Yuya Uemura

[9.0] "One of the best talents NJPW has, with a lot of charisma. His rivalry with Tsuji is one of the best rivalries in the NJPW new era."

[10.0] "One of the bright spots in the future of NJPW. Uemura has been nothing short of excellent since returning from excursion, and only seems to improve match by match. A future IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and Tokyo Dome main event level talent, all he needs is time and chances to shine."

[8.0] "Yuya is probably going to be the best technician that comes from this younger generation of NJPW wrestlers. He has great limb work, a good moveset, he's a good seller, and has plenty of charisma. I really only have two problems with Yuya. The smaller one is I'm not a fan of his finisher and I don't really feel anything when he hits it. Maybe it's just something that needs to grow on me, but I do hope he changes it to something a bit more explosive or impactful. The bigger issue is, to me, once I saw one of Yuya's matches I felt like I basically knew exactly how the rest of his matches go. He, in almost every match at least recently, exclusively works on the arm. Which I'm cool with, I like limb-work, but it just gets a bit bland after awhile. I feel like I can predict how all his matches are going to go at this point, and it's surprising that he doesn't do more with the obvious psychological knowledge he already has at such a young age. If he incorporates working on the other limbs consistently into his matches, and adding a bit more dynamic to them, I think he'll be great. I don't believe he should become the ace over Tsuji, but I think Yuya will. To me, he's a lot like what I see when I watch early Tanahashi. Yuya seems to fit that perfect "company guy" image that I see in Tanahashi. Model wrestler and person, a bit cocky at times, sticks to the rules, etc etc. Tsuji reminds me a bit more of Naito, and for that reason mainly I do feel as if Yuya will be the next ace of NJPW. Which is ok with me, I think Yuya is starting to show big-match potential (matches against Tsuji, G1 match against Taichi, G1 match against Takeshita, etc.) and his growth just over the past year has been fun to watch. Yuya is a good technical wrestler with great potential, just needs to add a bit more flexibility to his limb-work and dynamic to his matches."

[8.0] "Uemura really is the best out of NJPW's new guys. He is already an expert in many things , but the main reason for his excellence is that he seems to do an incredible job at pacing his matches in a way that keeps the viewer on the edge until the very end, something the others have severely lacked. Not only does Uemura have a great moveset for himself, He's also an incredible seller. Uemura is the guy who already can have Epic Main Event Style matches with just about everyone. Amazing wrestler with limitless potential."

[9.0] "Yuya has been one of the best to come out of the new generation so far, and he's been killing it before his injury and currently and after. I'm excited to see where he goes from here."

[10.0] "Yuya Uemura has proven to us that he is one of the best talents in the world, he has all the potential to become the next Ace, he has huge stories as an Underdog, last year in G1 he silenced all the doubters, a talent that must be appreciated."

[8.0] "Yuya Uemura is great, obviously he's nowhere near Okada-level, but that's simply not a fair metric when considering that Okada will never be replicated. Additionally, I think Yuya Uemura fits into his own role perfectly, he's yet another example of NJPW making brilliant likeable baby-faces, and his previous work with Christopher Daniels and Joe Hendry are perfect examples of this. Uemura is also really faultless in the ring, as whilst his style is incredibly simplistic, it's something he's already mastered perfectly and works wonders when he's given the right oppponent. However, he's far from perfect, he's definitely not the most exciting wrestler in the world and is very easily out-classed by his fellow classmates in Yota Tsuji and Gabe Kidd, who seem much better constructed character-wise, maybe if he came around sooner than things would be brighter form him"

[7.0] "Yuya Uemura is the "Mr. Fundamentals", he only cares about performing the smoothest and doing the best holds, which I think it's pretty cool, but also have some negatives. He doesn't fit well with every opponent, but with some others it's a really special chemistry. Uemura still has a lot to show, but he's constantly improving, I think he can be a very good main eventer for the company."

