{"id":13260,"date":"2019-08-25T03:46:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T02:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=13260"},"modified":"2019-08-25T03:46:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T02:46:15","slug":"meet-the-factions-of-new-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/25\/meet-the-factions-of-new-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Factions of New Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Factions in professional wrestling have been around for ages. Notable ones through the years have been the likes of The Four Horsemen, nWo, D-Generation X, and many more. In Japan, groups have been a part of their culture. Fraternities in sports are no different, like clubs so obviously in pro wrestling they exist as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earliest example of faction wars in NJPW would\nbe their rivalry promotion against the original UWF. Antonio Inoki and his men\nfought against the likes of Akira Maeda and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Differing in\nideologies of what professional wrestling should be. Then as time passes by\nmore and more stables would leave their mark in the history of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays factions are treated like “sports clubs” where a group of wrestlers would bond together and form up alliances to help each other out and gain higher ranks amongst the roster. These factions are also compromised most of the time of real-life friendships or familial bonds. Some include mentor-student connections too. Factions are an easy tool in shaping up rivalries and intertwining storylines with one another, which is why they’re always prevalent in New Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for this article let us meet the present factions in New Japan today and meet their members while also sharing some background on how they were formed. If you’re trying to get into the promotion hopefully this could be of help to you as well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

CHAOS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are pretty much mostly the “good\nguys” on the roster which is funny because they started as heels.\nCurrently led by Kazuchika Okada, CHAOS was founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. He\nbroke off from Togi Makabe’s Great Bash Heel (GBH) faction and started out his\nown originally with Toru Yano and later on would add many more members as the\nyears go by. CHAOS was formed because Nakamura felt like the roots of New Japan\nwere dying which is Strong Style, he wanted to lead a group of people who\nembodied what NJPW was all about and would earn the nickname “King of\nStrong Style” later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the Bullet Club’s inception, however, members of CHAOS would slowly become fan favorites as most of them are homegrown or national talents which earned the support from the fans. I don’t like it when fans claim them as “not a real faction” and they’re not really friends which is far from the truth, if you watch clips from Yano’s DVDs you can see the members bonding together and judging by their social media accounts, they’re all a pretty tight-knit group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kazuchika\nOkada<\/strong> (Leader) – Reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion,\nbecame the leader after Nakamura left for the WWE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toru\nYano<\/strong>\n– Founding member and the producer of the YTR VTR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomohiro\nIshii<\/strong> – A member since 2009, Ishii is the resident\nserious stone pitbull of the group but during hangouts can be just as silly as\neveryone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOSHI-HASHI<\/strong>\n– Was in the same dojo class as Okada. Been a member since 2011 but is yet to\nwin a single championship in his career. Poor Headhunter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Ospreay<\/strong> – Personally recruited by Okada himself in 2016 after having a match with him in the UK. Ever since joining CHAOS, Ospreay became one of the most successful gaijins in modern-day Puroresu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hirooki\nGoto<\/strong>\n– Alumni of the New Japan Dojo, Goto originally had no allegiance and was a frequent\ntag partner to his old pal Katsuyori Shibata but in 2016 after losing to Okada,\nhe got offered a spot to CHAOS which he would eventually accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rocky Romero <\/strong>– Rocky has been with New Japan for ages but he initially joined CHAOS in 2010. He had multiple tag partners through the years with the likes of Davey Richards (No Remorse Corps), Alex Koslov (Forever Hooligans), and Trent Baretta (Roppongi Vice.) Nowadays he is the manager and mentor to Roppongi 3K and is also Okada’s best friend, according to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH)<\/strong> – During their young lion days they were called the “Tempura Boyz” and when returning from excursion were mentored and managed by Rocky becoming fully-fledged members of the faction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikey\nNicholls<\/strong> – Another Rocky Romero recruit since February this\nyear. Nicholls made his debut since leaving the WWE in the New Japan Cup but\ndidn’t reach too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robbie Eagles<\/strong> – Originally with Bullet Club, Eagles got tired of El Phantasmo’s shenanigans and joined up his old pal\/rival Ospreay on June during the Australian tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Suzuki-Gun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally known as “Kojima-Gun” but in\n2011 members Taichi and TAKA Michinoku would betray founding member Satoshi\nKojima and joined up with the returning Minoru Suzuki to form what is now\nSuzuki-Gun. Pronounced as “goon” (gun means “army” in\nJapanese, so it loosely translates to Suzuki’s Army.