100% Takeshita isn’t winning the world title at KOPW.

34 comments

1. Takeshita will win

2. It’s been about 5 years since a G1 winner failed to win the IWGP, that being Kota Ibushi at WK 14 Night 1.

   I could see NJPW wanting to run ZSJ/Goto III at the Dome, in all honesty.

3. There’s a lot of very important people in tv in Japan that think very highly of Takeshita and simply want as much of him as they can get.

4. There’s also a chance Takeshita could just end up being a Double Champion, but it all depends if they want to run back ZSJ and Goto for the Tokyo Dome. If that’s the play, then yeah, I can see Takeshita losing.

5. I’m not 100% on him winning, which I was until Destruction, but:

   1- Bandido could pin either guy. Plus, there’s a chance they beat BroDido

   2- A feud with Okada seems a perfect ocassion for him to defend the belt in AEW, specially if it is a double title match

   3- There’s a chance he isn’t. Office is more than capable of it+most of the final pre-Dome tour will be covered by the tag leagues, and unless they put him and Rocky there to build up to Goto, Tsuji or whoever Take won’t be in it

6. I dunno. If he doesn’t win the title, it just kind of feels like a gigantic waste of a G1 to be honest. Ibushi losing a few years ago was different because that was at least at the Dome.

7. Maybe, but I could see Okada getting pinned in their tag team match at WrestleDream.

8. OP this sub’s spoiler tag rule applies to all companies.

9. Takeshita is 100 percent winning and its gonna be Tsuji vs. Takeshita at WK which is why they didn’t run it as the G1 final.

10. Bandido is legit injured.

    Okada and Take are winning the AEW tag championships. Take is winning NJPW gold and him and Okada will have a generational tense partner run.

    I think the Okada vs Take match doesn’t happen for 6-8 months when they drop the tag belts.

11. I don’t think the two companies communicate their plans as much as you think they do but who knows.

12. Takeshita could legit win the world title and then lose in the AEW tag title match, I don’t think it’s a wholly unreasonable thought. If the weirdness around the Gabe booking this year is any indication, AEW doesn’t really care much about what New Japan’s booking, as long as it makes sense for their own stuff.

    That being said, if Bandido is hurt, I suspect Take/Okada are going over on Saturday.

13. I wouldn’t put it at 100% but I’m definitely beginning to lean on the side of him possibly not winning.

    My initial thought of Takeshita winning was that Aaron Wolf’s first match was planned to be with ZSJ since ZSJ was the guy calling him out, which is usually not for no reason.

    I do think Zack is still dropping the title before WK, but it might not be to Takeshita.

14. Agreed i thought it he would be at first but i think its ZSJ/Tsuji at the dome in a double title match.

15. Or TAKESHITA dont take the pin Okada does after Take kicksa his head off

16. Honestly, I think it would actually be a fairly interesting story if Takeshita was preoccupied with other matters and lost, then comes back on a more full-time basis down the road, filled with drive for the IWGP title and wins it then.

17. I’m split, I dont really know which result I want. But to be honest I’m pretty angry at AEW not caputalized on the G1 win and make the Okada’s feud more important than the most pretigious achievement in wrestling history

18. What if they give him the belt then have him lose to Okada?

19. What makes you think Takeshita and Okada aren’t just winning the AEW World Tag Team Titles from Brodido at WrestleDream, to then implode later down the line? I’ve always figured Takeshita Vs. Okada would be the C2 Finals at World’s End, personally.

20. I’ll start off by saying that, three months out, I’ve no idea what WK looks like and that’s absolutely a good thing. There’s no obvious person to crown, there’s no obvious path to anything and there’s the wildcard of Tana’s retirement match, what that looks like, where it goes on the card and, crucially, the fact that no matter what else you put on, that’s what’s selling your tickets.

    That said, there’s a couple of paths open – ZSJ/Goto is probably the most compelling if only because there’s a story already there and if you’re Tsuji, etc, getting your first title win from Goto in April is probably doing more to cement you than winning it this January from either Zack or Takeshita.

    Given Yuya and Shota have been sent to the tag division, they’re sorted with just Tsuji to sort out on the card then – and he may be global champion anyway.

    Please, dear goodness, no double title nonsense and just let the Global become established with someone defending it regularly. Gabe is fine but missing the G1 has killed his momentum.

    So if Takeshita wins, then what? The problem with Takeshita, as we saw at the G1 final, is that fans don’t wholly accept him. If he won at KoPW, he isn’t making it to New Beginning because Osaka would eat him alive. You either have to a) establish him as NJPW over time and feed him big names or b) treat him like an outsider. There’s time to do neither. If you want Takeshita to work, genuinely, you have to feed him Okada at the dome and that isn’t happening. So you end up feeding him to Goto who, again, can make the “Takeshita the Outsider” angle work with little effort because of who he is, and then let him carry it to April and crown someone at Ryogoku.

