Members:
Katsuya Kitamura
Tomoyuki Oka (The Great O Khan)
Hirai Kawato (Master Wato)
Teruaki Kanemitsu
Tetsuhiro Yagi
Toa Henare (HENARE)
Leo Tonga (Hikuleo)
Overall Achievements:
1x NEVER, 2x KOPW, 1x Strong, 1x Revpro, 1x CMLL lightweight, 1x IWGP Tag, 1x IWGP Jr Tag, 2x Strong Tag, 1x Revpro tag, 1x BOSJ, 1x Young Lion's Cup
Star Student: Hirai Kawato
Best Team: United Empire (Oka and Henare)
Best rivalry: Kitamura vs Oka
Best match: Oka vs Kitamura Lion's Break Project 10, Young Lion's Cup Final 2017.
I always referred to this class as the cursed class but it started to look a lot better in the last 18 months.
A lot went wrong despite the amount hovering around the Dojo at the time. Kanemitsu had a spine injury that took him out for over a year. He then retired after one match back. Yagi chose to quit wrestling due to family/personal issues. Kitamura after winning the Young Lion's Cup disappeared with no word. Several years later he would abruptly pass away.
Even the ones who made it through to the other side struggled. O-Khan spent most of his time as an underwhelming midcarder despite his promise. Master Wato had the potential to be the next Jr ace but had mostly been in the middle of the pack. Henare spent years in the lower mid card outside of G1s and barely getting a look in at titles. They invested several years into Hikuleo to come good.
18 months ago this class was looking very underwhelming. But HENARE has had a great run with top tier matches and a NEVER title win, Hikuleo drastically improved and won several tag titles with ELP, Wato also improved leaps and bounds and won the Best of the Super Jr's and O Khan has been able to be a fan favourite and cement himself as a regular in the KOPW scene.
Despite these improvements, this class has still been lackluster. How would you rate this?
Also, this is one of those points of overlap. Umino and Narita will be included in the next installment
by shecanbromehard
