10 Things That Must Happen In NJPW In 2018

7. We Need To Talk About Hirooki

Hirooki Goto 2 NJPW G1 CLimax
NJPW.co.jp

Has the ship sailed when it comes to Hirooki Goto?

You can never say ‘never’ in professional wrestling, but this may well be one of those moments. Goto is an immensely talented performer, but there may not be a more stale act on the entire New Japan roster, with the exception of Suzuki-gun. How apt that Goto will likely take on Suzuki at Wrestle Kingdom.

What can NJPW do to make Hirooki Goto relevant once more? He is a unique talent on the roster for sure; he seems to stand outside of the usual parameters of what is expected. Goto is one of the rare native talents who could benefit from a heel turn, or a change of look. He is too good to tread water as he is.

The CHAOS stable in general is in need of a major overhaul. It is difficult to look past it being little more than a vehicle to give Kazuchika Okada partners throughout the year. A Goto/Ishii tag team seems to make all the sense in the world to everyone with the exception of those who make the decisions.

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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.