About their upcoming match at Wrestling Dontaku 2018…
Three things:
1st: Does anyone think Tanahashi has a chance of winning this match? I feel most have written him off and are banking on an Okada victory. I’d agree that makes the most sense in terms of moving forward with Okada as Ace but the fan in me wants to believe Tanahashi at least has a shot.
2nd: Most people have been saying this will be their final match together. While again I can see why this might be, it isn’t like Tanahashi is dying or over the hill. He’s banged up (and should have taken more time off than he did) but still performing at a high level.
3rd: I have nothing. Just wanted to mimic an Okada promo.
Doesn’t leave much time for Kenny to hit the pause button on his Golden Lovers program to move back over to a singles wrestler and to build up a match with Okada.
As for Omega - I really don’t see him getting with a Okada again while the GL is together. The idea of Ibushi Omega at WK next year is too big to pass up. I do see Ibushi winning the title as it matches the sophisticated story telling we’ve come to get outa them. Ibushi has always been achieving things just ahead of Kenny fueling Omegas fire and I see that happening this way with the big WK main event.
I can’t see Tanahashi winning - he’s clearly moved down the card a bit in the last couple of years, and there’s no way they’ll stop Okadas run before breaking the record.
Wouldn’t see the point in Tanahashi winning it at this stage. Think he’s beyond that title and the guy who finally beats Okada would be made, so I’d save it for someone else.
Almost seems like whoever beats Okada now will be a letdown. Feels like they missed the boat with Omega winning it last year. Naito losing at Wrestle Kingdom just killed the momentum for him winning it. It’ll be huge whenever he does finally lose but it feels like the magical moment won’t be there. Almost hope he keeps it until Wrestle Kingdom so they can really build up whoever wins G-1 so it’ll be a worthwhile title change.
Usually on these streaks, the ‘streaker’ (probably not the right chose of word!) usually gets there as it’s such a time investment to even be in this position.
I was wondering if anyone can think of this type of story line being present in other companies. I can’t remember ‘total number of consecutive title defenses’ being an angle (hoping someone might jog my memory if it has been done). We’ve seen ‘times capturing a belt’, ‘number of days in one title reign’, ‘number of days in all of a wrestler’s title reigns’, but I can’t recall ‘times defending a belt in one reign’ off the top of my head.
I’d say it’s more of a big deal in New Japan because they don’t do title matches all the time. Thinking about it, Okada is approaching 2 years as champion and has had 11 title defences. It shows how well they protect that title and title defences, they don’t just throw them out.