NJPW, The King of Thoughts – Ishii MUST Win the IWGP Title this Weekend!

NJakePW here with you again to travel the Road to Destruction. Or “roads” to “Destructions” as the ever expanding (and thankfully so) New Japan schedule rolls along. Last weekend we were treated to yet another on the exhaustive list of exceptional main events on the New Japan yearly resume; when IWGP Champion Kenny Omega and his regular tag team partner Kota Ibushi took on Will Ospreay and Omega’s challenger for his championship this coming weekend Tomohiro Ishii.

Oh, Ishii.

Will you ever win the big one? In fact, it’s surprising you’re even getting a shot at the big one this weekend. You’ve deserved it for a few years now. And yet after an incredible 2017 you were merely shoved into a multi-man match at the cumulative Wrestle Kingdom showcase event. You were too good for that. You are also too good to be just another speed bump for the IWGP champion on his way to defending the belt at the Tokyo Dome. This is your first attempt at this, the most important championship in the wrestling world today, and you MUST win!

#1 – Undeniable Badass

Ishii definitely became a star later in his career, but it’s been apparent since his legendary match with Shibata of the insane 2013 G1 Tournament that Ishii was ready for more.

The dude was such a badass in that match with Shibata, and hasn’t slowed down since; his matches with Goto, Ibushi, Naito, Homna, Omega – and more with Shibata – have been uncompromisingly brutal. He’s also had some badass matches in ROH and RPW as part of their continued cooperation, including a pair of slugfests with Keith Lee that you won’t see replicated in NXT any time soon.

The Stone Pitbull hits like a brick being hammered into a boulder, he has the scowl of a prisoner locked in solitary confinement for bad behaviour, and he looks like you could throw him out of the window on the sixth floor of a building and he’d pop right up and keep going. Few competitors in NJPW right now feel like as legitimate a bad ass as Ishii, and certainly none of the pretty boys currently occupying the top of the cards.

#2 – Unconventional Champion

The short list of IWGP Heavyweight Champions from the past decade has been a conventional one: Tanahashi, Nakamura, Okada, Naito, AJ Styles and Omega are all big characters, leaders of factions, handsome, and stylish (or in AJ Styles case, famous in America). One wouldn’t anticipate this streak being broken as New Japan courts the international market more aggressively than ever these days; however, maybe that’s exactly the reason WHY Ishii is the perfect champion right now.

Nothing about him is a traditional champion stereotype: he’s so short and stocky he almost has no neck, he’s been fighting on undercards most of his career losing to all the stars, he wrestlers in a pair of long trunks with an exposed, undefined upper body, dude’s bald, has a face like a fist, barely talks and seems like he scares children. Ishii is so not championship material that paradoxically it’s what makes him the freshest choice.

As I said, that list of champions is long in time but short in number, meaning it’ll be extra special when an outlier like Ishii infiltrates that lineage. In pro-wrestling, bookers should never get comfortable with their format and style, we’ve seen that kind of complacency burn promotions before (and probably the unsung reason by the ever-adapting WWE stays on top). I think Ishii is in the mold of Stone Cold Steve Austin, a veteran bad ass who will take on all comers because he loves to fight, and if he was to become champion I foresee similar Attitude Era success for NJPW. That’s right!

#3 – Unpredictable 2018

While New Japan often feels predictable because of their long-term storytelling and clockwork schedule, this year has been uncharacteristically unpredictable. The craziness started with Okada successfully defending the IWGP Title against the perennial shoe-in Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom, and then Tanahashi lost the IC Title to Suzuki after ref stoppage from a sustained leg lock, the outrageous run Zack Sabre Jr. had in the New Japan Cup, the reuniting of the Golden Lovers, the Young Bucks working as heavyweights, Omega capturing the IWGP Title in a no-time limit, 2/3 Falls match, and the seemingly overlooked and over-the-hill Tanahashi winning the G1 Tournament. Doesn’t Ishii shocking the Japanese wrestling world with a victory over Omega fit perfectly into this string of surprises in 2018?

Why this works even better is because ever since they’ve introduced the “briefcase contract” concept for the winner of the G1 a few years ago, the autumn events leading up to the Wrestle Kingdom cash-in of that promised title shot has followed a familiar pattern: the IWGP Champion and the G1 winner defend both belt and opportunity against the wrestlers who defeated them during the G1 tournament. This is wrestling, and we know this pattern is being established so that one day when it’s broken it’ll be really shocking. So not only would Ishii winning the championship pay-off this long-term plot, it would also set up a larger anticipation for the next weekend when Tanahashi puts his title shot on the line against Okada, the most threatening challenger to that sovereignty yet. Thus, if Tanahashi retains, it’ll be even more shocking under these conditions.

So there you have it, three indisputable reasons why Tomohiro Ishii must win the IWGP Championship from Kenny Omega this weekend at Destruction. That’s right, indisputable!

Stories From My NJPW Live Experiences / The “Let’s All Laugh at WWE” Moment of the Week

This past week on Monday Night RAW, Finn Balor “main event-ed” the show. LOL WWE, your TV shows suck! Talk about wasted potential. Instead of these impromptu, meaningless, 10-minute matches that feature no physicality, no stakes and very little combat logic, Finn–ne, Prince Devitt had once developed into a fantastic performer of daring, skill and intensity. I know, because I saw it first hand – in 2012 – at Korakurean Hall, when Devitt main event-ed (for real) against Volvador Jr. for the CMLL/NWA Middleweight Title.

When you see the success of foreign invaders like AJ Styles and now Kenny Omega have gone on to have in the New Japan main event scene, and even now with Jay White and Juice Robinson rising in stock, you’ve got to wonder what a legit home-grown NJPW talent like Prince Devitt could have accomplished at the helm of the Bullet Club and with the IWGP Title. Instead his prime has been completely wasted in the WWE with a resume of work that would even make Neville shake his head. I’m sure that WWE money is nice, but sadly Finn Balor will be a minor foot note in American pro-wrestling history, whereas Devitt could have legitimately ascended to become the “King of Sports”.

Gedo, Jado, Yano, Yuji

1) Okada vs. Marty Scurll at ALL IN was definitely my favourite match on that show, and wished it had gotten ANOTHER five minutes instead of the less many thought was necessary.

2) I find myself often confused by the seemingly similar anarchistic motivations behind the LIJ and the Suzuki-gun factions, but am exceptionally dreading a feud either one might have with the Firing Squad.

3) Taichi vs. Goto feels like it’s getting the lengthy build-up of Cena/Rock, expect when it happens it’ll be more like Cena/R-Truth.

4) Yuji Nagata continues to look good in the ring at 51, and NJPW continues to rightfully spurn the ageist mentality of many North American promotions.

Don’t forget, your man NJakePW is on Twitter over at @MatchADay.
So follow along during the Destruction shows to get poignant nuggets of wisdom like this thrown your way!

Tanahashi deserves all the main events #njdest #hair

— Jake Chambers (@MatchADay) September 8, 2018