The NJPW Primer

Since there haven’t been any major events lately and there hasn’t been any concrete news about Hiromu Takahashi, Gabe Kidd or David Finlay as of yet, I figured I’d put together a quick (or not so quick) primer that tells the uninitiated many of the things they need to know about New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Basically, my wife asked me, “Why do you like this?” and I figured I would do this to help try to answer that question. It got a little out of hand.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a pro wrestling promotion that was founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, one of the most popular wrestlers in Japan at the time; Inoki is best known in the West for his controversial 1976 match with Muhammad Ali, which was roundly mocked for many years but is now generally viewed as something of a primordial mixed martial arts match.

NJPW is currently the third-oldest pro wrestling promotion in the world, behind only WWE (1953, arguably) and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL, 1933). It is the largest and most popular promotion in Japan, and is the fourth-largest promotion in the world, behind WWE, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and CMLL. Its major promotional partners include AEW, CMLL and England’s Revolution Pro Wrestling. NJPW is owned by Bushiroad, a Japanese company that produces trading card games. The legendary Hiroshi Tanahashi, an eight-time former IWGP heavyweight champion, is NJPW’s president.

NJPW is renowned for the high quality of its wrestling and its sports-like presentation, which foregoes the more ridiculous elements of Western pro wrestling – instead of telling stories via lengthy interviews and backstage segments, much of the storytelling is done in the ring and in press conferences after matches. For most of approximately the past 15 years (and for other periods before that), NJPW was generally understood to present the best in-ring wrestling in the world; in recent years, however, it has been surpassed by AEW, which was created in 2019 by a number of prominent former NJPW wrestlers and, to a degree, in NJPW’s image. Still, an NJPW-promoted match has won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Pro Wrestling Match of the Year award in three of the past four years and 11 of the past 14.

Divisions

There are two divisions in NJPW, and a third that doesn’t involve anyone who’s actually in the promotion.

Heavyweights: All wrestlers who are over 220 lbs are considered to be heavyweights. Wrestlers who are lighter than this can declare themselves to be part of the heavyweight division, but in doing so, they waive the opportunity to compete as junior heavyweights. Zack Sabre Jr. is an example of a wrestler who is under 220 who has chosen to compete as a heavyweight.
Junior heavyweights: Wrestlers who are under 220 lbs are part of the junior heavyweight division unless they declare otherwise. They can also challenge for openweight championships and technically can challenge for heavyweight titles, but are very rarely successful in doing so. Despite this, the skill and athleticism of NJPW’s junior heavyweights have historically helped to set it apart from other promotions in Japan and elsewhere.
Women: NJPW has a women’s championship, so technically it has a women’s division, but the only woman who is considered a part of the promotion’s roster is Mercedes Mone, who mostly appears on its U.S. shows. All the other women who periodically compete on NJPW shows are part of World Wonder Ring Stardom, or just Stardom, a women’s promotion that is also owned by Bushiroad.

Championships

As is the case in most wrestling promotions, NJPW’s “competition” is based on championships, and it has a lot of them. The oldest of them only date to the mid-’80s because, prior to that, NJPW was in a promotional partnership with the WWF (now WWE) and tended to use surplus WWF championships instead of titles created especially for NJPW.

