Blue Justice 14, Oiwa Returns, Superhuman Taiji | A Journal About New Japan
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It is becoming harder and harder to believe that this remaining third of the year for New Japan Pro-Wrestling is so interesting. Will I be saying that once World Tag League starts? No, but for now things feel fresh regardless of result. Zack Sabre Jr. is walking around with the G1 Climax trophy, House of Torture has been down-cycled for the time being, and there are a number of exciting shows to finish out 2024.
First on that schedule was Destruction, but that event is over and I was not writing a lot before it ended, but second on that docket is Yuji Nagata’s anniversary event and then King of Pro-Wrestling 2024. Then Royal Quest. Then Power Struggle. Then Fighting Spirit Unleashed. Then Taiji Ishimori’s self-produced event. Then Historic X-Over 2. It just doesn’t stop this Autumn and unlike a typical Fall in NJPW, the card for Wrestle Kingdom 19 is completely unpredictable.
I have my own predictions, and I will certainly fall into the trap of sharing them when I spend my hours writing a preview of KOPW 2024, but this week feels like a good moment to take an inhale after NJPW’s Destruction in Kobe 2024 before we are truly off to the races on October 14. KOPW features five road to shows for the tour in its entirety, none of which will be televised on NJPWWorld. This means less to catch up on for the diehards and the space to fill KOPW with championship and dream matches. It also means there is freedom to load this Yuji Nagata Blue Justice show with preview tags so NJPW can fill their quota of matches no one will watch except people like me.
These Blue Justice shows have become a tradition of NJPW’s second half of the year, taking a breather from everything important on the schedule to celebrate the career of Yuji Nagata and his impact on the company and the industry as a whole. I am not writing a book and will not spend seven paragraphs writing a career retrospective about Yuji Nagata, but if you have not seen anything from him, NJPW has taken to their streaming service and uploaded a number of matches from every era of his career in NJPW, including English commentary by Walker Stewart and Chris Charlton for four of them. The following three are free to non-NJPWWorld subscribers:
IWGP Tag Team Championship: w/ Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara – NJPW Jingu Climax (8/28/99)
G1 Climax 2001 Final: vs. Keiji Muto (8/12/01)
NEVER Openweight Championship: vs. Katsuyori Shibata – Wrestling Dontaku (5/3/16)
Blue Justice XIV
Not a lot sticks out on this card. Given that it is allegedly produced by Nagata himself, the preview tags are a touch stronger than they might be on a normal Road To event. Additionally, they are the only televised preview tags on this tour so it could be important to pay attention to any results or post-match angles if you want to submit some solid predictions for KOPW 2024.
The semi-main is the primary standout on the undercard here as the Los Ingobernables de Japon team of Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, & Shingo Takagi take on TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa, & Kosei Fujita. A preview for two LIJ-TMDK title matches on the schedule, it will be interesting to see Oiwa in his second match back in NJPW taking on talents like Naito and Takagi. Jakob Austin Young also continues his time in the company with a tag team match with Jeff Cobb vs. Hiromu Takahashi and Yota Tsuji. Any match featuring Young getting individual reps with big-time talent is bound to be interesting as he tries to assimilate into NJPW.
Additionally, Hartley Jackson makes his second appearance of the year in NJPW, teaming with the IWGP tag champions, Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls to face the BULLET CLUB’s Bad Luck Fale, Caveman Ugg, & Taiji Ishimori. Jackson has been a staple of the original TMDK faction going back to their days on the Australian independent scene and their time in Pro Wrestling NOAH. After his last appearance on the undercard of night seventeen of the G1 Climax, it appears NJPW have merged him into the current version of TMDK as well meaning the stable has a total of eight active members in the company. It is unlikely he becomes a committed piece of the promotion’s roster as he is a mainstay in AJPW and GLEAT, but given they’re letting him return for a second time, he will likely become a normal appearance on every other tour or so.
Bad Luck Fale has technically worked for NJPW six times this year given his frequent appearances on the company’s TAMASHII shows in Oceania, but he has not appeared in Japan since participating in the 2023 World Tag League with Jack Bonza as BULLET CLUB Rogue Army. Caveman Ugg has never appeared in Japan for the promotion, with his work under the NJPW banner all being on Oceania shows.
The main event is a special tag team match feature Nagata reuniting with his former All Asia Tag Team champion partner and DDT Pro Wrestling’s Jun Akiyama to face Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Go Shiozaki & Atsushi Kotoge. Tuned in viewers will recognize this is a rematch of a match from earlier in the year that took place on one of NOAH’s Go Shiozaki produced Limit Break events. That bout went to a 30-minute time-limit draw resulting in a very quality main event for the series’ first show. I predict Nagata getting a pin on Kotoge here as NOAH has seemingly shuffled Kotoge back into their junior heavyweight division, but given that this match has the same time limit, it could easily go broadway. Regardless of result, I expect this to be a match to mark down considering how dramatic and dynamic the last meetup was.
