The Factions are holding back the youth movement

There are so many reasons for New Japan to be pushing their young wrestlers - Okada and Ospreay leaving; Tanahashi and Naito physically declining. While they're pushing their young talent, I still think they're not being fluid enough with their factions to allow wrestlers to be better positioned.

First, most of the factions just feel old and stale - CHAOS isn't really a thing anymore; Bullet Club is a shell of it's former self; LIJ isn't as cool and tranquilo when its leader can't move his legs; United Empire is still rudderless after Ospreay leaving. Nothing more to be said about J4G and HoT. TMDK serve their purpose well.

I think NJPW would benefit from a one-off realignment of factions. Keep TMDK. Shelve the older ones like CHAOS and Bullet Club, obliterate the bad ones, and place talent into new groups.

Where the new stars are all spread out, maybe put some of them together. Maybe let Gabe Kidd lead a team. Maybe let Tsuji show more personality than just a fedora and a smile.

And for anyone thinking 'what about the domestic audience? What about the merch?' Unless Naito's gonna be doing that roll and fist bump when he's 50, these factions will end eventually. My opinion is that to fully super-charge their youth movement, this is the time to shed the past.

EDIT: Another way to frame it, something we need to ask ourselves - New Japan are essentially saying to guys like Tsuji and Gabe - 'Go out there and become the new generation of stars! Do whatever it takes to reach your potential! Oh, but please also prop up our legacy, merch-churning factions.'

What if Tsuji's potential is to be bigger than Naito's LIJ faction? What if Kidd wants to be more than just the next leader of a heel faction that was set-up to house the most textbook foreign heels possible? If they have higher potential than that, now's the time to let them strive for greatness.