Japanese legend Jushin Thunder Liger released his latest column with Tokyo Sports hyping up this January’s WrestleKingdom 16, which Liger spoke about at length, specifically the NJPW vs. NOAH portion of the show and his thoughts on Will Ospreay challenging for the world championship. Highlights can be found below.
Thinks WrestleKingdom will determine Ospreay’s life as a wrestler and his position in NJPW:
Ospreay, who will appear [on January 5th], hasn’t been to Japan for a while, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he’s changed. He has been saying, ‘I’m the champion’ without admitting that he’s not going to return to the ring, and maybe the company wants to make it black and white in the ringBut of course, this is no fun for the other fighters. They wondered, ‘Why him all of a sudden?’ Ospreay has no choice but to prove that he is who he say he is by winning, and in a sense, this is a big gamble; I think this will be a hot main event that will determine his life as a wrestler and his position in New Japan.
What he wants from the NOAH vs. NJPW showdown on night three of WrestleKingdom:
In my personal opinion, I would like to see a match with EVIL if he is a genius like Naomichi Marufuji. It would be fun to see how he would do against a rough and tumble opponent who also has seconds. Of course, Keiji Muto is also worth watching. I’m sure New Japan will have someone worthy of him, but I’m close to his age, so I’m hoping he can hold his own. He’s in a different organization now, but I think he’ll still want to do his best. I think it would be interesting to work with new wrestlers, and since he has a lot of stories to tell, I’d like to see him work with Hiroshi Tanahashi or SANADA. I’d like to see him in a singles match with Hiroshi Tanahashi or SANADA. I’m also interested in who Kenoh will be fighting. I think Tetsuya Naito would be interesting. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how Naito would take on a guy who is good at striking? They are both anti-establishment, or have similar colors. Naito’s career has become much thicker in the past five years. I’d like to see him show off his depth against other organizations.