Cup of coffee in the big time: The raging debate over women in NJPW is a mess as always

In a fair and just 2018, there’d be no doubt about the value add of female wrestlers to any promotion. Especially a promotion with ready access to many of the absolute, bar-none most talented women on the planet.

But, as we are reminded every day, the world is a dark place filled with awful things like having to hear or say the words “President Trump.”

So, being realistic about the overall level of growth across the world, we should not expect a promotion like New Japan Pro Wrestling to suddenly buck their own traditions and bring women onto their roster.

The debate over whether or not NJPW should begin featuring women kicks up every time a big show goes down. And with Dominion providing my two personal top matches of 2018 (Okada/Omega & Jericho/Naito), it’s no surprise the conversation has been going for days once again — though boosted yesterday through Meltzer’s above tweets.

There are a variety of angles at play. Some say the promotion needs to bring in women to have their international push taken more seriously.

Others are on the side of “tradition,” or, simply that there’s no compelling “obligation” for the promotion to take the leap.

Ultimately, Meltzer circled back around to one of the reasons Joshi fans may want to avoid calling for the change to happen.

It may not be a good enough reason to not see the excellent available Joshi talent make their way to NJPW, but maybe it’s enough to stem the discussion for now. And we can hope one day women making it to NJPW is in line with a larger push to address gender issues that still quietly plague Japan.

While the idea of NJPW potentially “ruining” Joshi by soaking up top talent and not being able to properly utilize them while the all-women promotions suffer the fallout may placate some, there are others who see the narrative being pushed as arguing in bad faith.

Even if unlikely, the opportunity is there for NJPW to test the waters with some showcase matches and see how their fanbase take to the idea.

What’s there to lose really? Aside from a few of the endless multi-man matches that litter every card.

• Smackdown Live went down last night and we’ve got your recap and reactions as well as highlights.
• We live in a silly world, so of course CM Punk’s latest UFC conquerer Mike Jackson is beefing with Daniel Bryan.
• Bald Baron Corbin spent part of his recent haircut making sure the “losers on Twitter” would be suitably bummed out by the move.
• Raw’s ratings were up a tick this week, which feels like the first time in a while I’ve typed that.
• I don’t think anything I say could do this one any more justice than the headline: Cena signs on to replace Stallone in new Jackie Chan movie.
• Wendy’s and Joey Ryan had a moment on Twitter.
• ROH goes MSG in 2019.
• Jericho could have been All In, but he didn’t want to do anything to disrespect Vince McMahon.

That’ll do it for today.

Unless you want to listen to my pitch for a Hollywood blockbuster.