YFW you’re seeing the sudden wave of (unironic) love and support for the samurai dad all over wrestling twitter even when you know he’s 510% taking the Big L from Tana for the millionth time.

16 comments

1. Catch me up, what match and when is this happening?

2. One half of my brain is like

   “Stop giving me hope, New Japan. Even if, for some weird reason, you decide to have Goto beat Tanahashi at Dominion, you’re just going to be holding on to my feelings for two more weeks, because there’s no way they’re making Hirooki Goto interim AEW Champion”

   But the other half of my brain is yelling

   #**”LET’S F*CKING GOTO!!!”**

3. Imagine.

   Goto somehow does the thing, he wins. We all rejoice. Presumably he stays in AEW for the eventual undisputed title match against CM Punk.

   SUPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS!

   Goto shows up to the G1 as the Interim AEW World Champion. He doesn’t need to win the thing, he’s cool with a solid 5-4. Just as a solid show of good will though and thanks between promotions, one of Goto’s block wins is against the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.

   The Interim AEW World Champion pins the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. It’s a thanks to Goto for being a solid upper-midcard and a prestige booster for AEW even after eventually losing to CM Punk.

   Won’t happen. A fan can dream though.

4. Goto has been my favorite wrestler in NJPW ever since Shibata’s injury. I loved him before that, but Shibata was my guy. I’d love to see him finally get the promotion he’s deserved instead of being pushed just far enough to be portrayed as the biggest “never quite good enough” in the history of the promotion.
   I know he’s held some other belts, but he’s hardly ever able to successfully defend an individual title.

   C’mon bookers, do us all a favor land let him wear the belt for a half dozen or so solid defenses in a row.

5. I honestly wonder what Goto’s position would have been had Shibata not left

6. There is an alternate universe where Goto wins this whole thing and it’s a damn shame we’re not living in it.

7. Goto should win just so a wider US audience gets to hear his banger of an entrance theme.

8. He’s Dolph Ziggler or James Harden.
   He’ll give you a good fun match but ultimately he will lose to the bigger star.

9. all he does is deliver banger after banger. i will never understand the hate he gets

10. I can 1000% confirm I am one of those people but my love for samurai dad dates back years lol

11. Still hope he gets a solid match on Forbidden Door tbh. To me he’s a dude that lives and breathes NJPW. Perfect representative

    Would be a great winner if they do a Battle Royale of some kind

12. Goto deserves all the love and support. He’s a fantastic worker and plays his role stupendously well. I will forever be upset that he hasn’t won the big one but, he will be fondly remembered as NJPW through and through. The man has been stalwart in his loyalty to the company and I greatly admire and respect him for it.

    ​

    Also, him calling Great O-Khan a vulgar man on Twitter was hilarious. I’m not even on that site but hearing about that made me laugh.

13. But have you considered that the G in Interim AEW World Champion stands for Goto?

14. The one image I always associate with Goto is him with one of his children in his lap at a fountain, his wife next to him, and his eldest son standing in the fountain waters doing Goto’s pose from his entrance video.

    He has won at life, no matter how many pins he eats in the ring.

    Also, I love that in the ‘CHAOS goes to a samurai castle’ video, when Toru Yano is assigned out the roles of Samurai and Servant, when Goto came up everyone just nods when he gets given Samurai.

15. I’ve been a Goto fan since they first started airing World Pro Wrestling on AXS. He’s never going to be the top of the card guy I thought he was going to be, but, the biz needs strong semi mains and mid card matches, too.

16. Goto, I believe has attempted to win the IWGP Title 9 times and failed each time. If he were to get another shot, it would be shot number 10.

    Come on New Japan. The story writes its fucking self here.