8/6/2025

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The Unwanted Ace: The Uncertain Redemption Of Shota Umino

By David Hayter

The 2025 G1 is in full swing and appears to perfectly encapsulate the lingering sense of apocalyptic dread that has been circling New Japan Pro-Wrestling since the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted their live business and ignited a seemingly never-ending exodus of high-profile talent – starting with Kenny Omega and reaching its nadir earlier this year when the company’s top drawing card, Tetsuya Naito, abruptly departed.

Truth be told, reports of NJPW’s demise have been greatly exaggerated in recent years, often by Western fans who simply stopped watching the product closely when AEW launched. Neverthless, the promotion has been sluggish to recover its live business following the pandemic, but there were legitimate signs of year-over-year growth during Naito’s long-awaited title run and his burgeoning feud with his LIJ stalemates in 2024. There has also been plenty of superb wrestling in the form of the routinely excellent Best of the Super Juniors finals, alongside stellar efforts from Gabe Kidd, Zack Sabre Jr. and David Finlay, who have tried to collectively fill the void left by Jay White and Will Ospreay.

However, in 2025 even the most optimistic of New Japan fans have to face the reality that the promotion is falling apart as a commercial proposition. With Tetsuya Naito gone, Hirooki Goto injured, and Hiroshi Tanahashi very literally on the last leg of his career, they are a promotion without anything resembling a top (or even an effective) draw. To make matters worse, the Japanese economy remains in the doldrums with living standards and real wages stagnant; which means wrestling fans are forced to be even pickier than ever when it comes to spending £50–100 on premium wrestling tickets.

Headed by fresh top stars in Saya Kamitani and Starlight Kid, Stardom is legitimately growing and, embarrassingly for NJPW, they comfortably outdrew the G1 at Ota Ward Gymnasium this past weekend for a show that Stardom themselves were having trouble moving tickets for. Similarly, NOAH, while still miles behind New Japan, is having its best year at the box office in what feels like an eternity thanks to their hot new heel superstar OZAWA.

The Inevitable and Unwanted Future Face of NJPW

The comparison with Stardom and NOAH raises an obvious question: who is New Japan’s next top star? Where is the fresh young face of the promotion? Who does head booker Gedo want the fans to rally behind? And, who on earth do the fans actually want to see win this year’s G1?

This last question is the scariest of all, because the truth is that when discussing potential winners with fellow fans, not only is there no real consensus choice, there’s a worrying sense of apathy and disenchantment surrounding the entire field. Konosuke Takeshita would be an exciting winner, but realistically he’s splitting his time between three promotions, ensuring he’ll never truly be the guy. Yota Tsuji isn’t the perfect wrestler, but he unmistakably has it (raw charisma), and he has provably delivered in top matches, but everyone senses that Gedo isn’t ready to pull the trigger just yet. Yuya Uemura—well, he certainly has something, a genuine connection with the fans, but he feels a year or maybe even two away from a character perspective.

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It’s at this point that fans are faced with the inevitable: Shota Umino — the serially rejected headliner of Wrestle Kingdom 19, the white knight who was booed by fans in Tokyo, London, and Chicago, the only wrestler with a coherent and semi-compelling storyline reason to win the 2025 G1. Back in January, after laying it all on the line in a 44-minute IWGP Championship match with Zack Sabre Jr. in the main event of “Wrestle Kingdom”, Umino was not only soundly defeated, but thoroughly deflated, stripped of his pretension, shorn of his hair, and left to build himself all the way back up from absolute rock bottom.

Shota Umino’s redemption arc is eerily reminiscent of Vince McMahon’s determined and surprisingly creative attempts to get Roman Reigns over as a babyface. On paper the plans appear perfectly plotted, but when the rubber meets the road, there is no denying the apathetic reality of fan rejection. And yet, there’s a strange zero-sum aspect to the push of Shota Umino. Gedo has invested so much in getting this young man to the top that he cannot simply reverse course — that would be devastating for Umino, even if his stalled ascent to the top of the card has the downstream effect of further delaying the main event pushes of Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura, Gabe Kidd, Boltin Oleg, and Ryohei Oiwa.

