7 Reasons NJPW Should Be Worried About 2017

2. The Fear Of Losing Talent

Shinsuke Nakamura AJ Styles Wrestle Kingdom
njpwworld.com

For years NJPW fans worried about the possibility of losing top stars to WWE, yet slept safely in the knowledge that WWE didn’t seem to have much interest in either Japanese talent or guys that had made their own names. The times have changed, and WWE’s newfound crush on big name non-WWE talent combined with NJPW’s increased profile makes further defections somewhat inevitable.

Despite its problems, WWE still represents something of a holy grail for many professional wrestlers. Nakamura’s move is a good example of this, a man who was king in Japan but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to move to the biggest wrestling company in the world and see what he was made of.

WWE will inevitably come knocking on Kenny Omega’s door, and whilst Omega seems more than happy in Japan for now you can never say never. If Los Ingobernables de Japon continue selling merchandise as they do, at what point will the yen signs turn to dollar signs in the eyes of WWE?

It is unlikely that men like Ishii or Honma will turn up in NXT any time soon, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to visualise Naito or SANADA in a WWE ring.

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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.