I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m wondering what the hell New Japan Pro Wrestling is thinking these days? You don’t know? Don’t worry, I’m not sure they do either.
On Sunday night, AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling will present their annual Forbidden Door PPV event. It’s a concept that fanned the flames of intrigue among wrestling fans in the onset, but one that has cooled thanks to the idea running it’s course and AEW gobbling up New Japan talent like a hungry uncle on Thanksgiving.
New, New Japan talent
Top New Japan talent like Kazuchika Okada, Jay White, and Will Ospreay — all pillar crossovers of the first Forbidden Door shows — are now in AEW regularly and New Japan has done an abysmal job introducing new top talent into the flow of the promotion to keep dream matches alive for the show.
So, I go back to the initial question — what is New Japan thinking? I ask that because with the company on a major stage Sunday night, instead of using that platform to fix the abysmal job they’ve done creating stars, they continue to lean on old stars from the past. This time, ones that are and always have been tier two talents compared to what they’ve presented before.