. He tossed it about and even ended up breaking the IWGP Intercontinental championship. But the fans turned their opinion and ended up loving him for his laissez-faire, careless and tranquilo attitude. Now he's looking to main event Wrestle Kingdom but this time with the fans behind him.

EVIL – He's FUCKING AMAZING.

Okay, a bit more about him. Naito recognised his talents and inducted him into LiJ as its first member (besides Naito) and dubbed the man formerly known as Takaaki Watanabe as EVIL, King of Darkness. Yes, he's a bit of an edgelord, but the fans love him now and will happily join in as he yells “THIS IS EVIL. EVERYTHING IS EVIL” at the end of his matches.

SANADA – Known as the Cold Skull, SANADA is actually tipped to be one of the next big things in NJPW. He's not there yet, but he exudes coolness as the silent killer of LiJ. He comes to the ring wearing a demon mask and he'll then go on to silently kick your ass in the ring. Watch this space.

BUSHI – BUSHI is a masked wrestler and wrestled in the Jr. Division for LiJ. He sprays green mist much like Tajiri and will sometimes use that to win his matches. He's alright.

Hiromu Takahashi – AKA The Ticking Time Bomb. This guy is off his rocker. He's been a big mainstay of the Jr. Division this year and won the Jr. Heavyweight championship in convincing fashion at Wrestle Kingdom before losing it in the summer. He would kiss and lick the belt, calling it “belt-chan”. After losing it, he's carried a stuffed cat called Daryl Takahashi to the ring, and Daryl is loved by all.

BUSHI, SANADA and EVIL are currently the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Champions.

Bullet Club

This is your stable of Western – otherwise known as gaijin – heels. Well, kind of. See, Bullet Club started off as a cheating, interfering stable formed by Prince Devitt, whom you'll know as Finn Balor. They cheated and interfered in matches, which was totally out of the norm for NJPW. One Devitt skedaddled, it was chaired by AJ Styles and the Young Bucks and became this weird NWO/DX crossover. Since AJ's left, it's been led by Kenny Omega and is its own thing now. They're quite popular, although LiJ has superseded them in Japanese popularity since.

Kenny Omega – Kenny is Bullet Club's current leader. He's wrestled in Japan for ages as part of another promotion called DDT, where he tagged and feuded with Kota Ibushi. They're incredibly close friends.

Kenny eventually joined NJPW as Bullet Club's rep in the Jr. Division, but when AJ signed with WWE, Kenny kicked out AJ and took over as leader of Bullet Club. He's formed a sub-section of Bullet Club with the Young Bucks called The Elite, which the other member of Bullet Club aren't too happy with as The Elite see themselves above the bigger picture.

To be fair, Kenny isn't wrong in thinking that. He's ascended to the Heavyweight division and is a bonafide main eventer, putting on two recent classics with Okada – the most recent of which ending up as a 60 minute draw. He wants to see himself as NJPW's face of the US expansion and thinks he needs to be champion to do so.

Kenny is currently the IWGP US Champion.

Bad Luck Fale – Fale, AKA The Underboss, has been a part of Bullet Club since its inception. He's a big and nasty New Zealand bruiser – easily the biggest guy in NJPW, too. He's BC's second in command and will take down a lot of the big names as a consequence of that. He's also got one of the best theme songs in NJPW.

The Young Bucks – Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson are the Young Bucks. You'll either love them or hate them. They're pretty much a parody (or straight rip-off, depending on who you ask) of DX and the NWO. They've taken their brand of character and applied it to the Bullet Club as a whole.

They're also arguably the best tag team in the world. Superkicks galore await any team that squares up against them.

The Young Bucks are currently the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Champions.

Guerillas of Destiny – G.O.D are comprised of “The Badboy” Tama Tonga (a BC founding member) and Tanga Loa, who you might recognise as former WWE guy Camacho. Real life brothers, these two Tongan bastards like to cuss up a storm in the ring. Tama is lightning fast and sees himself as a solider in Bullet Club. He's there to take names for the pride of BC. Loa is a bit of a hoss, although he's not as good a wrestler as Tonga. They wrestle in the Heavyweight Tag division.

