7 Reasons NJPW Should Be Worried About 2017

3. Post-Transition Complacency

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NJPW.co.jp

2016 was a year of transition for NJPW. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura left gaping holes in the main event scene, and the loss of Karl Anderson (and to a lesser extent, Doc Gallows) deprived them of a consistent talent filling many roles in the company. Considering how much of what NJPW had been doing revolved around the Big Three (Nakamura, Tanahashi, Okada) and Bullet Club, this was a worry.

2016 saw a number of talents step up to fill the breach. Tetsuya Naito and Kenny Omega became bonafide main event performers. Shibata finally began to blossom. SANADA, EVIL, Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI and others shone in the fresh spotlight, and as a result NJPW comes out of 2016 looking fresher than ever.

After a successful transition, it is vital not to rest on one’s laurels. NJPW could be forgiven for approaching 2017 with the belief that the hard work is done, that by creating new stars in 2016 the rest will fall into place. This isn’t the case.

NJPW is on the cusp of something special in an international sense, and as a result 2017 could be the most important year in the recent history of the promotion. That is a lot of responsibility for relatively inexperienced top tier talent to shoulder

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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.