It's a horrible night for pro wrestling and for New Japan in general, and we all know why: Master Wato has lost his tag team championships.
While the Junior Tag Team Championships distracted him throughout the Best of the Super Jr. (where YOH didn't even defend him and his injured knee against House of Torture), there's nothing anyone can celebrate with last night's loss. Clearly, the worst of all is that the titles are now held by DOUKI, his greatest nemesis, and SHO, who's a douche. While some of you were shocked by the levels DOUKI descended to in order to steal the championship away from an injured Master Wato, if you've been here from the beginning, you knew he could never be trusted. While I'm sure we've all recently rewatched it, in anticipation of Wato's fifth year anniversary with NJPW, we can go back to the very start of Master Wato's career, where he was horrifically and disgustingly assaulted by the masked monster. From that moment on, I knew that his heart was black, shrunken, and rotten for trying to steal Master Wato's debut from him. There could be no good in a person like that. Last night's events only prove that.
I know many people have been deceived by his time since where he's feigned a nicer side, with his all-but-fake title run that he only had because of Wato's ACL injury, but DOUKI has always been a shameful, disgusting wrestler when it comes to Wato. There's an easy reason to see why: when everything's fair, Wato wins.
We can see this at New Japan Cup 2020, where Wato overcame the odds to beat DOUKI cleanly, or when repeated the feat later that year in BOSJ 27, a shining pair of victories to start off his career against DOUKI. In 2022, BOSJ 29, Wato beat DOUKI fair and square in the middle of the ring, a feat only surpassed by himself in BOSJ 30, when he won the whole damn thing and DOUKI couldn't even advance to the finals – all agree, a moral victory. His only real loss to DOUKI contained the mitigating circumstances of the long grueling campaign of BOSJ 28 and the marine layer of Himeji City, where DOUKI's mask gave him unfair advantage in the cold winter air. We only need to look back to Power Struggle 2024 to understand DOUKI's true character. Coming off of a knee injury for his title challenge, Wato put up an incredible fight and had the match – and the title – stolen from him by an inappropriate referee stoppage. Even with Wato's knee barely recovered, DOUKI had to rely on the referee to win the match and this must have made him realize how far he had to go to truly beat Wato. Terrified as he came back from his injury, he must have realized that the only way for him to win was to cheat and to join up with House of Torture. Last night was the result of that. DOUKI targeted that knee, which had already been brutalized in the weeks prior by his "new" stablemates in House of Torture (who I suspect must have recruited him well before BOSJ), and relied on YOH's usual inaction in the face of the House of Torture to steal the titles from Wato.
Though he may try to hide it, DOUKI is scared of Master Wato. And why wouldn't he be? Master Wato is everything DOUKI isn't: the true face of his generation of Juniors, an unparalleled martial artist, a two-time Junior Tag Team champion, an incredibly sexy man who doesn't need to hide his gross gremlin face with a mask, and a hero. Even with his Mickey Mouse title run, DOUKI knows that his chances of winning drastically go down when he's facing the full strength of the Way to the Grand Master. Therefore, he's had to sacrifice the mask he's put on as a hero and a scrappy underdog in order to take everything Wato has.
But I think, with these dark days in front of us, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. DOUKI may think that his new membership of House of Torture will insulate him from Wato's reprisal, that he can hide behind HoT legends SHO, Fale, EVIL, and Chase Owens. Maybe he'll even capture the title from El Desperado, but his time is running out. Once Master Wato recovers from his injuries and can be at full-strength for the first time since his return from injury, no longer distracted by tag team defenses, there will be nothing in the world able to stop him from completing the Way to the Grand Master.
Let's go Wato! The Way to the Grand Master is almost completed!
by MasterWatoFan