There’s a lot in the history of wrestling and I wanted to discuss what you guys thought were the biggest that involved njpw.
2 that I have are
1) what if Kazuchika Okada never graduated from toryumon and stayed with that promotion.
1) what if Ibushi never got hurt and stayed with NJPW. Would he be the ace that the R3M would have to overcome now that Okada isn’t there? Etc
by Fire-Thunder-Liger
33 comments
What if Daichi Hashimoto never gets injured, debuts with NJPW and stays?
This isn’t the biggest, but I’ve always wondered how much the pandemic affected booking. Was the plan always to have EVIL start HoT and win the belts? Would the reactions to HoT be different now if they’d been able to get the kind of heat Kenta did after attacking Naito, or if Naito got to defend his title against non Bullet Club people before dropping it.
Hmmm what if Hiroshi Tanahashi took Keiji Mutoh’s offer to join him in defecting to All Japan Pro Wrestling in 2002, while they were having dinner at Denny’s?
What if NJPW had never fired Shinya Hashimoto?
The stuff he was doing with Naoya Ogawa was making big box office money for the company, but his disputes with the office (Inoki and Choshu, mostly) led to his ousting and him creating Zero-1 (with Ogawa, funnily enough).
Perhaps Hashimoto could have truly gotten over the “Third Gen” guys (I could definitely see a “passing of the torch” style match been him and Nagata); maybe Mutoh never leaves the company to become president of AJPW (taking Kojima with him)?
I think the biggest what if going forward will be what if Okada had stayed to face the Reiwa 3 and Uemura.
What if Shibata’s brain bleed had never happened is another good one. Would have been able to finally get the title?
What if Shibata didn’t suffer the injury at Sakura Genesis and beat Okada.
Pandemic, what is Styles stayed another year or two, what if Nakamura stayed, what if Shibata never got injured, what if Suzuki signed a full time deal, Wht of they gave Okada more of the usual post-excursion push.
What if the Riot at Ryogoku never happened? Would the modern UFC even exist?
There have been loads in recent years like Ibushi and Shibata.
I think one of the sadder ones has to be Kitamura and what would happened if he wasn’t injured. I really think he would have at least been a one time champion by now.
My personal favourite is what if Naito never bombed at WK8. If they got the build from G1 to WK right and he comes into that as an over face and has a great match with Okada, what are the long term plans?
Maybe not the biggest, but some of the more recent ones that come to mind:
– What if Katsuya Kitamura had a proper run?
– What if Hiromu didn’t break his neck in 2018; how would the junior heavyweight division look now?
– What if they followed through with the “There’s a mole in Chaos” angle in 2018?
There was a time when Gedo asked Okada if he knew some talent NJPW should use and Okada recommended the Young Bucks. What if Gedo thought that “Nope. I’ll never use those guys.” ?
Maybe Omega and the Bucks don’t become great friends and AEW never forms. Therefore average pay of North American wrestlers doesn’t increase and NJPW is still financially the #2 option in the world by offering talent significantly more than NXT does.
Just imagine New Japan still having their pick of top non-WWE talent with the freedom to book them however they want. It wouldn’t completely solve the huge gap caused by lack of successful Japanese dojo graduates past Okada, but it would keep the critical mass of great talent going while Umino’s generation matures.
There’s a whole “what if the yen didn’t nosedive post 2020” that is clearly bigger than any single Japanese promotion, but still affects booking and their ability to attract talent.
If the Elite had all stayed in NJPW instead of going to form AEW
What If Tanahashi never got stabbed?
What if Nakanishi AND Goto became champ in 1999 and 2009 respectively?
What if Inoki era (early 2000s) was never a thing?
What if Jushin switched to heavyweight AND won gold/G1?
What if Naito didn’t become Tranquilo…
What if Katsuya Kitamura…
What if Japanese Batista ( kitamura ) never left is my personal biggest what if.
Pandemic
Elite leaving
What if Nakamura never left? where would he be? where would NJPW be? he left at his peak and was drawing a lot of attention from western fans
What if Inoki hadn’t become infatuated with that hack Naoya Ogawa?
What if CM Punk left WWE in 2012 and went to NJPW
What if TNA didn’t lowball AJ Styles.
Biggest change in NJPW over the last decade is probably the American expansion and the addition of far more gaijin to the roster.
Obviously Bullet Club doesn’t start with him but AJ brought tons of curious eyes to NJPW from outside Japan who ended up staying for Nak, Tana, Naito, Yano, Ibushi, Okada, Ishii, Omega etc.
Foreign eyes to NJPW then really end up helping a bit of a Golden Era and end up pushing them to expand Westward
What if Riki Chosu stayed in All Japan and Toshiaki Kawada split with Misawa and accepted the offer to join the New Japan dojo?
There is one big what if i got: What if mitsuhide hirasawa wrestled better and got a better gimmick than okada? Would he be one of the greats considering he was called the next big star of NJPW in early 2005? Considering both where at excursions at the time naito even considered hirasawa as a good senior for him and even thought he would be in the same upper levels hirasawa was at th time
Another interesting one I’ve always thought is what if kawada did win the title against sasaki either the time he lost or the rematch
What if Inoki went with Akira Maeda (and Nobuhiko Takada) as the heir apparent and built him up instead of Fujinami/Choshu?
What if the Elite never left to start AEW?
What would that have done to Whites career? Ospreays? With Omega still in the picture?
Definitely wanted to know what the plans for 2020 were. Most curious about the Wrestle Dynasty show which would have been their first full booking at a Madison Square Garden show.
What if Okada had to retire from the headbutt instead of Shibata?
What if Jericho had said no to Don Callis when he offered the Tokyo Dome match with Kenny? Of course in the long run that probably means AEW never comes into existence, but there are so many other branching paths from that.
A huge “What If” to me is what if instead of the bulk of AJPW going off to form Noah, a substantial number move over to New Japan instead?
This was when Mutoh was slowing down and dropped out of events to rehab his knees, Chono just turned heel, and the most reliable “top guy” was Kensuke Sasaki. The first of the Third Generation wrestlers wouldn’t win the world title for another roughly 18 months.
Obviously New Japan couldn’t have absorbed all 24 of the AJPW-to-Noah guys, but imagine the possibilities to jump. Jun Akiyama, Omori, and Kenta Kobashi were both about five years younger than Mutoh and Chono, and Takayama was just starting to build up around the time of the split.
New Japan could also have potentially gotten KENTA, Marufuji, and Kanemaru right at their earliest phase, all before the company entered its slump in the 2000s.
Naito beating Ibushi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to prevent that title and the IWGP Heavyweight Title from unifying and becoming the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.