NNew Japan Pro Wrestling

God , Naito really gave his body to the industry…

  • April 24, 2025


I’ve been watching back some Naito matches and promos just for preemptive nostalgia (if that’s even a thing).

So many rough bumps. Only gonna post this one in particular cause it looks ROUGH! But any NJPW fan knows there’s numerous examples.

Wherever he goes I hope he can wrestle safer.



by Dandanbigeloww

16 comments

  1. I personally hope he retires ASAP with a few huge dream matches with those that can carry him. The guy deserves a cushy post wrestling life.

  2. I will always remember the Naito/Ibushi feud over scariest neck bumps. I think there was a title involved too but every match was about which of the two of them could fall on their neck the hardest.

  4. Just brutal he’s only 42. Even if he were out of prime he should have plenty of miles left on those tires. Really sucks but that’s the expense of having that many bangers in the catalog

  5. Naito’s neck must be laced with adamantium. I thought he was crippled for at least 15 of his matches that I’ve seen.

  7. I don’t get how Japanese rings look so much stiffer than American ones and yet these guys take every bump on their heads for decades.

  8. A lot of it has to be due to that flip bump he does for lariats. He ALWAYS bumps his head on the mat for those. Just unnecessary.

  9. Naito, Ibushi, Okada, Tanahashi, Omega, Suzuki, Shibata, Ishii… New Japan in the 2010s made me a fan again.

    That single lariat bump to me is more awesome than a whole weekend of Wrestlemania. 

    It’s actually not so much those bumps that shortened his career. Probably more the highflying stuff. Look at Nagata or Suzuki – they hit and receive hard but can go until their late 50s, but they don’t have those knee-crashing moves like moonsaults, frog splahes or shooting star presses in their atsenal. That’s what damaged guys like Tanahashi, Ibushi, Muta or Naito the most. 

    Ok, you can also take the shortcut to retirement by hitting someone dead-serious with a shoot headbutt (hello Shibata) but usually hard hitting strong style may be rough, but not as danaging as flying and falling aroubd the ring nonstop.

  10. Though I think you can make a lariat look great with a normal bump and sell, without backward flipping right on your head.

  12. I want my wrestlers to retire while they still can walk. Watching Naito and Tanahashi wrestle with broken bodies can be painful. Naito cannot even do his Destino finisher smoothly anymore.

  14. Crazy to consider that, despite taking so many dangerous bumps on his neck, it’s not actually his neck that seems to be troubling Naito these days.

  16. Much like Hiromu and Ibushi, I believe Naito has always enjoyed wrestling this style I don’t think he’ll let up until he just physically can’t

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