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sana-yan · 2 years ago

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OP, you're on the money! SANADA was also an AJPW disciple as well. In a way, their terms in Los Ingobernables and Suzuki-gun also mirror their previous personas prior to Just 5 Guys.

(long meta under the cut, apologies!)

SANADA's entrance into NJPW was to back Naito, helping Naito win over Okada by cheating in Invasion Attack 2016. His literal storyline was for Naito to win the gold, and his supporting role in LIJ was cemented from the get-go.

As for Taichi, the Suzuki-gun of the early '10s didn't have the popularity it did now (one he cultivated with ZSJ and Desperado, but that's meta for another time), due to rampant cheating and sneaky attacks, he was seen just as one of Suzuki's goons.

Both of them fell in line with their "charismatic" leaders, those who had the drive and the support of the group to succeed in their endeavors. Interestingly enough, to survive in LIJ and SZKG, you had to be a self-starter to truly flourish, because both leaders weren't going to hold your hand. Naito and Suzuki are leaders of the "hands-off" approach, which left both SANADA and Taichi to kind of slot themselves into comfort zones and deteriorate into apathy.

Taichi's was a quick descent where he just wouldn't have a regular match for years, and he got rightly deserved "Taichi, go home" chants, whereas SANADA's been slow-burning until he had no more fuel in the tank to the point that his own LIJ members (Naito especially) remarked about his indifference in recent years.

The one thing that changed for Taichi was the responsibility he felt when he became tag partner to Zack and his ascent into the heavyweight division in early 2018. Funnily enough, his proving ground was against Naito in a singles competition!

Taichi was forced to care because he had people depending on his success for their careers to advance. And if there's a secret soft spot in Taichi's character, it's his loyalty to the well-being of his tag partners (Milano Collection A.T., TAKA, ZSJ) and not bringing them down along with him. His faction looking to him for guidance when Murder Grandpa was away was a sink-or-swim moment, and Taichi realized he wasn't alone among his peers.

He had never gotten that camaraderie from his mentor Kawada (even when he followed Kawada and exited from AJPW to be in Kawada's HUSTLE promotion, only for the promotion to close prematurely and for him to try to find luck in the indies since Kawada wouldn't take him), from his leader (though Suzuki changes his tune eventually), and when he did find a connection (Milano), their in-ring relationship all disappeared with a career-ending injury.

With the support of his faction and his own vigor in rediscovering his drive to put in all of his efforts to care, he got the heavyweight tag titles with Zack. He elevated those belts and had some great singles bouts against Cobb, Ishii, Ibushi, Takagi, and IMO Naito, and Ospreay. His storyline really is the greatest belt is "the friends we made along the way."

Contrast that with SANADA and how LIJ is (un)governed by Naito. I like to affectionately call them a talented band of geniuses, because that's who they all are, essentially. All of them are decorated members when they joined from the start, minus Hiromu, who Naito had always kept an eye on to initiate him into his stable and thrust him into greatness. You could even say that it paid off; Hiromu is a savant, considering his record with NJPW Jr.'s scene. Even newer members, Takagi and Titan, are high-profile gets.

And while that's cool and all and everyone drips in gold blah blah LIJ is money, that's also kind of the issue I had with Naito's reasoning that "if you can't shine in LIJ, you can't shine elsewhere." LIJ expected their members to be top-tier, and while they certainly enjoyed each other's company, there was the underlying expectation that you should elevate yourself on your own and not disturb the group. LIJ was an exclusive club spearheaded by Naito, as he said, "It's hard to get in, easy to get out." So being in LIJ was a privilege in itself.

There is distance and disconnect within LIJ as a whole when it came to individual struggles (withholding Hiromu's injury because Hiromu is the baby of the group). I might have to refresh my memory but LIJ evolved away from seconding Naito in his big matches, and IIRC, Naito didn't second his members in return in their big matches.

Sanada gave 7 years to LIJ, and now he's 35. He's the same age as Okada, inarguably The Ace of all of NJPW at the moment. Naito, his leader, was younger than Sanada when founded LIJ and became their de facto ace. His mentor, Mutoh, chose Naito over his own student for his retirement match. The sting has got to be real. The doubt has got to be real.

And although LIJ members have noticed Sanada's disappointing matches and how he's getting pinned, none of them have stepped up to bring their checked-out stablemate back into the fold. Since they're all so individualistic and involved in their own goals, they don't really need Sanada to change. In my interpretation of NJPW's factions, LIJ isn't the found family that people like to say they are. They're cool work buddies who got together to be stupidly wonderfully talented together (withholding Hiromu because Hiromu is the baby of the group and he has a special connection to Naito the others don't have and will never have, tbh.)

