🦁 NJPW - Wrestle Kingdom 18

[Convoy]

The ultimate event for New Japan is near. This thread can also serve as discussion for the "Road to" shows on 12/21 & 12/22, as well as New Year Dash on 1/5. We may also end up noting anything important for the 1/2 NOAH show as well, since that is basically a Wrestle Kingdom preview with a Kenoh defense and Marufuji/Ibushi on top. Here is the line-up for this year's show (so far).

IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: SANADA (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito


SPECIAL SINGLE MATCH: Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson


IWGP GLOBAL HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay


IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. El Desperado


IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT & STRONG OPENWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: Bishamon (c) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (c)


NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Tama Tonga


SPECIAL TAG MATCH: Shota Umino & Kaito Kiyomiya vs. EVIL & Ren Narita


SPECIAL SINGLE MATCH: Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura


NJPW WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi


IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: Bullet Club War Dogs (c) vs. Catch 2/2

Kickoff: KOPW 2024 New Japan Rambo (Final four meet at New Year Dash to crown the first provisional champion of the year)

[chrom]

Sanada has the World Title and Naito wants it back

[chrom]

Rocky defends The NWA Welterweight Championship thos Friday against Mascara Dorada.

Mascara pinned him last week to demand a title shot.

[Mozenrath]

I know some are down on SANADA, but I would not hate if he retained. Naito winning is probably where it goes, but I also am curious to see, if SANADA does win, if Naito would grant him his blessing for having left LIJ.

Beyond that, rooting for a title change on the 6-man, and for Despy to defeat Hiromu.

[chrom]

New Japan will be also be at RevPro Uprising this Saturday.

[ace]

Dec 11, 2023 14:19:44 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I know some are down on SANADA, but I would not hate if he retained. Naito winning is probably where it goes, but I also am curious to see, if SANADA does win, if Naito would grant him his blessing for having left LIJ.

Beyond that, rooting for a title change on the 6-man, and for Despy to defeat Hiromu.

I’m pretty sure the interest in the show in Japan is based solely on Naito getting his Dome ending after KENTA ruined the first one.

Not delivering it would probably not be a popular choice.

Personally, I’d rather SANADA win too.  Not because of him…because it’s at least a fresh ending.

I’m still just flabbergasted at Tsuji and Umino just being left out of anything worth a damn

[Mozenrath]

Dec 11, 2023 19:43:12 GMT -5 ace said:

Dec 11, 2023 14:19:44 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I know some are down on SANADA, but I would not hate if he retained. Naito winning is probably where it goes, but I also am curious to see, if SANADA does win, if Naito would grant him his blessing for having left LIJ.

Beyond that, rooting for a title change on the 6-man, and for Despy to defeat Hiromu.

I’m pretty sure the interest in the show in Japan is based solely on Naito getting his Dome ending after KENTA ruined the first one.

Not delivering it would probably not be a popular choice.

Personally, I’d rather SANADA win too.  Not because of him…because it’s at least a fresh ending.

I’m still just flabbergasted at Tsuji and Umino just being left out of anything worth a damn

I am okay with it if they have KENTA and SANADA make up and part as equals, at least, like maybe have Naito acknowledge SANADA had to leave to become his own man, but I guess that's also kind of in line with what I think has been an issue for JFG, that their alignment could stand to be more clear, since they seemed maybe heelish with LIJ, but then are obviously faces versus HoT. Making peace with Naito would make it clear they're faces. In any case, I just do not want SANADA pulling a Shingo and losing relevance on losing the title, though I am optimistic he won't. He's younger and frankly seems more popular in Japan than Shingo is, so that helps his case.

I think people need to have more realistic expectations sometimes with the Musketeers, like no way was Tsuji winning the world title his first time back, but I do think not having them doing anything at WK is a letdown, even if I anticipate all of them will be more used in 2024.

[Cyno]

Time for Naito to finish the story.

[mo]

Haven’t really paid attention to New Japan in awhile but I’m definitely down to see Naito win it at the big show. I hope he does!

