Former IWGP Tag Team Champion Reportedly Gaining More Backstage Influence In NJPW

Over the past few years, the hierarchy of New Japan Pro Wrestling has become a lot more well known. Company legend and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi has been the President since December 2023, Gedo has been the head booker for nearly 15 years, and Takaaki Kidani, the Director of NJPW's parent company Bushiroad, has even appeared on AEW television in recent years. However, it seems that a long-time roster member has started to transition into a more powerful role backstage.

According to a recent report by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, former IWGP Tag Team Champion Toru Yano has taken on a more important role in NJPW. The role in which Yano currently occupies doesn't technically have an official name as he reportedly dabbles in a little bit of everything, including helping Gedo with the overall booking of the company. Gedo doesn't look like he will be stepping down from his head booker position anytime soon, but several NJPW talent told Fightful that Yano has enough responsibility backstage to have enough power to influence some booking decisions.

Much like Tanahashi, Yano is still working full-time in NJPW, and is currently enjoying his seventh reign as one-third of the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions, this time holding the titles with Master Wato and YOH after previously holding the titles with the likes of The Briscoes, Tomohiro Ishii, and Tanahashi over the years. Yano primarily wrestles in tag team matches, with only one of his last 120 matches being a one-on-one contest. However, that stand alone singles match was a marathon DDT Extreme Championship match with Super Sasadango Machine that lasted over two hours. While Yano isn't exactly in the main event scene in NJPW, he shows no signs of retiring anytime soon, despite taking on a more important role backstage.