On Off Pick Em's: NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9

[cero2k]

Without getting into the points system, what are your predictions of Wrestle Kingdom 9? Winners, losers, debuts, returns, angles?

CARD:

15-man New Japan Rumble
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tiger Mask vs. Yuji Nagata vs. TBA

Four-way tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
reDRagon (c) vs. Forever Hooligans vs. Time Splitters vs. The Young Bucks

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett and Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Tomoaki Honma

Mikey Nicholls, Naomichi Marufuji, Shane Haste and Toru Yano vs. Suzukigun (Davey Boy Smith, Jr., Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka)

UWFI Rules (Only KO or Submission)
Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

NEVER Openweight Championship
Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Togi Makabe

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Ryusuke Taguchi (c) vs. Kenny Omega

IWGP Tag Team Championship
Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (c) vs. Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata)

A.J. Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito

IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kota Ibushi

IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada

[cero2k]

Winner:
Young Bucks
Bullet Club
Toru Yano team
Sakuraba
Ishii
Omega
Meiyu Tag
AJ Styles
Ibushi
LOLTANAHASHIWINS

With no reason whatsoever to believe this, i feel Sabin and Ricochet will be at the show. And I feel Jarrett's match will debut a new bullet club member, who? i'm not sure, i'm thinking someone who lately left TNA, but i really have no idea.

[Big Red Machine]

It's no fun without the points!



I assume that Liger wins the battle royale

Okada def. Tanahashi to win the title (EDIT: changing my vote to Tanahashi)

reDRagon retain

Babyfaces def. Bullet Club (Honma gets the pin)

Naito def. AJ

Shibata & Goto win tag titles

Yano & NOAH win

Ishii wins to retain

Kota def. Nakamura to win the title

Suzuki def. Sakuraba

Kenny OMega def. Taguchi to win the titles

[Big Red Machine]

With no reason whatsoever to believe this, i feel Sabin and Ricochet will be at the show. And I feel Jarrett's match will debut a new bullet club member, who? i'm not sure, i'm thinking someone who lately left TNA, but i really have no idea.

I've actually heard speculation that one of the Japanese guys might turn and join the Bullet Club.

[cero2k]

With no reason whatsoever to believe this, i feel Sabin and Ricochet will be at the show. And I feel Jarrett's match will debut a new bullet club member, who? i'm not sure, i'm thinking someone who lately left TNA, but i really have no idea.

I've actually heard speculation that one of the Japanese guys might turn and join the Bullet Club.

so considering this speculation, you still think they'll lose all their matches (except Omega) ?

[Big Red Machine]

With no reason whatsoever to believe this, i feel Sabin and Ricochet will be at the show. And I feel Jarrett's match will debut a new bullet club member, who? i'm not sure, i'm thinking someone who lately left TNA, but i really have no idea.

I've actually heard speculation that one of the Japanese guys might turn and join the Bullet Club.

so considering this speculation, you still think they'll lose all their matches (except Omega) ?

I'm not sure.
I picked the Japanese guys to beat the Bullet club thinking that this would be a good place to give Honma that win that the fans have been begging for and that he really should have gotten at the end of the G1.
Gallows and Anderson are definitely losing because Shibata and Goto NEED to win for the sake of their own credibility and to shake up the most stale division that has ever existed anywhere ever. Also, it will make their title reign have lasted exactly one year.

The main reason I picked Naito to win (and also a big factor in my other picks as well) is that the January 4th Dome Show is Japan's WrestleMania, and the standard/traditional/probably best for business way of doing things is that the babyfaces get their big wins at the biggest show. For this reason I can actually see the Time Splitters winning the titles from reDRagon as well (I'm pretty sure reDRagon is booked for the February tour, but that could just be them getting their rematch.
Also, I think losing here would Natio a lot more than it would hurt AJ. I picked Kota beating Nakamura and Tanahashi beating Okada for similar reasons.

I picked Omega to win because it is his first match back and because keeps the Bullet Club important because they have at least one title.


RE Ricochet and Sabin- Ricochet I don't see. I'm not sure if he is still working for Dragon Gate/Gabe, but if he is, I doubt they (mostly DG rather than Gabe) would allow it (BOTSJ type-tours are a special thing). I also can't see Lucha Underground allowing it.

Sabin, on the other hand, might well happen. He is a D'Amore guy, he got to work with some of the New Japan guys (at least Okada, I think) for D'Amore when they were in the US, and breaking up the Time Splitters to replace them with MCMG makes a lot of sense:
1. It will shake up the relatively stagnant Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Division.
2. MCMG!
3. They clearly have big things planned for KUSHIDA, so they'll need to make him a singles guy at some point.
4. MCMG!

[cero2k]

so considering this speculation, you still think they'll lose all their matches (except Omega) ?

I'm not sure.
I picked the Japanese guys to beat the Bullet club thinking that this would be a good place to give Honma that win that the fans have been begging for and that he really should have gotten at the end of the G1.
Gallows and Anderson are definitely losing because Shibata and Goto NEED to win for the sake of their own credibility and to shake up the most stale division that has ever existed anywhere ever. Also, it will make their title reign have lasted exactly one year.

