Opinion
Making The NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Relevant
The NEVER Openweight 6-man tag team championship. Let me ask you a few questions about this championship : How much do you care for it ? Do you even think it still has its place in the realm of New Japan ?
I wouldn’t ask you these questions if I thought that, at this point in time, they weren’t relevant. We are talking about the only championship that has, well, “never”, felt important. It just seems like the company, Gedo and the rest of the people involved in the booking decisions just don’t have any interest in making this championship as important as the other ones. Let me tell you, this is a shame, because the potential to make this champion feel like it actually matters in New Japan’s environment is there, really, right there. With that in mind, come with me, and let’s discuss how to make these belts feel relevant.
As usual, let’s start by putting some context in place, so we actually know what we’re talking about here. The NEVER 6-man tag tam championship has been created on December 21, 2015. The first trio of champions, made CHAOS members Toru Yano & The Briscoe Brothers, faced the Bullet Club trio of Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale and Yujiro Takahashi to claim the belts, at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Since then, a total of 14 different trios have held the championship, with Los Ingobernables de Japon’s EVIL, BUSHI & SANADA holding the most title reigns with three, the most defenses in one reign with three (shared with Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale and Tanga Loa). They also hold the record for the most combined days as champions, with 281 day. This last record being in danger, as the Guerillas of Destiny, two-third of the champions, have held the championship for 247 days and counting as these lines are written. Now, holding the championship for 228 days in one reign may seem long, but this is the only time since the championship was created that one trio held it for more than 200 days. In comparison, the championship have been held less than a month seven times, with twice only being for 24 hours.
These statistics now raise one question : How can anyone expect fans to believe a championship matter when there is almost no consistency with the championship reigns ?
Personally, I wonder. Putting the belts on one trio to take them away the next day or three weeks later does no help, towards the championship, and the wrestlers themselves. Also, the championship has never really been involved in any kind of major storyline, it feels like it’s just there for wrestlers to grab so they have some gold around their waists. Is that how a championship should be treated ?
Now that we went back at this history of the championship and laid down some stats, let’s actually see how New Japan can make it important. The most important thing to keep in mind is New Japan’s global environment. As you probably know if you read this, the New Japan landscape is composed of factions. To this day, we can count CHAOS, Los Ingobernables de Japon, Bullet Club, Suzuki-Gun, The Elite and Taguchi Japan. All of these groups have held the championship before, battling with members of other factions to become champions. The thing is, it has never been made official that this championship was about faction dominance. So, I say, make it all about just that. Since the championship currently doesn’t seem to have any purpose, give it something worth fighting for outside of just holding a title. Use your landscape to create actual faction warfare surrounding these belts. We might one day come back to factions and how well, and sometimes not so much, New Japan uses them, but putting the NEVER Openweight 6-man tag team championship at the center of the war between factions is, in my humble opinion, the best way to make it matter, to make it feel like it is important for the wrestlers. Therefore, fans, and most of us have a favourite New Japan faction, will actually want to see the faction they like the most hold this championship. The frustrating part being, at least for me, is that we had glimpses of what I call faction warfare surrounding these belts, but it seems like New Japan doesn’t fully engage itself on that road. (Take the last bout between the Young Bucks and Marty Scurll against GoD and Taiji Ishimori)
Now, some may tell me that holding championships, and by that I mean holding a lot of them, is a good way to showcase the dominance of factions, and I agree. I agree to some extent. Take the example of L.I.J during the earlier part of last year. Tetsuya Naito held the Intercontinental championship, Hiromu Takahashi held the Jr Heavyweight championship, and the trio of EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI held the NEVER Openweight 6-man tag team championship as well, with a span of 66 days of not holding the belts for the trio. Thanks for that Gedo, that little detail made total sense and was really useful. At the time, at least for me, it felt like LIJ was at the top of the world, the most dominant faction in New Japan. They not only had many belts, but they felt dominant, especially thanks to Naito and Takahashi’s reigns.
A counter-example I have in mind to show that holding a handful of championships doesn’t help a faction feeling dominant is Suzuki-Gun’s most recent tenure in New Japan. This year, Minoru Suzuki held the IWGP Intercontinental championship and the British Heavyweight championship, which was also held by Zack Sabre Jr earlier this year. Suzuki and Sabre also are the current holders of the RPW Undisputed British tag team championship. The leader of Suzuki-Gun even entered 2018 as IWGP NEVER Openweight champion. Taichi also claimed that championship for a while recently, and lastly, the duo of Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado have been IWGP Jr Heavyweight tag team champions since March 6th of this year. The problem, and again, this is only based on my point of view, is that the faction has never felt dominant. This is mainly due to booking, as if you compare both situations, the LIJ members held highly valued championships for a long time and were featured in high profile matches, as for the Suzuki-Gun members, they never really did, apart from Suzuki himself and Kanemaru & Desperado, but that specific issue concerning the Junior tag belts also deserves to be treated in an article of its own.
Therefore, I see the idea of making the NEVER Openweight 6-man tag team championship a faction dominance based championship a necessity, especially for a group like Suzuki-Gun. A group that has never, since coming back to New Japan last year, gained back the same amount of glory and dominance they had when they were exiled to Pro Wrestling NOAH a few years ago.
It would, obviously, help the other factions feeling like they are dominant, depending on how New Japan books their groups and which one they want to put at the top. In the end, this is all about creating interesting stories and giving people reasons to be invested, and you cannot let any part of what makes your roster down by not putting as much effort as you do for your main event stars.
As I now put an end to this article, feel free to share your opinion on this subject, that I consider to be more important than what it may seem. Tell me, what would you do to help make the NEVER Openweight 6-man tag team championship more relevant ? Would you shorten the name ? Would you even consider putting these belts away, thinking such a championship is worthless ?
Can the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Titles be saved, or thrown into the bin? Let us know on social media @theCHAIRSHOTcom and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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Opinion
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions
Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM
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About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY – Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY – Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY – The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY – Keeping the news ridiculous… The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
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SATURDAY – The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE’s PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS…IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O’Dowd’s 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
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About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
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Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
Opinion
AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams
AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.
It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.
At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!
#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?
First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.
Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.
That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.
#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.
Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.
The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.
As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.
So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.
#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.
I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.
Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…
Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.
Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?
About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast
CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!
Powered by RedCircle
Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!