10 Reasons Why New Japan Pro Wrestling Had A Great 2016
Just ten more reasons why NJPW is the best wrestling company on the planet.
2016 was a fantastic twelve months for New Japan Pro Wrestling. In a year that could have been shaped by a massive rebuild after four major superstars (Nakamura, Styles, Anderson, and Gallows) left for WWE, NJPW continued pushing ahead. Creating new stars, bringing in new talent, and being innovative was their calling card this past year.
Multiple major events and tours of Japan spawned major title changes and great storylines. With the availability of New Japan World, their WWE Network-style subscription service, the casual wrestling fan can enjoy New Japan with English commentary every few months and the hardcore fan can engage with every one of their shows with Japanese commentary.
With that, let's explore the top ten reasons why New Japan's 2016 was great.
10. The Stables
2016 was a great year for stables in New Japan Pro Wrestling. The Bullet Club is everywhere. You see their shirts at WWE events and other indy shows across the world. Members of Chaos and Los Ingobernables de Japon have held major championships. All three stables have worked with each other over the past year having five-star matches up and down Japan.
The underrated part about how New Japan functions is that their main players are all in these three stables. With that comes the availability to tag with a lot of different people and to create multiple stories to work with. For instance, during the G1 Climax this past summer, members of each stable would face one another in the tournament and in multi-man tag matches to continue their feuds against one another. It also changed up what was being told to the fan. One night, Chaos may wrestle Bullet Club, while the next night they could be wrestling L.I.J.
Even the fans of New Japan struggle to figure out who they should be cheering for as they have a great amount of respect for each group and what they do. L.I.J tends to be the heel group in every situation, but Naito and Bushi are cheered by a lot of fans even with their cheating instincts. Chaos should be the face in most situations, but much like American wrestling, you stick with your favorites no matter what. On the other hand, Bullet Club has completely embraced how cool the Japanese crowd thinks they are and plays on it whenever they can.