NJPW: Should SANADA have a short or long IWGP World Heavyweight Title Reign?

13 comments

1. It really depends on what the end goal or interest would be by Wk18.

   For me a big Sanada match at Wk would be Sanada vs Naito with the history and those two philosophy going at it but from a in ring stand point I don’t know how that would be recieved because their past matches haven’t been insane.

   And then we have the potential Okada vs Ospreay at Wk18 if that happens what would be huge and also has a built in story that should culminate at a big stage. And we seen them have matches before and the story is their but it really depends on what the end goal would be.

2. 8 months till WK would be ideal Imo

3. Should he? I’d like for him to hold it at least til WK to really establish him as an Okada equal, if that’s the route they want to go. Drop it to someone like Naito or Okada there.

   Will he? He’ll probably drop it to Naito at Dominion.

4. I think it will be shorter, however I’d prefer it to be longer for the sake of

   *long term effect of making the belt feel important*

   And

   *building up sanada as a very legitimate main event guy, and secondary top babyface behind okada*

   Don’t think that’ll happen, but my fantasy booking if it did is:

   Then have either naito, or finlay *if he succeeds in improving his game enough by wk to be believable* beat him at wk.

   Okada could finally fight ospreay for the us belt in the co main event, and ospreay can finally beat okada

   By dominion okada would have had enough time away from the iwgp to go for it again, without discrediting any champions. This either tricks us into another naito okada match, gedo is probs dying wanting to do by this point, or a loud Japanese crowd cheering on okada going full super god mode, and murdering David finlay in cold blood

5. Don’t really have a preference as long as he can produce matches worthy of the title

6. Typical Gedo booking of new champs, with a few exceptions, is they get one or zero successful title defenses. I say he loses it at Dominion to Naito. Ospreay beats Okada in the G1 finals so it’s Ospreay vs Naito at WK.

7. Sanada is more juiced long term. He has fresh matchups, and Naito at WK18 is big business.

   Ospreay’s stuck in the AEW blender, and I’m unconvinced a foreigner beats Okada at WK18. Especially if Tony’s trying to sign him away.

8. Shorter. Bullykada had legs and should hold the title most of the year. Losing to SANADA will drive him crazy

9. I really hope he holds it until at least WK. If he drops it after the G1 but before WK, it’ll send the message that management doesn’t have faith in him to draw a crowd at the Dome, which would be unfortunate. On paper it should be easy to book intriguing feuds with Shingo, Evil, ZSJ, and Naito. If he doesn’t get at least those four defenses in, I’ll be bummed.

10. I feel like a 200 day-ish reign for the title is long overdue because of how short the reigns have been since the cursed belt was introduced.

    If they want SANADA to be a major player, which I’m hoping they do because they had him pin Okada clean, they shouldn’t make him a transitional champ.

11. Naito at WK is the $.

    Though a lot of sound theories Naito gets it sooner soni dunno.

12. Medium

13. What matters to me, is that his reign is not a lame duck title reign. 1-2 defenses for a reign, and/or dropping it at WK is a lame duck reign. Like what Jay White had. Or Taiji Ishimori had with his championship reign.