Today I will talk about the first challenger for the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and why Will Ospreay's recent decision-making has been disappointing and more.
The Ospreay Problem
Many people know that Will Ospreay is an idiot. I tried my best to stay quiet about the topic for the last week because I didn't know how to put his actions into words. Never mind the fact that both Ospreay and his partner, Bea Priestley, have had a history of questionable actions. I can't believe NJPW pushed through with Ospreay hitting an Oscutter on Priestley out of nowhere.
Maybe it was cool when Randy Orton RKO's Stacy Keibler at first, but when you look back at the angle it makes no sense. There was no point to the attack similar to Ospreay hitting Priestley with one of his signature moves.
Yes, Ospreay. We get it. You're desperate to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Did you really need to hit a girl with a cutter though?
No company is perfect. WWE is owned by a major Trump supporter, NJPW allows domestic abuse storylines, even AEW isn't safe with all of their COVID cases running around. I just feel like something as serious as domestic abuse should not be used in a storyline to show how desperate Ospreay is to win a belt.
If you want to raise your concern with NJPW, here's their support box.
Now that I've talked about Ospreay, let's focus on the good stuff from the recently-concluded New Japan Cup.
The Rise of David Finlay and The Fall of Jay White
Nobody expected David Finlay to go on a huge tear in this year's tournament. I was one of many viewers who honestly didn't care for Finlay in the Cup until he defeated YOSHI-HASHI. Finlay's first two opponents (Chase Owens and YOSHI-HASHI) were predictable wins. However, YOSHI-HASHI, the former whipping boy of CHAOS, was having a good run after dominating most of 2020. David Finlay advancing was quite surprising.
Finlay has been known to be the partner of Juice Robinson for the most part, but I think this tournament has shown the world that David Finlay Jr. is an even better wrestler than Juice. Wrestling runs in Finlay's blood, so there is definitely a lot more added pressure for him because he's a rare fourth-generation wrestler.
When you remove the fact that he's a fourth-generation wrestler, David Finlay is still an excellent wrestler. Watch his match against Jay White from one of the
2018 Road to Wrestling Dontaku shows and you will see hints of how good the two Dojo Boys are.
The rise of Finlay came at the expense of his former Dojo-mate Jay White who has been on quite a collapse this year. The Switchblade declared that he would win the JAY-1 Climax tournament last year and he failed. He stole the G1 Climax briefcase from Kota Ibushi on the road to Wrestle Kingdom, but he still lost to God in the Tokyo Dome. White would later prophesize that he will win the New JAYpan Cup and defeat Ibushi and split the IWGP belts, but he failed.
While Jay White was contemplating the rest of his career after Wrestle Kingdom 15, David Finlay has been climbing up the NJPW ladder and getting people to realize he's not just a tag team wrestler anymore. I can't wait to see what's next for both competitors.
Shingo Impresses Again
Everyone knows that Shingo Takagi is the real deal. Not a single soul believed that he would be stuck as a junior heavyweight. He was clearly placed in that spot a few years back since Hiromu Takahashi was still injured.
Now that he's settled into the Heavyweight Division, Shingo Takagi can finally show everyone why he is The Dragon. One of the hardest hitters in New Japan was already on a roll before his rematch with Ospreay. The match he had with the RevPro Champion was simply another display of his skill. I would love to see Takagi win the World Heavyweight Championship once, even if he was a transitional champion.
Where do we go with the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship?
NJPW announced that the final defense of the double belts was on March 4, 2021, on the Anniversary Show of the company. Kota Ibushi defeated Junior Heavyweight and Junior Tag Champion EL DESPERADO to retain and retire the belts.
Now that Ibushi settled his final defense of the double belts, we now enter the era of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. There are only two things that we know as of this writing:
1. Ibushi will defend his title against 2021 NJ Cup Winner Will Ospreay.
2. There will be a new belt appearing on the March 30 Road to Sakura Genesis show.
I can't speculate on what the belt could look like because the previous Heavyweight Belts have all varied in design. To be honest, I'm quite sad that one of the best-looking title belts in wrestling has been retired and I can only hope that the new World Heavyweight Championship can match the elegance of the Heavyweight or Intercontinental Belts
What do you think will happen at Sakura Genesis? Are you a fan of Ospreay winning the New Japan Cup? Share your thoughts below!
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Steven Tan (@steviesaidyup) works for an e-commerce company by day and operates The Geeky Juans podcast and blog by night. He's a fan of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team, comic books, and the Moomin franchise. You can find more of his geeky thoughts on Twitter.
