What does one need to know about New Japan Pro Wrestling? Being a promotion with half a century of history to pull from could leave that question with a bloated answer but fear not! Today will not be the day that I gather the kids around the Lemon Tree and talk for hours on end. I would love to take you through New Japan’s history book page by page and spend a whole video talking about Inokism and I might at some point. It’s- it’s really- it’s interesting stuff guys I promise.
Now with the magical, mythical Forbidden Door opening on pay-per-view, there may be a swell of fans wanting to learn more about this company of lions. So what DO you need to know? Well you should probably have a general understanding of New Japan’s history in relation to All Elite Wrestling, and a general understanding of New Japan’s top stars and their histories with AEW’s stars. It may seem like I’m throwing a lot of information at you but we’re gonna take things slow and hopefully this can serve as a guide to anyone unfamiliar with New Japan who wants to learn a little bit more about one of the world’s most fascinating promotions. So wait a moment as you prepare to knock on that Forbidden Door, because this is Everything You Need To Know About NJPW Before AEW Forbidden Door.
Also before we get into things I have to give a big shoutout to New Japan commentator Chris Charlton who penned the excellent book Lion’s Pride: The Turbulent History of New Japan Pro Wrestling. If you’re looking for a place to learn all of the details about this story, that book is a must-own.
The History Of NJPW
The cliff notes version of New Japan’s extended history can be summed up like this, in 1972 the face of Japanese wrestling changed forever as Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba both separately left the Japanese Pro Wrestling Association to start promotions of their own. Baba founded All Japan Pro Wrestling while Inoki created New Japan Pro Wrestling, splitting the Japanese wrestling scene pretty evenly down the middle.
Since 1972, New Japan has had it’s fair share of ups, downs, lefts, rights and whatever weird middle ground we’re in currently. But when did this swell of international interest in the New Japan product first start? Because there certainly weren’t this many folks staying up all night for Wrestle Kingdom a decade ago!
Well, New Japan went through their darkest years during the mid-2000s. Back then, forget about international interest! There wasn’t even national interest. This was when crowds were at their smallest, booking was at its most inconsistent, and it appeared to be a real possibility that New Japan would declare bankruptcy. However, following the departure of Antonio Inoki and a clear change in the quality of the booking, the popularity of the company began to climb out of the well it had been trapped down.
As is the case with every successful period in wrestling history, New Japan’s success was tied to the success of their top star. Memphis had Jerry Lawler, Dallas had the Von Erichs, WWF in the 80s had Hulk Hogan, then Austin and Rock, but New Japan? New Japan had the Ace of the Universe, the once in a Century talent, the man with the best hair on earth, Hiroshi Tanahashi. The man who strapped the company to his back and sacrificed his body for the fans and for the business, truly one of the GOATs, but more on him in a bit.
The 2010s became the decade of New Japan with the promotion building a reputation of thoughtful booking, engaging characters and a level of quality that had previously been unreached with their in-ring action. All of this could be exemplified by Tanahashi’s generational rivalry with Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito’s arduous journey from Stardust Genius to El Ingobernable, and Katsuyori Shibata’s quest for redemption upon his return in 2012. New Japan’s booking and presentation heavily relies on a sport-based approach, which has resulted in the bulk of the content in these rivalries playing out in the ring. They still cut promos and did angles for sure, but New Japan was populated by a roster of extremely gifted storytellers, many of whom have been able to paint a masterpiece on the mat with astounding regularity during their time atop New Japan. All of this also applies to Kenny Omega’s rise through the ranks of Bullet Club, a storyline that played a massive role in exposing New Japan to a broader audience.
Kenny Omega & The Foreign Expansion
Omega usurped AJ Styles as the leader of the group of foreign heels in 2016, just as he and the Young Bucks launched Being The Elite, a YouTube series that would have more lasting effects on the business than anyone could have imagined at the time. As Bullet Club grew more and more popular with Omega’s success, more eyes from outside Japan became glued to New Japan World for their biggest events. Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11 became an instant classic. Awarded a then mostly-unheard of 6-star rating and drawing universal acclaim, the match was a lightning rod for debate and conversation and throughout 2017, New Japan continued to grow as a result.
Omega’s series of matches with Okada led then New Japan commentator Don Callis to believe that he could make a true dream match happen at Wrestle Kingdom and so the Winnipeg Wrestling Trifecta brought their heads together and sure enough, come January 4, 2018, Kenny Omega was walking down the isle of the Tokyo Dome to step in the ring with Chris Jericho. The match was another classic, but it was the LARGE upswing in New Japan World subscriptions that corresponded with this match’s announcement that got Tony Khan’s full gears going. Seeing how many people were willing to pay money to support the wrestling they wanted to see made Tony Khan believe that there could be room for a second major promotion in the United States and well we all know what happened there.
