Longtime New Japan fans will no doubt have heard lots about The 3 Musketeers-the moniker given to the trio of Keiji Muto, Masa Chono and Shinya Hashimoto when they came up through the New Japan Dojo in the late 1980s. That bane has sort of come back, as the promotion just announced the Reiwa 3 Musketeers group-Shota Umino, Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji. This comes in recognition of their rapid ascents through the ranks in New Japan, in particular Tsuji recently who just came back from a shorter-than-normal international training excursion to Mexico and almost immediately earned an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot (he lost to SANADA).
However, they won’t be seen together as a unit in the ring anytime soon because they are not on next week’s Korakuen Hall events and the G1 CLIMAX is right after that. Maybe near the end of the tournament. This is an interesting development nonetheless, let’s see if they can all live up to this lofty moniker.
