Current New Japan

[El-P]

It says a whole lot about how far NJPW has fallen in my book when I don't even remember last show I watched. Must be the one where ZSJ won the title maybe ? Anywoo. Also says a lot when in fact, the only match on the undercard I look forward to at King of Wrestling is Sareee vs Syuri, although I have no doubt they won't get the time they should (NJPW's handling of the woman title has been abysmal). Is Takeshita winning the belt ? How is that possibly hurting the Takeshita vs Okada feud in AEW  (which is more interesting than anything Takeshita could do in NJPW, really) ? EVIL vs Oleg Boltin will be all kind of awful, even more when EVIL wins another title I guess. Gabe Kidd vs Yuta Tsuji should be really good, but the hype on Tsuji has died down and he hasn't improved to the point I'm that interested in his matches. I'd rather watch Uemura get that push. Will there be some big surprise on the show leading to the Tokyo Dome ? 

[Jmare007]

Takeshita has to win, it's the only possible spark this company has as an immediate option. 

They can't just put all their hopes on Wolf debuting in January and being a special talent. 

[Jmare007]

Thank lawd, step 1 (out of many) was taken.

[Jmare007]

I sure hope Wolfe doesn't end up being like Gable Stevenson

All the technical tools you can dream of but this company doesn't need a stoic character right now. The roster is too thin for a gimmick like that to work. 

[Jmare007]

At least WK is doing great business. I'm glad the promotion behind Tana's retirement has worked so well. 

Takeshita will face Tsuji in a double title match.

It seems we are gonna get Tana vs Okada (Gedo got involved in "helping" Tana find an opponent).

Wolf vs Evil

Syuri vs Saya Kamitani also booked. 

[Timbo Slice]

Tana/Okada is official after he showed up in Anjo last night to challenge him at WK20. 

Id put money on it getting to 40k + walk up. Good for them. 

[El-P]

This was the best match possible. All this nonsense fake hype about Nakamura was for naught, obviously. The match would have *sucked* too (I've seen Nakamura vs Mutah a few years ago, Nak looked completely washed). At this point, they are going to sell out the Dome. Time to make your new big star in Tsuji too I guess. 

[Boss Rock]

Tough position they find themselves in (what else is new) in that Tanahashi-Okada should absolutely main event the show, but that means a possible Tsuji win would be massively overshadowed. So I think there's a very good chance Takeshita retains.

[Jmare007]

WK 20 officially sold out, they are opening up more seats due to demand still being high. Tana is carrying this company one last time. 

Let's hope Wolfe, Tsuji and Takeshita come out as big standouts/stars from this show. 

[Timbo Slice]

No, you can run Okada/Tanahashi semi main. If you put Tsuji over, you have to do it at the end. 

[El-P]

Nothing can follow Tanahashi's retirement. Especially with Okada doing his best to give him the best match possible. And while Takeshita is one of the best worker in the world, Tsuji just ain't at this level at all, and basically whatever combination of main events you get, he'll be a very distant fourth best. So might as well end up with Tanahashi. 

Apparently Aaron Wolf has the charisma of a wooden door. The fact he's working with EVIL is like... well, I guess smokes and mirrors will be in effect to carry a guy on his first match. He may be a mainstream name in Japan, but if he sucks in the ring or has zero charisma, that is not gonna cut it, not to mention the possible resentment of him getting pushed ahead of better talents. I have no idea if the current generation of fans still cares about this kinda thing either (I mean, the legit amateur wrestling star). 

The fact there will be no IWGP junior title match (not single nor tags) at WK doesn't sound like the booking is getting any better in the grand scheme of things. Like, how hard was it to present a major single junior match at the biggest Dome show in 25 years ?

Saya vs Syuri hopefully get enough time to shine.

[Jmare007]

The very few we got to see Wolf it was not encouraging (I got Gable Stevenson vibes) but it was still just a 30 second spot so who knows. I hope it's a short match and he destroys EVIL and his wack ass stable. 

[Timbo Slice]

The Dome is sold out to max capacity. The largest ever Wrestle Kingdom crowd and the largest in the Dome in at least a quarter century. An absolutely amazing thing to happen for New Japan. 

[El-P]

I thought Tanahashi's retirement would be big. I never thought it would be *that* big. Hopefully Gedo doesn't stumble onto his own feet with the booking of the show...

Also, considering the two main events have AEW talents in it, Coach TK has the opportunity to do the funniest thing, PR wise. 

Meanwhile, is Naito really showing up at the 1/1 Noah show ? What the hell.

[Boss Rock]

That would be funny as he had previously said he had no interest in wrestling for another Japanese promotion. Wonder if visa issues have been that bad.

[El-P]

I mean, Bushi and XXX are facing Kenoh & Marufuji so... From what I saw of Maru, it seems like he speedrun the "road to being washed up" this year sadly, so between him and Naito it could get pretty ugly. Saw Naito on a RevPro appearance, he did basically jackshit, so it was hard to gauge if he's doing a bit better than his last 6 months in NJ.

[Boss Rock]

According to Dave, Tenzan is also retiring at the Dome. At first I thought this was a case of being massively overshadowed, but taking advantage of a 55k crowd situation to retire is actually pretty smart. Hasn't wrestled since April anyway.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, Boss Rock said:

According to Dave, Tenzan is also retiring at the Dome. At first I thought this was a case of being massively overshadowed, but taking advantage of a 55k crowd situation to retire is actually pretty smart. Hasn't wrestled since April anyway.

He has aged 20 years compared to Kojima. He's sad to watch. And yeah, it is gonna be overshadowed, but at the same time, yeah, what better timing than to retire in front of this crowd ? Meanwhile, it seems Kojima can spend the next ten years colllecting MLW paychecks for doing three moves and taking one bump per match while Nagata looks like he's gonna have a few good matches per year until he's 60 years old or even keep on going forever like Fujinami.

[sek69]

On 12/13/2025 at 6:25 AM, El-P said:

I thought Tanahashi's retirement would be big. I never thought it would be *that* big.

There's also a lot of interest in Japan seeing Aaron Wolf's debut. I think pretty much everyone in the US is underestimating that since he's not  known here. That's not to say he's the main draw or anything, but it's a bigger part than you'd think. 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

There's also a lot of interest in Japan seeing Aaron Wolf's debut. I think pretty much everyone in the US is underestimating that since he's not  known here. That's not to say he's the main draw or anything, but it's a bigger part than you'd think. 

Maybe so to some extent, but still, the sells jumped and really put it over the edge when Okada vs Tanahashi was announced. The real test with Aaron Wolf will be the following months and how he's employed and how he's actually doing as a worker (thus far the reports are he's a charisma vacuum).

[El-P]

Ok, if the card announced is the actual card, then it's obvious NJPW is cooked, because Gedo can't book for shits anymore. They have the biggest show in 25 years and THIS is the card ? A 4 way contender match for the IWGP title ? A random 10 men tag ? No Umino ? No Uemura ? No ZSJ ? No big match for Gabe Kidd either ? This is a totally baffling card.