Current New Japan

[Makai Club #1]

R3K was a good team. Very consistent. Worked well together. But they always struggled apart. Sho had better performances and a stand out feud against Shingo. Yoh has always been a nothing worker. Weak offence, no real personality other than "goof". Just a boring wrestler to watch. 

[WingedEagle]

Its been the case forever, and didn't seem to really hurt business during the 2010s peak, but its still wild that they essentially shut down the top of the card for a full month to spotlight the juniors. Right before one of their biggest shows of the year!

Kosei Fujita should at worst be the world-beating face of the division the way Hiromu was for a while and Despy was for a minute. Its been great seeing him develop into an incredibly fiery worker and near killer ace of the division, but in reality he should probably get that promotion to the G1 and heavyweight scene sooner rather than later.

[El McKell]

TV Asahi bought NJPW from Bushiroad: 新日本プロレスリング株式会社の株式譲渡に寄せて｜株式会社ブシロード

[lost in ube]

People need to realize that it's not TV Asahi the TV channel that is buying New Japan. It is TV Asahi Holdings, which has set aside 100 billion yen for a four year plan that includes expanding their IP and their live events.

[donsem43]

CyberAgent will also be buying a part which makes me wonder how Japanese competition law works. Maybe they structured the sale to fit for government approval. It also possible that CyberAgent might already have the "For Sale" sign up on Noah or even CyberFight as a whole if they anticipated any issues.

This great news for Stardom, which is staying with Bushiroad. I'm sure at least a chunk of the sale money will be reinvested into Stardom. It also frees them up for pursuing any sort of network deal or association without having to be beholden to TV Asahi. 

[lost in ube]

New Japan will be a subsidiary of TV Asahi once the sale goes through which may be enough of a buffer between them and the CyberFight gang.

On the other hand, TV Asahi and CyberAgent are very close. TV Asahi helped put together ABEMA and they still have a stake in it.

A lot of online speculation is tying the WWE eventual jump to Netflix from ABEMA to the sale but I don't know how much of a factor it really is. I don't think the details of the ABEMA/WWE contract were ever revealed. People think New Japan will fill that scheduling gap. But there is now another option: AEW does not have much of a televised presence in Japan outside of New Japan World.

[Control21]

I hope TV Asahi doesn't waste time in changing up the booking, because it has needed a refresh for a very long time now. 

[Jmare007]

3 hours ago, lost in ube said:

New Japan will be a subsidiary of TV Asahi once the sale goes through which may be enough of a buffer between them and the CyberFight gang.

On the other hand, TV Asahi and CyberAgent are very close. TV Asahi helped put together ABEMA and they still have a stake in it.

 

Not only that, if I read correctly, Asahi has a stake on CyberAgent and CA has a stake on Asahi, they even share board members.

[lost in ube]

The plot thickens as AEW on New Japan World is ending at the end of August. So I guess New Japan World now has some holes to fill in their programming. I guess.

[El-P]

I'm really curious about if there are gonna be notable changes in NJPW politics once the new ownership kicks in this Summer. Like, how long can Gedo hold onto the booking throne after years of struggling.

[Timbo Slice]

So New Japan…posts an eight year old match to YouTube…that’s over an hour long…is heralded as one of the greatest matches ever…AND DOESN’T SHOW THE FINISH. 
 

HOW? You literally post all but the last few minutes of an hour-plus long match???? 

[Scarletlikesounds]

16 hours ago, El-P said:

I'm really curious about if there are gonna be notable changes in NJPW politics once the new ownership kicks in this Summer. Like, how long can Gedo hold onto the booking throne after years of struggling.

At this point its abundantly clear mismanagement is to blame for New Japan's woes given just how many of the talent that have left have complained about terrible management. After all they've been through and kinda failing to capitalize off the Tanahashi show's success I have to wonder if the restructuring is meant to shake up whatever's going on there behind the scenes.

[Control21]

Aaron Wolf vs Yoshi-Hashi might be one of my favorite NJPW matches of the year so far. Despite a slow start, Aaron was excellent in this match. It's nice to see him out of the HoT shit vortex and wrestling quality opponents for once. It's clear he's improving rapidly, and he is more than ready for the G1 despite some people expressing doubts about that. Yoshi-Hashi excelled at playing to Aaron's strength and feeding off it, while making Aaron work at the same time. 

[Scarletlikesounds]

So, first night of the G1, how we feeling? Wolf vs. Henare was fine, encouraging for both of them but not worth going out of the way for. OSKAR and Ice both showed out against mediocre opponents. Shingo tried his hardest and still failed to carry a 85% dead Jake Lee. Kinda wasn't paying attention to ZSJ vs. Umino. Uemura vs. Newman was really exciting even if the dynamic was kinda unclear, messy match but an enjoyable one nonetheless. Oleg vs. Oiwa was exactly what we knew it would be going in, more evidence they're two of the best in the company and Oiwa is one of the best doing it period. Tsuji vs. Takeshita was once again exactly what you expect from the two of them, big fat meh. Decent show overall. Any predictions for this year?

