NJPW Thread (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

[Spens1]

Wow, I guess i didn't realize that Jay White is only 26yrs old. That's insane.

He is super young, he's going to be a major guy for the next 10-15 years.

He is literally NJPW's home-grown gaijin, they trained and groomed him since he was but a baby in wrestling terms, so they're committed to him it seems and he seems to think of NJPW as home. Obviously this title reign was just to give him a short experience in the main event picture. There were some awkward moments but overall it seems to have been a good experience for him and he had 2 decent matches with top guys.

I understand it being short but no defenses whatsoever is pathetic, they could have at least had him retain till dominion or could have made the anniversary show a title defence instead of an exhibition.

[Spens1]

So Naito challenges for the IC title AGAIN. Why the flying **** would Naito, who is ambivilent at best and hates it at worst, want anything to do with that belt. Him winning it again and perhaps going into G1 as champ and winning, in which case, why the hell did he lose the belt in the first place. Naito's in IC Hell (just like Nakamura was), if Gedo doesn't pull the trigger this year (and give Naito a solid 12-15 month reign with the belt, he deserves it after the last 3 years of this on and off again nonsense with the IC title) then lord help us, Golden Boy can go without the belt for a few months and New Japan won't crumble i guarantee it.

I hope i heard wrong and Naito is just giving Ibushi a challenger for that belt (maybe EVIL or Shingo) rather than Naito challenging that belt for the 78th time. ZSJ was a good start, have him beat Tanahashi or something, Ishii is a legit upper mid carder, have him do it, Goto would have been a decent challenge. I'd have taken freaking Taichi challenging for the damn thing, just anyone that isn't Naito.

ZSJ vs Ibushi was fantastic though, damn good match.

Juice vs Fale was pretty good, Juice got his big Hulkster moment but Mikey Nicholls as the next challenger, are they taking the piss. Give Juice some real challengers and not lower midcarders and scrubs no one cares about (Fale is probably the biggest name so far and even he's on the decline). Give him Makabe or some of the dads if that's what it takes.

Gedo is just been plain boring recently with the booking decisions. There is not much joy out of the title scene thus far and i'm thinking we'll have to wait till G1 to see anything significant happen (they ought to make some damn signings to not see a repeat of things).

[Spens1]

After the neverending road to tour, we've finally gotten to Wrestling Dontaku.

Working from the top down.

Dragon Lee vs Taiji Ishimori was a very very good match. Afterwards Lee dedicated his win to Hiromu and thanked everyone (Hiromu will straight up jump him and murder him upon his return, as is tradition between these two).

Taichi beat Jeff Cobb, this has been one of the more amusing feuds and Taichi has quietly been the most entertaining part of New Japan this year due to his antics and promos. He wins back the NEVER Openweight championship and may get a bit of a run this time. Hopefully this doesn't mean the end of Cobb in New Japan, i'm hoping he signs on full time (and as a heel, Bullet Club needs a strong #2 to go after the IC and U.S belts).

After Juice's pinfall win in the multiman tag (Chase taking them pins again i see, things are normal again) a promo aired saying that time was up for Juice (with the gimmick seemingly called the 'death rider' and he was waving around a knife). Speculation so far has pointed to Jon Moxley, Chris Brookes (from CCK) and Tomoyuki Oka being repackaged. I think its going to be the latter given how big the guy was. Brookes is like 5'8 and Moxley just got released and from what little we could see, he looked somewhat tanned.

[Spens1]

The semi-main finished and i'll review the show, but wow, that Ishii vs EVIL match, honestly. At some point they need to put a top belt (if not the IWGP world title) on him, he's too damn good. He's been this years MVP i'd say.

Onto the main event, its a forgone conclusion that we get LOLOKADAWINS (basically until Wrestle Kingdom) but hopefully the match itself is good. Pressure off i guess.

