Best in the World 2015 saw Jay Lethal defeat Jay Briscoe to become the new Ring of Honor world champion. He's the twentieth man to hold the title and the first ever to hold it in conjunction with another active championship. Yeah, Bryan Danielson won the pure championship from Nigel McGuinness during his world title reign but he retired it immediately. He didn't hold belts simultaneously and work as a double champion. 

Apparently Lethal will. Reports from ROH's latest TV tapings indicate that Lethal opted not to vacate the TV championship as he'd put too much effort into building it up. Matchmaker McGuinness then made the ruling that if Jay wants to stay a double champion he will have to defend the TV and world titles as separate entities. All of which makes sense from the point of view of Lethal's character and creates the chance to produce some fresh scenarios for championship defences and show-long stories at future events.

The double champ is here.

I'll be surprised if Lethal doesn't hold onto both belts for a while. It would be fairly pointless to go to the trouble of giving him a lengthy reign as TV champion (the longest ever, in fact) and not have him vacate the title only to lose it in a random title match after a few weeks. It would also be pointless to put the world title on him just to take it away quickly. That's not how things work in ROH. Wrestlers work hard to win titles and get to enjoy substantial reigns with them. It makes the titles and wrestlers, and by extension the matches involving them, mean more.

But at some point Lethal will lose the world championship, just as has happened twenty-two times before. Which is the point of this article: discussing the possible successors (as I perceive them) to Jay Lethal as the ROH world champion. As far as the TV championship goes I think he'll hold it for a few more months before losing it to guy who'd benefit from a surprise upset win, such as ACH, or being stripped of it after some form of shenanigans during a title defence.

Ring of Honor's anniversary shows fall t an awkward time for the company. They come just two months after Final Battle, generally the company's biggest card of the year, and around a month before WrestleMania weekend, at which ROH always has a presence (usually with a show called Supercard of Honor). It makes the pacing of storylines difficult and can result in a show which is more about bridging the gap between the bigger shows on either side of it and not giving too much away.

So, at the time of this writing the entire WWE Universe has turned heel on World Wrestling Entertainment. The hashtag of #CancelWWENetwork is trending world wide, and people are actively shilling both indy promotions and New Japan Pro Wrestling. So much so, that NJPW World went down temporarily from a sudden influx of hits they weren't expecting. It would appear to me that this would be a good time to write that primer on New Japan that Riv kept hoping I'd do but I was too lazy to actually do. Well, fuck it. May as well kick Vince while he's down by adding to the help in dropping the WWE and exploring other options.

I. About this guide

Most fans of Japanese wrestling are cunts. They're the hipsters on the wrestling industry. They will give you shit for wanting English commentary. They will actively insult you on a personal level for liking anything that ISN'T that. God forbid you watch WWE. You'll be viewed as a leper. They will claim they want more people to watch puroresu (essentially it means pro wrestling in Japanese. Just call it that. Fuck the official term), while actively acting like your standard hipster that doesn't want people in their nifty new clubhouse. I, however, don't give a shit what you watch. I, however, absolutely want subtitles or English commentary. And I, however, absolutely want more people in my fucking clubhouse. How the fuck else am I going to make fun of Tanahashi's awful air guitar gimmick? Plus, I think Riv would enjoy Taichi because he randomly takes his pants off mid match for some reason.