Yujiro Takahashi – AKA The Tokyo Pimp. He's BC's only Japanese member and refuses to speak Japanese to the fans. He betrayed Chaos and cost Okada the belt against AJ Styles in 2014. He's not fantastic in the ring, so I'm pretty sure NJPW keep him around as an excuse to trot out barely dressed women as part of Yujiro's Godfather knock-off gimmick.

“The American Nightmare” Cody – Cody Rhodes. You'll know this guy.

To give his inclusion in BC some context, Cody is currently vying for leadership in a sneaky, surreptitious way against Kenny. They've been butting heads and Cody is allying with some of the more ROH focused BC guys. I can see him overthrowing Kenny soon. Cody mainly wrestled in ROH – he's ROH World Champion, after all – and more or less leads BC there as Kenny is still in Japan.

Hangman Page – I don't know a great deal about this guy, but I think he mainly wrestles in ROH. He pals about with Cody a lot. He's also REALLY fucking good in the ring.

Marty Scurll – BC's latest addition. Scurll is a British technical machine. He's a bit goofy in that he comes to the ring dressed as a Plague Doctor and seems to make Zoidberg noises for whatever reason, but he's a mean-spirited grappler on the mat and is not to be taken lightly. He's a Junior, and I fully expect him to take some names soon.

Chase Owens – Chase is more or less BC's fall guy. He's easily on the lowest rung in BC and you'll spot him in opening tag matches beating up Young Lions on the regular. He's alright, but there's a reason he's on the lowest rung.

Suzuki-gun

Literally known as Suzuki Army, this is the biggest group of bastards in NJPW. Whilst the other groups are meant to be heels but are actually pretty well liked, Suzuki-gun are interfering, cheating and plain nasty bastards. It's unsurprising, considering their leader. They returned to NJPW from a two year gap earlier this year and are slowly but surely making their name known once again.

Minoru Suzuki – Oh boy. The biggest sadist in NJPW, Suzuki is a properly terrifying cunt of a man. He'll beat up and abuse the ring boys helping out, he'll torture his opponents during interviews, he'll ambush his foes before matches... he's a massive prick.

In the ring, he's like a shark – he'll toy with his food in a deadly sleeper hold before annihilating them with a piledriver. Nobody is safe from Minoru Suzuki.

MiSu is currently the NEVER Openweight Champion.

Zack Sabre Jr. - ZSJ is one of the newer members of SG, but he's making a name for himself fast. You might remember him from the Cruiserweight Classic, but he's easily the best technical wrestler in the world today. He ties his opponents in knots and bends their body in ways it's not meant to bend. He's a massively cocky prick too, so he fits into SG quite nicely.

El Desperado – Despy is a Jr Heavyweight, but he's just as mean as the rest of Suzuki-gun. He's a masked wrestler who has a bit of a Mexican flair, even going as far as to carry a guitar with him to the ring. Turn your back though and he'll smack you in the back of the head with the guitar. Kabong.

Taichi – Fuuuuuuck Taichi.

Nobody likes Taichi. The Japanese fans tell him to go home. He comes to the ring miming to a terrible pop song, he looks like a prick, his valet (somebody named Miho Abe) will grind and flirt with his opponents so he can blindside them at the start of matches, he bullies the Young Lions. He's a cunt.

TAKA Michinoku – You might remember TAKA from Kaientai in the ol' WWF days. TAKA is one of the more likeable members of SG. He's one of the longest performing guys in NJPW and wrestles in the Jr. Division. Just a shame he tags with Taichi, I suppose.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru – Not a clue, mate.

Takashi Iizuka – Iizuka is mental. He gets ushered to the ring by somebody dragging him by a collar, he has a metal glove that he jabs people with, he'll run up and abuse the announcers, scare the fans... a literal mad man.