[Spens1]

Main event was good i guess, but not great and certainly shows that long matches don't neccesarily mean better. Anti-Climatic ending honestly and they didn't need the 40 minutes since they didn't really get going until the 20 minute mark. I mean it was very good though but from these two, as selfish as it sounds, you almost come in expecting excellent matches. SANADA, despite being the self-proclaimed rival, is 0-6 in matches against Okada (though that may be world title matches as well). SANADA is perrolously close to Goto status which is not good, i'm guessing he gets a G1 victory over Okada but this won't help.

Nevermind that though, after the match, Chris Jericho has challenged Okada. Its a fresh matchup at least (thank god) and Jericho is a big enough name to justify these two main eventing over Ibushi and Naito.

Semi Main was just over 20 minutes but it was a flat out 20 minutes full of action and is a MOTY contender. Pure, stiff, goodness that has been missing for a bit, this is what made New Japan popular.

Tanahashi had an impromptu promo, stating that he is returning at the BOSJ finals (5th of June) and he aims to go from the very bottom to the top and become champ again, Jay White (after beating Goto earlier cause being Goto is suffering) said he's at the front of the line ( clearly not after the main event) and Jay White lays him out and looks to send him back onto the injury list but the young lions save the day. It looks like a program is brewing there (no suprise).

Ibushi after their 50th tag team match this tour (its been Ibushi + CHAOS vs LIJ the entire bloody tour, which is fine, but there was so many damn tag matches between them, way more than usual) called on Naito to name a date and place. Naito said Dominion and we're getting the IC title defended there.

El Phantasmo made his New Japan debut, pinning WIll Ospreay on debut, which is a hell of a good impression to make (pinning the former IWGP Jr heavyweight champ and NEVER openweight champ is impressive). He'll clearly be a tag team guy mostly, but he'll certainly get his own push as well.

Juice pinned young boy Hikuleo. Can confirm that Ridgeway isn't the time/death biker as he's off to NOAH. That will be Juice's challenger and honestly i kind of hope he takes the belt because whilst it hasn't been his fault (cause Juice, other than Fale, has defended the belt against either jobbers or out and out midcarders). It should be IWGP IC title ver 2 i.e. a belt for the upper midcarders who have nothing to do singles wise. Juice shouldn't be getting a belt when you have the likes of Ishii, EVIL and even SANADA beltless (cause those three are much better than Juice is now, no question). Being a pure babyface is unique in this day and age of cool heels, but even he needs to tweak the act a little i think because i'm more often than not bored to tears by Juice nowadays (which is a shame given where he was last year around G1).

Yano beat Jado and we're getting Most Violent Players out of the abomination that has become of CHAOS and sekigun (someone fix the factions ffs) and G.O.D. Guerilla's are more or less the only proper full time tag team so i expect them to absolutely murder these two. Fun matchup though (Tonga is surprisingly enough, a solid comedy wrestler and has good chemistry with Yano).

Taichi pinned Henare and we heard from Taichi from yesterday's post match that he has potential challenges from Taguchi ( ), Henare (i am intrigued somewhat by this) and Liger. On paper that is a very weak list but its something, he also said he wanted to beat 'Display' (i.e. will ospreay) and said he has a challenger in mind, pulling some LIJ shenanigans here.

In the young lions match Umino pinned Tsuji, the pairings where interesting, once Oka and Kawato are back, i'm guessing Umino and Narita are off and Tsuji and Uemera will become the two stars of the young lion contingent in Japan. With Umino in particular,its clear the company do see him as the guy that probably takes over from Okada down the line (in about 7-8 years once Okada is at the end of his prime) but i think Narita is one to watch. I think he should go to the UK and Europe and train under someone there and learn the catch style and a technical based british style (he'd excel as a ZSJ or Gresham). In fact he's the same size and weight as ZSJ (both are very lanky) and Narita matched up nicely with ZSJ in their encounters. Umino's big challenge will be character work (he has charisma and fire, if he can channel that he'll be excellent, Mexico seems good for him, despite the fact he'll come back as a heavyweight). Hopefully though we start getting some more Lions gate projects again (those where interesting to say the least).

