Predicting What The Entire Wrestling World Will Look Like In Five Years
9. The General State Of NJPW
Hopefully they'll calm down sufficiently to actually get coverage again.
NJPW is past its peak, and really, it was coming before the pandemic. The 2019 G1 Climax was an absolute joy of a tournament - Jon Moxley was sensational in every single criteria, and the Jay White Vs. Kota Ibushi final was as emotionally intense and objectively perfect as pro wrestling gets - but Gedo's worn booking pattern had begun to reveal itself by then. Repeated combinations, mandatory lengthy main events worked by men who wore the strain on their bodies, Wrestler X defeating Wrestler Y, winning a bigger match, being challenged to undo the defeat by Y a few months later: it was all very familiar.
The pandemic accelerated the decline. EVIL working 40 minute main events as the double champion in matches that artlessly sought literally impossible heat, the old headline crew working matches more worthy than electrifying, the wackiness of the King of Pro Wrestling title...beyond Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi, the promotion was on its arse.
But the flaws will be obscured when crowds are able to roar once again, and when it feels normal, the AEW relationship, folding in the Strong crew and building up the immense Young Lion ranks will rejuvenate the promotion's fortunes.
Not enough to enter a period as glittering as 2012-2019, but enough to make it feel closer to that than this.