Killer Elite Squad – K.E.S. Are a tag team in the Heavyweight division. They're currently out injured but Davey Boy Smith Jr. (British Bulldog's son) and Lance Archer are two big mean dudes. They fit the bill for Suzuki-gun, I guess.

Taguchi Japan

The newest faction in NJPW. Led by Ryosuke Taguchi, Taguchi Japan are like some sort of mock sports team with Taguchi playing the role of coach, calling out plays to his stable mates. You'll find a lot of guys drifting in and out of TJ as it's not a strict stable with a real identity yet like the other four, but it's rapidly gaining popularity because of how lovably goofy they are.

Ryosuke Taguchi – Taguchi leads TJ, unsurprisingly. He started off tagging with Prince Devitt before floundering around for a while. He's found his calling as a comedy guy with TJ as a comedy sports coach. He's pretty funny. He's known as “The Funky Weapon”. The “Funky Weapon” is his ass.

Hiroshi Tanahashi – Tanahashi is absolutely his own thing outwith of TJ, but he's part of the stable so he goes here.

During NJPW's “Dark Years” in which the company was threatening to go under, Tana carried the company on his back as its Ace. He was their top guy for years. He's their John Cena – their franchise player.

In recent years, he's been overthrown as Ace by Okada, but in a cool unspoken character moment, he's recently changed his theme song to have the main lyric be “Go Ace!” He's trying to cling onto the past. His bicep is currently shredded to bits, so expect people to pick up on that.

Tanahashi is currently the IWGP Intercontinental Champion.

Kushida – Kushida is essentially the Jr. Division's ace. He's been a mainstay of the division for years and years. He's known as the Timesplitter and dresses up like Marty McFly and all of his finishing moves are named after Back to the Future. No clue why, but hey!

He's recently had a big redemption story arc after losing to Los Ingobernables de Japon's Hiromu Takahashi and getting destroyed in the rematch. He won Best of the Super Jrs and then beat Hiromu in an instant classic.

Kushida is currently the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion.

Juice Robinson – Juice was a former NXT jobber by the name of CJ Parker and was pretty unimpressive as a hippie preacher guy. He left NXT, enrolled in NJPW's dojo as a Young Lion and has become seriously impressive as a fiery babyface rookie who is nigh impossible not to root for. One to watch, for sure.

Manubu Nakanishi – Old dude. He's a big ol' hoss. He's not very good.

Ricochet – Flippy US guy. He's incredibly smooth in the ring and has had a bit of a rivalry with New Japan's other flippy gaijin, Will Ospreay.

David Finlay – Son of former WWE bruiser Finlay, David Finlay recently graduated from being a Young Lion. He's still finding his feet and his character, so there's not much to him as of yet.

Unaffiliated

Plenty of guys in NJPW don't align themselves with factions, so I'll list them here. I'm not going to list all the many many crossover stars who come from ROH and CMLL beyond the prominent ones like Cody and the next team...

War Machine – War Machine, comprised of Hanson and Raymond Rowe, came from ROH to take names in the Heavyweight Tag Division. And take names they did. A one-two wrecking crew, these guys are a purposely old school shouty beat you up style tag team in the vein of The Road Warriors. They're fucking awesome.

War Machine are currently the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Champions.

TenCozy – TenCozy are comprised of Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima. They're two aging stars who were former IWGP Heavyweight Champions and G1 winners in their own right and are pretty clearly NJPW's most decorated tag team ever. They're both really easy to root for and considering how long they've been around, the crowd loves them. On their own, they tend to get outperformed by the younger generation (although Kojima is a clear cut above Tenzan as a singles wrestler) but as a unit – good team!

Jushin Thunder Liger – If TenCozy are the most decorated tag team in NJPW, then Liger is the most decorated Junior of all time. The man has been wrestling since the early 90s and is still going strong. He's actually pretty well known in the West due to a stint in WCW. He dresses up as a Power Ranger and even had his own anime. He's insanely popular and you will love his theme song from the moment you hear it.

Katsuyori Shibata – Oh, Shibata.