[Spens1]

BOSJ blocks are out and i'd say Block A is the stronger one.

Lee, Ishimori, Takagi, Scurll, Gresham and even SHO and Kanemaru. That is a strong block

B Block as well has Flip, Despy, Bandido, ELP, Ospreay,Bushi, Taguchi and YOH who will all have strong showings i am sure.

A BLOCK:

TAKA Michinoku

Titan

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Marty Scurll

Jonathan Gresham

SHO

Shingo Takagi

Dragon Lee

Taiji Ishimori

Tiger Mask


B BLOCK:

Robbie Eagles

Flip Gordon

El Desperado

Bandido

El Phantasmo

Will Ospreay

BUSHI

Ryusuke Taguchi

YOH

Rocky Romero

[Spens1]

What a month of wrestling so far.

BOSJ has been a damn good tornuament (Rocky Romero has been low key MVP so far, he needs to do more singles matches).

As for Juice's challenger, we already know who his challenger is:

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

Its only JON MOTHERF**KING MOXLEY.

Not going to lie, my jaw dropped when i saw this in my subscriptions and then marked out like a little child. By the way, the clue was their this entire time.

Either way, Juice is going to be beaten like a young boy.

Also whilst Jay White may be the gaijin ace replacement for Kenny, this guy is probably the gaijin superstar replacement for him (seriously, he's the biggest name by far from the foreigner contingent).

This is a great way to bolster the roster up.

This also has relationship implications for New Japan as well, i hope they pull the trigger on it and ditches ROH.

[Spens1]

BOSJ Finals and what a show it ended up being, proper PPV caliber event.

Shingo Takagi vs Will Ospreay (BOSJ FInals) - *****

I think it was the wrong call to have Ospreay go over (seriously, he's beaten Ibushi and Takagi this year, does he need any more rubs) but i get it since i doubt Dragon Lee drops the title so soon. We know Desperado was meant to go far (if not win) and i'd imagine Hiromu would have been one of the favourites had he been healthy. Either way, Shingo vs Ospreay over the NEVER Openweight title should be good (Shingo vs Ishii please, even Shingo vs Taichi would be fun).

Juice Robinson vs Jon Moxley (IWGP United States Championship) - ****3/4

This was a very very good match, probably the best of Robinson's career. This was a fight, plain and simple, an absolute brawl. They did what they needed to do. Moxley showing what he can do makes me excited (presuming he's going to be full time mostly until AEW hits TV) to see him against other brawlers like Ishii, Suzuki, Goto etc because what he delivered in the ring was night and day. Credit to Juice as well, i've been highly critical of his US title run but he really played the role of the underdog perfectly. He needs a good, 10-12 point+ G1 to really elevate him to a level higher than he is now.

Jay White vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - ****1/4

This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this was a very good old school match. White played the role of the heel perfectly and Tanahashi in his return match was the loveable babyface. White in this match reminded me of Tanahashi when he was the heel against Okada. Nice return and a win for White puts him back into the IWGP title picture (ahead of the Australian shows).

Other then that, mostly tag team matches, Okada, Naito, Ibushi all featured.

Jericho's video came out calling for Okada to come out and play with the 'painmaker' after their tag match. Okada then cut a promo on Jericho.

[Scott Hall]

BOSJ Finals and what a show it ended up being, proper PPV caliber event.

Shingo Takagi vs Will Ospreay (BOSJ FInals) - *****

I think it was the wrong call to have Ospreay go over (seriously, he's beaten Ibushi and Takagi this year, does he need any more rubs) but i get it since i doubt Dragon Lee drops the title so soon. We know Desperado was meant to go far (if not win) and i'd imagine Hiromu would have been one of the favourites had he been healthy. Either way, Shingo vs Ospreay over the NEVER Openweight title should be good (Shingo vs Ishii please, even Shingo vs Taichi would be fun).

