Evil turning on his Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) unit mates at the New Japan Cup Finals in favor of the Pure Heel Bullet Club faction and winning the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental ‘Double Championship’ from Tetsuya Naito at Dominion resulted in the most shocking two day periods in recent New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) history.
Despite pushback from some fans from English speaking countries, the buzz following Evil’s victory after winning the New Japan Cup was tremendous — beginning a major trend on the social media platform, Twitter.
Evil’s Arc Towards The IWGP Heavyweight Championship
The first major hint that NJPW had significant plans for Evil came during G1 Climax 27 when he defeated Kazuchika Okada on August 5, 2017 during his historic fourth reign as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, in a performance that ‘made’ Evil into a real threat to compete against those in marquee positions within NJPW.
The second indication came when Evil was the v1 challenge against the at the time IWGP Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho during Power Struggle. Despite Evil failing to win the championship, his match with Jericho furthered his impression among wrestling fans in North America.
In a bit of poetry, these two matches and his recent championship victory against LIJ leader all came in the city of Osaka. His G1 Climax 27 victory against Okada and his loss to Jericho both took place inside Edion Arena Osaka, while his victory against Naito took place in the Osaka Jo Hall.
This narrative along with the consistency of the Cold Darkness tag team (w/Sanada) that captured two World Tag League trophies, leading to their two IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship reigns, showed how highly thought Evil is among those handling the creative direction in NJPW.
How Evil As Champion Changes The NJPW Landscape
With Evil taking the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental ‘Double Championship’ from Naito, it puts NJPW in a unique position where their biggest marquee draws are now vying for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, making the ‘chase’ to become champion the most interesting it has been since NJPW began its international expansion in 2011.
While some detractors in western nations claimed Gedo/Jado decided to give Evil the ‘Double Championship’ without any thought, that is not the case. Naito, Okada, Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenta, and Jay White are all vying for the championship — while a clear narrative exists between Evil and his former partner Sanada. Evil becoming champion opens numerous fresh stories, and will likely play a role in NJPW’s continued expansion within the United States.
Bullet Club original Tama Tonga has already hinted at the group splitting into a Japan and US brand with Evil leading the branch based in Japan. He also questioned Kenta and Jay White for not congratulating Evil for his victory over Naito, in what was a clever use of his Tama’s Island podcast.
He defends the ‘Double Championship’ against Hiromu Takahashi on July 25th at Sengoku Lord, continuing what is likely to be a long program between him and his former LIJ unit mates.
