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Shota Umino (2018)

100 PTS.



Shota Umino made major strides in his career as an NJPW young lion in 2018, putting up a strong record of 10-6-1 in singles matches and generally asserting himself as the top of their food chain after the departures of two of his seniors. With Hirai Kawato and Tomoyuki Oka both leaving for excursion during the year it left no question who the strongest young lion was in New Japan. Umino vanquished his closest contemporary, Ren Narita, in three straight singles matches to start the year, and newcomers Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura were quickly shown to be no match for him as well.

With the young lion pecking order firmly established Umino’s focus would turn to an outsider: Ayato Yoshida, a Kaientai Dojo trainee. The 26-year-old Yoshida brought more experience to the table (having debuted in November 2015 vs. April 2017 for Umino) and was able to translate that into victories in both a tag and singles match on Lion’s Gate shows in the spring, though Umino fought him surprisingly close. Yoshida soon settled into a similar young lion role, beginning to appear on more and more tours alongside Umino, and it was clear the two had developed a full-fledged rivalry. They would be opposite each other in many multi-man tags on the fall Destruction & Road to Power Struggle tours especially, but though Umino was often on the winning side he was never able to score a fall over Yoshida.

Then came a bit of a surprise: Umino would be in the 2018 World Tag League, and it would be with his rival Yoshida as his partner! This confirmed what many had long suspected- that New Japan had big plans for Umino, and that it viewed him as a heavyweight rather than a junior. Though Umino and Yoshida went winless in the WTL, as is tradition for young lions in a major tournament, they got to show promising signs of what they may be able to do going forward. The commentators even pushed the idea that Umino and Yoshida simply lacked chemistry as teammates, perhaps a subtle way to continue pushing a rivalry that may extend far into the future of New Japan Pro Wrestling.