Juice Robinson vs Jon Moxley (IWGP United States Championship) - ****3/4

This was a very very good match, probably the best of Robinson's career. This was a fight, plain and simple, an absolute brawl. They did what they needed to do. Moxley showing what he can do makes me excited (presuming he's going to be full time mostly until AEW hits TV) to see him against other brawlers like Ishii, Suzuki, Goto etc because what he delivered in the ring was night and day. Credit to Juice as well, i've been highly critical of his US title run but he really played the role of the underdog perfectly. He needs a good, 10-12 point+ G1 to really elevate him to a level higher than he is now.

Jay White vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - ****1/4

This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this was a very good old school match. White played the role of the heel perfectly and Tanahashi in his return match was the loveable babyface. White in this match reminded me of Tanahashi when he was the heel against Okada. Nice return and a win for White puts him back into the IWGP title picture (ahead of the Australian shows).

Other then that, mostly tag team matches, Okada, Naito, Ibushi all featured.

Jericho's video came out calling for Okada to come out and play with the 'painmaker' after their tag match. Okada then cut a promo on Jericho.

Ambrose is in NJPW now? damn I've been out of the loop

[improper]

Ambrose is in NJPW now? damn I've been out of the loop

The title win was his first match there. Sounds like he's probably gonna be a regular at least until AEW TV starts up.

[Scott Hall]

Ambrose is in NJPW now? damn I've been out of the loop

The title win was his first match there. Sounds like he's probably gonna be a regular at least until AEW TV starts up.

I wonder how much cross promotion stuff will be happening with AEW guys I think I remember hearing the
Lucha Brothers are gonna be working with them and continuing with their commitments to Impact Wrestling.
Cody, Omega, The Young Bucks, Jericho etc all have ties to NJPW as well.

[improper]

I wonder how much cross promotion stuff will be happening with AEW guys I think I remember hearing the
Lucha Brothers are gonna be working with them and continuing with their commitments to Impact Wrestling.
Cody, Omega, The Young Bucks, Jericho etc all have ties to NJPW as well.

They seem pretty open to letting their guys work elsewhere so long as they meet their AEW commitments. Which, to be honest, is how wrestling should be. If I were running a company, I'd want to lock certain top guys to exclusive television contracts (meaning they can work indie shows and make approved appearances with other promotions from time to time, but are largely exclusive) but let the bulk of the guys work elsewhere in addition to my promotion.

Then again, I'd also be totally willing to work with just about everyone because I think having fresh match-ups makes wrestling more fun. You could bring guys from other promotions in for limited runs with your company that both build them up and add some hype for your show. It's win-win so long as you book everyone respectfully.

Like, the Ambrose/NJPW relationship seems mutually beneficial. Ambrose gets a boost because he won a title on his first night, but now NJPW benefits from his presence because he's a big name coming off a WWE run. They will build him up for a couple of months before he puts someone else over on his way out the door. Everyone wins.

[Spens1]

I wonder how much cross promotion stuff will be happening with AEW guys I think I remember hearing the
Lucha Brothers are gonna be working with them and continuing with their commitments to Impact Wrestling.
Cody, Omega, The Young Bucks, Jericho etc all have ties to NJPW as well.

They seem pretty open to letting their guys work elsewhere so long as they meet their AEW commitments. Which, to be honest, is how wrestling should be. If I were running a company, I'd want to lock certain top guys to exclusive television contracts (meaning they can work indie shows and make approved appearances with other promotions from time to time, but are largely exclusive) but let the bulk of the guys work elsewhere in addition to my promotion.

Then again, I'd also be totally willing to work with just about everyone because I think having fresh match-ups makes wrestling more fun. You could bring guys from other promotions in for limited runs with your company that both build them up and add some hype for your show. It's win-win so long as you book everyone respectfully.

