Yes, NJPW’s strongly booked guys are facing opponents ranging from midcard and upper midcard. That is a fact. They’re all guys with Japan experience but they’re not the TOP guys. The thing is? The strong AEW guys are facing NJPW midcarders, we just watch NJPW so are more used to them.
To define the matches where AEW/ROH guys are basically locks to win: Sammy/Dustin vs HOT, UE vs Young Bucks, Ishii vs Takeshita (think that’s a lock ngl) and Kenny Omega vs Gabe Kidd. Just to make clear what I’m talking about.
The Great O-Khan is probably the most protected NJPW guy of the ones in those matches. A good G1 run, IWGP shot, (tragically) the final KOPW. But he’s not a main event guy. He’s still breaking into the upper midcard. No one would say he’s a jobber but he’s not a star by any sense, or honestly a man damaged by dropping the tag belts. He’s a midcard hand on the up and up, and will probably continue to be win or lose. Henare is even lower then him, a proper midcard guys. X is a mystery so no comment there.
Ishii is a midcarder. One that’s losing position if anything. He’s more protected in AEW than NJPW. I know he’s beloved, but that’s the bias blinding us. In NJPW, he’s not much. He missed the G1 this year, he’s rapidly approaching 50, he’s beginning to lose a step. The match will bang, but Finley and Takeshita both have opponents with the same calibre. Ishii has always been a midcard hand and he’s moving down the totem poll if anything.
Sho and Kanemaru are cheating bastard heels facing a clear heavyweight and a guy you could probably make an argument for being a heavyweight. Think even the most ardent Shin Nihon Freak knows that pre-show match 2 is an easy AEW win against two talents who very much do not need the win. And I say this as a massive mark of those two HOT guys too! This is a match that will be fun and they’ll lose because juniors don’t beat heavyweights.
Kidd will be controversial, but he holds a low tier singles belt and had a mediocre G1 in terms of points. Will he be getting a huge push? Yeah no shit he will. But he’s not above the midcard. He’s squarely in it, like a 2017 ZSJ. His time will come, the fact he even got this match proves it, but he’s not actually an uppercarder. Not even the top guy in his own faction. He’s squarely in the midcard.
The fact that every NJPW vs AEW match can be put in the upper carder/midcarder spilt to me shows it as an intentional Gedo choice. There are no star v star matches, Claudio vs Umino genuinely might be the most even singles. That being said I’m more excited for WK by a large margin. I just realised that NJPW and AEW aren’t having big stars job. Probably why Naito, Hiromu and Despy will be in the CMLL Gauntlet if they’re booked on this show, where they can lose without being bested or pinned.
by SevenSulivin