May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953701 18 hours ago, MoS said: Literally the first thing Vince did after establishing WWF as a national promotion in the 80s was to end that partnership Actually, Inoki was the one who ended the arrangement because Fritz Von Erich offered him a better deal. Japanese money is what kept the WWF afloat during the first year of national expansion. 4 hours ago, Robert S said: With the WWE going away further and further from regular live shows, especially for the non-TV NXT guys (which is where those young lions would most likely be placed), the guys would mostly be stuck in the PC. And if they do get ring time, it'll be on the Largo loop in front of a bunch of drunken rednecks chanting racial slurs. Not the most conducive environment for in-ring improvement.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953707 One of the guys who did their excursion in CMLL (I want to say it was Naito but I could be wrong) said being in an environment vastly different both wrestling wise and culturally was a big part of his growth as a wrestler.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953708 Tay Conti spent years in the PC sucking at pro-wrestling and learning nothing. 9 months in AEW/Nightmare Factory, she's legit really good already and looks like a surefire futur star. A NJPW Young Lion learning anything in WWE is a laughable idea.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953711 Also, hearing Eddie Kingtson talking about his dream matches being Ishii, Tanahashi and teaming with Mox at the Tokyo Dome against whoever, who really want to see an exclusive relationship between WWE and NJPW after hearing this ? I mean, you're not a pro-wrestling fan if you don't want those Eddie Kingston dream matches !
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953712 Yeah, the guys who go to CMLL on excursion always seem to come back vastly improved- Naito, Yujiro, Yoshi-hashi, Goto, Hiromu, Desperado, Sho, Yoh, Nakamura, etc. The guys who have gone to ROH, Rev Pro, TNA always seem to come back worse- Oka, EVIL, Jay White, Okada, etc. That NJPW is looking for a new partnership makes sense. Look at how Narita's excursion in the US is going or how Umino's excursion in the UK is going. Those guys have spent the last year or two getting maybe 1 match a month. And its not laughable.... I could name at least a dozen workers developed solely in the WWE system in NXT, FCW or OVW who are really fucking good.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953713 10 minutes ago, joeg said: Look at how Narita's excursion in the US is going or how Umino's excursion in the UK is going. COVID. 10 minutes ago, joeg said: And its not laughable.... I could name at least a dozen workers developed solely in the WWE system in NXT, FCW or OVW who are really fucking good. In twenty years ? That's a pathetic track record. And meanwhile, they have wasted an incredible number of guys because "they need to work the proper way". The WWE as a credible training environment and personal creative development is a laughable idea . They can't even make they own guys. As far as Okada, well, he was having MOTYC a few months after he came back from TNA (by that I mean he wasn't hurt at all). Plus, IMPACT today has *nothing* to do with what TNA was in term of how they treat talent. FinJuice, Kojima & Fantasmo were all super well booked, much better than they would have in WWE. But yeah, this is basically fantasy booking anyway, this can (and hopefully will) end up being a total non-story.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953714 Yeah but pretty much all the really good wrestlers they produced was before the modern NXT/PC era. I'm struggling to come up with anyone who went through their current training system and came out really good.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953716 I don't know where this idea that Okada was initially shaky post-TNA comes from. The Dome match against YOSHI-HASHI sucked, but the title change against Tanahashi and his first defense against Naito both delivered big-time. Also, Master Wato hasn't exactly set the world on fire since returning from CMLL.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953718 Wato wasn't setting the world on fire when he was in CMLL either. Excursions can only help so much, if there's not much to work with it won't matter if they spend their time on the moon.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953720 He was considered a can't-miss future star before he left. The fact that they sent him on an excursion when he was only 20 shows that they expected pretty big things from him in a hurry. But he ended up not really doing anything in CMLL.
May 29, 20214 yr comment_5953722 He's got talent and potential, but he's one of those guys where things just haven't clicked yet for him.
