>>14323148Sad, but understandable. Nakamura was the entire IC title scene, so him leaving helped give more midcarders to try out become upper card or even main event, like Naito, Shibata, Omega, and Ibushi. And it was very easy to tell when he was phoning it in, so a WWE schedule with constant short matches and a PPV here and there fit him well.
AJ wanted to be closer to family, and I won’t hold that against anyone.
It also helped that the promotion had established top stars and a good setup for new faces to go up the ranks. Right now it’s just Naito, with some young guys being set up without someone to really pass the torch to. Fujinami & Choshu had Inoki. They would proceed to pass the torch to the 3 Musketeers. The fourth gen stars had a bumpy path, but Nagata & 2010 Kojima helped pass the torch to Tanahashi and Nakamura. They helped create a renaissance for the promotion and gave the torch to Okada & Naito.
Okada never really passed a torch while Naito has his full time schedule days numbered. The Reiwa Musketeers for the most part aren’t solidified, but can be stars for the future of the promotion.
