Csonka’s WWE vs. NJPW Supercard

Welcome back to column time with Larry. Today’s column is all about a WWE vs. NJPW Supercard. Now it seems very unlikely and I doubt it will ever happen, but Triple H spoke about it in a recent interview, which gave me the idea for the column. Now of course, not everyone can make the card; I had to make some hard cuts and I limited myself to only four tag team matches as to not present an entirely bloated card, and skipped on the easy to go to New Day vs. Elite match in favor of two superior matches for Omega & The Bucks. Most importantly this is a card that I’d like to see. Please feel free to share your card in the comments section. Thanks for reading! Remember, it’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

Our commentary team is NJPW commentator Kevin Kelly and NXT’s Mauro Ranallo (due to his knowledge of both products).

Kickoff Match: EVIL & SANADA vs. The Bar: This would be a good hard-hitting match between two former sets of tag team champions. Just give these guys some time to beat the hell out of each other and it’s a nice appetizer for the full show to come.

Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly) vs. Bullet Club (Marty Scurll, Cody, Taiji Ishimori): We’ll start things off with some trios action, with WWE NXT’s Undisputed Era taking on the Bullet Club. The Undisputed Era has done nothing but deliver in NXT, and pairing them with the Bullet Club feels like an easy match to book. Bullet Club is over, Cody & Marty are extremely popular and Ishimori would be the workhorse of the team. Give then 12 or so minutes to work a fun, action filled sprint and to get the crowd into the action right away. Plus they can play of off the history with Marty being the one to help oust Cole from Bullet Club, while Cody will be looking to prove a point against his former employers.

Samoa Joe vs. Tomohiro Ishii: Next up we change the tone of the show and enter into shit kicking hoss battle territory. Tomohiro Ishii is a bad man who does nothing but deliver great singles matches, and for as much ass as he kicks, his selling is tremendously underrated. Samoa Joe has been on fire since his return from injury, and would do a hell of a job selling the match on the mic. Also, facing someone like Ishii I think would motivate Joe to get back into that vicious Samoan Submission machine we all know and love. This would be a beautiful match filed with pain and destruction.

Daniel Bryan vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: So we’ve had wild and fun, and a shit kicking hoss battle, now we transition to a technical war. Zack Sabre Jr. has been having an amazing 2018, and Bryan is back to action. This is a match that both have talked about wanting and it is a match that fans of both want to see. Zack Sabre Jr. is the new Daniel Bryan and considered the best technical wrestler on the planet. This would be a completely different match than anything else on the show, which is a good thing, and would work to both men’s strengths. It’s a match I want to see badly, and the only chance we have of seeing it is a co-branded show or if Bryan leaves WWE in September; I don’t care how, when, or where, I just want it badly.

Pete Dunne vs. Minoru Suzuki: We again change the pace, moving onto a clash of two brawlers that give absolutely no fucks about the welfare of their opponent. When there is no Suzuki-gun bullshit involved and when an interesting opponent motivates him, Minoru Suzuki (even at age 49) is still an amazing performer. Pete Dunne, on a match-by-match basis in WWE, is one of the company’s top tier performers in terms of delivering great matches. Like Joe vs. Ishii, this will be a hard-hitting match, but will also feature some great submission work from both men along with their various dirty tricks. I never really thought about it before but give this to be now, I need it.

Ricochet vs. Kota Ibushi: These two faced off backing 2014, and it was an absolutely great match. But it’s 2018, and both men have not only grown as performers, but are possibly the best they have ever been. This again represents a change of pace and style on the card as we move from a hard-hitting and submission based match to a highflying juniors style match. Just let these two go wild for 15-minutes and do their thing and it will be at the least a great match because both guys are very, very talented and have history to play off of. This would obviously have show stealing potential.

Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, & Roman Reigns vs. Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, & Will Ospreay: Admittedly, this is a “get guys on the show” match, but I have to admit, a Shield vs. CHOAS battle has a ton of potential. Using the Shield gets three men on the card, and Reigns is always better in the Shield setting (in my opinion), and if you lay out the match right, sections with Ambrose vs. Goto, Rollins vs. Ospreay, and then Reigns vs. Okada would play very well. The Shield is an all time great trio, and the boys from CHOAS always deliver in tag team action. There is a good mix of power, brawling and highflying possible here, and I think this would be great.

Tetsuya Naito vs. The Miz: Next we move onto a clash of former IC champions for their promotions, with the opportunistic Miz facing off with an opponent who can equal him in sneakiness, Naito. Despite the claims of some, Miz can have very good matches, especially with an opponent who is great with layouts and pacing, and Naito really excels at that. Miz vs. Naito feels like a natural match up, as both have heel-like tendencies, but are also very popular among their fan bases. This would likely have a hot crowd, and I feel with Naito leading the way that they would lay out a match that plays well to their strengths and deliver a very good match.

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Cedric Alexander: At the time of this writing, Takahashi is the IWGO Junior champion, while Alexander is the WWE Cruiserweight champion; this would be a battle for lightweight supremacy. Alexander is an outstanding performer, just like Takahashi, and both have delivered very well in 2018. Takahashi has the advantage of being an extremely awesome, and wacky, character and that, played against Alexander’s more straight-laced and fiery babyface role would play well off of each other. Just let these two work a balls to the wall sprint style match and they will deliver.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. John Cena: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. John Cena is an easy match to make, as both have been the face of their promotion for years and are also both the aging aces of their companies. The comparisons between the two have been made for years, and fans and writers alike have contemplated a match between them for a long time. The only concern I have is that they feel like such extremely similar characters, that it may negate some of the positives that they have. But on the other hand, they both have stepped up and consistently delivered in big match situations, so who am I to doubt them, they’d likely kill it.

The Usos vs. The Young Bucks: The Young Bucks have been regarded by many as the best tag team in all of wrestling for years, while the Usos have easily been the best WWE tag team for years, and have also made a case with many for the best overall tag team in the business. Stylistically the teams are very similar, using great teamwork, double teams, the love of superkicks and an incredible ability to take a match that is good to very good and create an amazing homestretch that can take that match to great. I love both teams and have wanted to see them face off for some time.

Kenny Omega vs. AJ Styles: At NJPW WrestleKingdom 10, Kenny Omega lost the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight to KUSHIDA, while AJ Styles failed to beat Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP IC title. The next night, Bullet Club rebounded, as AJ Styles & Kenny Omega defeated Shinsuke Nakamura & YOSHI-HASHI but the face of Bullet Club changed forever. But after that, match, Omega turned on Styles, ousting the leader of Bullet Club and proclaiming that he was no longer a junior. Omega fired Styles from Bullet Club with the Young Bucks by his side and the Elite were unofficially born. From there, Omega took control of Bullet Club and finally won the IWGP title, while Styles was off to WWE. Since then Omega has been considered one of the best, if not the best in the world, while Styles has had a more successful WWE run than anyone could have imagined. The match has a ton of history to it, two great performers, and a possibility of closure that we never got. It’s an easy main event to book in my opinion.

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”