10 Things That Must Happen At NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12

5. Goto Loses Everything

Hirooki Goto At THE NEW BEGINNING In OSAKA (2016)
By ゾーヒョー (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Despite being the hipster’s wrestler of choice, Minoru Suzuki has had a miserable reign as NEVER Openweight Champion. Suzuki’s defences have been plagued by uninspired grappling and depressingly predictable interference. This clearly should have been Suzuki vs. Ishii, yet Hirooki Goto gets the nod instead.

Goto’s hair is on the line, which leads some to believe that he may prevail here. Goto starting the year as NEVER Openweight Champion sounds okay, although it will be little more than resetting after a grim 2017. Goto is preferable to Suzuki as champion, but there is a better story to be told here.

Hirooki Goto must lose the big one once again, and lose his hair in the process. On a number of occasions it seems as though Goto has hit rock-bottom, but this will finally represent that. Losing his hair will give Hirooki a much-needed image overhaul, giving the former champion a clean slate from which to build.

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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.