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and ONE MORE THING - I said I was gonna do a wrestler of the week and by god, I'm gonna do a list.
Jan 3-9 2020:
5 - Hiromu Takahashi
Returned from a brutal neck injury and 18 months on the shelf, after months of speculation, and looks to have not missed a step. Looking every bit Will Ospreay's equal, assuring us the Junior division is in good hands for years to come as he prepares to resume his legendary feud with Ryu (aka Dragon) Lee

4 - Go Shiozaki
The biggest story of the week outside of NJPW had to be the roaring success of NOAH, who sold out Korakuen Hall running opposite both nights of Wrestle Kingdom. And main eventing both of those shows, in matches that were said to be tremendous (only the 2nd night has aired so far is my understanding) would have been a feather in Go's cap regardless. But he shocked the majority of NOAH fans by defeating young ace in grooming, Kaito Kiyomiya for the GHC Heavyweight Title. Looks like NOAH is having one more Go of it, am i right?

3 - KENTA
a year ago KENTA was wrestling Noam Dar and Cedric Alexander in matches nobody was watching, and he'd been long abandoned as a guy with no personality to make it in WWE. This week, the Tokyo Dome main event ended for the first time in a decade with neither Hiroshi Tanahashi or Kazuchika Okada delivering a rousing go home promo - but with KENTA, sat cross-legged across the new champion's chest, mocking Shibata's classic pose and drawing some of the biggest heat I've ever heard in New Japan. KENTA is going to have a hell of a year, and he already has a hot main event for the double titles coming up in Osaka out of this.

2 - Tetsuya Naito
I waffled on this a little bit, and it's real close between the top 2. If night 1 hadn't happened, Naito is a slam dunk number 1 this week. Finally gets his Tokyo Dome headlining victory over Kazuchika Okada, redeeming his losses from 6 years ago (where, for those who don't know - Naito had won the G1 and challenged Okada for the title, but this was while Nakamura held the IC title and had really elevated that title over his reign, and was defending against Tanahashi who was still incredibly popular in his own right. So NJPW put it to fans to vote on which match main evented - and they put the IC title in the main event, which was seen as a rejection of Naito. It took Naito turning heel and forming LIJ for the audience to embrace him fully, which is how we get to today where Naito is the most popular wrestler in Japan) and 2 years ago, and ends Wrestle Kingdom as the double Heavyweight and IC champions. And he did it in one of the greatest matches I've ever seen, amidst pro wrestling storytelling perfection. The only reason he's not number 1, is that it took two people to have that match, and the other guy had a much better night 1...

1 - Kazuchika Okada
Maybe a lot of people will think of this as Naito's weekend, and there's no doubt it'll be remembered as that for a long time. And, I think there's a good chance this is going to be Naito's year. But my clearest takeaway from this past week of wrestling is that when this decade wraps up, Okada is going to be untouchable as the Greatest of all Time barring a tragedy. The man went and banged out 5 stars or as close as it gets on two consecutive nights, drawing 70,000 people to the Tokyo Dome in two days. He's 32 years old and just hitting his prime. Every one of us who is a wrestling fan today should take pause to be thankful that we are living in the era of Kazuchika Okada. There'll never be another.

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Advokaiser makes me feel eternal. All this pain is an illusion.