SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Tetsuya Naito’s decision not to sign a new deal with NJPW marks a total clearing of the deck for the company. Naito was the last big star left when AEW and WWE signed all of the big names or names the company was banking on to carry them in the future over the course of the last several years.
While the discussion about NJPW should be about the recent improvement in the product and the unexpected success of Hirooki Goto’s reign with the IWGP World Hvt. Championship, the company is in the news during WrestleMania week because another big star is leaving the company.
Recently it was announced that Jeff Cobb was leaving the company. Cobb, an important cog in the NJPW ecosystem, appears to be WWE bound according to multiple reports. Cobb was someone literally capable of doing whatever NJPW needed, but at this stage of his career it makes sense for him to go to WWE and make more money on what will be a lighter schedule.
Cobb wasn’t a huge name for NJPW, but he is the type of wrestler NJPW relies on to hold things steady. Whether it was tag matches or singles matches or having a big run in the G1 and threatening to win the tournament, Cobb did it all during his time in NJPW. He was also set to challenge Hirooki Goto at Wrestling Dontaku before departing the company on short notice.
Cobb can do it all and it hurts NJPW when they lose talent like him, but nothing compares to the losing stars. Naito was the last true star left in NJPW. With the exodus of Kazuchka Okada and Will Ospreay in 2024 and Jay White the previous year, NJPW was left with a huge hole at the top of their car roster. A hole they’re still currently trying to fill.
Naito’s performance in the ring has steadily declined due to injuries to his knees and issues with his vision in recent years. I shook my head when NJPW continued to put Naito in big spots, as he held the IWGP World Hvt. Championship as recently as last October before dropping it to G1 Climax winner Zack Sabre Jr. in a break from tradition where Sabre cashed in his G1 Climax win early and did not wait for Wrestle Kingdom for his shot at the title.
Despite the decline in his performance. Naito was still immensely popular in Japan. He righted all the wrongs done to him over the years including being voted out of the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 8 by the fans by beating Sanada in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 18 on Jan. 4, 2024.
Naito being unable to come to terms on a new contract and having his departure announced for May 4 at Wrestling Dontaku is a big blow for NJPW. He hasn’t been the same performer he once was. Heck, he can’t even hit his Destino finish clean anymore due to the damage to his legs, but he was still a star and now he’s another big name walking out the door.
Surely having Naito wind down the last active year (s) of his career would have been preferable for NJPW to him just abruptly leaving, but this is the hand they’ve been dealt and it is emblematic of what has been occurring with AEW and WWE cherry picking their talent for many years now with key cogs and superstars being stripped away.
A couple of years ago, NJPW tried to push another versatile member of the roster Bronson Reed strongly, but he was signed by WWE and left abruptly. Now a wrestler of similar status, albeit a much longer tenure in Jeff Cobb, is gone and on the heels of that announcement fans were greeted earlier today that Naito was leaving.
There’s more questions than answers right now when it comes to how NJPWs roster is going to look moving forward with a report from Fightful Select stating that several wrestlers are currently working without a contract. It’s no secret that NJPW doesn’t have the resources to sign wrestlers to big money deals and match the money that AEW and WWE can offer.
What the company can do is continue to rely on their superior developmental system and their ability to effectively identify and train Japanese talent that eventually begin to appear as Young Lions on NJPW events before they are sent away for excursion to gain experience before joining the main roster.
The best hope NJPW has moving forward is to stay the course. They can ride the momentum of Goto’s title reign as the next generation of native talent such as Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura, Ryohei Oiwa, and Shota Umino continues to grow and get over with the audience.
The announcement that Naito is leaving today is a down note for NJPW. Hopefully this is the end of departures from the roster, as the company has invested a lot in a number of talents and it would be difficult to fill the void if more talent was stripped away from the roster.
Contact Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Follow him on BlueSky: @SeanRadican
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.