10 Best Kept Secrets In Wrestling Today
5. NJPW's Young Lions
New Japan undercards are flabby. As riveting as much of their product is, pay-per-views are regularly padded out with skippable detritus that literally nobody needs to watch. Whether or not this is a problem is up to the viewer to decide (one might argue this slow-build approach aids in escalating drama throughout a show), but it's easy to see why so many people fast-forward to the more important stuff.
Do so, however, and you risk missing the most exciting crop of up-and-coming wrestlers on the planet. NJPW's pre-excursion Young Lions work with unmatched vigour. These black-clad trainees work themselves to the point of exhaustion every single time. Restricted in runtime and what they're allowed to do between the ropes, they nonetheless compete like they're fighting for their lives, squeezing everything out of their limited spotlight.
Watching them is a joy, and doing so brings the satisfaction of knowing you're investing in NJPW's next generation of headliners. Guys like Shota Umino and Ren Narita, along with recent Young Lion graduate Toa Henare, are among NJPW's hungriest athletes. It's a shame that the monstrous Katsuya Kitamura may have lost his career to injury, though: just look at the guy.