10 Early Predictions For NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13

6. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship — Will Ospreay [c] Vs. Taiji Ishimori Vs. Marty Scurll Vs. KUSHIDA

tajiri ishimori
NJPW

Hiromu Takahashi’s serious injury has left the IWGP Junior Heavyweight division in limbo. Even now, well over a month since he sustained the injury, Takahashi is recognised as the Jr. champion. The Ticking Time Bomb is expected to be out of action for up to a year, so any chances of a Tokyo Dome title defence are well and truly out of the window.

The Junior Heavyweight Champion might be out of action, but there is no shortage of quality waiting to replace him at the top of the junior tree. Will Ospreay, KUSHIDA, Taiji Ishimori, Marty Scurll, El Desperado and BUSHI are just six potential names to take over as the ace of the junior division. With the latter two masked men busy in tag action, expect the previous four to battle it out for junior supremacy.

New Japan has a history of reverting back to previous champions when injury overcomes an incumbent, so consider Will Ospreay to be the favourite to regain the crown he lost at NJPW Dominion 6.9. Scurll and KUSHIDA are two of the most consistent performers on the planet and will surely be involved.

It will be Captain Abs himself who leaves the Dome as champion. Taiji Ishimori returned to New Japan in 2018 and came within a whisker of winning the Best of the Super Juniors before falling short against Takahashi. His time is now. Well, his time will be 4 January, anyway.

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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.