10 things you must watch from the NJPW Together Project

7.       Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi Talk Show

When Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi first decided to form a tag team and then eventually won the IWGP Heavyweight tag titles, it felt like Christmas had come. For many people, it is probably the most handsome tag team New Japan has ever seen. But, because of a certain lockdown, we don’t really get to see much of that reign. Luckily, this talk show gave us a good Golden Ace fix that’s more than enough to tide you over until everything has calmed down.

Compared to other talk shows during this period, this one was obviously a lot more structured than the chaos we saw during the Yano and the Makabe/ Honma talk show which was helped by the host. Yet, even with that, that wasn’t to say it was all straight edge. The host made it clear from the start that the staff really just wanted to see both men shirtless, but all in good nature.

So, as well as the entire show being surrounded by the aim to get both Tanahashi and Ibushi to take their shirts off, we got to see a lot more fun from these two. There were games testing the two’s chemistry and allowing them to answer questions about each other, catwalk modelling and of course some arm wrestling (which even saw a cameo from the legendary strength that is Toru Yano).

Whether the staff and viewers at home got to see a shirtless Tanahashi and Ibushi won’t be revealed and you’ll just have to watch the show to find out. Luckily, no matter what happened, it’s a show that is a must-watch giving us an insight into the lives of the two stars of New Japan and, in particular, into the life of Kota Ibushi aka the man of mystery.

It’s an amalgamation of segments which keeps you smiling from start to end.