As expected, this weekend Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling made a major announcement that they will work together on two big North American professional wrestling events in May 2014. These shows were announced at the HonorCon event that happened before the television tapings in Philadelphia this past Saturday, February 22nd, during their Twelfth Anniversary weekend. These crossover shows will take place on Saturday, May 10th in Toronto Canada and Saturday, May 17th in New York City, under the event names “Global Wars” and “War of the Worlds”. Such show names indicate already that ROH versus New Japan will be a common theme built up for these events.
The deal will bring New Japan’s two current biggest and best stars-Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada into a Ring of Honor event for the first time ever. Other New Japan wrestlers that have been confirmed to appear include Shinsuke Nakamura, Kushida, Gedo and Jado. The Young Bucks and Karl Anderson are also a few other names floated as scheduled to participate.
Ring of Honor versus New Japan in 2014 is a huge deal, especially for North American fans who have been in the know about NJPW’s incredible return to prominence in the last three years. New Japan has been on a hot streak and Tanahashi and Okada in particular are responsible for much of that success. They are constantly talked up for their fantastic matches, both against each other and against other opponents. Both also have some history and experience wrestling in North America, each having wrestled at different times for TNA. The Tanahashi and Okada that wrestled for TNA now seems like it was a separate era entirely. These two are now at career primes and the expectations are high for these shows that ROH fans will see them and the other Japanese stars at their absolute best.
There have been connections to Japanese wrestling throughout Ring of Honor’s history-going all the way back to the beginning with the likes of Sumie Sakai, Ikuto Hidaka and Dick Togo appearing on shows in 2002. Actually, ROH has worked with all of the major Japanese wrestling companies including New Japan during its twelve-year existence. ROH hosted Great Muta and the wrestlers of All Japan Pro Wrestling for a four-match series at Final Battle 2003. Jushin Liger made two appearances in 2004 and again in 2009. ROH has worked with Kenuske Sasaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima from the Sasuke Office. They brought in Kota Ibushi in 2008.
Of course ROH’s biggest connection was to Pro Wrestling NOAH and Dragon Gate, with ROH getting a lot out of that relationship as the biggest and best stars from those promotions, including KENTA, Marufuji, CIMA, SHINGO, Takeshi Morishima and Go Shiozaki, all made appearances or extended stays. ROH also capitalized on the relationship with NOAH to bring in legendary wrestlers Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuhara Misawa. Each man’s matches were unforgettable events that only solidified ROH’s reputation at the time.
The two shows in May 2014 will be the latest major connection between a Japanese company and ROH and the broadest under its current Sinclair ownership. ROH did want to bring in Naomichi Marufuji last year for Border Wars, but he had to pull out due to injury (Taiji Ishimori did make his scheduled appearance).
The NJPW relationship began in earnest last year when bringing in the likes of Karl Anderson, Kushida and former ROH mainstay Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov (who had all been booked before in ROH) as The Forever Hooligans for ROH events. All of them were booked well and given wins and opportunities to look good in front of the ROH crowd, thus further opening the possibilities for more cooperation down the line.
The previous NJPW interaction had a different and more infamous result. The Best of the American Super Juniors Tournament, held in April 2005, was created to take advantage of the positive reputation for one of NJPW’s spotlight tournaments centered on young and athletic wrestlers. The winner of that tournament received an automatic berth into New Japan’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament. That was right in the ROH wheelhouse. Unfortunately, that show (which had a fantastic opener in Bryan Danielson vs. Spanky and underrated title bout effort between Austin Aries and Homicide) was marred by the lazy and uninspired performance of Dragon Solider B, otherwise known as Kendo Kashin. Dragon Solider B infamously won the tournament-an exemplification of the exact opposite of the tournament’s name, being neither American nor super. To make matters worth, he never wrestled in the actual tournament in Japan that year, thus making the whole show moot.
Hopefully, this time around the show will yield far better and more fan-friendly results.
An ROH-versus-New Japan crossover show is coming at the right time with ROH on the rise again thanks to great in-ring efforts from the entire roster and the booking going in the right direction. There is huge potential for interesting and excellent match-ups. No matches have been booked or announced as yet, but hopefully both ROH and NJPW will not shy away from giving the fans the marquee pairings that most obviously jump into mind. It’s obvious that Michael Elgin, Kevin Steen, Adam Cole, Chris Hero and (if possible) AJ Styles all need to be fit in somehow against the New Japan stars.
Certainly, this is an exciting time for Ring of Honor and the buzz from the announcement is already carrying a lot of weight. Plans are already in motion for a huge group of my friends and I to attend the New York shows. I have seen many posts on social media already from those planning to go to the shows, including those who have either stepped away from ROH for a while now. This is a huge opportunity for ROH to showcase itself and for New Japan to revel in its current era success in a promotion whose fans are very capable of appreciating what they bring to the table.
Check out the teaser trailer for the ROH vs. New Japan “Global Wars” and “War of the Worlds” below: