NJPW: 5 burning questions we have after Wrestle Kingdom 14
By Sonal Lad
Who is the next opponent for Hiromu Takahashi’s IWGP Jr Championship?
Wrestle Kingdom 14 was full of fairy tale endings, but none so more than the returning Hiromu Takahashi winning the IWGP Jr Heavyweight championship. After a life-threatening neck injury, it was a miracle that Hiromu could even wrestle again.
However, he came back, issued the challenge to his long time frenemy Will Ospreay and the match was set for the first night at the Tokyo Dome. After a grueling match, Hiromu managed to pin the seemingly unbeatable Aerial Assassin to get back his belt that he had to relinquish in 2018.
Who could be next to challenge the Ticking Time Bomb?
That has always been a criticism of the New Japan Jr division; the repetition of matches because of the smaller field of wrestlers. However, the division is strong than ever which means a huge list of prospective opponents that have me salivating at the thought of.
Hiromu has made it clear that Ospreay is welcome to his re-match, but not in the near future. He has also put out the desire for his next opponent to be Ryu Lee, the same man he fought when sustaining the injury. There is no doubt that these have chemistry unlike no other dating all the way back to Hiromu’s excursion in CMLL. Like Ospreay, Lee has this respect and some form of friendship.
For me, someone who is a clear candidate but probably not who anyone would first think of and that is Suzuki Gun’s El Desperado.
Fans seem to forget that as much history Hiromu has with Lee and Ospreay, the same can be said when talking about El Desperado and Takahashi. El Desperado was a senior of Hiromu’s in the dojo and have had their fair share of battles both as Young Lions and after both had returned from excursion.
Unlike the mutual respect and friendship Hiromu has with his rivals, this one is completely different. From the matches and post-match comments, it feels almost like a story of unrequited love with Despy longing for Hiromu to notice him or wrestle him, whereas Hiromu is surprisingly the more distant in this relationship.
This longing and desperation from Desperado has already produced some beautiful matches with the Time Bomb in the past and they both bring out both the best and worst in each other.
It might be too soon for this match because there is no way they would have Hiromu lose his title so quickly. But El Desperado is such an underrated wrestler and deserves an opportunity to be at the top of the Jr Division and take it over in the most Suzuki Gun-esque way possible.