    If Takeshita wins, to be fair, ZSJ vs Aaron Wolf is right there – Zack’s more than trusted in that sort of spot, wouldn’t be hurt by the loss, is working a little bit towards it anyway and can get a 4* match out of a broom, which Wolf presumably isn’t. And if not Zack, who else goes in that spot?

    If you want to run the outsider angle, then use the AEW link and do a Team Tana vs Don Callis Family multi-man tag as Tanahashi’s last match and (for the second time this comment) get Okada to lie down and be pinned by whoever you want to get over (and make that person Yuya). That way you also get flexibility for Tag League.

    This all still leaves plenty of names without an obvious home on the card (though a Tsuji global defence while running Gabe vs Finlay for some Bullet Club nonsense makes sense, and you’ve got to get HoT on the card somewhere) but it makes a sort of sense to me at this top end with Wolf and Tana as the key variables that can impact the card.

21. The only way I see Takeshita wining is if he goes full outsider coming in, taking the top prize and leaving heel after the match. NJ can build up the story of the baby faces trying to get the title back. As for wrestle dream they can have Takeshita betray Okada by hitting him with a blue thunder bomb, and causing Okada to be pinned, leading to Takeshita vs Okada and the whole DCF

22. It would be stupid not to have him win it at this point. So… given some of Gedo’s booking decisions over the past few years, yes, it’s possible. I still don’t think it will happen, though. Takeshita winning the G1 if they’re not planning to give him the Dome world title match would be completely and utterly pointless. Takeshita also gives them more options for WK.

    I still think Takeshita vs Goto is the plan. ZSJ can have a high-profile exhibition match with Aaron Wolf. Tanahashi vs Okada in Tana’s retirement match, Kidd vs Tsuji, Umino and Uemura vs Ishii and TAICHI, EVIL vs Finlay, DOUKI vs Fujita… there’s a decent card in there somewhere.

23. I think there’s a good chance Takeshita and Okada just brawl and lose their tag title shot via count out to set up Take turning fully face and getting beaten out by the DCF. There’s money in having him beat Okada in the C2 and go into the Dome with two major titles versus Goto a week later.

24. > I doubt they will have the world champion not be invovled on tours before WK20.

    People said the same about the G1 winner, and yet here we are.

25. Okada/Takeshita is likely to pay off at Worlds End just before WK, I don’t think that match is happening before then.

26. Yeah of course not, they’re way too protective of the top belt even now.

27. I could see them giving him the belt considering mox got it, plus him vs Goto at the dome or someone from the new generation to take it. I’d prefer zsj holds it but I’m not 100% sure he does

28. I don’t know if NJPW were clued up to his AEW plans when he won the G1 because he is definitely the next Unified champion and I think that would make it difficult to get the title off him if he has both. Similar to Moxley in 2020.

29. I think he will beat ZSJ.
    At Wrestle Dream, he will either split with Okada during the match or he and Okada will win the tag title and split post match, resulting in a vacant title. This could potentially set up Takeshita v Okada at Tokyo Dome

30. Ok but if he wins G1, loses at KOPW and then fucks off what was the point of winning G1 in first place? Just so that he could get something massive under his belt, to make his starpower somewhat look closer to Okada? Would be sad for NJPW

31. In general, Takeshita could very well face Okada at Full Gear or Worlds End in a match that has both Unified and IWGP title on the line, the match would obviously end in a draw, and once he loses the IWGP he could beat Okada for the Unified at Revolution, OR he could go as far as holding both belts for a short amount of time. Imagine him making his Tokyo Dome entrance with IWGP, Unified, International and Continental titles on him. The man to beat him at WK would dethrone a swag monster.

32. I for one am going to hope we get Okada-Takeshita at the dome, because that would make me very happy!

33. I’m gonna bookmark this post

34. It would be very easy for them to get DQed because they kickoff the active feud, or have Takeshita also be tag champion to continue the build with Okada with them both draped in titles

    The second option would suck ass if Take spends more time in the US building to a match against Okada than he would as NJPW’s world champion, unless for whatever reason NJPW’s plan is for Take/Okada to main event WK20 (which would be the crown jewel of short-sighted booking)

    I’d be really annoyed if Takeshita was given the G1 only to lose the challenge pre-WK, but basically every booking option from him winning the G1 has its downsides unless you believe Take on top will bring NJPW’s business back. I’d be happy with them pivoting to him losing the title or dropping it at WK even if it would be an incredibly stupid meandering narrative and would forever make me question why they went in this direction to get there. Why not just have Takeshita not break the NEVER record and win the title pre-G1 if he’s your pick as the guy that someone in the new gen needs to beat?

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