Like, the Ambrose/NJPW relationship seems mutually beneficial. Ambrose gets a boost because he won a title on his first night, but now NJPW benefits from his presence because he's a big name coming off a WWE run. They will build him up for a couple of months before he puts someone else over on his way out the door. Everyone wins.

Moxley is on a seperate contract with New Japan opposed to his AEW one (same deal is Jericho essentially). the Khan's are ok with them running around before they do TV so chances are Moxley may enter the G1 this year (i hope so, so many good matchups).

Moxley putting over someone, honestly that will be interesting to see who, cause he will be an AEW top guy for sure, so i'd imagine if Ibushi loses the IC title at Dominion, then he may be the one to go over Moxley eventually. If not him, it will be an upper tier wrestler like Sanada, EVIL or ZSJ (guys who will probably make that leap into world title contention next year, if not win the belt).

I do think however their is some understanding between New Japan and AEW (one deal is a coincidence, two deals like this is something going on). Especially with how ROH is and how MSG went as a show and ROH's lack of drawing power at all (leaving New Japan running the AA and probably only selling 6-7k there), i think they're going to eventually pair together.

[Spens1]

So Dominion just about finished off, one thing i do have to say, Gedo loves his rollups (cause he did it twice).

I missed Shota Umino vs Moxley and Shingo Takagi vs Satoshi Kojima. From what I know however, both Moxley and Takagi have declared for the G1 (meaning Takagi is going to Heavyweight and we're getting a Moxley New Japan run before AEW Tv starts).

First match I watched was the tag:

Liger & Yoshi Hashi vs Suzuki and Zach Sabre Jr:

Yoshi Hashi pinned ZSJ, i repeat, ZSJ was pinned by Yoshi freaking Hashi. As you can imagine, everyone was shocked, ZSJ went straight to attack Hashi but was dropped by him and went ballistic outside the ring (as one would when pinned by Yoshi Hashi). Other then that, pretty much your standard tag team affair with babyfaces vs heels. I still don't know what CHAOS is anymore as a faction, because it seems like an extension of hontai and hontai is already too damn big (seriously, CHAOS, GBH and the entire home team isn't a faction, its a mess).

Juice Robinson, Rysuke Taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Chase Owens, Taiji Ishimori & Jay White:

Main takeaways from this. Juice is different, very different, he's still a face for sure, but no more goofy Juice, this was all business Juice and he went to town on Chase Owens. He was very serious and looked like he was still reeling over his loss 4 nights ago at the BOSJ finals. It was a meaner Juice for sure.

The other thing was, Tanahashi looked broken and i don't mean just in kafaybe, he looked old. Tanahashi has had injury problems but i don't think i've seen him as bad as this. He looked like a broken New Japan dad, i have no idea how he will do G1 this year because if he does, he's going to come out the other side so beyond broken it won't be funny.

Again, nothing too out of the ordinary here for a tag team match between this lot and as per usual, Chase Owens took the pinfall (Bullet Club are another faction in need of some changes, they need a second in command cause Fale is rarely in Japan anymore and he's doing more backstage stuff for them and seems to be in the Rocky role for australasia almost).

NEVER Openweight Championship - Taichi vs Tomohiro Ishii - ****1/4

I stand by what i said, Ishii doesn't have bad matches with anyone. He may be the MVP of this entire company on the down low. Put him against anyone on the roster and he'll get at least a 4 star match out of them (he did it even with Yoshi Hashi). This match was way better then I expected it to be, it was quintessential strong style wrestling. It was a thing of beauty. Taichi showed his strong style chops and wrestled a clean match (mostly) but alas, he eventually fell to Ishii despite having the better of the exchanges i thought. Great stuff from these two.

IWGP Tag Team Championship - G.O.D vs EVIL and SANADA - **1/2

It was alright, a lot of shenanigans during this match but to be honest i didn't expect a lot. G.O.D got a rollup win (i don't like it but it makes sense since you want to protect EVIL and Sanada whilst also giving the double champs the W). Either way, they need new teams in this division ASAP (put Juice & Finlay in here along with Goto & someone).

