10 Wrestlers Audiences Weren't Ready For
4. Tetsuya Naito
As the day - and indeed the fanbase at large - goes colder on New Japan Pro Wrestling post-peak, it’s easy to look back on booker Gedo’s incredible era as uninterrupted magic.
’Stardust Genius’ Tetsuya Naito is the easiest example of how he sometimes had to re-evaluate what appeared unimpeachable.
An incredible home grown babyface initially, Naito’s 2013 G1 Climax victory was supposed to permanently catapult him to glory in NJPW. Instead, the victory exposed just how little he was supported by most fans.
The failure was so pronounced that the company had no choice but to acknowledge it. IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada mocked Naito’s lack of a bond with the crowd, and a fan vote to determine the upcoming Wrestle Kingdom main event confirmed it - their contest was booted from top spot by a landslide, and it was all due to Naito’s involvement.
A tour of Mexico transformed everything. Linking up with Los Ingobernables in CMLL, the ‘Stardust Genius’ died so an apathetic misanthropic a*shole could live.
That gimmick was so captivating that by the time he returned to NJPW in 2015, remaining heel was untenable. Though he didn’t compromise the gimmick, New Japan spotted the shift, and he quickly became a merch-mover and eventual World Champion in another multi-year tale that paid loyal service to all he’d endured.