I’m a big ZSJ fan, but I’m not that familiar with Ren Narita. I’ve read up on him and my understanding is that he’s returned from excursion as the second coming of Shibata (along with the Tana-esque Shota Umino). Is he ready/the real deal? Any background and analysis would be much appreciated…

21 comments

1. Yeah, they are presenting him as the ‘Son of Strong Style’, so definitely in the mold of Shibata. Check out his matches against Ishii and Sanada from earlier in the tournament:

   [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIR4mCyQy5Q&ab_channel=NJPWWORLDOfficial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIR4mCyQy5Q&ab_channel=NJPWWORLDOfficial)

   [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvvW0NCDffs&ab_channel=NJPWWORLDOfficial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvvW0NCDffs&ab_channel=NJPWWORLDOfficial)

2. Every YL from this gen is the real deal. Get used to seeing them as Tana, Naito, Suzuki, Ishii, and others phase out.

3. I might be misremembering, but I think when he was a young lion the general consensus was that he was sort of an unremarkable junior (despite a pretty good showing in BoSJ 2019 as a replacement for Flip Gordon), and when he went on excursion, Shibata did some interviews where he talked about how he had to basically rebuild his wrestling foundation and re-teach him a lot of basic stuff. Idk if that was all kayfabe or not, but they’re clearly playing up that connection and influence now that he’s back from the US.

4. He also had a no DQ match with Juice on strong that was blowaway

5. He’s good, and Zack will be a great opponent for a first match on this big of a stage. Really looking forward to this one

6. I wasn’t convinced by him when he was a Young Lion, but since then what I’ve seen of him he’s been pretty fucking good.

7. That’s the title?

8. He’s the heir apparent to Shibata …

   He’s basically Damien Wayne.

   No, he isn’t Batman, but he’s a badass in his own right.

   What legacy Narita carves for himself will depend on how and what he does when the time comes for him to step out of Shibata’s shadow.

   At this point, Narita’s treatment and impact reminds me of how Mike Tyson was brought along in boxing.

   Just like Tyson, NJPW has brought Narita along perfectly. They’ve matched him with the perfect opponents, they’ve given him the spots he’s needed in order to deliver, and he’s hit the mark every time so far.

9. The only thing I know about Ren is that he was in 2019 BOSJ and he had 0 points in his block

10. Narita is the best YL around man. Check out his match Vs SANADA for the tv title tournament

11. Is he ready? Yes. Does he deserve to be the champ more than ZSJ? For now, nope

12. Yeah he’s good just watch his match with ishii

13. Narita is absolutely the real deal. As you said, what Shota is to Tana, Narita is to Shibata. He wrestles and physically looks like a carbon copy of Shibata. He’s got a very promising future in NJPW.

14. This whole generation of returning YL’s are incredible.

15. Too soon to tell. He’s been a Shibata clone the whole time. Only problem is he’s not Shibata. Kind of reminds me of when Nakamura came up. Nakamura had to change styles and looks more than a few times until his gimmick was perfect.

16. ❤️

17. Where was he on excursion? He wasn’t in aew, impact or ROH (pre-TK purchase) that I ever saw.

18. I’m still surprised Narita is being brought in as a HW

19. He’s great. He has a shoot-style that will match up very nicely against ZSJ. He had some bangers on NJPW Strong against Tom Lawlor and Chris Dickens.

20. Narita is the real deal. All his TV Tournament matches were good and his opening match with Ishii was one of my favorite matches this year. He had a banger, storytelling wise, with Juice on Strong and I saw him have a 15 fantastic match with Chris Dickinson (even if since we’ve learned Dickinson sucks the match was still good)

    SO I’d say yeah. Narita isn’t fucking around at this point and I’d keep an eye on him

21. Narita vs Shibata at WK last year was lowkey my favorite moment of the night. Saw Narita vs Karl Fredricks in DC back in May, completely sold me on Narita. Was rooting for him so hard in the tournament for this title. He is the real deal.