Before the Jr Heavyweight Championship match, we had Shibata come out and i didn't know what it was for (also cause Shibata was forced to point for an eternity and look like an idiot ) until KENTA came out and said he was entering the G1. That got a massive pop as you would expect. I, along with most other people, thought he was returning to NOAH (and he still might) but it looks like we're getting a New Japan run instead. Looks like he will take up the mantle from Shibata in that hard hitting role (KENTA vs Ishii for the NEVER Openweight title please, Kenta vs Shingo, Kenta vs Goto, Kenta vs Makabe even).

Jr Heavyweight Championship - Dragon Lee vs Will Ospreay - ****3/4

This was absolutely amazing but at the same time, it was the ultimate in flippy ****. Lots of spots and counters which is great but you kind of see it happening. Either way, Ospreay continues to be on a roll, having won this match after the BOSJ. Also his matches have been all MOTN and MOTY candidates for a while. No Hiromu however sadly, but we do know that in Melbourne it will be him vs Eagles for the belt.

IWGP Intercontinental Championship - Kota Ibushi vs Tetsuya Naito - ****3/4

This was absolutely hard hitting and my MOTN. It was scary at times as well, i thought i saw Kota Ibushi die (no hyperbole, i mean actually die) which i'll admit did take me out of it for the next few minutes but the rest of it was good. It was that one spot however with the back suplex onto the ring apron. Other then that it was a really amazing matchup and probably the best of all their matches this year. It looks like Naito's wish to become a double champ is still alive.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - Kazuchika Okada vs Chris Jericho - ***1/4

I was sports entertained but not what i'd call a good matchup. Okada was surprisingly dissappointing in this one and Jericho looks over the hill when he didn't get to rely on simple brawling. There were stretches of good wrestling but it was rather sloppy and the replays didn't help overall. I did like the brawling aspect but when compared to the NEVER title match, this felt inferior in truth. The match also at the end had a really bad finish with Okada getting a roll up on Jericho. It led to Jericho attacking Okada post match and then Tanahashi making the save and Jericho calling him 'Bakahashi' which was pretty funny. Either way Tanahashi vs Jericho looks like it could happen, but honestly i'm not sure how good that will be given both men are in rough shape.

Overall, really good show minus a few blemishes here and there (tag team and main event i'd say).

[improper]

Gonna have to give this one a watch for the Ospreay, Ibushi, and Ishii matches sounds like.

[Spens1]

Gonna have to give this one a watch for the Ospreay, Ibushi, and Ishii matches sounds like.

The Ibushi match is not for the faint hearted though, it was legitimately frightening and i kind of get why people also hated it given it was freaking reckless (but in the context of the story it makes all the sense in the world, given they're willing to kill each other legit).

[Dominator83]

Gonna have to give this one a watch for the Ospreay, Ibushi, and Ishii matches sounds like.

The Ibushi match is not for the faint hearted though, it was legitimately frightening and i kind of get why people also hated it given it was freaking reckless (but in the context of the story it makes all the sense in the world, given they're willing to kill each other legit).

Yea man there's a reason why in Seth Rollins wrestling school, he doesn't allow teaching any apron bumps. Those are way too dangerous

[Spens1]

Gonna have to give this one a watch for the Ospreay, Ibushi, and Ishii matches sounds like.

The Ibushi match is not for the faint hearted though, it was legitimately frightening and i kind of get why people also hated it given it was freaking reckless (but in the context of the story it makes all the sense in the world, given they're willing to kill each other legit).

Yea man there's a reason why in Seth Rollins wrestling school, he doesn't allow teaching any apron bumps. Those are way too dangerous

Yeah Apron spots is where i'll draw a line also, it was like that Ospreay vs Scurll match last year (i think it was dominion) where they did the spanish fly off the apron and Ospreay bumped in a similar fashion, that time he got a massive head cut as well.

They had enough dangerous spots without having to resort to that, hell, a suplex to the floor would have been better, a freaking superplex to the floor would have made more impact and probably would have been safer (provided Ibushi doesn't decide to bump for it on his neck, which has a low likelihood).

[Spens1]

Anyway i thought about a way to fix the factions since it is a pet peeve of mine recently with New Japan and especially the face side of the roster (CHAOS is more or less dead and we've had half a year of mega seki-gun essentially):

- Disbandon CHAOS (storyline wise, idk how but maybe amicably do so)
- Reform G.B.H (poetic in a way, CHAOS started with the downfall of GBH, its revived with the death of CHAOS)
- Form another faction around Okada and Tanahashi (Okada as the ace and Tanahashi as the leader of the faction)

- GBH would be mainly about strong style wrestling and battles and test of strength (so probably more face, but occasionally tweenerish as well). Doesn't like the use of outside interference, are up for the brawls etc.

Great Bash Heel
Leaders: Togi Makabe & Toamaki Honma (both in truth would be
Ace: Kota Ibushi (if he is to be top 4, he needs to be a factional ace or leader, i think this is sort of faction is up his alley)
Other members: Tomohiro Ishii (2nd), Hirooki Goto (3rd), Henare (4th), Toru Yano (5th), Hirai Kawato (Jr Heavyweight), Robbie Eagles (Jr Heavyweight)

For Tana and Okada's faction, it would be more about the dignity of New Japan and modern New Japan wrestling and modern wrestling in general (not to say they'd not get on with GBH since both are face factions more or less). Essentially what Tanahashi's project of a faction he was talking about last year, i'm going with the operational name of GOLD (Golden standard, going after gold etc, idk either). They'd be up there in terms of factional strength lets face it (3 top heavyweights with some top junior talent). I'd have Juice and Finlay (when he returns) team up a lot more in between Robinson singles feuds.

GOLD
Leader: Hiroshi Tanahashi
Ace: Kazuchika Okada
Other Members: Juice Robinson (2nd), Yoshi Hashi (3rd), David Finlay (4th), Mikey Nicholls (5th), SHO & YOH (Jr tag team), Ryusuke Taguchi (Jr Singles), Rocky Romero (Manager/part time jr)

Notice two names left out (very deliberately) from this is Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles. with Ospreay looking to go to heavyweight sooner rather than later, i'd have them pay off the storyline from last year with the CHAOS spy (maybe that's the catalyst to the CHAOS breakup). Bullet Club has a big hole right now, they have Jay White, some strong juniors, a good tag team, then jobbers (Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi along with Hikuleo) and part timers (Fale). They lack a strong 2nd heavyweight and deputy to Jay White who can go after the U.S and NEVER openweight titles. Enter Ospreay, essentially he's too good to be a #3 in either and with GOLD that's what he'd be and its the same with GBH (though he may have a better chance of going higher). With Bullet Club not only would he be a strong #2, but with their merchandise reach in the west and Ospreay's popularity its a dream combo, White can be the heel leader who is loathed by everyone (Devitt) whilst Ospreay can be the smark favourite who has the flashy offense and is super cocky (Omega).

I'd have Eagles join GBH instead of GOLD however to provide the faction their second Jr Heavyweight. He's a much better face than heel (unlike Ospreay who is an amazing heel who will only get better).

Bullet Club:
Leader & Ace: Jay White
Other Members: Will Ospreay (2nd), Bad Luck Fale (3rd), Chase Owens (4th), Yujiro Takahashi (5th), Hikuleo (6th), G.O.D (Tag Team), El Phantasmo (Jr Heavyweight), Taiji Ishimori (Jr Heavyweight)

[improper]

Man, the match between Ospreay and Lee is goddamn crazy. Feels like it would have been right at home in any of the Lucha Underground finale shows.