Lose the tag titles to UE on April again, have the guy that was thought to be the second coming of you actually ascend and wins the big one and for your 20th anniversary event you get to face House of Torture in a 6-man tag. The pain train never stops for the samurai dad.

7 comments

1. Surely a better tribute to his career would be having him lose a match for the IWGP Heavyweight Title?

   Considering they are calling it a 20th Anniversary, the card looks like an entirely standard Road To show. Maybe he didn’t want any fanfare, idk. Did they do anything special for any other wrestler’s big anniversary shows in recent years? I’m struggling to think of one off the top of my head.

2. Can’t believe they’re doing that match. Again.

   I thought for sure Okada would be choosing Bishamon for the match with Strong Style and that would main event the 20th anniversary show.

   Goto vs. YOSHI-HASHI also would’ve been great. A lot of choices other than what they went with

   I was also really sad he didn’t make it farther in the NJC, which is pretty much his tournament. If Finlay wasn’t going to win anyways honestly putting Goto over Tonga and then having him upset Finlay would’ve been great, especially considering the finals would’ve been the two guys who could just never beat Okada. SANADA still would’ve won of course, but would’ve been cool to see him get a shock finals run.

3. Goto is the James Harden of Njpw

4. The HoT match at his anniversary show is the most perplexing thing to me. At other 20th anniversary shows, the honorees’ matches were:

   * Makabe teamed with Honma against former stablemates Ishii and Yano.
   * Nagata teamed with NOAH’s Akiyama and Dragon Gate’s Mochizuki against Okada in-between his first two IWGP title reigns, then-IC champion Nakamura, and Yujiro.
   * Tenzan teamed with the mostly-retired Chono and Dradition’s Saito against Zero1’s Otani, AJPW’s Nishimura, and Kanemoto after he’d already left for AJPW a few months prior.
   * Kojima teamed with AJPW’s Hayashi against Tenzan and FUNAKI in the latter’s only NJPW match outside of a brief stint in 1994. Cozy also wrestled as The Great Kosuke alongside Michinoku Pro’s Great Sasuke against Jado and Gedo earlier in the show.
   * Chono teamed with NOAH’s Kobashi and AJPW’s Muta against NOAH’s Akiyama, AJPW’s Kojima, and Nakanishi.

   All big matches, usually involving folks from other companies that have a history with the person. And yet AND YET **AND YET** when Goto’s anniversary show rolls around, management decided to just stick him in yet another awful House of Torture six-man match, which there have been dozens of in recent memory. They didn’t go with Tenzan, who helped train him; Taguchi, Yano, or Yoshitatsu, who came up around the same time; his old RISE partner Minoru; the one guy that’s plagued Goto his whole career in Tanahashi; or most importantly, his old partner, friend, and rival Shibata. Instead, it’s almost the worst possible match as the main event.

   NJPW perpetually treating Goto like this will never cease to amaze me. He’s been my favorite wrestler on their roster since I started watching over a decade ago.

5. Please make this up to us by giving us the match all of us want—Goto vs Shibata for the Pure title. Goto would probably lose but I don’t care, tbh. I just want to see a mat-based masterpiece w/these two hugging and raising each other’s arms afterwards. Gedo, please call TK and book this.

6. I don’t mind the opponents but it would have been better if it was Bishsmon and Ishii teaming to reunite the GOAT NEVER 6-Man champs.

7. House of Torture will make a fun match in which Goto will beat up all the bad guys. Fun!