10 Early Predictions For NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12

3. IWGP Intercontinental Championship - Tomohiro Ishii Vs. Hirooki Goto

Tomohiro Ishii NJPW G1 Climax
NJPW.co.jp

I'm going to go out on a rather depressing limb and say that Hiroshi Tanahashi won't make it to Wrestle Kingdom 12. The general consensus is that Tanahashi's recent return from injury could well have come too soon, and a gruelling G1 Climax schedule is not going to help matters. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Tanahashi was forced to relinquish the IWGP Intercontinental Championship towards the end of 2017.

Who is next in line for that championship? As with Suzuki, a potential challenger for the title could well be lurking in Tana's G1 block, so let's go ahead and put the vacant title on the line between two such men. Hirooki Goto always finds himself in a big singles match at Wrestle Kingdom, and 2018 will be no different.

Goto will be unsuccessful again on January 4 however, as it will be CHAOS stablemate Tomohiro Ishii who takes home the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Ishii is arguably New Japan's most consistent performer, and he has shown incredible chemistry with Goto in the past. The Stone Pitbull could well end up being a transitional champion, but if anyone can make that work it is Ishii.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.