At this point Muto would certainly be at the Dome on some capacity, probably commentary for the main event. Just thought about what factors led to/when they decided to pull the trigger on a SANADA top guy run.
Could the big bosses have felt so much nostalgia with Muto’s retirement tour ending at the Dome in February? Evident by their position at the Dome, they have Tanahashi then Shota to continue the line but SANADA is the direct student of Muto. Like nobody would have predicted SANADA to be in this position at this time last year and then especially after losing his match at Wrestle Kingdom 17 in Yokohama where in his own words, he was destined to be a life-long mid-carder.
Another wildcard might have been Ospreay’s injury at how the New Japan Cup would have been booked. A year from now who knows who’s gonna be in the main event picture. Wrestling never fails to deliver a compelling story.
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I know there’s been plenty of jokes of how Mutoh slighted SANADA, but it’s pretty clear from Destruction and SANADA’s comments that Mutoh had a big impact on his life/career and SANADA is forever grateful.
Also love that SANADA has started using the Shining Wizard as a finisher now.
But Muto said ‘that guy, not bad, EVIL’
I think they put the booking into hibernation with the pandemic. So a lot of plans got delayed. This goes to a point I made in the njpw/stardom vision thread. The booking is driven by a belief that there is money in the outcome. In 2019 okada and sanada did ridiculous business over that year. They run that match 4 times. Fans in the domestic market loved it to the point they outdrew kopw the year before (kenny/kota/cody) during a typhoon for the last match.
Sanada did more than enough in 2019 at the box office to be given a chance as champ. Just what was the point until this year. I’ve never seen a wrestler more obviously in a holding pattern. They’ve also been building him leaving lij and joining up with taichi for a long time.
So as we say in Australia yeah nah
I don’t think it’s much more than cold hard business calculus
Love seeing Muto still throwing Too Sweets!
🤘
Ospreay was not a wildcard. SANADA joined J5G before Ospreay’s injury, and faction turners always lead in the Cup. Thats why the finalists were SANADA and Finlay.
And they pulled the trigger on SANADA because they needed a pure babyface with Ibushi’s deperature (Ibushi being the one who replaced Tanahashi). They did’n’t last minute book him to win the world title because of nostalgia lol. Everything was laid out perfectly.