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SHO (2018)

131 Pts.



SHO worked his first Best of the Super Juniors this year, which were his first NJPW singles matches since January 3, 2016.

At 29, SHO is a little older than you might think. He got a little bit of a late start in 2012 at age 23, then spent seemingly forever as a young lion before finally leaving for excursion in 2016. By the time he left, along with YOH(ei Komatsu), they were already better workers than a good chunk of the roster.

He’ll forever be linked to YOH. They’ve wrestled 162 matches together, which includes an astounding 51 singles matches. I thought Komatsu was always slightly ahead of Tanaka when they were lions, but the difference was negligible. Now, I prefer SHO, who is clearly the more charismatic and explosive wrestler.

At 5’8” 205, he’s borderline in terms of possibly moving up to heavyweight someday. Unlike YOH, who strikes me as a good, solid junior who can be the second junior in a good unit, SHO comes off like more of a potential star. I could easily see him as a junior ace, but I’m intrigued by his potential as a heavyweight. Size is the only barrier because he already works like one.

Roppongi 3K has at least another year together before we can seriously think about what they do post-breakup. By then, SHO is around 31, and if he’s in line for any kind of significant singles push, there will be signs. At this stage, they tend to split falls pretty evenly, as remarkably, both finished the year at -3 in fall differential, which is so symmetrical that you almost feel like it was done on purpose. They both had a 3-4 record in Super Juniors.