I was at one point a really big New Japan fan from like 2016-2021 before just not watching very much wrestling in the past few years, but I came back for Tanahashi's retirement at WK and enjoyed it and NYD enough that I think I'm gonna jump back in and give it another chance at least until my NJPWWorld subscription lapses.
Obviously there are a ton of new faces, some of whom I remember being young lions — Tsuji's class w/ Umino Uemura and Narita mainly — but others not. Was kind of disappointed that so many of those guys seemed to be stuck doing 2 minutes' work in the rambo on WK. If you were going to pick a handful of matches from the past year or two to re/introduce some of those guys, what would you recommend? Looking for, like, breakout star-making matches (or interviews I guess) that you think really give some background for the guys likely to be in the big matches in 2026 and onward.
Oh, and if at all possible please recommend stuff that isn't House of Torture-adjacent. You don't have to tell me about how they're popular with the Japanese fanbase or move merch or whatnot, I'm aware and that's fine but it doesn't interest me
by maq7742