Tetsuya Naito

Like, if you're looking for future stars, right? Like, look, because you didn't get rejected at the beginning, but eventually the talent wins over if the talent's where it is, right? Like, Roman Reigns, rejected.

Tetsuya Naito, rejected.

Legends! It is what it is.

Yeah.

I actually watched it, uh, just a g- I, you know, I just watched it maybe last week or the week before, because I had it on my matches of the week for this past True Hill Heat flagship podcast.

But Senal- I watched the best Tetsuya Naito match-up in the last two years where he beat Shane Haste for the GHC Heavyweight Championship, uh, back in the beginning of August.

Uh-

I got confused.

I was like, "Wait, I, uh, Naito's good match.

Have I missed something in the past few weeks, right, that much?" Yes.

[laughs]

Yeah, where he won the GHC Heavyweight Championship.

this might not be true anymore but like back then it was so like focused on um like not necessarily divisions but like factions like everyone belongs to a faction except for like Hiroshi Tanahashi who belongs to New Japan and the world um so you've got like chaos and you've got the bullet club and you've got you know other other stables that pop up uh los ingobernables uh you know and all that splinters off into different places but like there were so many like unquestioned leaders that like you know you're you're not the bullet club is not something which like chaos did when nakamura and okada were simultaneously the head of it um Where, like, you would have AJ Styles and Kenny Omega be, like, the leaders of the Bullet Club.

Like, you wouldn't have Tetsuya Naito and...

I don't even know who.

Like, Evil, I guess, be co-head of, like, LIJ.

I also think that the 2016 G1 Climax has got some really good stuff.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

The match against Tetsuya Naito, I think is... nominal we

didn't yeah we didn't discuss talking about it but either of those those Naito matches oh boy I'm fucking bonkers over both of them

LAX and No Limit.

No Limit consisting of Tetsuya Naito and Yergero.

Takahashi.

Takahashi.

Yeah, 33?

He was in New Japan, a part of the stable known as Los Ingobernables with Tetsuya Naito and Evil, now known as, what's his name in NXT now? Is his name not

Evil in NXT? No, they changed it to something else.

I feel

Let's start with a six-man.

We've got Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and, of course, Minoru Suzuki taking on Darby Allin, Naito, and Ryan, I want you to give me your best Tony Schiavone.

It's Sting! Sting!

This match should be fun, man.

Because why would you have Sting lose this match? That wouldn't really...

Unless you have Darby take the pin by, like, Jericho or somebody to give him bragging rights.

But I don't know why you would have Sting and Naito.

So...

All, all of New Japan is doing is keeping momentum up.

I think there's a lot to be said about finding a way to find your new faces, and we talked about how the cover was Rob Baer from AEW and from these guys that have retired, whether it's Naito or Tanahashi, and on top of with Will Ospreay leaving, Jay White leaving, Kenny Omega leaving, New Japan certainly trying to find their new stars.

But I'm confident, like Oiwa, I'm excited about.

I think Aaron Wolf, I'm excited about.

Um, there, there've been guys in the past who are, um, not been quote unquote body guys that have succeeded in new Japan.

And I mean, obviously you look at somebody like Tetsuya Naito, uh, who's never, you know, been like super jacked and ripped, um, but has, you know, succeeded in being a top guy and top champion, uh, And so I don't think New Japan always fully relies on somebody that has to be yoked to the gills.

However, yeah, we're starting to see with some of these young lines that are coming out that they are...

Taller, bigger, you know, Harazawa comes from Sumo.