The Return of Oiwa
At Destruction in Kobe, TMDK were set to reveal a new member of their stable in a six man tag match vs. SANADA, Taichi, & Taka Michinoku of Just 5 Guys. Many in the online wrestling community predicted that, in light of him having a final match in NOAH, this new member would be none other than Ryohei Oiwa returning from excursion. They were correct, and with him returning, all of NJPW’s most recent class of young lions on excursion have finally returned.
Shota Umino returned to join Hontai, Yota Tsuji was thrust into LIJ, Ren Narita returned as a Hontai member only to turn to House of Torture, Yuya Uemura became J5G’s new fifth guy, and Kosei Fujita and Ryohei Oiwa came back to bolster TMDK. The success of these returns varies depending on what you want to see out of new prospects. I found that many were worried what it would mean for a guy who main evented NOAH events to be placed as the secondary heavyweight behind Zack Sabre Jr. I understand the argument, Oiwa’s momentum was undeniable, but the bottom line is this is a faction-centric company. Good or bad, large or small, young or old, as a member of this roster you will be a member of a faction. This type of organization isn’t just critical to how NJPW books its tours, but also how they manage travel and housing on those tours.
At the end of Destruction, in an angle involving IWGP World Heavyweight champion Tetsuya Naito, G1 Climax 34 victor Zack Sabre Jr., and NEVER Openweight champion Shingo Takagi, Ryohei Oiwa looked like he belonged. It was a shock when he entered the ring, but not one that felt unnatural. Anyone who panicked that he would immediately look like his peers (unfinished and out of place) should remain calm, but also roll back any high expectations for the near future. Oiwa will get his first singles match back from excursion in the form of a championship match with Shingo Takagi, and then he is likely to be immediately down-cycled into the background like everyone in the company will be at some point. However, to put him in this spot from day one is the promotion screaming that they do have high expectations for his eventual role in the heavyweight division.
New Japan did publish an interview with Oiwa on their Japanese website for anyone interested in reading a bit more in-depth about his character, but as of now there is no English translation. I will say this a lot in reference to any situation like this, but, unfortunately, most translating services are not your friend for interviews and articles of this nature. It’s just one of those things to constantly keep in mind.
Superhuman Taiji Ishimori Gets Ridiculous
New Japan announced in early September that former IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Taiji Ishimori will be producing an event at Tokyo’s Shinjuku FACE on 11/12. As the weeks passed it was clarified that this event would consist of Ishimori competing in five different matches which certainly makes the title of “Superhuman Taiji Gets Ridiculous” a lot more on the nose than it was when first announced. Two matches have been announced for the card and both are hilarious given the stipulation for the event. In the undercard, Ishimori will team with SHO & DragonGate’s Shun Skywalker to face NJPW World TV champion Jeff Cobb, BJW’s Daisuke Sekimoto, and puroresu freelancer Shuji Ishikawa. I have looked at this match graphic at least forty times and I am still unsure of what there is to say about it. I am certainly excited, but I did respond with an affectionate “What?” when it was presented to me.
The main event is set as Taiji will face Dragon Kid in singles action for the first time ever. Despite both being in their 40s at this point, this is, no doubt, a dream match for puroresu fans. Ishimori is not my favorite talent in New Japan’s junior division, but his floor in singles matches is about as good you can get in puroresu. This will be Dragon Kid’s third time appearing in the promotion, but the second this year after he participated in the opening match of the El Desperado-produced Despe Invitacional. What the next three matches will be I have simply no idea. They have presented little to no clues about this event other than these first two matches, the location, date, and gimmick. In any case, I cannot wait.
U.S. Dates To End 2024
NJPW has filled out their United States schedule for the remainder of the year, announcing returns to Massachusetts for Fighting Spirit Unleashed and Long Beach, California for STRONG STYLE EVOLVED. Last year, Fighting Spirit Unleashed held this mid-Fall spot, taking place in front of a very small Las Vegas crowd. In 2023, this was a late October event with Lonestar Shootout happening in front of another small crowd in Garland, Texas. It generally makes sense for this move to a December date back in California to happen given the houses they have been able to draw in California since their peak years. It feels like the company is tired of making the trip to the U.S. if the shows are not going to draw like they did at Windy City Riot in Chicago. However, they seemingly do not have the intention to stack these cards the way they did in Chicago. They have certainly stepped up the booking considering how weak they were last year stateside, but it still doesn’t feel like these cards are important enough to justify seven different U.S. events.
