Last week New Japan Pro Wrestling ran a vignette on their Social Media about the debut of a new character simply called The Grand Master. The same vignette aired again on Monday during NJPW’s return to live events, Together Project Special, teasing that a debuting character would be finding “the way to Grandmaster”. The martial arts-inspired gimmick has fans around the world speculating on who the new character could be, and the leading consensus appears to be the return of one of New Japan’s Young Lions from their excursion – outside of big-name stars like Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, or Jon Moxley, these types of vignettes are usually reserved for returning Young Lions as they undergo their transformation into their more permanent New Japan role. So far the leading candidate amongst New Japan faithful is the return of Hirai Kawato.
Hirai Kawato joined the New Japan Dojo out of high school and began his training as a New Japan Young Lion, making his in-ring debut on January 3, 2016, at NJPW Big Pro Wrestling Festival where he lost to YOH (who at the time was another Young Lion awaiting to become the star he’s known as today). He would spend much of 2016 feuding with another Young Lion, Teruaki Kanemitsu. The young star became a fan favorite with his charisma and striking work, and in 2017, he had a solid showing with a 4-1 record in the 2017 Young Lions Cup. In the fall of 2017, he was part of the 2017 NJPW Super Junior Tag Tournament, teaming with KUSHIDA, but the duo was eliminated in the first round by eventual winners, Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH).
In early January of 2018, he traveled to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), NJPW’s Mexican allied promotion in the IWGP Conception, to begin his excursion, where he competed as Kawato-San, joining the faction Eje del Mal (Axis of Evil), a team of “evil foreigners” lead by Okumura that also featured Sam Adonis and New Zealand’s Johnny Idol (better known as NIWA internationally). His CMLL run was generally not as well-received as New Japan had hoped as his character never fully took off, although, in June of 2019, he defeated Audaz to win the vacant CMLL World Lightweight Championship. Sadly, a month after capturing gold in Mexico, he suffered a knee injury and was out for several months – CMLL stripped him of his championship prior to his return in November. He would enter a feud with Dulce Gardenia that would end with Kawato-San losing his blue hair in a hair vs. hair match this past January at CMLL Sin Piedad 2020. Kawato-San would compete for the remainder of the month, primarily in tag team matches, before ending his excursion following his match on January 31. You can watch his hair vs. hair match at the 1:57:00 mark of the event, found on CMLL’s YouTube page and below.
While Kawato-San may not have been as successful as New Japan would have liked, the company is reportedly very high on the young man – after all, they managed to make Kazuchika Okada into a franchise player despite his own North American excursion in 2010 with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling being far more disastrous as the Kato-inspired Okato.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcUH2FDzRSA