The main reason I picked Naito to win (and also a big factor in my other picks as well) is that the January 4th Dome Show is Japan's WrestleMania, and the standard/traditional/probably best for business way of doing things is that the babyfaces get their big wins at the biggest show. For this reason I can actually see the Time Splitters winning the titles from reDRagon as well (I'm pretty sure reDRagon is booked for the February tour, but that could just be them getting their rematch.
Also, I think losing here would Natio a lot more than it would hurt AJ. I picked Kota beating Nakamura and Tanahashi beating Okada for similar reasons.

I picked Omega to win because it is his first match back and because keeps the Bullet Club important because they have at least one title.


RE Ricochet and Sabin- Ricochet I don't see. I'm not sure if he is still working for Dragon Gate/Gabe, but if he is, I doubt they (mostly DG rather than Gabe) would allow it (BOTSJ type-tours are a special thing). I also can't see Lucha Underground allowing it.

Sabin, on the other hand, might well happen. He is a D'Amore guy, he got to work with some of the New Japan guys (at least Okada, I think) for D'Amore when they were in the US, and breaking up the Time Splitters to replace them with MCMG makes a lot of sense:
1. It will shake up the relatively stagnant Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Division.
2. MCMG!
3. They clearly have big things planned for KUSHIDA, so they'll need to make him a singles guy at some point.
4. MCMG!

now that i think about it, you're spot on with the BC vs Homna match, I figured it was a good match to have shenanigans and just give the win to BC. But that team is the best team to take a clean pinfall for BC.

Shibata/Goto, that's what I was thinking, I wasn't sure since Shibata had been going up the ranks last year, but I just don't see BC retaining once again.

My pick for AJ and Nakamura are similar, it keeps them up there to challenge for the title in the coming months. I think Nakamura loses the title so (1) Ibushi is pushed hard to the top as the IC title (now highly prestigious), and (2) free's up Nakamura who i think will take the title come the summer/fall. I sadly think that Naito here is more of a placeholder for AJ so he stays hot, and now that you mention it, a good match to debut someone and help AJ win.

Omega wins is easy since he's now 100% NJPW, the new face, and let's be honest, the only reason Taguchi is champ is because there isn't anyone else, Ibushi got hurt, Devitt left, and Taguchi was the best option. Reason why I think Sabin is coming soon for the exact reasons you mentioned, this opens up KUSHIDA to later fight Omega for the title, and MCMG! HOWEVER, i'm not sure what will NJPW do about the Junior tag division being pretty much all gaijin, there's always Liger/Tiger Mask, but we know they're not winning anyways, i'm guessing they'll have to push some new teams and establish them better in the division other than filler for the jr tag cup.

[Big Red Machine]

My pick for AJ and Nakamura are similar, it keeps them up there to challenge for the title in the coming months. I think Nakamura loses the title so (1) Ibushi is pushed hard to the top as the IC title (now highly prestigious), and (2) free's up Nakamura who i think will take the title come the summer/fall. I sadly think that Naito here is more of a placeholder for AJ so he stays hot, and now that you mention it, a good match to debut someone and help AJ win.

I don't know that Nakamura will up with the belt, but I definitely think he will be in the main event of next year's Dome Show, losing to Okada whether as the challenger/G1 winner or as the champion I'm not sure, but I'd bet on the former.
I don't think they will do shenanigans in AJ-Naito. It's too big a match. The shenanigans in the other matches were all meant to lead up to this match. It won't have shenanigans. North America or Dragon Gate it might happen, but not in New Japan.
I actually think they are going to use AJ to get Naito hotter, figuring that while AJ is on the downswing now after losing his title, he should still have a rematch in his pocket and because he is AJ, he's easy enough to build up again. I'd be surprised if he wasn't challenging (and losing to) either Tanahashi or Okada at either Invasion Attack or Dominion (and especially if they had one of those shows on US PPV).

Omega wins is easy since he's now 100% NJPW, the new face, and let's be honest, the only reason Taguchi is champ is because there isn't anyone else, Ibushi got hurt, Devitt left, and Taguchi was the best option. Reason why I think Sabin is coming soon for the exact reasons you mentioned, this opens up KUSHIDA to later fight Omega for the title, and MCMG! HOWEVER, i'm not sure what will NJPW do about the Junior tag division being pretty much all gaijin, there's always Liger/Tiger Mask, but we know they're not winning anyways, i'm guessing they'll have to push some new teams and establish them better in the division other than filler for the jr tag cup.

I think there is some mileage in some combination of TAKA, Taichi, & El Desperado holding the belts as heels against the Gaijins for a few months while they get things set up. They seems to also be setting thing up for TAKA/Taichi/Desperado vs. Jado & Gedo, and I think that if they build it up right, they can get a great story out of that match, and could easily do the same thing with Liger and Tiger Mask challenging for the titles (and with some name-value appeal in the US as well), and I think Liger & Tiger mask actually winning the belts, if only for a month, would be pretty cool.
As for solving the problem in a less temporary way, I think they could actually build up Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu as a good Jr. Heavyweight tag team.
Or they could just try to sign or trade for someone from another Japanese promotion.

[Big Red Machine]

Changing my vote to Tanahashi winning. Not because LOLTANAHASHIWINS, but because Okada has three wins over Tanahashi but Tananashi only has two wins over Okada.

Also, Okada winning would make Tanahashi's title reign last less than three months, with no successful defense.