{"id":33607,"date":"2019-01-04T08:51:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T13:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=33607"},"modified":"2019-01-11T16:43:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T21:43:26","slug":"newjapanweek-can-njpw-survive-another-exodus-absolutely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/01\/04\/newjapanweek-can-njpw-survive-another-exodus-absolutely\/","title":{"rendered":"#NewJapanWeek: Can the Company Survive Another NJPW Talent Exodus? Absolutely."},"content":{"rendered":"

Just three years ago, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) saw the loss of four huge talents to the WWE.\u00a0\u00a0AJ Styles<\/strong>,\u00a0Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Luke Gallows\u00a0<\/strong>left NJPW in an infamous talent exodus that led to the emergence of\u00a0Kenny Omega<\/strong> and\u00a0Tetsuya Naito\u00a0<\/strong>among others.\u00a0 With rumours running rampant of another wave of talent potentially leaving NJPW the question needs to be asked can talents like\u00a0KUSHIDA, Cody Rhodes, Adam Page\u00a0<\/strong>and others be replaced.\u00a0 We think that they can and will outline some talents that could fill the gap in the occurrence\u00a0of any departure.<\/p>\n

KUSHIDA<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Longtime Ace of the Junior Heavyweight division KUSHIDA has done it all in New Japan.\u00a0 NJPW has a ready-made ace in waiting in the insanely talented\u00a0Hiromu Takahashi<\/strong>.\u00a0 In many\u00a0fans eyes Takahashi has already surpassed KUSHIDA in popularity but a KUSHIDA departure would leave the spot wide open for the Ticking Time Bomb.\u00a0 Style-wise\u00a0Sho\u00a0<\/strong>of Roppongi 3K can do the more shoot oriented style while mixing it up with his power junior style and do what KUSHIDA can do but better.\u00a0 One of the easiest names to replace, KUSHIDA has many talents waiting in the wings to take his spot.<\/p>\n

Marty Scurll<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scurll’s role as an occasional challenger for the heavyweight championship and part-time\u00a0Junior has already been usurped by\u00a0Robbie Eagles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Eagles has less character but is also a more serious wrestler than Scurll, who can often lean too much into comedy, and will be part-time aswell.\u00a0 Eagles, like Scurll, could help NJPW expand into an international market as he is one of the biggest names on the Australian Indie Scene.\u00a0 While Scurll is a more proven talent to a wider audience Eagles has been backed by the likes of\u00a0Will Ospreay\u00a0<\/strong>as being a top-tier talent and Scurll leaving would give him more of a chance to prove that.<\/p>\n

Cody Rhodes<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cody had a role similar to Scurll as he subbed in to be an occasional title challenger and mostly a part-timer.\u00a0 Someone that could fill Cody’s boots as the main American title challenger is\u00a0Jeff Cobb<\/strong>.\u00a0 Cobb has been used on most American NJPW shows and challenged for the\u00a0NEVER Openweight\u00a0<\/strong>championship on one of the US specials this year.\u00a0 Cobb’s style is actually a better fit for New Japan than Cody so this replacement could be an improvement.<\/p>\n

Adam Page<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Page is someone that NJPW was clearly high on.\u00a0 He was an athletic guy that could trade hard hits and had a good look.\u00a0 He was rising up the card and was in the position of challenging for the likes of the IWGP US championship and participating in the G1.\u00a0 A homegrown talent that could replace Page is\u00a0Toa Henare<\/strong>.\u00a0 The 26-year-old has been impressive this year with a singles match against\u00a0Tomohiro Ishii\u00a0<\/strong>being an easy recommendation for any fan.\u00a0 Like Page, he is athletic but can go blow for blow with the hard hitters if needed.\u00a0 At 26 it’s time for Henare to move up the card and Page’s departure would open up a slot for an occasional title challenge and a spot in the G1 Climax.<\/p>\n

The Young Bucks<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Young Bucks are currently scheduled to take part in the\u00a0IWGP Tag Team\u00a0<\/strong>championship match at WrestleKingdom.\u00a0 This is one of the only areas where there isn’t a clear replacement.\u00a0 We may see a renewed tag push for Ishii and\u00a0Toru Yano<\/strong> or we may see two upper midcarders put into a tag team like\u00a0EVIL\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0SANADA<\/strong>.\u00a0 This is one of the only areas where NJPW doesn’t have a clear replacement ready but they could easily create one.<\/p>\n

Kenny Omega<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of New Japan’s big four and the current IWGP Heavyweight<\/strong> champion.\u00a0 Omega leaving would leave a hole in the New Japan main event scene but is it one that is unfillable?\u00a0 The answer that depends on how you view\u00a0Will Ospreay\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Jay White\u00a0<\/strong>as top main event talents.\u00a0 Since his move to heavyweight, Ospreay has been made to look like a star in the making – he’s a very good wrestler, has the charisma, international appeal and is a very handsome guy.\u00a0 Ospreay has the total package when it comes to being a main event level star and NJPW has already started making moves to put him in a good spot in 2019.\u00a0 Jay White is another guy that NJPW is high on, as the Switchblade is the Ace and de facto leader of the Bullet Club.\u00a0 In 2018, he got wins over Hiroshi\u00a0<\/strong>Tanahashi<\/strong> and\u00a0Kazuchika Okada\u00a0<\/strong>in singles matches, which is an achievement in itself, and he is one the most over heel on the New Japan roster.\u00a0 Should Kenny Omega leave there are two clear talents ready to fill his boots.<\/p>\n

New Japan has survived talent leaving before and they have already made steps to move people into position to step up in 2019.\u00a0 The people mentioned are only the clear options -New Japan may have other options that aren’t clear yet as a heel\/face turn or a big win could launch anyone onto the next level.\u00a0 There is no need to worry for NJPW, they currently have a bloated roster full of talent ready to make the step up, should The Elite or talents like KUSHIDA or\u00a0Juice Robinson\u00a0<\/strong>leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just three years ago, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) saw the loss of four huge talents to the WWE.\u00a0\u00a0AJ Styles,\u00a0Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson\u00a0and\u00a0Luke Gallows\u00a0left NJPW in an infamous talent exodus that led to the emergence of\u00a0Kenny Omega and\u00a0Tetsuya Naito\u00a0among others.\u00a0 With rumours running rampant of another wave of talent potentially leaving NJPW the question needs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":34283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13,14],"tags":[98,386,188,99],"class_list":["post-33607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-njpw","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-kenny-omega","tag-njpw","tag-young-bucks"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}