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: This is the promotion’s top championship, and it typically revolves around its biggest stars. It was introduced in 1987 after a similar provisional title existed for a few years prior. The current champion is Yota Tsuji.
- By the way, what is “IWGP”? When NJPW was created, Inoki also created a governing body called the International Wrestling Grand Prix, or IWGP, because it suggested legitimacy in an era when that was still valued, since combat sports were typically governed by bodies such as these. It’s not a real thing, but it’s a valued part of NJPW history.
IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: This title was introduced in 2024, although its predecessor title, the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, dates back to 2017. For its first two years, it served as the promotion’s secondary heavyweight title, but upon winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, current champion Yota Tsuji declared that it henceforth would be primarily defended against wrestlers from other promotions.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Introduced in 1986, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship is for wrestlers who weigh less than 220 pounds. DOUKI is the current champion.
NEVER Openweight Championship: This title was introduced in 2012, and while its distinctive feature is that it is an openweight title, meaning that both heavyweights and juniors can challenge for it, it has spent most of its existence as the promotion’s “BMF” title. Only one junior has ever held the title – Will Ospreay, in 2019. Ren Narita is the current champion.
- By the way, what is NEVER? NEVER (“New blood, Evolution, Valiantly, Eternal, Radical” – seriously) was originally conceived as a developmental sub-promotion of NJPW, but it never really got off the ground, ending after 11 shows in 2012. The title remains, though.
STRONG Openweight Championship: This is another openweight title, and its other defining characteristic is that it has thus far only been defended on NJPW shows in the United States. Tomohiro Ishii is the current champion.
- By the way, what is STRONG? STRONG (not an abbreviation, thank goodness) was another attempt at a sub-promotion, this one established in the U.S. at NJPW’s L.A. dojo in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The promotion was discontinued in 2023, around the same time the L.A. dojo closed, though the STRONG branding was subsequently used for the promotion’s U.S.-based pay-per-views.
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: This title was established in 2016, and it has largely existed to give the lower carders something to do. However, during the pandemic, the CHAOS team of Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI and Tomohiro Ishii had a 454-day title reign that included numerous fantastic matches that were among the highlights of the era. Goto, YOSHI-HASHI and Boltin Oleg are the current champions.
NJPW World TV Championship: This title was established in 2022, and its defining characteristic is that all title defenses have a 15-minute time limit and are posted on YouTube. (All other NJPW title matches have 60-minute time limits and are decidedly not posted on YouTube.) El Phantasmo is the current champion.
IWGP Women’s Championship: This title was established in 2022 to help promote Bushiroad’s women’s promotion, Stardom, on NJPW shows. The current champion is Syuri.
STRONG Women’s Championship: This title was established in 2023 and was originally meant to be defended exclusively in the U.S. However, as the STRONG brand was de-emphasized, it made its way to Japan and is now primarily contested there. Syuri also holds this title; interestingly, while the IWGP and STRONG Women’s championships have not been formally combined, Syuri is only defending the IWGP title and not the STRONG title at The New Beginning USA, which is the opposite of what one might presume.
IWGP Tag Team Championship: This is the oldest championship in NJPW, dating back to 1985. Tag team wrestling has not been a particularly highly emphasized part of NJPW in quite some time, and the prestige of this title was at a low ebb until late last year, when the Knockout Brothers – OSKAR and Yuto-Ice – took the division by storm, winning the title (which they still hold) and significantly raising the level of competition.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: This title was established in 1998, and the competitors must all be under 220 lbs to compete. The notion that tag team wrestling has been somewhat de-emphasized in NJPW extends to this title, although the current champions, Ichiban Sweet Boys – Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita – have been together long enough to be considered an established team. Hopefully, some of the magic that has been worked on the tag team division can extend to here.
STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championship: This title was established in 2022 and, like the other STRONG championships, was originally meant to be defended in the U.S. The titles are currently in CMLL with Los Hermanos Chavez – Angel de Oro and Niebla Roja.

Tournaments

NJPW promotes five annual tournaments that make up the significant portion of its annual schedule. Winning one of them is considered to be extremely prestigious, roughly the equivalent of winning a major championship.

New Japan Cup: The first tournament of the year is the New Japan Cup, a single-elimination tournament for heavyweights that was established in 2005 and is staged in March. The winner earns an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match, which typically takes place at Sakura Genesis in early April. Notably, the IWGP Heavyweight Champion sits this one out; however, the champions almost always compete in all the other tournaments.
Best of the Super Juniors: This is a round-robin tournament for junior heavyweights that typically features 20 wrestlers in two blocks and takes place in May. It was established in 1988 (as Top of the Super Juniors), and is considered one of NJPW’s top events of the year, as the promotion has long prided itself on the quality of its junior heavyweight wrestling.
G1 Climax: This is the heavyweight round-robin tournament, and it is generally the highlight of the year for NJPW. Like Best of the Super Juniors, it typically features 20 wrestlers in two blocks, though it has been expanded several times in the past. (Expanding the field has been shown to be a bad idea, since it tends to dilute it and makes highlights fewer and farther between.) It was established in 1991, but its predecessor tournaments – the World Cup Tournament, the IWGP League, the MSG League and the World League – date back to 1974. It takes place in July and August. The winner receives an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match, but it’s important to understand that winning the G1 Climax is viewed as an enormous achievement in and of itself.
Super Junior Tag League: This is the round-robin junior tag team tournament, and unfortunately, it’s usually a bit of an afterthought, since established junior tag teams are few and far between in NJPW. The field for this tournament is generally smaller than the others (the 2025 tournament had 12 teams), so it tends to be shorter and, therefore, has less gravity about it. The tournament dates back to 2010 and usually takes place in late October and early November, with the finals occurring at Power Struggle. The winners get a title shot, which often takes place at Wrestle Kingdom.
World Tag League: This is the round-robin heavyweight tag team tournament, and it usually includes 16 teams in two blocks. Due to the fact that it takes place in November and December, it tends to also serve as something of a “Road to” tour for Wrestle Kingdom. The tournament has had several names over the years and dates back to 1980. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, the winners get an IWGP Tag Team Championship match, traditionally at Wrestle Kingdom, although in 2026, the 2025 winners (Zack Sabre Jr. and Ryohei Oiwa) got their title match as the main event of New Year Dash!! the next day.

