New Japan’s first two United States shows are already a success. The G1 Special event weekend — which will include a tournament to crown the first IWGP United States Champion — was an instant sellout (twice), and fans are planning on flying in from all over the world to attend. New Japan’s profile has never been higher, and even though some top stars are questionable to compete due to injury, all the pieces are in place to make a big step toward NJPW’s planed California dojo and satellite promotion in 2018.
But New Japan is not holding anything back or pulling any punches for their first show, because they’re bringing pretty damn much everybody for these first two shows.
They’ve announced their full planned roster for these July shows and holy crap, hold on to your butts. (Via F4WOnline.)
NJPW —
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Michael Elgin
- KUSHIDA
- Jushin Thunder Liger
- Juice Robinson
- David Finlay
- Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
- Jay White
- Billy Gunn
- Yoshitatsu
Chaos —
- Kazuchika Okada
- Tomohiro Ishii
- Will Ospreay
- Rocky Romero & Trent Barreta
Los Ingobernables de Japon —
- Tetsuya Naito
- Hiromu Takahashi
- SANADA
- EVIL
- BUSHI
Suzuki-gun —
- Zack Sabre Jr.
ROH —
- Jay Lethal
- The Briscoes
- War Machine
CMLL —
- Dragon Lee
- Volador Jr.
- Titan
Bullet Club —
- Kenny Omega
- The Young Bucks
- Cody Rhodes
- Marty Scurll
- Bad Luck Fale
- Hangman Page
- Guerrillas of Destiny
- Yujiro Takahashi
If this is any indication of how New Japan’s California territory is going to go, this is an extremely good sign. Hopefully NJPW will learn from the lessons of Dragon Gate USA, which petered out in part because as the promotion went on, Dragon Gate sent fewer and fewer of their Japanese stars to the States, which were the stars that fans really wanted to see from a Dragon Gate-branded company.
As long as New Japan keeps sending their main roster stars in droves like this, 2018 might be a spectacular year for the company, and for fans everywhere.
