10 Early Predictions For NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13

4. NEVER Openweight Championship — Hirooki Goto (C) VS. Tomohiro Ishii

Tomohiro Ishii Hirooki Goto
NJPW

Tomohiro Ishii might not have won the G1 Climax, but few wrestlers are coming out of that tournament with as many opportunities on their plate as the Stone Pitbull. Ishii picked up wins over Kenny Omega, Hirooki Goto and Juice Robinson in the tournament, guaranteeing him title shots against all three over the coming months.

Ishii is likely to challenge Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at King of Pro Wrestling, and only the most optimistic of Ishii fans will be expecting a win. Gold is certainly in his future, but it will be at the expense of his CHAOS stablemate Hirooki Goto. Goto is the current NEVER Openweight Champion, although this present reign has been every bit as uneventful as his previous two.

Ishii and Goto had one of the best matches of the 2018 G1 Climax, though that bruising battle has almost been forgotten in the face of subsequent Ishii matches with Kota Ibushi, Omega and the rest. The two CHAOS warriors deserve a major stage for another match, and it doesn’t get any bigger than the Tokyo Dome and Wrestle Kingdom.

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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.