So the question remains: why did Umino fail in 2024, and why is he still struggling to connect in 2025? With this in mind, we will trace his journey through some of the key inflection points in his career to determine whether Shota Umino is simply miscast as NJPW’s next ace, or if it’s worth sticking the course with Gedo’s three-year experiment in creating a new top star.

The Entitled Excursion: Warning Signs In Revolution Pro Wrestling

As a regular attendee at Rev Pro’s big shows at York Hall and Crystal Palace, I have been lucky enough to witness the excursion and development of many of NJPW’s future stars, including Shota Umino, first-hand. Not every young lion who touches down in London is an instant success. It certainly took a very long time for the London crowd to warm to the cartoonish and one-dimensionally evil Mongolian warlord, the Great O’Khan, despite being given a long undefeated streak gimmick. Nevertheless, the UK crowd is normally willing to give everyone a fair shake and, by the time they leave, be they Oskar Leube or Yota Tsuji, the UK crowd will normally have developed a soft spot for these young stars struggling to establish brand new characters in foreign lands.

The notable exception, however, was a man by the name of Shota Umino. For all his hard work and genuine efforts, he never formed that loving bond with the London crowd and there was always one word that came to mind when watching his performances: entitled. This had nothing to do with his father, the legendary referee Red Shoes Umino — no one remotely cared that he was a supposed “nepo baby”; instead, this sense of organic fan resentment that continues to swell around Umino to this very day was present back at York Hall in 2021 and it entirely emanates from the way he wrestles and the manner in which he carries himself.

© RevPro

“High Stakes 2021” was the perfect encapsulation of Umino’s inherent flaws. He came to the ring for his first big York Hall supershow to face future War Dog Dan Moloney and, in terms of his execution, striking and selling, Shota was as crisp and solid as any top prospect reared in the New Japan Dojo system – so what was the problem? It was one of personal presentation: the second he set foot in the ring he not only had the look of a modern-day Hiroshi Tanahashi, but he tried to wrestle like him too. This didn’t mean that Shota pulled out great High Fly Flows or put on a masterclass in storytelling. Instead, he wrestled the match as if he were this great legacy main eventer gracing London with his presence. He didn’t showcase any dynamic offence, he didn’t bust his arse against a game opponent to get over; instead, he wrestled a middling house show-style match where he lay in rest holds engaging in dramatic selling like he were a beloved hero battling for his life in the Tokyo Dome main event.

Umino sat and he sold and he sold and he sold, seemingly expecting the London faithful to care about him when they hardly knew who he was. A 40-year-old Tanahashi or John Cena can wrestle that way because they have the cachet of a legendary career and a heartfelt and genuine connection with a fanbase forged through decades of hard work; Umino simply seemed to be assuming that he deserved that kind of adoration without earning it. That feeling stuck with Umino and, by the time his excursion came to an end in late 2022, he had failed to rally the UK to his cause. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the final match of his excursion at “Royal Quest II” was a damn good one, where he was violently KO’d by Will Ospreay with his father Red Shoes having to throw up the dreaded “X” sign in a worked shoot angle following a devastating sit-out powerbomb.

Shota’s overall failure was made worse by the fact that, on that very same show where he’d failed to impress against Dan Moloney, another young lion from New Japan by the name of Yota Tsuji made his debut. Yota’s debut wasn’t perfect, either; he competed in a preposterously long 22-minute match with Mark Haskins, but in that contest he worked hard, struck violently, took an absolute beating and wowed the crowd with power spots and dives. He also happened to flash that legendary smile. He was far from the finished article, wearing an odd monk-like attire that doesn’t remotely resemble his current presentation, but he went out of his way to win the crowd over. Tsuji would encourage fan participation, make eye contact, notice when chants were starting and work to encourage them and – by the end of his very first match – he had his own song that older fans still sing when he returns to London all these years later.

Mixed Signals: Character Confusion, High Profile Fumbles and MOTY Level Success

Shota Umino would make his grand return to Japan at “Battle Autumn 2022” to confront Will Ospreay, who was fresh from defeating Tetsuya Naito in a great match for the IWGP United States Championship. Will was busy stating that he had no challengers remaining when the lights dimmed and a video package aired with the words “Roughneck” emblazoned on the screen, before Shota Umino appeared to a massive ovation to run riot on Will Ospreay and the United Empire. It was a great moment and a refreshing injection of new life into the New Japan product. Here was a brand new babyface, a completely fresh feud and a sign that a worker returning from excursion would be thrown in at the deep end rather than having to tediously work their way up from the undercard.