Shibata was actually poised to be one of the new Aces of NJPW along with Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura during their darker years, but he left to go fight in MMA. He returned about five years or so ago and has been working his way into NJPW's good books again. He's a viciously fierce fighter delivering some of the stiffest shots and kicks in NJPW. And that's saying something considering how fierce NJPW is as a whole.

He actually won the most recent New Japan Cup and challenged Okada for the title, but during the match he delivered a straight up headbutt to Okada and suffered from a subdural haemotoma – which to you and I is more or less a brain haemorrage. He legitimately couldn't see or walk for months, but he's apparently been recovering. It's doubtful he'll ever wrestle again.

Kota Ibushi – Ibushi has been playing hard to get with NJPW for years now, never officially signing and choosing only to freelance instead. It's crazy considering how popular he is in New Japan and considering his history with Kenny Omega is a ready made feud. He's seriously impressive in ring and is easily one of the best wrestler in NJPW, but his lack of commitment to New Japan is probably hurting him in the companies eyes.

Michael Elgin – Big Mike! Michael Elgin is a Canadian hoss – big beefy dude who likes chucking you about and beating you up. He's actually seen a lot of success in New Japan as the Japanese love this type of Western wrestler for whatever reason. He's a match of the night machine too. He's also incredibly strong.

Tiger Mask – He wears a tiger mask.

Togi Makabe – Makabe is a classic brawling wrestler like Stone Cold and wears chains to the ring which inevitably end up involved in his matches. Makabe, as weird as it sounds, is actually similar to The Rock too considering that he's found a lot of success starring in Japanese dramas and TV shows and thus is popular outside of NJPW. NJPW is still his main thing, though. He's been wrestling solo, but he usually teams with...

Tomoaki Honma – Honma. He's known as “Kokeshi” because he primarily uses a diving headbutt as a finishing move, and a Kokeshi is apparently a doll with a big head. Honma and Makabe tag as Great Bash Heel. Honma suffered a really nasty injury a while back and was looking like he might end up permanently paralysed, but he's recovering. Expect GBH back soon!

YOSHITATSU – Remember this guy from WWE? No? Yeah, he sucks. He's known as the Bullet Club Hunter but hasn't won a match of note against a Bullet Club guy. He tags with Billy fucking Gunn. He does Triple H's water spit taunt and uses the Pedigree. Also, for some reason NJPW thought it'd be an amazing idea to have him on English commentary for some shows last year. It didn't work out well: https://youtu.be/LFaE3fDK0IY?t=9m41s

Yuji Nagata – Much like TenCozy, Nagata is in his twilight years. An old grappler known as the Blue Justice, Nagata is a ring technician who can still tear it up. He's known for losing himself during submissions and rolling his eyes into the back of his head. This will be his final G1 Climax.

Young Lions

Young Lions are trainee wrestlers learning in NJPW's dojo. They don't have distinct characters and wear plain black trunks to the ring. They also lose A LOT. Of the current batch, keep an eye on Hirai Kawato, a fiery and passionate 21 year old, Tomoyuki Oka, a big hoss who I reckon will be a big deal in the years to come and Katsuya Kitamura – you literally cannot miss him. He's huge, ripped and wears a mouthpiece with fangs on it. He's going to be a big star.

After a couple of years (not set in stone, but it's usually around that) they send them abroad to NJPW's partner companies on excursion to learn character work and take on some different styles from around the world. Currently, Jay White, Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka are all out on excursion and expected back any time now. I don't know anything about them, but they'll debut as a new character in all likelihood upon return.

And that's all, folks!

The most annoying thing about this PPV was the chosen winners for the WWE & Universal title matches, both Nakamura & Braun Strowman are over like crazy and it felt like the best time to pull the trigger on making them Champions so when that didn't happen I was back to not giving a shit of watching Raw or SD live.

10: Kazuchika Okada
9: Juice Robinson
8: Kevin Owens
7: Johnny Gargano
6: EVIL
5: The Usos
4: Shinsuke Nakamura
3: BRAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN
2: Kenny Omega
1: AJ Styles.