In one week, Zack Sabre Jr. will take the title-shot prize he earned by winning G1 Climax 34 and challenge current IWGP Champion Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Championship. The suspicion among longtime fans is that Naito will lose to ZSJ on October 14th to set up two different matches at Wrestle Kingdom. The other concern frankly, is Naito’s health.
At 42 years-old, Naito is not able to perform at the level he once could; even three years ago. While he is now the elder respected main eventer in New Japan Pro Wrestling, his knees do not allow for him to repeat the feats of agility and dexterity to hit his Destine finisher with any amount of consistency. The conventional logic is that Naito drops the title here and continues a feud that would be the semi-main event of Wrestle Kingdom against wrestlers such as Yota Tsuji or Shingo Takagi. But my money is on Hiromu Takahashi vs Naito at Wrestle Kingdom. The other side of the coin is that Naito could win at King of Pro Wrestling, but the problem is there is no one else truly ready for a main event IWGP title feud, let alone an IWGP title run. There aren’t any other main event challengers for Naito at Wrestle Kingdom. His job is to make the next star for the company.
It is a LOADED night coming up Monday October 14 in Ryogoku!
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) October 7, 2024
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What happens if Zack Sabre Jr. wins? Zack at 37 years-of-age, is currently positioned to be the top talent in New Japan Pro Wrestling. There is a consensus among many who follow NJPW that he’s trusted by the company and committed to the long term vision of pro wrestling in Japan. Zack’s body is also not marred by the same injuries as Naito's because of the wrestling style he’s adopted. ZSJ however, has the problem of a viable opponent for Wrestle Kingdom as well, but his challenges will be mitigated by his relative infancy of a title run, meaning he can set the tone with anyone provided the match has interest from the fans. It is very difficult to say who ZSJ could face in January whether he has a title to defend or not, but it feels very clear that the best options for New Japan Pro Wrestling lie with ZSJ winning the IWGP Championship before Wrestle Kingdom 19.
I will have more on Speaking of Strong Style, my New Japan Pro Wrestling video podcast with Steven Conway. Make sure you're subscribed to the Fight Game Media YouTube channel so that you get notifications when we go live every Thursday.
You can watch last week's show below.