Schedule

The NJPW schedule does not change much from year to year. Prior to the pandemic, it had a rhythm to it that helped keep the product fresh by featuring different wrestlers at different intervals; since then, it’s become a lot busier, since the promotion needs to run more shows with bigger matches in order to make money, as NJPW is primarily a live event company. Here’s a quick look at how the schedule stands now.

Wrestle Kingdom (January 4): This is NJPW’s biggest show of the year, held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo on January 4 as part of the New Year’s week celebrations in Japan. From 2020 to 2022, Wrestle Kingdom was a two-day event; prior to the pandemic, Wrestle Kingdom shows had gotten preposterously long, and the 2020 show featured the retirement of Jushin “Thunder” Liger, so it was used as an experiment to see if a two-day event would work. Since then, WWE has adopted the two-day format for Wrestlemania, although NJPW has largely abandoned it, since NJPW fans tended to choose one day rather than attend both, and the second day’s crowds tended to be much smaller than the first’s. In 2025, it was paired with a second dome show in Wrestle Dynasty, a show co-promoted by AEW, and the company ran into the same attendance issue as before; that show was originally meant to be a second day of Wrestle Kingdom and Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement show, but Tanahashi decided to wrestle for another year, so the second day of the show was re-branded.
New Year Dash!! (January 5): This is traditionally a “mystery vortex” show where no matches are announced in advance; it is usually a low-key, celebratory follow-up to Wrestle Kingdom, and it sometimes establishes storyline directions for the coming months. It is typically held at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo; prior to 2020, it was held at Korakuen Hall, but fans complained about how difficult it was to get tickets, so the show was moved to the larger venue.
The New Beginning (February 11): There are often multiple New Beginning shows, but the main one is held on or around February 11 – National Foundation Day in Japan – in Osaka at EDION Arena.
Fantasticamania (February): This is a short tour that is co-promoted with CMLL. The shows mostly feature CMLL talent, along with a small handful of NJPW wrestlers, mostly juniors, and don’t tend to feature ongoing storylines.
Anniversary Event (Early March): This show celebrates NJPW’s founding, and it is held at the Ota City General Gymnasium, which replaced the Ota Ward Gymnasium, where the first NJPW show was held on March 6, 1972. It is typically a low-key event that mostly functions as a preview for the New Japan Cup, although this year, for the first time, it is actually part of the New Japan Cup tour. Traditionally, the main event was an exhibition match between the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, although that has changed in recent years.
New Japan Cup (March)
Sakura Genesis (Early April): This show is held at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, and the main event typically features the IWGP champion against the winner of the New Japan Cup.
Wrestling Dontaku (Early May): This show is held at the Fukuoka Convention Center in Fukuoka as part of the city’s Hakata Dontaku festival during Japan’s Golden Week celebration.
Best of the Super Juniors (May – June)
Dominion (Mid June): This show is held in Osaka at Osaka-jo Hall, and it is generally viewed as the promotion’s second-most-important show of the year.
G1 Climax (July – August)
G1 Climax Final (Mid August): Though it is the conclusion of the G1 Climax tournament, this show is also understood to be the promotion’s third-most-important show of the year. It is held at one of the major arenas in Tokyo, usually Sumo Hall, although last year’s show was at Ariake Arena.
Destruction (Late September): This show is generally held in Kobe at Kobe World Hall and is often headlined by the IWGP Heavyweight Champion wrestling someone who beat him in the G1 Climax tournament.
King of Pro-Wrestling (Mid October): This show is held in Tokyo at Sumo Hall. Each of the past two years, it has featured the G1 Climax winner challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, a match that was traditionally held at Wrestle Kingdom before 2024.
Super Junior Tag League (October – November)
Power Struggle (Early November): This show is typically held in Osaka at EDION Arena, and it’s an important show because the creative direction for the major matches at Wrestle Kingdom is usually set here. (Power Struggle was replaced in 2025 by Tanahashi Final Homecoming in Gifu, Tanahashi’s home prefecture, but likely will be back this year.)
World Tag League (November – December)

Factions

NJPW’s wrestlers are sorted into factions, which helps determine matchups and feuds. Here’s a look at the factions in NJPW.

