10 Outcomes If HUGE Wrestling Complaints Were Answered
2. Tetsuya Naito Should Have Beaten Kazuchika Okada At Wrestle Kingdom 12
The complaint:
Tetsuya Naito should have went over. He was the biggest and most popular star in the company, and the reign had fulfilled its goal of establishing Kazuchika Okada as the Ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling. The symmetry between Naito's 2013 and his 2017 - the man had evolved from the least to the most desired challenger in modern Tokyo Dome history - was too perfect a story not to pay off, too much an achievement not to reward. Gedo f*cked it all with his flares fetish, that hack.
The outcome if it were answered:
We wouldn't have been treated to the greatest professional wrestling match of all time in Dominion 2018's Okada Vs. Omega IV. Okada, and this was genius on Gedo's part, became the true Ace in canonical NJPW history through a robust mathematical formula in retaining over Hiroshi Tanahashi and surpassing his record of successful IWGP Heavyweight Title defences.
And, two years later, Naito's ultimately successful gold rush storyline attracted a combined 70,000 gate to the Dome in an unprecedented two-night extravaganza built on a chase that was, evidently, far from dead.
The events of Wrestle Kingdom 12 acted as a lesson we should apply to the experience of wrestling fandom, one ruthlessly undermined by the need for social media validation: not everything need be a disaster when the booker has proven himself to be rather good at this.