There is little novelty to the idea of Japanese pro-wrestling in the United States. Not only has AEW filled the role as the secondary pro-wrestling company in the world, but they feature lucha and puro stars enough in smaller towns and cities that there isn’t much of a reason to take a few sick days to fly to NJPW’s fifth event in the U.S. when you could simply wait until AEW and ROH are in town. Why does the company keep coming back so frequently? Well, the money is really good. They clearly don’t spend a lot on the production of these shows and value of the U.S. dollar relative to Japanese Yen is good if you’re a company trying to recover from so much financial loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. From a creative standpoint, the main attraction for any of these shows is interesting main events but everything else feel like throwaway matches for titles no one has a lot of investment in outside of the people holding them.
New Japan missed their chance to establish territory in the U.S., but as long as “the yen is down,” they are going to keep coming back to pop a 2,000+ house and squeeze some more juice out of the hardcore wrestling fans willing to spend money on cards that are typically mystery vortex until the week prior to the show. Windy City Riot was a perfect combination of a strong main event with high stakes, dream matches with recently released WWE talents, and match graphics released months ahead of time. They either don’t have the creative to continue this formula or they don’t care about the event outside of how much money it produces when they make the trip back to Japan.
Fighting Spirit Unleashed received a poster with its first crop of participants being announced. Sabre Jr., Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji, David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, KENTA, Tomohiro Ishii, and AEW’s Anna Jay are all set to compete at the event. The first match announced is a four-way contendership match for the STRONG Women’s championship, currently held by AEW’s Mercedes Moné. Moné was someone who seemed to be an obvious headliner for this event considering its location, but her not being placed anywhere on the opening roster seems to hint that she will actually not be appearing here. Where she will be, I do not know, but it is certainly a befuddling decision to leave your STRONG Women’s champion who is from Massachusetts off your Massachusetts card. I will save blame for a later date considering the necessity to schedule a booking like this through AEW, but it is a head-scratcher regardless. Jay’s three opponents in this contendership match have yet to be announced but given the patterns of these shows, it is likely to be a number of LA Dojo (NJPW Academy) talents and a Stardom talent who is willing to make visits stateside like Mina Shirakawa.
The End of G.O.D.
In backstage comments after Destruction in Kobe, El Phantasmo appeared with Jado to announce that NJPW is his home and that he intends to prove that going forward. With that in mind, he and Jado officially dissolved Guerrillas of Destiny in order to fully join Hontai. This announcement means that the NJPW timeline of G.O.D. has come to its end. There is certainly an obituary to write for the stable, but that’s something to delay until Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Hikuleo wrap up any business they have in WWE. I am aware that commentators on the WWE side of things have mentioned Tama and Tonga’s run as G.O.D. in Japan but they’re officially labeled “The Bloodline,” so it does seem the entire entity known as G.O.D. is completely dead. How alive Hontai is in the year 2024 is completely up to interpretation. Hontai has always been a loosely-attached name to a group of faction-less babyfaces, but the more Tanahashi, Phantasmo, and Umino talk about it, the more it seems to become a real thing. It’s still unclear and knowing NJPW, it will remain unclear for much longer than necessary.
Around The World
Yuji Nagata participated at a Strong Style Pro-Wrestling event in Korakuen Hall on 9/26. He teamed with Super Tiger to defeat Hayato Mashita & Hideki Sekine in 13:13. Kosei Fujita went to a 15-minute time-limit draw with puroresu freelancer Hikaru Sato in a grappling rules match at HARD HIT’s Revenge from Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. I ended up being a big fan of this one. Grappling contests such as these are not always a favorite of mine as it feels many workers don’t know how to make the pacing of these matches feel fluid. This was structured pretty tightly with great pops of energy. Fujita ended the match in control which is about as close as he’ll get to defeating a talent like Sato at this point in his young career.
I end this one feeling optimistic. The abundance of events on the NJPW schedule going forward is exciting considering the high-quality work they have produced since the start of the 34th G1 Climax. I still think it’s hard to announce that the company is hot. They’re lukewarm, but there is a very clear road to being hot again with the better utilization of talent, sped-up young lion process, and a new generation ripe with diversity and potential. Next on the docket is King Of Pro-Wrestling 2024 with Zack Sabre Jr. challenging IWGP World Heavyweight champion Tetsuya Naito for his belt in the main event. I am filled with anticipation, good and bad, but I’m about as excited as I’ve been this year for an NJPW event.
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