Some eyebrows were, of course, raised at the outset. Shota Umino’s branding as the “Roughneck” was confusing in 2022 and three years later it still feels disastrously misguided. There’s a sense that Umino’s connection with Jon Moxley as a young lion led him to at first take on the semi-patronising nickname of “Shooter” (an intentional and uncaring mispronunciation of “Shota” played for laughs) and then develop his vision of himself as a rough-and-tumble outlaw in tribute to his mentor. The problem is, when you think of a roughneck, you might envision Brody King, Mark Briscoe or perhaps a Masa Kitamiya — but no one on earth pictures the then fluffy-haired, pink-accented, shiny white-trousered, and ultimately clean-cut Shota Umino. It created a jarring sense of dislocation in his character from the very outset and gave him the air of a fake tough guy, half-arsed playing Jon Moxley when he was better suited to the role of the J-Pop heartthrob.

Still, Umino’s return created genuine excitement and he had a mixed run of high-profile matches that hinted both at potential disaster and surefire superstardom. His big return bout with Will Ospreay at the “Historic X-Over” event (a co-promotion with Stardom) was a compelling main event-worthy battle that the debuting star would lose decisively (this would become a frustrating theme in Gedo’s booking). Unfortunately for Umino, his match was upstaged and largely forgotten, not only behind the novel and riotously entertaining intergender tag matches on the undercard, but by the brilliant IWGP Women’s Championship match between Kairi and Mayu Iwatani that closed the show.

© NJPW

Then disaster struck. Shota Umino got his next big break headlining “Sapporo Genesis 2023” against Naito, the biggest star in the promotion, and the match was a train wreck: a 32-minute slog, where Umino’s selling was pitifully ineffective, Naito just could not get on the same page as his young opponent, and no matter what they tried, the crowd simply would not rally behind Umino. It was Rev Pro all over again. Naito was playing the wily veteran, trying to create these moments for Umino to whip up the crowd by selling and fighting from underneath to shock the world by pushing the veteran way beyond expectation — but no one bought into it. The crowd died, which almost never happened in a 2023 Naito match, and Umino had failed in his biggest opportunity to date.

Following this high-profile failure, Umino entered the eternally frustrating “paying his dues” stage of his career that Gedo seems to inflict on every young Japanese star post-Okada. Umino would bump around, losing every key match he entered into, be it a New Japan Cup semi-final with David Finlay or a Television Title match with Zack Sabre Jr. Then, after a wave of false starts and having struggled to truly make an impression, it happened: at “Power Struggle 2023” at Edion Arena in Osaka, Shota Umino found himself in the main event facing off against Will Ospreay in the closing chapter of their one-sided rivalry.

The signs had always been good: their match at “Royal Quest” in London was really getting going when they went to that surprise worked-shoot injury finish, while their clash at “Historic X-Over” was legitimately excellent — it just happened to be overshadowed by the great Mayu Iwatani. But this time, there would be no overly contrived finish to halt their momentum and no one going on last to steal their thunder. Shota Umino and Will Ospreay, at the absolute peak of his athletic powers, put on an all-time classic main event. Fueled by a personal hatred, the match was rich in both mind-blowing athleticism and psychological drama. Where the fans had rejected Umino against Naito, there was no denying him on this night. His timing was too good, his selling too perfect, his fighting spirit too damn believable. Shota Umino was going toe-to-toe with the best wrestler in the world in a surefire match of the year contender and he was more than holding up his end of the bargain. He lost (of course he did), he lost every major match in the storyline, but this time it didn’t sting so intensely, because for the first time it felt we’d glimpsed the inner ace in Shota Umino.

