Fantasy Booking - Yuya Uemura Return From Excursion

New Japan is in a youth movement as it stands. Pushing younger talents on the way back from excursion such as Ren Narita, Yota Tsuji and Shota Umino who have become featured players it leaves just one of their group out in the cold in Yuya Uemura who I think should return soon. Going on excursion the same time as Yota Tsuji it should only be a matter of time before he comes back. I wanted to have a go at fantasy booking his return in which I think I have a solid idea which helps out some issues with roster depth.

First of all I wouldn’t have him return until at least the final day of the G1 or soon after. You look at all of the roster members in their first G1 Ren, Shota, Yota, Kaito, Gabe, Alex as well as the high profile block matches like Okada vs Osperay I feel like Yuya would be lost right away. So instead I would do the following.

You either have video packages with hyping him up or randomly appear like they did with Shota. So I would have hype packages for Yuya well for whatever his new nickname or gimmick is run for a bit during the tail end of the G1. Post that on a road to show we have a 6 man tag match between Strong Style (Minoru Suzuki, Ren Narita & El Desperado) facing House of Torture (EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO). House of Torture win the match due to shenanigans and after the match continue to beat down Strong Style until the lights go off the same video packages air and out comes Yuya Uemura hopefully to some cheers. He runs down clears House of Torture from the ring and comes face to face with Strong Style. Here he would ask to join Strong Style to which Minoru Suzuki laughs at, to him Yuya is still just that same young boy obsessed with him and says no but Ren sticks up for Yuya they trained alongside each other and asks his teammates to give him a chance. Suzuki says if Ren is so desperate to help then they will have a tag match next road to show Ren & Yuya vs. Suzuki and Desperado for Yuya to prove himself.

We get to the next road to show and have our tag match. A standard encounter nothing overly special however right at the end Yuya pins Suzuki. When he goes to offer is hand for a hand it is ignored and Suzuki and Desperado leave the ring. As they do House of Torture come down looking for revenge on Yuya but as they hit the ring Suzuki and Desperado come back evening the odds 4 to 4 (with Dick Togo the fourth man in House of Torture). With a nod to Yuya he is in and the next time we see all 8 men the new 4 man Strong Style beats House of Torture. 

No time to stop as World Tag League approaches and we see Yuya and Ren enter as a team in a competition with not a lot of clear favourites however they do get through with some luck but having lost to the teams of current champions Bishamon, Henare and O’Khan and the final one which I want to go into more details in House of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro). In this match the inexperience/naivety of Yuya and Ren would show in this match where they want a pure match they fall victim to the cheating and usual tomfoolery of House of Torture. It’s something they have to learn from and they do the final of World Tag League 2023: Strong Style vs. House of Torture and we see Strong Style overcome the issues they had in the previous match and win the tournament. The confetti falls and the photos are taken but out come the champions Bishamon. Old issues come back the light as Suzuki and Goto stare down, Suzuki running his hand down the back of his head remembering the hair he shaved off after losing to Goto at Wrestle Kingdom 12. The champs off their congratulations and say they will see them January 4th.

Of course before we reach Wrestle Kingdom we have a few road to shows where everyone fights for the most important award. The one to say goodbye as the fake snow comes down. Over this period we have various Strong Style vs. Chaos/Hontai combinations in 6 or 8 man tags which have mixed results. When they lose Suzuki ends up slapping both in some form of attempt for them to be better and fire them up all along the way to WrestleKingdom.

Anyway, January 4th 2024 rolls around and the teams enter for the tag title match. They battle back and forth until Strong Style get the win and the belts. As the ref goes to present Yuya & Ren the tag belts but Suzuki takes them presenting them to Ren & Yuya and shaking the hands of both before raising them in celebration. 

That will do for this. From here Strong Style would go onto face O'Khan & Henare who beat them in Tag League and other like TMDK, Bullet Club War Dogs and others. What I looked to do with this story was continue the story of Yuya Uemura & Minoru Suzuki as well as help the weakest division in the heavyweight tag division by creating a new and exciting team. I am interested to see how Yuya Uemura is brought back but I would be happy to see the above take place. I may do a few more of these but we shall see.