Wrestle Kingdom 14 Preview - Will Ospreay NEEDS to lose and move to the Heavyweight Division

This year's Wrestle Kingdom is arguably the biggest in the history of New Japan. The now two night super card will have tons of great action, including the Double Gold Dash, Jushin Thunder Liger's final matches and the traditional NEVER 6-Man gauntlet match. But by far the most anticipated match is the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match between Will Ospreay and the returning Hiromu Takahashi, the latter of whom will wrestle his first singles match since breaking his neck at the G1 Special in San Francisco on July 7th, 2018.

While there is a great deal of hype surrounding the match, the outcome is already predictable for a sizeable portion of the audience - Hiromu Takahashi is 100% winning back the championship that he was forced to vacate last August. Even with the results of the 'Road to Tokyo Dome' shows which saw the Ticking Time Bomb lose all 3 of his matches (even being pinned in his return match by Robbie Eagles) and implied to the audience that Hiromu was not ready to challenge Ospreay after 530 days away from the ring; the prediction of Hiromu will be taking the championship still remains, and with good reason.

Will Ospreay has defeated practically everyone that the junior heavyweight division has had to offer. El Phantasmo, SHO, Rocky Romero, Dragon Lee, Marty Scurll, YOH, Ryusuke Taguchi, Robbie Eagles, DOUKI, Flip Gordon, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Jushin Liger, Amazing Red, Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, KUSHIDA and Bandido - the only exception being Taiji Ishimori. This poses the question of what he would do if he retained his championship after overcoming nearly every opponent.

The division faces the possibility of stagnation, especially considering Ospreay's increasing size, his publicly known aspiration to get to 100kg in body weight, and his participation in this year's G1 Climax, where he defeated KENTA, SANADA and Hiroshi Tanahashi - 3 heavyweights who were mainstays of the upper-midcard and main event scenes this year.

All of these factors may take away the credibility of a lot of future title contenders, which poses a problem for audiences, as they may not be able to be fully invested in stories Ospreay is involved in, as his booking for the last 2 thirds of the year has neared on invincible in singles competition in junior division matches - thus preventing the audience from investing in individuals who earn the right to challenge the Aerial Assassin.

Ospreay has proved he can hang with the top guys in the heavyweights, and has all the tools to succeed in a more diverse division, rather than sitting atop a division that he has clearly outgrown. The NEVER Openweight Championship run solidified the thoughts of many that it was time for the Sky King to move on, and the G1 campaign convinced to even more people that it was time for a change - a recently uninspiring Intercontinental Championship picture could be rebuilt among the likes of EVIL, SANADA, Kota Ibushi, Zack Sabre Jr, Hirooki Goto and Ospreay, thus offering the fans something different to the Heavyweight Championship, giving the belt a different dynamic and allowing the talent who the audience isn't quite yet invested in as main eventers to build themselves up and rebuild the prestige of a championship which has been recently seen as a prop to get closer to the "top championship".

The quality of talent in the current landscape of the junior division with the likes of Ryu Lee (Dragon Lee), El Phantasmo, Roppongi 3k (SHO and YOH) and Hiromu Takahashi all being signed on for at least the next year ultimately proves that the division doesn't need Ospreay anymore, as the return of Takahashi gives a charismatic leader with a unique wrestling style and unrivalled crowd connection that the company can build around, the position that Ospreay carried in Hiromu's absence.

Overall, I believe that there are positions that Ospreay could fill in the heavyweight division, which will be beneficial for a great deal of the roster in both weight classes. More investment and attention on junior matches with Hiromu and Lee as aces, the potential to re-establish the IC title as its own thing, and allowing Ospreay to fulfil the potential among the heavyweights that nearly everyone sees within him.

Where do you see Ospreay going after Wrestle Kingdom? Does he stay in the Junior division or make the transition to full-time heavyweight?

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