No Okada. No Jay White. No Ospreay. Sure, Omega and the Bucks are back and a few other guys that had cups of coffee in NJPW are there, but it seems kinda weird that Ospreay in particular isn’t back after his impassioned exit promo talking about wanting to come back.
by Templar-235
27 comments
Think you only get one. And Kenny has been away for longer than the others.
Yes, the partnership *is* lopsided in AEW’s favour, thank you for noticing
More seriously, yes, it’s been the major complaint from this side of the deal ever since Forbidden Door 1
In storyline, isn’t Jay white not allowed in njpw?
I don’t think many were expecting to see Okada or Switchblade.
Okada just left and seems determined to stay away for a while and prove he can make it outside NJPW. He also had a fairly awkward, rushed departure.
Jay is a bit more of a mystery, buts it’s been clear since he finished up in 2023 that he doesn’t seem interested at all in returning – at least for now. This is entirely speculation but I think the pandemic really soured most of NJPW’s gaijin at the time on living in Japan.
Ospreay…yeah I’m surprised he isn’t booked. But he could still show up as o-khan’s partner
The serious answer is simply that Tony won’t let anybody that matters do the job. That’s why the likes of Jungle Boy and Ricochet get the IWGP matches, Brody King inexplicably getting a shot at the #2 belt, etc. Even with Mox losing to Naito, they made sure it was parity booking and Mox got a handful of significant wins on the way to the rematch. Yes, it’s shit.
Probably disputes over who can go over and what not
Co promotions are never what people want and always disappoint. Here are your three choices: 1)inconsequential tag, 2) main eventer going over mid carder (they probably only wanted one of these for AEW, Omega/Kidd, so no old NJ main eventers) and 3) two main event guys who split victories which takes a lot of planning.
Having said that I still think it will be a fun show
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Let’s see some new match ups, not re-hashed ones or “ones we just missed out on”. This’ll come.
I don’t necessarily feel any certain way about it, but yeah, I do find it surprising
This would’ve been the show Jay White could’ve argued to get on since it’s a joint show and with that said I really was hoping we would one final conclusion with Jay vs Finlay at this show. Bummer.
AEW is pretty generous with sending talent over to NJPW, so there’s no rush in Ospreay or Okada returning less than a year later.
Okada and NJPW were synonymous for over a decade, and he’s only been gone for a like 9 months. He’s still in the process of carving out his own legacy outside of that company, so I say it’s better if they wait longer for his return. When Okada returns, it’s going to be massive so it should be timed very carefully
I’ve been holding this one in for a while because I know it’s likely to cause a *very civil* conversation, but here we go:
I don’t think NJPW even asked for White, Okada, or Ospreay. And I think a large part of that is because if Dynasty does a bigger (or arguably, a close to even) gate than the big “this is the future of NJPW that we’re building after losing top talent” Kingdom, then NJPW would look like shit.
Now that they’re doing the mystery O-Khan partner, I could *maybe* see that being Ospreay since he won’t be advertised and won’t effect ticket sales (and of the three, he left on the best terms).
But yeah, I think part of this was a basic, logical business move by NJPW. They will absolutely put the public perception of their company over possibly selling more Dynasty tickets.
A lot of people are saying it’s too soon to have Okada and Ospreay return to NJPW, and they should stay away longer.
It’s not like they’re being asked to do a whole tour. It’s one night (*maybe* a NYD appearance) on a show in the Tokyo Dome that was billed as a massive crossover event.
Ricochet, Young Bucks and Kenny all held numerous titles and won numerous tournaments for NJPW and they’re all in featured matches. Jack Perry hasn’t got a storied history with NJPW but he’s done a tour this year and Brody King was featured heavily on Strong. NJPW if they were able to absolutely would have signed him if Covid didn’t happen.
Okada wasn’t losing to anyone when he was full time NJPW talent and he ain’t losing now, Ospreay and Jay are top of the card so aren’t losing too. They’re trying to build up the young lads so a lose here doesn’t nothing for them or NJPW, and too much 50/50 just gets stale. Begs the question then who do you put Ospreay or Okada up against, Tana? Naito?
AEW are the bigger player in this partnership, and can dictate terms somewhat. I don’t think Tony is this boogie man some NJPW fans make him out to be, he’s foot the bill for the production for the US forbidden door show and split the revenue and it’s rumoured he’s also footing the bill for a lot of AEW guys to appear on Strong shows too.
All that in mind this card is pretty much the extent you can do in a co-promotion. ZSJ, Tsuji and Shota will get key wins, Kidd will lose and likely win a rematch against Kenny at some point, and expect the bucks to win the tag belts before dropping them to Naito and Hiromu.
Of course it’s not strange.