Hontai

Aaron Wolf, Alex Zayne, Boltin Oleg (NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion), El Desperado, El Phantasmo (NJPW World TV Champion), Hirooki Goto (NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion), Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jado, KUSHIDA, Kevin Knight, Masatora Yasuda, Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi , Satoshi Kojima, Shota Umino, TAKA Michinoku, Taichi, Tatsuya Matsumoto, Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii (STRONG Openweight Champion), Toru Yano, YOH, YOSHI-HASHI (NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion), Yuji Nagata, Yuya Uemura

Hontai isn’t really a faction, per se, but rather the “main unit,” where wrestlers are grouped if they aren’t in other factions. Unlike with the actual factions, Hontai members frequently wrestle each other outside of tournament settings, and they don’t typically have each other’s backs, like members of a more conventional faction would (which is why they’re locked in an endless feud with the House of Torture – the House getting away with their cheating makes considerably less sense if their opponents’ bros are around). In fact, some Hontai wrestlers have static with others in the group – for example, El Desperado got so annoyed with the other juniors in Hontai last year that he recruited an outsider, KUUKAI, to be his partner in the junior tag tournament. On the other hand, there are a few unofficial sub-factions who do defend each other, including the Goto Revolutionary Army (Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, YOH and Matsumoto) and Team 150 (Ishii, Taichi and Kojima).

While it might seem like there are a lot of guys in Hontai, it’s worth noting that several of them are in the twilight of their careers and are still around largely to work with the younger wrestlers; these include Tenzan, Kojima, Tiger Mask, Makabe, Honma and Nagata, who are colloquially known as the “NJPW dads.” Notably, Tiger Mask has announced that he will retire later in 2026, and it’s not difficult to envision some of the other dads doing the same in the somewhat near future – particularly Tenzan, who has been battling severe ankle injuries for years and hasn’t wrestled since April 2025.

TMDK

Zack Sabre Jr. (Leader), Bad Dude Tito, Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion), Mikey Nicholls, Robbie Eagles (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion), Ryohei Oiwa, Shane Haste

TMDK (“The Mighty Don’t Kneel”) was established as a faction in NJPW in 2023, but prior to that, it was primarily the team of Haste and Nicholls and existed in several promotions, most notably Pro Wrestling NOAH. This might look like a somewhat sizable faction, but, in fact, Tito, Haste and Nicholls have not appeared in NJPW in Japan in over a year (much to the consternation of Sabre). TMDK is a babyface faction with a light “punk” gimmick, and it has been hugely successful, particularly in the past year – in 2025, Sabre held the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship twice, Fujita and Eagles won the Junior Tag Team Championship, Fujita won the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and Sabre and Oiwa won the World Tag League. Already in 2026, Sabre, Oiwa and Jackson have held the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Championship, and Fujita and Eagles have again won the Junior Tag Team Championship.

United Empire

Callum Newman (Leader), Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, HENARE, Jake Lee, Jakob Austin Young, Templario, Zane Jay

United Empire is, somehow, the oldest faction in NJPW. It was founded in late 2020 by Will Ospreay and spent much of its existence as a babyface faction, but Ospreay left for AEW in 2024 and United Empire almost ceased to exist in 2025 due to the departures of Jeff Cobb (now J.C. Mateo in WWE) and TJP and serious injuries to HENARE and Akira. At one point in 2025, the faction only had three healthy members in Japan. However, during the 2025 World Tag League tournament, the faction turned heel, renewed its long-term feud with the War Dogs (and, by extension, Unaffiliated, the combination of which is now Unbound Co.) and subsequently added Jake Lee and AEW’s Andrade el Idolo to its ranks. Additionally, at New Year Dash!! on January 5, Ospreay vowed to return to NJPW later in 2026 to help Newman rebuild the faction, thus teasing a feud with Newman, his “little bro.”

