For the entire New Japan Cup tour, we have heard about the coming debut of The Grandmaster. Everyone knew this was going to be Hirai Kawato, a promising young lion who spent his excursion in Mexico with CMLL to mixed results. He didn’t mesh well with the lucha libre style, and worked poorly as a heel. However, this time is through, and now he’s back in NJPW with a new look and name. He is now Master Wato, complete with blue hair and matching blue gear. Ready to rejoin and dominate the Junior Heavyweight division, he had one chance to make a first impression, and it fell flat.
Master Wato Came Off As A Joke
His look to say the least, came off as cheap and goofy. The hype promos leading to his debut gave the same impression. However, maybe when he finally showed up, everything would click. Midway through Night Eight of the 2020 New Japan Cup, Master Wato would make his way down to the ring.
He’d grab the microphone, and before he could complete his return promo, he’d be run down by Douki of Suzuki-Gun, who would beat him down with a pipe. At the very least this sets up a match for Dominion, where Master Wato will hopefully wipe the floor with the lowest grunt of Suzuki-Gun.
New Japan Didn’t Want To Wait For A Crowd
While NJPW has been running hype promos for Master Wato all tour, they would debut him a mere week from their first show with a crowd again. While this odd segment set up his first match to be infront of the 33% crowd of Dominion, few were clamouring for a Douki match at the event. This was a terrible way to introduce this new character to the brand, and doing it on a crowdless show just felt bizarre at best. The whole thing felt like a fever dream, and we can only help Master Wato wins us all over in the ring come Dominion.
Do you think the debut of Master Wato was done to it’s best effect? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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