10 Early Predictions For NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13

4. NEVER Openweight Championship - EVIL (C) Vs. CODY

brandi rhodes cody rhodes
NJPW

If they aren’t as good as there already, Los Ingobernables de Japon are ready to become the big babyface faction in NJPW. Tetsuya Naito is already the most popular star on the roster, and EVIL & SANADA wrestled a great babyface tag team match against Killer Elite Squad at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Daryl has also made Hiromu Takahashi a beloved star.

It seems strange to have a major babyface called EVIL, but then professional wrestling isn’t exactly a playground for the ordinary. The Los Ingobernables number two will be the man to defeat Hirooki Goto for the NEVER Openweight Championship, his first singles championship since his ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ NEVER reign at the end of 2016. It is possible that EVIL will be elevated to Intercontinental Championship status, but that may be the fate of his current tag team partner.

The future of CODY is a lot less clear. It isn’t outside of the realm of possibility that the former Intercontinental Champion will return to WWE, but there is plenty left for him to accomplish around the world before that happens. After two special singles matches, CODY will wrestle in his first Wrestle Kingdom championship match next year.

This will also be the first time the title has been on the line between two men whose names are written in all capitals.

Advertisement
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.