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If CHAOS are the good guys, then Suzuki-Gun are the\nvillains. Led by Minoru Suzuki, all they want is to wreak havoc and mess up\neveryone in their path whether it be young lions or main event stars. Besides\ntheir current lineup, there have been many who were under Suzuki’s leadership\nbefore such as Davey Boy Smith Jr., Yoshihiro Takayama, Shelton Benjamin, and\nTakashi Iizuka, who was a former CHAOS member himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minoru\nSuzuki<\/strong> – No one dares to mess with The King. Absolutely no\none. Also has the greatest theme song in all of pro wrestling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taichi\n<\/strong>–\nBeen on Suzuki’s side for ages. Finally found his stride as a wrestler ever\nsince moving up to the heavyweights in New Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zack\nSabre Jr.<\/strong> – Initially I found ZSJ to be the odd man amongst\nthe dastard men of Suzuki-Gun but he would eventually prove to be a worthy\nmember and create his own snide persona. He really fits with the group now,\nespecially as the spiritual successor to Suzuki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAKA\nMichinoku<\/strong> – Despite his age, TAKA can still go and really\nhelped in the growth of ZSJ as a performer being his hype man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El\nDesperado<\/strong> – One of the underrated junior heavyweights in New\nJapan today. Desperado is a member since 2014 after returning from his\nexcursion in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoshinobu\nKanemaru<\/strong> – During Suzuki-Gun’s infamous invasion of Pro\nWrestling NOAH, they have recruited some of the notable talents of the\npromotion such as Takashi Sugiura and Kanemaru, the latter would eventually\njoin them as they return in New Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lance Archer<\/strong> – EVERYBODY DIES!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bullet\nClub<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013 Prince Devitt founded what would eventually become one of the most popular entities in professional wrestling this entire decade that is, of course, the Bullet Club! As the years go by, the popularity of the faction just grew and some would argue they were bigger than the organization itself, very reminiscent of the nWo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AJ Styles’ leadership was at their peak in terms of\nsuccess, with Kenny Omega and The Elite though would gain them notoriety in the\nmonetary department but now a new era for the Bullet Club is upon us. The Cut\nThroat Era led by the Switchblade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BC has seen many variations in its short existence\nbut it’s been a while since they truly felt like what the original foundation\nwas all about. The Outsiders of the roster not wanting to deal with the\npolitics and just generally being assholes. Suzuki-Gun are the proper villains\nwhereas BC are more on the “edgy” side of things, where they can\nstill be cool despite being bad. Although with its present incarnation, I’m not\nso sure as I haven’t seen a man be as hated by many in a while in Jay White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay\nWhite<\/strong> – The leader since betraying CHAOS on October 2018\nand became Gedo’s new protege. In my opinion, there is no greater heel in pro\nwrestling today than Jay White. He’s just a purely detestable villain which makes\nhim so compelling to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gedo\n& Jado<\/strong> – Long time tag-team partners and were originally\nfrom CHAOS. They have since betrayed their former friends and allied themselves\nwith what was once the rival faction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bad\nLuck Fale<\/strong> – The Underboss now the Rogue General. One of the\noriginal founding members with Devitt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tama\nTonga<\/strong> – Also an OG BC. While Jay White is the official\nleader, Tama is more-like the honorary leader, especially on the Tongan side of\nthings. Having recruited many new members ever since The Elite and the Firing\nSquad split.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanga\nLoa<\/strong>\n– 1\/2 of Guerrillas of Destiny with his brother Tama. Been a member since 2016\nafter leaving the WWE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yujiro\nTakahashi<\/strong> – Member since 2014 and the very first Japanese\nwrestler to join BC after betraying CHAOS as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chase\nOwens<\/strong> – Honorary Tongan since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiji\nIshimori<\/strong> – Became the new and improved Bone Soldier.\nOriginally from Pro Wrestling NOAH, Ishimori quickly became one of the top\nwrestlers of the junior heavyweights since joining BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El\nPhantasmo<\/strong> – Earlier this year vignettes of Phantasmo have\nbeen shown and finally made his debut at this year’s BOSJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hikuleo<\/strong>\n– GoD’s big little brother. Debuting in 2017, currently having his excursion in\nRevPro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KENTA<\/strong> – The latest addition to Bullet Club. Ever since coming to New Japan, KENTA was always treated as an outsider because of his roots in NOAH so he betrayed the fans and his best friend Shibata to join BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Haku<\/strong> – An honorary member, if his sons are a part of the group, of course, he automatically is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gino Gambino<\/strong> – “Mr. Juicy” representing BC in Australia (MCW) since 2017, personally recruited by his friend Fale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Los\nIngobernables de Japon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being resented by the fans as