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The biggest event in professional wrestling went down without a lot of fanfare earlier this month. Wrestle Kingdom was a stellar show hosting two nights of very good action and one exhibition event including stars from NOAH. Due to restrictions, the attendances were uncharacteristically low and the atmosphere subdued. This is, in part, not the fault of the company, but the creative direction, as well as the product, has seen stagnation in 2021 that absolutely must not continue into 2022. AEW has not started 2022 off with much more grace than New Japan, but they are still a collaborative partner and more should be done to promote both brands by both sides.
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NJPW Is Already Rehashing Tired Feuds
When Kazuchika Okada defeated Will Ospreay to defend his IWGP World Heavyweight Title on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 16, the big question was who would be the next opponent? The answer was, Tetsuya Naito - who recently returned from injury, and an astounding sense of apathy enshrouded the entire event. There is no question that Naito and Okada are two of the greatest workers in the world, and they often produce fantastic matches together, but New Japan is quickly entering John Cena vs Randy Orton territory with the rehashing of this rivalry. It was never bad, but it was certainly tired and 2022 New Japan needs something fresh and exciting off the back of a creatively poor 2021.
This extends down to the undercard as well, the loss of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship has had awful ramifications for New Japan, with the NEVER Title becoming a de facto secondary championship, there is very little space to give different talent a spotlight. Much of this comes from the lack of genuine talent being developed in the New Japan dojo, a trend that has seemingly caught up to the company in the same fashion as WWE not having a genuine star commodity, besides Roman Reigns, since 2013 with Daniel Bryan's WrestleMania 30 victory. There are only so many combinations that can be made, and New Japan has exhausted most of them with their current roster, there needs to be a real push towards new faces, be they from AEW or the Young Lion system.
AEW Can Help New Japan Fill Out The Cards
AEW's roster is packed, they have enough talent to maintain two televised shows as well as a YouTube show. It certainly is not all good, so far in 2022, it is fair to say AEW has been particularly bad and highlighted a lot of issues with Tony Khan's booking. New Japan has been in a similar situation regarding Gedo's booking, while the issues are different (Khan seems to rely on surprise new signings with little follow up whereas Gedo has fallen back on almost Attitude Era levels of interference), New Japan can benefit from more talent exchange. The possibility of having AEW matches on New Japan cards would give more opportunity for lower card talent to be involved with championships, as well as potentially mix it up with some main event talent to provide fresher bouts. There are also the many tournaments that AEW wrestlers could play a role in, obviously. There is the G1 Climax but the Super Jrs. and World Tag League could really benefit, and the AEW wrestlers who participate will also benefit from the increased exposure as well as wrestling a completely different style.
The possibility that Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Kenny Omega, and a host of other top talents could be involved in New Japan in 2022 is a really exciting prospect for a number of different reasons. The return of Kenny Omega really needs no explanation as to why it is such an incredible prospect, Bryan Danielson in the G1 Climax would be a real masterclass and could elevate the tournament entirely on his own. CM Punk makes for the most interesting proposal, while his work in AEW so far has been tentatively 'okay' there is certainly an interest to see him compete against New Japan stars.
New Japan really needs fresh faces and fresh match-ups. The content has finally started to wear thin after years of incredible work by the promotion. AEW can provide a quick fix for the issues in offering talent, there is a much longer-term issue here. New Japan needs to start developing newer stars, it is incredibly difficult to replace those at the top of the card, but they must find a way or suffer a WWE-esque dearth of talent.