But on the New Japan side, things were changing in 2018. Harold Meij was introduced as the new president of the company at Dominion 2018, the same day Kenny Omega finally conquered Kazuchika Okada to become IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and as the year wore on things weren’t the same. The super mega awesome chocolate covered independent supershow that was All In was helped in large part by New Japan Pro Wrestling lending their top talent for the event, but after the show the direction towards Wrestle Kingdom 13 began to change. Omega’s relationship with New Japan quickly soured after Omega felt the company had done a media blitz to make him look bad ahead of his title match with Hiroshi Tanahashi, a match that was booked to be a battle of two heroes with conflicting ideologies about wrestling.
The Birth Of All Elite Wrestling
A new company was beginning to take shape and Tony Khan naturally had his eyes on the most popular U.S. stars on the free agent market. The Elite were on the top of that list and despite initial desires among the faction, a working relationship that would have allowed them to continue to wrestle with New Japan was not going to happen. There were those at the top of New Japan who felt The Elite had used the company to start their own promotion and leave, and as a result The Elite were completely left off New Years Dash, New Japan’s version of the Raw after Mania where departing talent are typically given a chance to have a proper sendoff.
This was a messy breakup. The kind that Andrea and Taylor had in 11th grade that was so messy Andrea moved to a different school. For a long time it didn’t seem like there would be any progress made on bridging the gap between the two promotions, but once Harold Meij departed the company in late 2020, before long KENTA was GTSing Jon Moxley on Dynamite, signifying the start of a true working relationship. As this was the pandemic, and travel was restricted between Japan and the United States, we didn’t get a chance to see the full potential of this partnership until now.
With The Elite gone there was a downswing in interest in New Japan from the United States in 2019. Personally I think 2019 is still a very strong year for the promotion overall, highlighted by another great title reign from Kazuchika Okada, the greatest Best of the Super Juniors ever, and arguably the best G1 Climax ever as well. Things didn’t really start going off the rails on this crazy train until the pandemic derailed everything that New Japan had going for it with New Japan suffering from seemingly directionless booking at times, constant interference, and just an overall lack of energy due to fans not being allowed to make noise vocally at shows. I really can’t watch those silent fans shows. It is a very respectful approach to an unprecedented situation, don’t get me wrong, but this is just as eerie as WWE’s no-fans era when heels are causing a ruckus to complete silence.
That should mostly bring us up to date, with Forbidden Door being officially announced on the April 20, 2022, episode of AEW Dynamite. So with the lore behind AEW x NJPW explained, what more do you need to know? You know the franchise, now it’s time to get to know the players.
The NJPW Roster
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s roster will be on full display at Forbidden Door, but there has been very little done to show AEW’s audience who the stars of New Japan actually are and why you should care with only so much time to go before that door opens on June 26. That’s like really important information to provide when it is practically half your pay per view! I mean if I can beat AEW to the punch, to steal a phrase from Adam, let me have a go.
The New Japan roster pyramid shall have three layers. The GOATS, The Hall of Famers, and everyone else. Here we can take a bit of time to go through the top stars of the promotion one by one and let you know who they are, why you should care, and what history they have with those on the AEW roster. So to start at the top of this pyramid and work down, we have the man we have spent the most time on to this point, Horseshoe Tanahashi.
The GOATs
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Tanahashi’s career has been long, painful and legendary, being elevated by decades of iconic matches. The man who may become the interim AEW World Champion, Tanahashi is in the twilight of his career. However, even with time catching up with him, Tanahashi still manages to evolve his style and incorporate new ways to tell stories through his body language.
Tanahashi will wrestle Jon Moxley at Forbidden Door, a man who he has not yet wrestled in New Japan one on one. The two competed in a four-way also involving Juice Robinson and Will Ospreay at Capital Collision in May, but Moxley has been looking for this fight for a long time.
Tana’s aforementioned match with Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 13 would put Omega ahead as Tanahashi’s most prolific AEW rival, but Tanahashi also wrestled a match with a young Bryan Danielson in 2004. A match that both Tana and Bryan have said they would love to revisit.
Kazuchika Okada
The former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada makes up the other half of the GOAT tier, as New Japan Pro Wrestling’s current golden boy and ace of the company. Okada returned to New Japan from his hellish excursion in TNA at Wrestle Kingdom 6 where he ignited his now-bonkers rivalry with Hiroshi Tanahashi. The two battled over who would carry the New Japan torch into the future, with Okada having to overcome heartbreaking failure numerous times before he was finally able to conquer his foe at Wrestling Kingdom 10, firmly establishing Okada as the top star in the company.