House of Torture

Ren Narita (Leader, NEVER Openweight Champion), Chase Owens, DOUKI (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion), Dick Togo, Don Fale, SANADA, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi

The House of Torture is the turd in the punchbowl of NJPW. Officially founded in 2021 as a sub-faction of Bullet Club and forced to be independent in 2025 via a loss to the War Dogs, the House’s “brand” is that it is a heel faction that cheats excessively and, at least semi-intentionally, has terrible matches. This does engage live crowds, especially when they get hoisted by their own petard, but it can be a lot for viewers who aren’t present in the arena, especially when it’s in numerous matches on the same show. Narita was recently elevated to leader due to the departure of faction founder, EVIL, and the long-term injury absence – and possible departure – of SANADA. As a result, the House is currently in pretty rough shape on the heavyweight side, as Fale, Takahashi and Owens are deeply unserious presences on the roster at this point in their careers.

Unbound Co.

Yota Tsuji (Leader, IWGP Heavyweight Champion, IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion), Clark Connors, Daiki Nagai, David Finlay, Drilla Moloney, Gabe Kidd, Gedo, OSKAR (IWGP Tag Team Champion), Robbie X, Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori, Titan, Yuto-Ice (IWGP Tag Team Champion)

Unbound Co. is the newest faction in NJPW; it was founded on January 5, 2026, combining the Bullet Club War Dogs (Finlay, Connors, Moloney, Kidd, Gedo, OSKAR, Robbie X, Ishimori and Yuto-Ice) with the faction that was semi-officially known as Unaffiliated (Tsuji, Takagi, Titan, Nagai and Hiromu Takahashi, who has since left the promotion), who were the remnants of the Los Ingobernables de Japon faction. If it seems like there are a lot of guys in this faction, there are, but Finlay, Connors and Kidd may not be continuing with NJPW, and with Takahashi already leaving, you can probably understand why those two factions were combined. This is a babyface faction, despite the presence of some guys like Finlay and Gedo who are traditionally heels, and it is almost certainly the most important faction in the promotion, since Tsuji is apparently its new ace and the Knockout Brothers – Yuto-Ice and OSKAR – are unquestionably its hottest act.

Training

NJPW’s in-house training mechanism is certainly among the most successful in the wrestling world. Here is a quick look at how it works.

The Noge Dojo: When prospective wrestlers are accepted by the promotion, they move into the Noge Dojo in Tokyo, where they live and train as “Young Boys” with older wrestlers such as Yuji Nagata, Hiro Saito and Super Strong Machine. (During a couple of periods in its history, NJPW has also operated a dojo in Los Angeles, but it most recently closed in 2023. Now, they operate a more basic wrestling school in the U.S. known as the NJPW Academy, which is currently run by KUSHIDA; Zane Jay is a graduate of this program.) After an indeterminate amount of time – usually at least a year, sometimes much longer – the Young Boys graduate and become…
Young Lions: At this point, the trainees begin working matches at NJPW shows. They are allowed to wear only black trunks and black boots, and initially, their heads are shaved. (You can often tell how long a Young Lion has been a Young Lion by the length of his hair.) Their wrestling is intentionally kept extremely basic, so as to stress fundamentals, and if there are veteran wrestlers in the match, the Young Lions will never beat them. The current Young Lions in NJPW are Masatora Yasuda, Daiki Nagai and Tatsuya Matsumoto, and Taisei Nakahara is debuting on March 4. After graduating as Young Lions, these wrestlers typically leave on…
Excursion: Traditionally, the graduating Young Lions are sent to partner promotions around the world to work on their characters and broaden the horizons of their wrestling. In years past, excursions would involve trips to many different promotions and take years to complete, although in recent years, the timeline for this has been compacted a bit, since the promotion has a more glaring need for new talent now that it is having trouble retaining foreigners. Some wrestlers don’t go on excursion – Kosei Fujita is a recent example of this, as is David Finlay – but this is relatively rare. Nowadays, heavyweights are typically sent to NJPW’s partner promotions in Europe – RevPro in England and Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) in Germany – while juniors generally go to CMLL. Two Young Lions have recently been sent on excursion – Katsuya Murashima was sent to wXw earlier this month, while Shoma Kato is leaving for CMLL after the Fantasticamania tour.