Post by HMARK Center on Dec 16, 2017 11:54:17 GMT -5
For the past nearly seven years only four men have held the IWGP heavyweight title: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, AJ Styles, and Tetsuya Naito. After Wrestle Kingdom 12, this fact will remain true regardless of who wins the main event title match.
It's been this way for awhile now, seven years come WK 12, and it's done wonders to get the IWGP title over as a remarkably valuable prize in pro wrestling, as only the supremely elite have proven capable of carrying the belt, with many worthy contenders coming up short and falling by the wayside in that time.
That said, while this style of booking has made the belt and the heavyweight main event scene really exciting and the matches very meaningful, it's also fair to say that it'd be nice to see a bit of a shock occur here or there, and maybe the time is ripe to finally have one. Granted, both Okada's and Styles' first title wins were booked as genuine surprises, with the young upstart Okada shocking the world in only his second big card back from excursion and Styles winning it in his first match, though at least AJ did already have superstar credibility, but both men were quickly solidified as main eventers, anyway, so the shock of their wins wore off pretty quickly as they became legitimate challengers and champions.
So after seven years, is there anything that could be done to shake that order and stability up that would make sense, make for a good story, provide a genuine surprise, serve a greater purpose, keep the home Japanese crowd happy, etc.? I mean, sure, who wouldn't like to see Taichi go heavyweight, win the belt, and then face G1 winner Toru Yano at Wrestle Kingdom 13, but as much as I'd mark out like an idiot for that I think it just might not prove a realistic possibility.
To get it out of the way early, the obvious answer here is Kenny Omega finally reaching the pinnacle, whether by finally unseating Okada himself or by derailing new champion Naito and bringing the IWGP belt over to North America for a tour as part of NJPW's global expansion, maybe even winning the belt on North American soil. A lot of folks think Kenny will be the one to beat whomever wins at Wrestle Kingdom 12 and be the next name to be added to the belt's lineage, but for the purposes of this thread an Omega win would not likely serve much as a transitional win nor would it carry a lot of shock: Kenny is one of the biggest names in the company now, he has been firmly established as a main eventer who only had one loss in the most recent G1 after winning the previous year's tournament, and if he wins NJPW would be looking to cash in with him on top, whether with international tour dates or with Japanese gates with rematches against Okada, Naito, maybe eventually Ibushi, etc.
But is there anyone else you'd like to see really buck the trends of the past seven years, win the belt in a "surprise" victory, and maybe just hold the belt for a little while to serve a larger storyline purpose, rather than necessarily being added to the elite "S-tier" level that Okada, Naito, and Omega are on at this moment? Back in 2009 Manabu Nakanishi won the IWGP title off Tanahashi, both as a bit of a "thank you" to him from the promotion ("thank you" runs being a hell of a lot rarer in NJPW than in, say, modern WWE) but most importantly as a storyline turn in which the younger ace champion Tanahashi was shown to have let hubris get in his way and cost him his title, setting up a bit of redemption for him as he grew and matured as a character before winning the strap back. Is there anyone you'd want to see that done with now that would make good booking sense?
It's been this way for awhile now, seven years come WK 12, and it's done wonders to get the IWGP title over as a remarkably valuable prize in pro wrestling, as only the supremely elite have proven capable of carrying the belt, with many worthy contenders coming up short and falling by the wayside in that time.
That said, while this style of booking has made the belt and the heavyweight main event scene really exciting and the matches very meaningful, it's also fair to say that it'd be nice to see a bit of a shock occur here or there, and maybe the time is ripe to finally have one. Granted, both Okada's and Styles' first title wins were booked as genuine surprises, with the young upstart Okada shocking the world in only his second big card back from excursion and Styles winning it in his first match, though at least AJ did already have superstar credibility, but both men were quickly solidified as main eventers, anyway, so the shock of their wins wore off pretty quickly as they became legitimate challengers and champions.
So after seven years, is there anything that could be done to shake that order and stability up that would make sense, make for a good story, provide a genuine surprise, serve a greater purpose, keep the home Japanese crowd happy, etc.? I mean, sure, who wouldn't like to see Taichi go heavyweight, win the belt, and then face G1 winner Toru Yano at Wrestle Kingdom 13, but as much as I'd mark out like an idiot for that I think it just might not prove a realistic possibility.
To get it out of the way early, the obvious answer here is Kenny Omega finally reaching the pinnacle, whether by finally unseating Okada himself or by derailing new champion Naito and bringing the IWGP belt over to North America for a tour as part of NJPW's global expansion, maybe even winning the belt on North American soil. A lot of folks think Kenny will be the one to beat whomever wins at Wrestle Kingdom 12 and be the next name to be added to the belt's lineage, but for the purposes of this thread an Omega win would not likely serve much as a transitional win nor would it carry a lot of shock: Kenny is one of the biggest names in the company now, he has been firmly established as a main eventer who only had one loss in the most recent G1 after winning the previous year's tournament, and if he wins NJPW would be looking to cash in with him on top, whether with international tour dates or with Japanese gates with rematches against Okada, Naito, maybe eventually Ibushi, etc.
But is there anyone else you'd like to see really buck the trends of the past seven years, win the belt in a "surprise" victory, and maybe just hold the belt for a little while to serve a larger storyline purpose, rather than necessarily being added to the elite "S-tier" level that Okada, Naito, and Omega are on at this moment? Back in 2009 Manabu Nakanishi won the IWGP title off Tanahashi, both as a bit of a "thank you" to him from the promotion ("thank you" runs being a hell of a lot rarer in NJPW than in, say, modern WWE) but most importantly as a storyline turn in which the younger ace champion Tanahashi was shown to have let hubris get in his way and cost him his title, setting up a bit of redemption for him as he grew and matured as a character before winning the strap back. Is there anyone you'd want to see that done with now that would make good booking sense?