[Jmare007]

I've been picking and choosing matches from the G1 so far.

-Really encouraged by Yuto being over at the level he is so far. One of the few dudes that can actually throw good strikes too. Also continue to be encouraged by Wolf, I think he has the right instincts and has potential to become a legit player for the company.  

-Shingo's performance in the Boltin match was outstanding. Such a smart way of laying out a match to set up Boltin to shine as much as possible (which Oleg took full advantage of). Best match I've seen so far. 

-Gabe Kidd continues to be godawful every time I see him. He comes off as fake and try hard instead of the bully that's in over his head. He clearly knows how to stooge, but it gets lost in all the "tough guy" bad guy he's trying to get over. 

[Jmare007]

Boltin vs Takeshita on 7/25 was a great fucking bomb fest. Not sure why Gedo keeps forcing these generic british dudes when he has Oleg at this level of readiness, wouldn't shock me if he ends up leaving the company before he gets a legit run/push. 

Really liked Oiwa vs Yuto from the same show too, smartly worked by both of them. A lot of things they can do in upcoming matches. 

 

[Jmare007]

Another good showing by Boltin, Oiwa and Yuto on 7/29. Boltin had a fine match with Jake fucking Lee of all people. Oiwa had a cool, very smartly worked match with Sanada and Yuto had a very ambitious match with Tsuji, not all of it worked, but the intention behind it was very cool and the crowd understood what was going on. 

[Jmare007]

After an awesome Korakuen show for Block A, Gedo followed it up with one of the most stupidly booked shows I've seen in a long time for Block B in Yokohama. 

[Jmare007]

Fantastic ending for A Block both in the work by most of the guys involved in it and the booking. 

Tsuji and Oleg getting good matches out of Lee and O-Khan is another feather on their cap in this G1.

Oiwa vs Takeshita was amazing. Having watched all his matches this tournament it paid off Oiwa's journey so damn well and it manages to give you some damn hope about this company for once. 

 

B Block has been mostly the opposite in terms of the booking but hey, I'll take it considering what we got with A Block. 

[Jmare007]

Also, I'd love to see someone like @Matt D sink his teeth on Oiwa's journey this tournament and what he did to establish a basic ass headlock as an effective driving force for his matches. 

[Matt D]

2 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

Also, I'd love to see someone like @Matt D sink his teeth on Oiwa's journey this tournament and what he did to establish a basic ass headlock as an effective driving force for his matches. 

Guys, I’ve been seeing Oiwa mentioned in the last week and I have absolutely no idea who this guy is. Never heard of him before this G1. Who is this guy?

[Jmare007]

18 hours ago, Matt D said:

Guys, I’ve been seeing Oiwa mentioned in the last week and I have absolutely no idea who this guy is. Never heard of him before this G1. Who is this guy?

One of the younger Japanese wrestlers in New Japan (27 years old, 4 years of experience) who's been growing as a performer to the point he's one of the few standouts in the roster. I wouldn't consider him a prodigy or one of those can't miss talents you immediately think they'll be a big star, but he's been getting better fast and making some noise as one of the few guys that could realistically lead NJPW in the near future.

This G1 he made a legit leap and really figured something out as a performer. I think it would be a fun project because the longest match he's had is 19 minutes (and most of them are sub 13 min). It wont be that time consuming and I think is the type of thing you'd like to check out to see where you stand on the discourse around him. The headlock stuff is such a fun thing to see in 2026.

[Ma Stump Puller]

 

 

23 hours ago, Matt D said:

Guys, I’ve been seeing Oiwa mentioned in the last week and I have absolutely no idea who this guy is. Never heard of him before this G1. Who is this guy?

He had a really fascinating tourney; started off as a regular Young Lion, but then his incursion was to NOAH instead of the usual places like Mexico and the like, so he got a very different education from his peers since he was closely working with guys like Sabre Jr and Kaito Kiyomiya who are a lot more technically inclined. I believe Yoshinari Ogawa (who was also involved in his training closely) said something to the effect that if they had him on the roster for another year they could've made him a main event guy right then and there because of how quickly he was progressing. He was kinda understood to be the sleeper hit of the rookie roster who focused a lot more on raw grappling fundamentals than the more smash-bash style many of them were taking on. 

He had a VERY good half-hour Broadway with Kaito in 2024 during the N-1 Season that was well received because of how well Oiwa got over the headlock in that match, so seeing him doing the same in this G1 is not particularly shocking.