Since then Okada has been the man. His two-year run as IWGP Champion is the stuff that legends are made of with Okada telling the story of the perfect champion having a hall of fame juggernaut run until he finally runs out of gas. When would that be? Fans asked that question for two years as every top star under the sun tried to wrest the title from Okada’s grasp only to be Rainmakered and thanked for their trouble. Okada may be the best big match wrestler in the history of the business and if he wasn’t one already, this title reign solidified Okada as a legitimate contender for the title of greatest of all time.
Okada is Chaos stablemates with AEW’s Best Friends, and has plenty of history with most former Bullet Club members on the AEW roster with Kenny Omega obviously getting the lion’s share of the attention there. Otherwise there are few that Okada has previous ties with outside of a friendship with The Young Bucks that brought Matt and Nick to NJPW and dressing up like Kato while in TNA to be Samoa Joe’s sidekick. So hey AEW if you want to pay off that long-term story, go ahead.
Now for the next layer of our pyramid. Here you have basically all the other individual stars you really need to know, all of whom have reached a hall of fame level during their time in New Japan one way or another.
The Hall of Famers
Jay White
Your new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is none other than Switchblade Jay White. After three years without the top title in New Japan, Jay finally won the big one again and this one felt much more like his time. White began with Chaos but quickly revealed his true colors, stabbing his stablemates in the back in favour of another faction. Now the leader of Bullet Club, Jay has significant history with The Elite, having been the catalyst for the Bullet Club Civil War in 2018 by unseating Kenny Omega as IWGP United States Champion. White defended the title against Hangman Page as well
Tetsuya Naito
Tetsuya Naito’s career can hardly be summed up quickly but I will do my best. Naito spent his early career climbing the ranks as a well-mannered good guy, but crashed and burned miserably when he was given the chance to headline Wrestle Kingdom 8. His failure turned him against the company and the fans for not embracing him, leading Naito to CMLL in Mexico where he would learn from top heel faction Los Ingobernables, lead by La Sombra, better known to AEW fans as Andrade El Idolo.
The group taught him to be tranquilo and upon his return to Japan, Naito became a near instant success with a newfound character that fans latched onto. At times Naito has been the most popular wrestler on the roster, however his peak as a star would have been right before he was defeated by Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in 2018. He is still a top guy, but he isn’t THE top guy. Naito is another with an extensive history with the likes of Kenny Omega, while also having a stellar rivalry with Chris Jericho in 2018 as well.
Minoru Suzuki
AEW fans should be pretty familiar with everyone’s favourite Murder Grandpa by now. Having wrestled matches with Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe on free television, Minoru Suzuki has had more of an introduction to AEW than most from New Japan to this point. One of the best wrestlers over 50 of all time, Suzuki has completely reworked his game to remain one of the best and most consistently over performers in the world. The only thing he likes more than delivering pain is feeling it and it’s that energy that makes me wet myself with excitement whenever Kaze Ni Nare starts playing and cut that song short again at Forbidden Door AEW I dare you. Suzuki doesn’t have too much history with AEW stars outside of what we’ve seen play out on TV, but he does have a cancelled match with Orange Cassidy that I’m still waiting to get rescheduled.
Will Ospreay
Will Ospreay of 2022 is not the Will Ospreay of 2016. If you watched his incredibly flippy look at all the flips match with Ricochet in 2016 and thought it was the death of professional wrestling well, I’m probably not going to change your mind. But if you thought that Ospreay could benefit from slowing down a tad you’re in luck because that is precisely what has happened since he moved to the heavyweight division in 2020. His offense has slowed slightly but what he has sacrificed in speed he has made up for in strength and it seems every years the stories he is able to tell in the ring just get better. Ospreay has probably wrestled half the AEW roster at various points all over the world and he still has a great desire to square off with CM Punk in case you need more future matches to think about.
Tomohiro Ishii
Another New Japan star who has already showed his face on AEW programming a few times, Tomohiro Ishii is the most intimidating underdog you will ever come across in wrestling. He isn’t a large man, standing only 5’7, but there are few wrestlers anywhere who can withstand as much punishment as the Stone Pitbull and none who can do it while putting on excellent matches with ludicrous regularity. He’s one of the best sellers of all time and can match up with anyone, but he and Keith Lee had a brilliant match once upon a time and it feels like time to run that back.
Shingo Takagi
Maybe the most dynamic performer on the New Japan roster is Shingo Takagi. Another former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Shingo’s strength and speed have combined to make Shingo one of the most explosive wrestlers on earth. There is no wasted motion when Takagi is in the ring and over the last three years it would be hard to argue that Shingo Takagi hasn’t been the best that New Japan has to offer. The Dragon hasn’t been in New Japan as long as some others with his career taking off in Dragon Gate where he also had the chance to wrestle the American Dragon, Bryan Danielson, one of the few AEW stars he is linked to.