Follow the pattern of NJPW/AEW’s relationship. Most of it is NJPW stars losing to AEW guys, with a few key wins, padded out by team matches with AEW and NJPW guys on both sides.
At Forbidden Door 2024, on a fifteen match card, the AEW guys went over in *THIRTEEN** of those matches.
Every event is like that. In 2022 NJPW got a *jaw dropping* four wins out of thirteen. One was over Orange Cassidy (who has lost on two out of three Forbidden Doors), the other was Jay White who was champion at the time, and the other two wins were in one case on the pre-show and in the other in a tag match that was completely dedicated to Sting. Both NJPW stars who got ‘headline wins’ are now contracted AEW talent.
In 2023 it was *slightly* better, but only because there were more mixed tags with NJPW and AEW talent on both sides. The only top card guys who won were SANADA – who was champion at the time – and he got the headlining JACK PERRY as his opponent, four from the top, and again, Will Ospreay… who everyone knew at that point was headed to AEW. On a nine match main show, AEW guys won seven times.
TL;DR: this is a completely unequal relationship in which NJPW serves up its guys on a platter in return for a payday. TK isn’t going to send his top guys to an inter-promotional event in Japan that mostly benefits NJPW instead of AEW.
With a siding of ‘thank god, because if an NJPW guy goes over at Forbidden Door, Tony’s planning to hire them unless it’s the IWGP champion, where he’ll serve up an upper midcarder for a token win’.
*Two bouts were AEW vs AEW matches, and one was a mixed tag with an AEW and Stardom wrestler on both sides, but this actually gets even worse; if you exclude Stardom and AEW matches from the results, it’s instead an eight match card with six wins for AEW. Also one of those losses is Orange Cassidy, who has been AEW’s ‘lose to NJPW’ guy since the card began.
Okada wouldn’t want to be in the presence of the up and coming NJPW guys…..he clearly doesn’t like them.
Honestly i know alot of y’all blame TK but I really feel it’s NJPW that don’t want Okada, Ospreay and White back, at least not anytime soon. I mean this is a company that historically does not like when people ‘abandon’ them and after they invested so much and homegrew those three i can definitely see some bitterness still. In the Elite’s case alot of time has passed and we aren’t sure how much apologizing/amends they made behind the scenes.
I thought Jay White (in kayfabe) wasn’t allowed to return to Japan, let alone New Japan?
Seems like a reach for a complaint.
Most of my Japanese wrestle-friends seem significantly more interested in seeing new-to-them AEW talent than the same old people they’ve seen wrestle over and over again.
Jay is currently in the world title picture in AEW I believe, and AEW probably don’t want him to lose.
Okada probably don’t want to put Yota over (as he left NJPW without doing so)
Osprey probably don’t want to return so soon after leaving but is still surprisingly a miss.
Gonna give a hot take: Ospreay, Okada, Jay and anybody else who leaves NJPW for AEW should never be allowed back in NJPW.
Their time with NJPW came and went. Time to move on and focus on the new talent.
Asking for them back is no different than your ex leaving you and you still talking to her to “grab a coffee”.
It reeks.
No it doesn’t. Now is not the time to be looking back to the recent past. It’s the time to build for the future. Having guys like Okada, Ospreay and White on the show at this point will make fans feel like they are still the “real” stars. You can’t have it both ways: either New Japan puts the focus on the new generation and builds for the future or they risk sacrificing that for a quick nostalgia cash-in.
Jay was kayfabe kicked out of NJPW, plus he is acting 1/4 of the gremlin he was. He’s not much the same “character” there yet. A return would have a required storyline movement. They could have done something but ah well
It’s clear that Omega and the Bucks asked to come to Dynasty since they are otherwise not appearing on AEW programming.
Tony Khan has made it absolutely clear this year that he doesn’t give a shit about the partnership and will send over the absolute bottom of the barrel talent (Brody King is a literal who in NJPW regardless of how you personally feel about him) or will send over a higher profile midcarder, so long as they get to go over and steal a title belt with them (don’t be under any illusion that the NEVER isn’t disappearing until next Forbidden Door).
I’m not even mad at Tony Khan for that; it’s good business practice to take whatever you can get and give as little in return and so I’m not gonna fault him for that. Who I *am* mad at is the NJPW booking team for thinking any of this is a good idea since it almost certainly isn’t driving up NJPW WORLD subscriptions or live attendance at STRONG shows.
Most people don’t wanna work for a former employer. If they’re desperate enough they will go for it.
I don’t think NJ wants the alumni stars to overshadow the young talent they’re trying to build up. A lot of recent departures are still fresh, and some storylines are still open like logically you’d think Jay White would attack Finlay after what he did to him if they were in the same spot. Bucks and Omega been gone a little bit longer