the Stardust Genius, Tetsuya Naito would go on to have another excursion in Mexico. There he found CMLL’s Los Ingobernables faction led by La Sombra (now known as Andrade), Rush, and La Mascara. Translated to The Ungovernable, their belief is that they won’t be led by the machine and start pushing their own rules. Naito would return to New Japan with this new mindset and ironically instead of being hated, the fans became fonder of him and would become arguably the most popular wrestler in the roster today, rivaling only Tanahashi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike other factions though, LIJ is more like a true brotherhood. They’re not after the large numbers but are just there to help each other out and motivate each member’s goals. Challenge one another to reach the top and become even better. It’s honestly why I’m such a big fan of them, it all feels natural. Healthy competition within the group itself. They were originally heels but nowadays would fall more onto the “gray area” where they aren’t really villains nor heroes neither, maybe anti-heroes would be the better term or tweeners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tetsuya\nNaito<\/strong> – Founding member and leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUSHI<\/strong>\n– The second to join in, originally from All Japan but would join Naito as soon\nas he officially created LIJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVIL<\/strong>\n– Also another founding member, after his excursion in the States, he donned\nthe EVIL persona which was initially odd but is now one of the top prospects in\nthe heavyweight scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SANADA<\/strong>\n– Disciple of the great Keiji Mutoh, SANADA joined in 2016 helping Naito in\ncapturing the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time, defeating\nKazuchika Okada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiromu\nTakahashi<\/strong> – After his excursion from Mexico, the former\nKamaitachi joined the ranks of LIJ and quickly rose to fame as one of the top\nstars of the junior heavyweight division. He is currently injured though so\nhoping to see Hiromu as soon as he’s cleared up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shingo Takagi<\/strong> – One of the greatest ever in Dragon Gate history, Shingo had a long history with Naito and eventually became the newest member of LIJ since October of last year after weeks of hyping up a pareja.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seki-Gun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, all other unaffiliated wrestlers fall under the “Seki-Gun” category and some of them are divided into other sub-groups, depending on the situations. Recently however due to the act of Switchblade and the rest of Bullet Club, some members of Seki-Gun and CHAOS would team up against the common enemy, which is historic in itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being the most popular wrestler in Japan, “The\nAce of the Universe” Hiroshi\nTanahashi<\/strong> is the unofficial leader of Seki-Gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kota\nIbushi<\/strong> isn’t really allied with anyone is more often than\nnot an independent wrestler. Especially after Kenny left, he sparingly tags\nwith the other wrestlers here but does not associate himself with anyone officially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taguchi Japan is more of a brand rather than an\nofficial stable where members go in and out. Led of course by the coach\nhimself, Ryusuke Taguchi<\/strong>. Members\nwould rotate through the years but guys like Juice Robinson, David Finlay, and Toa Henare<\/strong> would often join in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the Third Generation, the top stars of the 2000s or affectionately called “New Japan Dads” are the veterans of the roster and would often team up with each other. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima, and Hiroshi Tenzan<\/strong>. All of whom are former IWGP Heavyweight Champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jushin\n“Thunder” Liger and Tiger Mask IV<\/strong> are the\nveterans of the junior heavyweight division. Not really affiliated with anyone\nelse and would also team up with the aforementioned wrestlers in multi-men\ntags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever is left of GBH, Togi Makabe<\/strong> and the only member who didn’t betray him: Tomoaki Honma <\/strong>is now under Seki-Gun. In fact, the reigning NEVER Openweight 6 man tag-team champions are collectively from different groups: Makabe (GBH), Taguchi (Taguchi Japan), and Yano (CHAOS.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other groups:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young\nLions<\/strong> – Not really an official stable, it’s just the term\nused for the trainees both in the New Japan Dojo and the LA Dojo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrestlers from partner promotions – ROH, CMLL, and RevPro<\/strong> whenever they\ntour with New Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free Agents – Chris\nJericho and Jon Moxley.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Factions in professional wrestling have been around for ages. Notable ones through the years have been the likes of The Four Horsemen, nWo, D-Generation X, and many more. In Japan, [...]","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":13268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,2,204],"tags":[595,1083,44],"class_list":["post-13260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-editorials","category-featured","category-njpw","tag-bullet-club","tag-factions","tag-njpw"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3rS","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/kenta-bulet-club-1.jpg?fit=777%2C437&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13269,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13260\/revisions\/13269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}