Zack Sabre Jr
If it hasn’t become clear from the vastly different performers on display, the wrestlers in New Japan are allowed to have different styles. Zack Sabre Jr. has reinvented submission wrestling, creating a totally unique style for himself and becoming known as one of the great technical wrestling wizards of his generation. He has yet to crack the top echelon of New Japan’s roster despite winning two New Japan Cups, including the 2022 tournament. ZSJ has wrestled Bryan Danielson before in Germany in 2009, but that is a match that will have certainly aged like a fine wine.
Hiromu Takahashi
The lone junior heavyweight to be featured here because he seems to be the only junior New Japan wants to feature too! Los Ingobernables de Japon’s highly charismatic, highly eccentric lunatic has been the most heavily pushed star in the junior division since his return from a broken neck in 2019. He has won the last three consecutive Best of the Super Juniors, adding to his tournament win in 2018. If you need more reasons to like him he carries two stuffed cats named Darryl and Naoru and he named one of his moved The D only to learn at a press conference that some might think of that as being dirty as he sunk into a shocked dismay.
I wish I could highlight everyone on the New Japan roster who deserve it. Hirooki Goto, SANADA, Juice Robinson, Jeff Cobb, the list goes on but because I did say this wasn’t going to be the day that I sit the kids around the Lemon Tree for hours on end, here is a quick breakdown of the bottom of the pyramid with New Japan’s established factions.
The Factions
Bullet Club
Bullet Club will play the biggest role in Forbidden Door of any faction in New Japan. This should also be the faction that AEW fans are the most familiar with so aside from telling you that El Phantasmo is going to kill it in the G1 and Taiji Ishimori is the short king I aspire to be, I’m going to assume you know the gist about Jay White and his band of bullet babe boys.
Chaos
Chaos is a bit harder to define as a faction. They are more a collection of babyfaces than much resembling a unit these days with little attention being given when people like Will Ospreay, Jay White and SHO turned on their stablemates. Off screen though they’re hilarious, they went and got drunk on a camping trip together and here’s Okada going down a children’s slide. This is where Goto, Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Robbie Eagles, Rocky Romero, YOH and Toru Yano reside, helping to bring more depth to the babyface side of the roster.
The United Empire
Will Ospreay’s gang is the latest major group to be formed within New Japan, as Ospreay’s departure from Chaos coincided with the arrivals of Great O-Khan and Jeff Cobb as his partners. The group has continued to expand to include more foreign heels such as Aussie Open, Francesco Akira, TJP and Aaron Henare and all seem to want to see their leader with the world title back around his waist.
Los Ingobernables de Japon
From the newest group to the most exclusive, Los Ingobernables de Japon has only ever had a total of six members during it’s entire seven year lifetime so far. As Naito returned from Mexico with a newfound attitude and disdain for New Japan and its fans, he attracted likeminded folk who have mostly stuck with him through thick and thin. MOSTLY ahem *pic of EVIL*. Naito, Shingo, Hiromu, SANADA and BUSHI make up the group today and while their popularity isn’t what it once was, they remain probably the most cohesive group in all of New Japan.
Suzuki Gun
And for those who just want to hurt people, we have this group of sadists and miserable pricks. Suzuki-Gun is usually the faction that is just happy to brawl and use weapons, even though the group houses some of the most talented workers on the roster. Get them in a group, it doesn’t matter, this will devolve into a fight. Suzuki leads ZSJ, DOUKI, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, TAICHI and TAKA Michinoku, with the last two having stood by his side since the group’s inception in 2011 and through the group’s exile from New Japan and invasion of Pro Wrestling Noah in 2015.
The New Japan Home Team (Hontai)
I sure wish they had a better name for this one! Kinda the “everyone who is left over and is vaguely loyal to the company” faction, this one definitely has the least sense of identity. It is akin to those who were representing WCW against the nWo, you understand what they’re fighting for but you don’t really connect with them for their loyalty to the brand. It’s fine, it’s just not a big part of the characters of those involved unlike a stable like LIJ whose characters feel tied to the group. The group also doesn’t really have a designated leader but its made up of folks like Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, David Finlay and Kota Ibushi.
The Forbidden Door is finally ready to open and hopefully now you can step through it a bit more knowledgeable about New Japan Pro Wrestling than you had been previously. New Japan might not be as popular as it was, but there are many things to be cherished within their library for you to find if you are willing to look for them. As with most passions, you’ll get as much out of New Japan as you are willing to put into it.
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