The Cringeworthy Reiwa Three Musketeers Are Booked Into A Corner

Gedo has a nasty habit of sending mixed messages. In a bizarre move that only served to undermine the coolness and credibility of his top young stars, New Japan decided to officially dub young stars Shota Umino, Ren Narita and Yota Tsuji as the “Reiwa Three Musketeers”. Suffice it to say, this is not a remotely cool name for three disparate and largely disconnected young men in 2024, but Gedo’s heart was in the right place. After years of false starts, with the EVIL and SANADA-led generation of Japanese talent failing to step up to the true main event level of Okada, Naito, Nakamura and Ibushi, Gedo wanted to signal that this young generation were destined for the very top. Umino, Tsuji and Narita’s names would be just as historically significant as the previous Musketeers — 2004’s cohort of Tanahashi, Nakamura and Shibata, and 1984’s Chono, Hashimoto and Muto.

Naturally, none of the new generation’s stars were remotely happy about either being grouped together or being so transparently branded by NJPW management. Umino was blunt in his assessment: “Frankly, I don’t care and I’m not interested,” while Yota Tsuji rolled his eyes, asking, “How long will New Japan cling to the past?” They certainly had a point, and if we’ve focused on Shota Umino’s floundering return to Japan, it’s worth noting that Ren Narita and Yota Tsuji fared little better.

© NJPW

Tsuji looked like a star from the second he debuted and made a huge splash by challenging SANADA for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at “Dominion 2023” and forcibly injecting himself into LIJ, seemingly without Tetsuya Naito’s approval. Naturally, Tsuji would lose an excellent match to SANADA as Gedo decided not to make a superstar in one night and, as of 2025, with Naito now gone from New Japan, for a variety of reasons Tsuji never got closure on his long-teased feud and split with the LIJ leader. Yota has retained an incredibly strong connection with the crowd and has had some big moments, including a New Japan Cup win, an IWGP Global Heavyweight Title run, and a stunning five-star classic match with Gabe Kidd — but like Umino, he has been a victim of nearly-but-not-quite booking, where he always loses the big one.

Don’t forget, there are always worse fates than Shota Umino’s. Ren Narita’s career as a credible main event star has completely cratered. Like Umino and Tsuji, Gedo decided to debut the young star by having him lose the “big one”. Narita debuted in a Television Title tournament that many at the time believed was created specifically for him to win, only for him to lose the final to Zack Sabre Jr. Still, like Umino and Tsuji, he’d made a relatively impressive start in-ring. Sadly, it was all downhill from there. Given the “Son of Strong Style” gimmick, Narita was doomed to play the role of a mini-Katsuyori Shibata, but Narita’s soft offence and inherent lack of dynamism meant he was blighted by comparisons to his mentor. Narita would have a torrid and unimaginative run in the 2023 G1 and would quickly turn heel, joining the House of Torture where he spends his days putting on some of the worst and most misguided matches in the entire company in a failed attempt to draw heat.

The 2024 G1 was something of a nadir for Shota Umino and the new Reiwa Three Musketeers. They were all positioned in Block A, were all fated to finish in mid-table with 7 and 6 points respectively, and, in a damning indictment of Gedo’s refusal to push his new Japanese stars, they would all fail to make the knock-out round in favour of Hikuleo — of all people.

The Boos Ring Out And The Reset Button Is Hit

Gedo had some serious work to do in 2024 and 2025 to salvage the prospects of Shota Umino after so many high-profile defeats and so much stop-start booking since his return to Japan — but I don’t think anyone predicted what was about to happen next. The 2024 G1 by all accounts was a great success. Zack Sabre Jr. cemented himself as the top gaijin in the promotion following Will Ospreay’s departure with a superb run to the finals, defeating Shingo Takagi and ultimately Yota Tsuji to claim the prize. Zack then upturned tradition by cashing in his guaranteed IWGP title match not at the Tokyo Dome, but at “King of Pro-Wrestling” in October so he could return to his native England with the gold for a celebration at “Royal Quest” later that year.

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It was an inspired move from Gedo that shook up the NJPW formula and, by decoupling the G1 winner from having to challenge at the Tokyo Dome, threw open the doors of possibilities for future tournament winners. When Zack inevitably defeated Naito to win the IWGP Championship, something unexpected happened: he was confronted by his next three challengers — Shingo Takagi, SANADA, and Shota Umino. When Umino appeared, the Japanese fanbase began to boo vociferously the nominal babyface and, while women could still be heard cheering Umino, a trend was beginning to emerge; Umino’s floundering push was turning to outright rejection. When NJPW returned to London for “Royal Quest” it was confirmed that the contagion had spread beyond Tokyo — Umino was roundly booed against Callum Newman and the boo birds would follow Umino all the way to the Tokyo Dome main event.