[8.0] "When he was a young lion, I found annoying how Uemura constantly complained about getting his ass kicked and how he wasn't evolving. Maybe I didn't understand back then, but that sort of melancholy served as a fuel for us to believe that Uemura could do it. He hang on alongside Tsuji and Gabe Kidd during the pandemic before being finally set free to go to America under Shibata's guide and Joe Hendry's partnership. I don't care what people say about Uemura still lacking something, because like it or not, he lits some sort of hope inside you when you watch him wrestle. I believe he is showing exactly a great aura of energy and fire that he always showed since his early days. He reminds me of Hiroshi Hase; energetic, hyping and a great suplex machine. Even though I find "Heat Storm" a little bit too much nonsensical, I can agree that he brings the heat every time he wrestles, and thanks to that, it granted him, although shortly, a KOPW title reign for starters to his resume."

[6.0] "the character unfortunately doesn't click. Maybe being "fundamentally sound" after an entire Young Lion period being all about fudamentals isn't the most interesting character to began, maybe because he isn't actually fundamentally sound, maybe because being slotted into a new faction and not an establish faction is really not helping. Funny enough this would probably be perfect is All Japan. I did like JOYA so it would be a lie to say this guy is unlikeable."

[7.0] "A very solid return and first Wrestle Kingdom singles showing where he scored the most surprising win of the night by defeating Yota Tsuji who had already been established as a serious threat after very nearly defeating Will Ospreay (2023 Will Ospreay, might I add) gives me hope for Uemura's future. He's not quiiiite Shota Umino or Yota Tsuji yet, but I have faith he'll get there. They do have a headstart on him, after all."

[8.0] "When I first saw Yuya in NJPW in Japan, I wasn't sure if I was going to like him. But, I have to admit, since his excursion in the USA, he has grown massively. He's a fun babyface with a lot of potential, and one can only imagine what he'll do when he gets back to Japan and goes for gold."

[8.0] "It's funny that the best old school Southern-style babyface is a New Japan wrestler, Yuya is vintage in all the best ways. His babyface fire, his simple but hard hitting offense, the hair (holy shit, the hair), he's like a young Japanese Ricky Morton. Excited to see what he's capable of in the future"

[8.0] "Love Yuya so much. Might as well nickname the guy House Of Fire cuz everything he does is to play to the fans in that classic babyface comeback style. Really really fun to watch and I expect him to break in to the heavyweight division before too long. There is so much upside to Uemura and it just keeps getting brighter"

[7.0] "Lots of power and energy from Yuya Uemura. Really felt like he was getting hit hard as well. Thoroughly enjoyed his match with Christopher Daniels on the 100th episode of NJPW Strong. I think he should work on his ring awareness so that he can time his reactions to moves more precisely when he's not looking. I feel like with more training and wrestling, he's well capable of becoming one of the greats one day."

[8.0] "I think the floor for this guy is an 8 but he could be a top top star. Absolutely love his fire, his look and his athleticism. His excursion better be quick because I want to see this guy challenging for the IWGP Jr title ASAP."

[7.0] "This kid has what it takes to be a massive star in this business in the future. He's going to thrive under Shibata in LA."

[5.0] "Very good what he is, but now starts the difficult part: this is the time when promising Young Lions are usually sent on a kengaku, or learning excursion abroad, and that's when most of them flounder. Remember what happened to Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka (midcarders at very most) or, God forbid, Hirai Kawato. The only guy who fulfilled his promise in recent memory was Hiromu Takahashi. The epidemic will surely force NJPW to rethink the whole concept of kengaku for the next few years, and Yuya Uemura may be the first of the new generation Young Lions to experience this change. It's surely to be a very exciting time for him and I wish him all the luck in the world."

[6.0] "A solid Young Lion with a clear path of improvement and stardom in his future. Excited to see where his career goes."

[8.0] "Yuya Uemura has star written all over him. He's come a long way in a short time and he continues to improve and grow as a performer. He caught my eye immediately as a Young Lion and it has been a treat to watch him develop. At the rate he's going now, I could see him debuting as a regular performer in the next year."

[9.0] "Yuya is my favorite Young Lion currently. You can tell how passionate he is about wrestling just by watching him. He has a good look, a plucky attitude, and constantly puts on solid matches. Yuya is a future star and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up winning an IWGP title sometime down the line."

[7.0] "Yuya Uemura is a star in the making. This dude got a good shape, the height of a heavyweight, and has a very beautiful and aggressive Dropkick that would make Antonio Inoki very proud of him. I can see a bright future for him, I hope NJPW treats him well."