[chrom]

Both Hiromu and Sabre will be celebrating 365 days as Champion come the fourth.

[ace]

Dec 11, 2023 20:05:27 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Dec 11, 2023 19:43:12 GMT -5 ace said:

I’m pretty sure the interest in the show in Japan is based solely on Naito getting his Dome ending after KENTA ruined the first one.

Not delivering it would probably not be a popular choice.

Personally, I’d rather SANADA win too.  Not because of him…because it’s at least a fresh ending.

I’m still just flabbergasted at Tsuji and Umino just being left out of anything worth a damn

I am okay with it if they have KENTA and SANADA make up and part as equals, at least, like maybe have Naito acknowledge SANADA had to leave to become his own man, but I guess that's also kind of in line with what I think has been an issue for JFG, that their alignment could stand to be more clear, since they seemed maybe heelish with LIJ, but then are obviously faces versus HoT. Making peace with Naito would make it clear they're faces. In any case, I just do not want SANADA pulling a Shingo and losing relevance on losing the title, though I am optimistic he won't. He's younger and frankly seems more popular in Japan than Shingo is, so that helps his case.

I think people need to have more realistic expectations sometimes with the Musketeers, like no way was Tsuji winning the world title his first time back, but I do think not having them doing anything at WK is a letdown, even if I anticipate all of them will be more used in 2024.

These aren’t normal times for NJPW.  The title picture is ice cold.  Ospreay left.  Jay left.  Tanahashi’s duct tape that held him together is barely sticking.  They need to make stars.  Tsuji showed up looking like a star.  Umino looks like one now.  Having prominent spots for Tama Tonga and David Finlay is bad in their own vacuum.  Paired with reality…they need Tsuji and Umino in particular to be seen as special.  Not seen on the preshow.

One of them should be unseating Shingo or Sabre in a huge moment.  The other should be beating the other one.  Or, frankly, Tanahashi.

[chrom]

There are some notable names not on the card yet.

Tsuji, Wato, Cobb, Uemura, to name a few.

[Starshine]

WK does look pretty rough this year. Okada/Danielson is a good match, but everything else either falls pretty flat, or feels played out.

Like, I wasn't into the White/Okada main event this year, just cause White was such a flat champion. But little did I know Sanada would give him a run as the least interesting champion going. Also it's just hard to get excited by a Naito win when the champion is so uninteresting. Even if he was your typical shitty Bullet Club heel champion instead, at least I might feel something about it, but I just don't care.

Ospreay and Mox would be a good match-up... dunno why we needed Finlay in there (I mean I do, since he's probably winning on account of being the only guy not signed to AEW in the match, but... man).

Desperado/Takahashi and Tanahashi/Sabre have been done so many times, and we just saw Takagi and Tonga. The tag title match is a winner takes all match involving a team that already took all not all that long ago. There's so little here that feels fresh or important.

The Jr. tag match might be alright, but it's not exactly something marquee, it at least feels like we'll see the babyface win that feels earned.

[chrom]

The show on the 22nd will be free to watch

[Mayonnaise]

"Global Heavyweight Championship"? Wouldn't that be the same as "World Heavyweight Championship"? That's a strange babe change to me.

[Fundertaker]

Dec 12, 2023 9:56:19 GMT -5 Mayonnaise said:

"Global Heavyweight Championship"? Wouldn't that be the same as "World Heavyweight Championship"? That's a strange babe change to me.

Worlds expand, globes stay the same!

[Convoy]

They are making it sound like the Global Champion is a traveling job, which jives with what Ospreay outright requested after Finlay destroyed the other titles. Not that I'm excited about the idea of Finlay winning a belt, but that might be the better alternative than New Japan creating a new title for Ospreay to just carry around in AEW. We've had the IC, US and NEVER belts gone for months with Western talents over the past few years.

[chrom]

No word if there's gonna be a women's match for the show.

[chrom]

Tetsuya Naito was named The Tokyo Sports Awards MVP for 2023

[chrom]

Hiromu won outstanding performance award