Tetsuya Naito Leaves NJPW - Is It Time To Panic?

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News broke overnight or as I just woke up today that Tetsuya Naito is to leave New Japan Pro Wrestling as of May 4th. It's something unexpected and leaves you wondering about the future of the company. While I'm sure New Japan will be fine I wanted to just give some thoughts about this.

Once again, we have New Japan have a wrestler from their most recent golden era not really putting anyone over out of the door. That can change but it leaves more holes then it does solutions. Okada just up and left didn't even drop the title and while Ospreay did lost to Finlay on his way out I don't think it overly helped to boost him as they still seem to be working on it. You continue to lose those who can help boost the next up guys without actually using their star power. What that does is leave you with the guys who have been champion but never guys like Goto, Shingo, Sabre and (lol) EVIL and SANADA to build up the next up guys but these aren't going to be historic wins.

It's also a terrible time to lose a flag bearer. With Tanahashi retiring as well you get a sense of dread from fans. A lot of the western fanbase has now and will really see the generation of wrestlers they first saw in New Japan no longer in the company. Combined with the fact it doesn't feel like any new top top guys have really stuck yet it can create unrest.

You also have to wonder what happens with Los Ingobernables de Japon. A big merch moving stable I don't see them getting rid of. I've always felt that since his return or even his final match before excursion against Naito that Yota Tsuji would be the man the become leader when Naito leaves. Of all the current next up guys he seems to be the one with the most appeal and is the one with the biggest wins to his name so far (no matter how much they try with Umino as the next Tanahashi). I wonder if he has a new stable or inherits LIJ either way they need a real revamp if they're losing both Naito and Bushi it's another stable which now has none of its founding members anymore. Hey it's a perfect time to bring Zandokan Jr back.

But what of Tetsuya Naito. Between his knees and his eyes I hoep the man takes it easy and rests. You don't want to see a man hurt his quality of life and after 4 eye surgeries you hope he takes it easy. However, I do think he will be a freelancer of somekind and my mind leans towards seeing him in NOAH, it'd give them a big name boost but at what cost. I mean if Naito is going to NOAH someone in New Japan needs to be looking at people to bulk up their main event scene. Honestly the biggest name they can look to is someone like Kaito Kiyomiya because New Japan need someone new from somewhere. 

So is it time to panic? I would say yes in some aspects. Will it take time to recover losing all the top guys of your golden era? Yes it will. Does New Japan have the talent to build around? Yes but they need to do some real hard work now. 

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