For the record, I thought Zack Sabre Jr and Shota Umino’s 44-minute main event was an excellent and compelling contest that told the story of a cocksure young man coming face-to-face with the reality that he isn’t ready to truly challenge an elite-level world champion, who calmly and composedly took his best shot and put him down for the count. Many fans, however, absolutely detested this match, and on Cagematch it remains one of the lowest-rated Tokyo Dome main events in modern New Japan history. Whether you loved it or hated it, the “Wrestle Kingdom” main event did set two distinct sentiments in motion. Firstly, Shota Umino was positioned to be rejected by men in particular — with his white e-cycle entrance and popstar presentation, he was playing into modern pop-cultural trends in Asia, but he was also the very vision of the fake tough guy. Secondly, Gedo started an unmistakable “tear him down and build him back up” redemption arc storyline the second Umino took the pinfall loss to Zack Sabre Jr.

From “New Year Dash 2025” onwards, the writing has been on the wall as Gedo and Umino have purposely played into the hate. He came to the ring at the “Dash” show clinging to fan-made cardboard IWGP title belts. He was the very vision of the pathetic and delusional child refusing to accept his failings with anything resembling good grace. Great-O-Khan would mock, bully and humiliate him, tearing up his cardboard belts, leading to Umino suffering a crushing 9-minute defeat to O-Khan where he would be forced to shave his hair in the aftermath. Within a month of his highest high (headlining the Tokyo Dome), Umino had been completely stripped down and humbled, as if serving penance for his prior entitlement and fan rejection, he was left bald and bland like a Young Lion — with only his shiny white pants to remind fans that he was once considered a star.

Umino now positioned himself as an earnest and serious man. He was hitting harder, showing more fire, focusing on intensity and fighting spirit rather than melodramatic selling or hitting wacky offence like his signature Ignition reverse neckbreaker. The result has been some signs of genuine improvement, with some great Strong Style matches against Shingo Takagi and David Finlay, but, truth be told, Shota’s problem was never having good matches against great workers. His issue has always been winning over the love and respect of, particularly, the male Japanese fans — making them believe that he has earned the right to be the next Ace of New Japan.

© NJPW

Has Gedo Gone Too Far In Humbling His Chosen One As G1 Glory Beckons?

The worry, even as Shota Umino’s hair continues to grow back, is that in seeking to force Umino’s rise from the very bottom back to the Tokyo Dome main event, Gedo may have erased some of the qualities that singled him out as a star in the first place. Shota Umino is not actually a particularly young man — he is, in fact, 28. The New Japan Young Lion system in its current form ensures that native talent doesn’t really start to get their big push until their mid-to-late 20s at the earliest (although they are making serious efforts to expedite this process). In taking away Umino’s long rock star hair, fancy outfits and heartthrob styling, there is a risk that Umino will lose the qualities that made him popular with young Japanese women in the first place. After all, they never turned on him in 2024, and it is worth remembering that NJPW’s boom years have always been driven as much by female fans as male.

The new, generic, stern and serious Umino (who looks a bit like a younger YOSHI-HASHI with his short hair) risks being a man without a country: no longer an idol or a hate figure, but just another guy on the roster receiving reasonable, but not earth-shattering, reactions. Perhaps playing into his sense of entitlement would have been the better choice — embracing the high-pitched screams and resentful boos and milking that reaction — but alas, we will never know. If Gedo is serious about this redemption arc, and if Shota Umino is the only man with a clear narrative propelling him to win the G1, return to the Tokyo Dome and erase his humiliations at the hands of Zack Sabre Jr and the Great-O-Khan, then the next few weeks will be key.

Shota Umino has to do something he has never done before: he has to bust his arse and earn the crowd’s respect and support with a series of compelling, physically intense, show-stealing matches en route to a G1 triumph — not only against New Japan’s greatest wrestlers, but against everyone he faces along the way. He needs to summon a whirlwind of momentum so undeniable that fans are demanding to see him “finish his story” at “Wrestle Kingdom”, rather than merely folding their arms and rolling their eyes as the company’s chosen one gets a second shot at glory, while further delaying the ascent of fan favourites Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura.

By David Hayter

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