With the G1 tournament coming up, I'm much more interested in New Japan than any American wrestling right now. There seem to be a few others here who have been watching some NJPW lately also, and there are a few Japanese wrestlers who have had success in the WWE and the United States in general over the last few years. So I'm curious who people would consider their favourite Japanese wrestlers at the moment.
My list below is just focusing on people who are wrestling currently, but if someone wants to give an all-time list they can go ahead. I'm sure @VaderBomb could probably go on for days.
My list at the moment would probably look like this:
1) Kazuchika Okada
2) Tetsuya Naito
3) Asuka
4) Kota Ibushi
5) Hiroshi Tanahashi
Okada is enjoying one of the better world title runs in recent memory at the moment. Maybe one of the better world title runs in wrestling history in general. Omega gets more of the credit for the Okada/Omega matches in this part of the world, but I'd consider Okada even better. And he's been having killer matches with everyone else over the last year too.
Naito is probably the best dickhead heel in wrestling at the moment. I love watching his stuff, and I'm backing him to win the G1 this year. He had one of my favourite matches of the last few years with Omega at last year's G1, and I could see the two of them possibly facing off again in the finals this year.
Asuka is the best champion in WWE by a country mile. She's badass, carries herself like a star and is great in the ring. I hope she holds the NXT women's title for another year. There's nobody ready to take it off her who would be anything but a disappointment in comparison.
Ibushi is just a fantastic cruiserweight wrestler, and absolutely killed it during the cruiserweight classic last year. His matches against Cedric Alexander, Brian Kendrick and particularly TJ Perkins were some of the standouts of the tournament. Looking forward to seeing him mixing it up in the G1.
A little part of me wanted to add Nakamura in the last slot on my list because I know how good he can be, but he hasn't been that good since joining WWE. He seems like less of a star with every passing day. So far the company hasn't been a good fit for him. Tanahashi has had more eventful years in New Japan, but he's always a strong performer and has had a couple of great matches against Naito in recent months.