Csonka’s NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 2018 Takeaways

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss the WWE Super Show-Down event (Review Here). It was a hugely eventful show as the landscape keeps changing; Will Ospreay is officially minted as a heavyweight, Shingo has arrived and joined LIJ, Chris Jericho returned and shot his big angle with EVIL and we look to be back to Naito vs. Sabre. KUSHIDA is the new IWGP Junior champion, Jay White & Gedo have joined forces with the Bullet Club OGz, Robbie Eagles will team with Taiji Ishimori in the Junior Tag League, and Kenny Omega retained his IWGP Title, but his relationship with Kota Ibushi may not be the same moving forward. I have some takeaways from the show I’d like to discuss today. Feel free to share yours in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are to “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.” Thanks for reading.

Don’t Forget About Chris Jericho… FUCK FACES: Back at the June 9th NJPW Dominion event, Chris Jericho defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP IC Championship. Since then, outside of a quick angle at All In, Jericho dropped off the wrestling radar to set up his next appearance and feud. The rumor for some time was Jericho vs. EVIL at Power Struggle, leading to Jericho vs. Naito II at the Dome. If that’s the plan, step one is complete as Jericho made his grand return, attacking LIJ’s EVIL before his match. EVIL arrived on a throne (he is the king of darkness after all) surrounded by druids, and Jericho was one of those druids, and laid him out with a code breaker and belt shot. The scheduled EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr match was then called off, and led to an angle with Tetsuya Naito and Zack Sabre Jr. There are a lot of people seemingly upset as of late that Jericho “isn’t a full-time guy,” claiming that they loved when his run first started and that he was around all the time. I have no idea what earth 2 NJPW that they were watching, but Jericho has never been and was never planned to be a full-time guy. The closes to “steady appearances” were working WrestleKingdom and the New Year’s Dash attack. Now, if you’re upset that the IC Title has been frozen for months, I can agree with you there. There are also some that the EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr match was then called off. That I don’t have much of an issue with, as it’s extremely rare that they run an angle like this. Plus, it played well following the Jericho attack and made it mean more as well as leads up back to Sabre vs. Naito. Naito lost in the NJ Cup and G1 to Sabre, with Sabre ruining his chances at title opportunities. Naito coming back around to face Sabre and get revenge following two clean losses make sense to give Naito momentum. The angle came off well, the crowd was into it, and it looks like we have two major Power Struggle matches set.

Shingo is Ungovernable: With the unfortunate injury to Hiromu Takahashi, there had been rumors that Los Ingobernables de Japon would be adding a new member to help solidify the ranks until he could return. Naito then promised the newest Ingobernable would debut here, a 4th to wait with the others until Takahashi’s return, not a replacement but an addition. In breaking this down in my preview, I noted that LIJ is a closely-knit group with connections to Naito, and that the new Ingobernable would also have a close connection. Naito had fun with the crowd, teasing Milano Collection AT (if FUCKING only) as the new man, but then revealed the newest member, the Dragon, former Dragon Gate star and newly minted free agent, Shingo Takagi. Shingo, who was trained by Animal Hamaguchi like Naito was prior to joining NJPW, fits the bill perfectly as he has a connection to Naito, is a hiss style junior that can work with anyone, and can fill the void and tag with BUSHI for the Junior Tag League. He’s also an absolutely tremendous talent that is a loss to Dragon Gate, would have been a huge get for AJPW, and comes as a great addition to an already stacked NJPW roster. He’ll provide a great addition to LIJ, will give us a lot of fresh matches, and he looked great in his debut as LIJ basically routed CHAOS en route to victory. He & BUSHI look like a nearly favorite for the Junior Tag League, and I am thrilled that he was brought in.

The Junior Ace Is back: While surprises and surprises and well-timed and executed swerves can be effective storytelling tools, sometimes holding serve and going with the safe and predictable choice is the right call, and the return of the junior ace as junior champion was just that, the safe and right call. KUSHIDA is not only the best junior on the roster right now, he’s flat-out one of the best wrestlers in the world, a fact that many forget when he’s not highlighted. He always puts in good performances, the fans treat him like a star, and when he’s brought back into the title mix, he does nothing but deliver. He had great matches with both BUSHI & Scurll in the mini-tournament en route to winning the vacated championship, and on top of that, I feel that he brings a much-needed stability to the division in the wake of Takahashi’s injury. The injury is extremely unfortunate, and the division needs to be in the hands of someone the fans and company and trust to deliver, and KUSHIDA is that man. It will be interesting to see where they go with KUSHIDA as champion on the road to WrestleKingdom, as potential matches with Ishimori & Shingo sound absolutely tremendous. I’m excited for the return of the junior ace as champion; long live the king.

Jay White Brings a New Era of Chaos to Bullet Club: I recently wrote all about the knife pervert known as Jay White, chronicling his path from young lion to the bag of douche he’s become today. It’s been a great journey and he’s been a major part of NJPW storylines for almost a year now. White’s turn on Okada and following implosion of CHAOS was well done leading to his challenge of Tanahashi for the WrestleKingdom title shot since he beat him in the G1. White has really come along and turned into a really good and interesting character, and that continued here. White got his shot, and between he and Gedo, used all of their tricks to try and steal the title shot from the beloved Ace. He ultimately failed in that goal, but the story wasn’t done just yet. After the match, White continued to attack Tanahashi, when of all people, Okada made the save for his greatest rival. But that was just one layer to the story as the Bullet Club OGs arrived, and Jay White’s new era was finally revealed. Fale, Tonga, Loa, & Ishimori beat down Okada, with White joining in to too sweet his new brothers and laying out Okada before hugging Tama Tonga. The predicted “CHAOS split” didn’t happen, as they went in a completely different and unexpected direction. How does CHAOS shake out going forward? Can Okada & Tanahashi put their pasts behind them and work together for the common good? Will more members join Bullet Club OGs? They completely flipped the script, delivering a fun and different direction, and one that plays into the past of White & Bullet Club. Fale teased it was coming when “Devitt” introduced him to White years ago, while it also plays into White turning down Omega back in January… where Tonga stated then that “maybe the wrong man made the invitation.” Jay White may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you have to appreciate the effort and dedication in taking a former dojo student/young lion and trying to make him into a top star by making him an important part of so many of the company’s big moments in 2018 (loss to Tanahashi, refuse Bullet Club, join CHAOS, beat Omega for US Title, lose to Juice for Juice’s first title win, beating Okada & Tanahashi in G1, the implosion of CHAOS, turning on Okada with Gedo, joining Bullet Club, ect).

This plan was set in motion 4yrs ago when .@FinnBalor introduced me to @JayWhiteNZ in London 2014#bulletClub pic.twitter.com/FCZ90L3bKf

— Rogue General (@TOKSFALE) October 8, 2018

Inevitable. https://t.co/tXCNiYWt84

— Switchblade Jay White (@JayWhiteNZ) October 8, 2018

https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/1049255309154426881

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”