10 Early Predictions For NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13

7. IWGP United States Championship - Jay White (C) Vs. Juice Robinson

Juice Robinson
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After enjoying an immensely high billing at Wrestle Kingdom 12, the IWGP United States Championship will settle back into the middle of the card in a year’s time. I fully expect Jay White to take the title from Kenny Omega, allowing The Cleaner to take another run at the big belt (more on that shortly).

Switchblade is clearly a major project for NJPW, so expect the Kiwi to get a solid run with the title. White can defend the red strap all over the globe against gaijin such as Beretta, CODY, Zack Sabre Jr. and others, but he should manage to hold onto it all the way until 4 January 2019.

White will drop it on that night, to the man who may well be the most improved wrestler on the planet over the last two years. Juice Robinson has been on an absolute tear since settling into his New Japan skin, and he was rewarded with several high-profile matches in 2017. Expect Juice to continue progressing up the card in 2018.

2019 will be his year, and it will begin with an emotional championship win inside the Tokyo Dome. You would have got long odds on that back when CJ Parker broke Kevin Owens’ nose in the latter’s debut NXT match in 2014.

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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.