As a matter of fact, I'd say that Suzuki-gun, right before its disbandment, was the true found family. No one came into SZKG with an "Ace" status outside of ZSJ and Suzuki himself. In fact, all of them have been the pin-eaters, the losers, the overlooked ones. They're good, but never the "talented geniuses." They're the scrappy underdog tweeners.

They fought each other because Suzuki ruled on might but they also found support in each other. They stopped cheating. They started winning and celebrating each other. Every TAKATaichiMania is like a soap opera, and I mean that in a good way, you can tell there's so much love and how everyone wants to elevate each other because they see the good and the talent that the person might not believe in themselves. They hype each other all the time in matches, and in backstage comments, and (from what I see of Taichi), don't berate each other when they lose. They bring everyone back into their fold.

So I suspect that Taichi, who was once a relapsed wrestler, saw the potential in SANADA the LIJ wrestler (always saying in backstage comments that Sanada's too good for LIJ), but also Sanada Seiya, the wrestler before the NJPW repackaging and branding. Taichi knows the struggles of the faction system and how in a limited group like LIJ, one of the smallest with 6 members, mobility in the ranks is very tough. And if that small group you've been with for 7 years doesn't believe in you, who will?

I really think Taichi's stint in SZKG has helped him become a great "kingmaker" in a way, similar to Gedo with Jay (and hopefully Finlay). He's always hyped up Zack as his better half when they were tagging, too. Taichi has said that he's wasted so much of his youth being disaffected from wrestling, and he regrets it. So, if LIJ won't give SANADA the opportunity to shine and the thrill of wrestling, then he will.

This meta is long enough already, but I think it's just wonderful the pec-popping boys are going to foster what could be potentially a great comeback story. Taichi is selfless here and while J5G could have easily featured Taichi as their main heavy, he invited Sanada to take the spotlight. All in all, I'm so excited for the NJ Cup Finals. Win or lose, I think Sanada's in a great position to establish himself as a top guy in NJPW, as the favorite outsider. In fact, all the members of J5G are misfit outsiders.

In conclusion, Taichi and the rest of J5G really believe in him. Taichi wants Sanada to try with all of his might, which is the antithesis of the LIJ Cold Skull brand. I'm reading into it but the "our group hinges on your success" angle has similar beats to the responsibilities Taichi faced in 2018 that pushed him as a wrestler, too.

The fact that Sanada has taken the J5G invitation speaks volumes. I think Sanada has always wanted friendship and support, but there wasn't an avenue for it in LIJ like he envisioned. Taichi and J5G have given him a nurturing space, out of the shadows of a mentor, of a leader. He's finally able to bask in the light to grow.

Ever since Taichi and Sanada's excellent NJ Cup match, I keep thinking about how much they really do have in common.

They've both spent years struggling to live up to the legacies of their mentors or meet their full approval - Taichi under the shadow of Kawada, and Sanada under the shadow of Mutoh. They both frequently use specific moves as reference to these mentors even thought these moves bring them mixed success these days - Taichi with the tensho jujihou and Sanada with the Mutoh-style moonsault.

They've both spent years struggling to stand out in their respective factions, but despite their skill and popularity they both have remained stuck somewhere in the middle, overshadowed by other members in reputation and accomplishments.

They're both outsiders to NJPW - Taichi started at All Japan, and Sanada failed the NJPW dojo entrance exam and wrestled outside of New Japan for years before finally making his way back to the promotion he always wanted to be in.

They both found success in NJPW primarily in the tag division before being abandoned by their respective partners. And they both hit a similar ceiling in singles titles there - Sanada briefly holding the US title, Taichi holding the Never belt a couple of times, but neither of them getting any further.

Most of all, I keep thinking about how they both recently challenged their mentors to a final match, and neither quite got what they wanted. Sanada requested that his teacher and mentor Mutoh give him one last match before his retirement - Mutoh's last NJPW match was a tag match that included Sanada in it, but he gave his retirement match to Sanada's fellow NJPW member Naito instead. Taichi recently requested that Kawada fight him one last time and Kawada ignored that request, at least so far.

They really do have a lot in common. I guess it's no wonder that they're so fond of each other.

#*meta #njpw txt #sana-yan #taichi-niiyan #j5g #( sorry for the long post! )#( you just touched up on some great points and it gets a guy going hah )

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