NJPW in 2024: Building Towards The Future
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NJPW has always been known as a promotion able to build towards the future when needed. But these last few years have shown a struggle to build new stars. Because of key departures in the recent years like Jay White and Kazuchika Okada, NJPW has been forced to build new generation of them. 2024 was the first real step towards that…
Zack Sabre Jr’s Year
The role of the top foreigner in NJPW is a role to take over. Especially if you check the lineage of top stars in that role throughout the last decade. ZSJ is now in that role, and 2024 was his year. He’s a strong candidate for MVP of the promotion and a contender for wrestler of the year.
ZSJ won the G1 Climax this year, becoming the second foreigner to do so. He used this to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. All this guaranteed that he’ll main event next year’s Wrestle Kingdom show. In-ring wise, ZSJ’s year was fantastic. He had several awesome matches:
- vs. Bryan Danielson (February 11)
- vs. Hechicero (June 22)
- vs. Shingo Takagi (November 4)
The Three Musketeers
Over the decades, NJPW has had several incarnations, and the current one are Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji and Ren Narita. 2024 was a year of growth for them. Umino started strong the year… But as time went on, he lost steam along the way. Tsuji had the stronger year overall and even advanced to the finals of the G1 Climax. Ren is currently in the vortex we all know as House of Torture, a group not well liked by most. But, he did win the NJPW World TV Championship in 2024, which is a good step moving forward.
2025 needs to be a year of more growth and accomplishments for the three wrestlers. Tsuji will have the advantage going into next year considering how strong he will end 2024. But, anything could happen. The three musketeers really need a strong 2025.
Tetsuya Naito
With several departures, Tetsuya Naito has taken a more important role for the promotion as the main draw. A position he has worked his ass off for. Naito’s body is not the same as it was in his prime, but he can still deliver when called upon. Naito was the world champion for most of the year and carried the promotion through the year. He is one of the most important wrestlers the promotion has.
2025 will be an interesting year for Naito. He’ll be the ace of the promotion until the three musketeers are fully ready.
2025 & The Retirement of Tanahashi
As mentioned before, NJPW needs to invest even more in their young wrestlers. They need to get them ready to take important roles on the card and in the promotion. That will be the key, along with learning how to balance it with their already established wrestlers like Naito.
2025 will also be an emotional year for NJPW… Hiroshi Tanahashi annouced that 2025 will be his last year as a full-time wrestler for NJPW. He will be retiring on January, 4 2026. Tanahashi has been the heart and soul of the promotion for almost two decades. He is one of the most important wrestlers in the history of the promotion, and you could argue the second most important, behind Antonio Inoki. The farewell tour of one of the greatest wrestlers of all time will be an emotional one. NJPW needs to celebrate Tanahashi in all the best ways possible before he retires.
What are your thoughts on NJPW in 2024? Let us know in the comments.
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