May 30, 20214 yr Author comment_5953749 9 hours ago, El-P said: Also, hearing Eddie Kingtson talking about his dream matches being Ishii, Tanahashi and teaming with Mox at the Tokyo Dome against whoever, who really want to see an exclusive relationship between WWE and NJPW after hearing this ? I mean, you're not a pro-wrestling fan if you don't want those Eddie Kingston dream matches ! huh?
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953750 Makes a lot of sense really. WWE is flush with peacock money, NJPW business has suffered like everyone's with Covid, there is historic resentment with the AEW situation If you ignore how shit the TV is- I don't think AEW is much better than Smackdown at the moment anyway*- then there is a lot more potential for fresh matches by aligning with WWE and more money to be made... *raw feels close to the worst TV of all time at this point
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953751 If this opens the door to Walter or Cesaro on NJPW excursions I'm all for it tbh
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953754 4 hours ago, Jmare007 said: huh? Eddie is the greatest pro-wrestling fan you can think of, he's just so full of love for pro-wrestling it's so amazing to hear. So yeah, like I said, what self-respecting pro-wrestling woul want to deprive this guy from a chance to have his dream matches (and who wouldn't want to watch these anyway, it would be awesome) ?
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953755 Mox and Nagata was dope. WWE never would have presented that match the way they did, with so much love and respect shown to Blue Justice
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953765 fwiw Dave says the idea here is to give guys in WWE and NXT who want to work in New Japan the chance to do so without leaving, so it's not as if Vince is planning an invasion angle or something.
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953767 4 minutes ago, kid dracula said: fwiw Dave says the idea here is to give guys in WWE and NXT who want to work in New Japan Daniel Bryan the chance to do so without leaving, so it's not as if Vince is planning an invasion angle or something. Seems obvious now. Also, this has been posted in the AEW thread but what the hell, it belongs here and it is totally hilarious too :
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953768 Since this looks more and more like wwe letting DB wrestle in New Japan and keeping him away from AEW, serious question: Would American Dragon be a big deal if he signed with AEW? How big of a draw is he? Would this be AEW’s version of signing Hogan in 1994 as far as impact goes? To me Personally he doesn’t mean anything since I stopped following his career when he left the indies but I am curious what kind of positive impact he could have besides good matches. Would he improve ratings a lot? Attendances?
May 30, 20214 yr Author comment_5953770 17 minutes ago, Enforcer said: Since this looks more and more like wwe letting DB wrestle in New Japan and keeping him away from AEW, serious question: Would American Dragon be a big deal if he signed with AEW? How big of a draw is he? Would this be AEW’s version of signing Hogan in 1994 as far as impact goes? To me Personally he doesn’t mean anything since I stopped following his career when he left the indies but I am curious what kind of positive impact he could have besides good matches. Would he improve ratings a lot? Attendances? It's a good question, my gut feeling is that it would be more of a Kurt Angle going to TNA move in the sense that it would create a lot of buzz among the current fanbase and it would give them a nice boost for a short while, but it wouldn't mean THAT much business wise. Seems to me it's more about WWE not wanting to "lose him" to the competition (because of optics, pettiness, ego, etc.) than anything else. And to be honest, they've been very accommodating to Bryan for years now, he's gotten special treatment on a number of things ever since he cameback from retirement.
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953774 Also probably has a lot to do with keeping the Bellas happy. By all accounts DB is also really well liked in the locker room and by management so it probably makes sense to be willing to bend a bit for him.
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953787 It would be smart if WWE officially lets Bryan work NJPW. If they had taken that approach with Jericho, maybe he'd still be there. Makes sense not to make the same mistake twice.
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953789 It's interesting that WWE would go this length to try to keep one person (apparently). Normally they are so concerned about setting precedent they wouldn't do all this for fear that other folks would start wanting the same effort to keep them around. The funny part to me is that they clearly are afraid if Bryan went to New Japan (or AEW in order to go to New Japan) he could potentially be a big star for them.......so why don't they push him as a big star on their TV? That whole mindset of keeping someone locked in the basement at the PC because they might be a big star elsewhere is baffling. LIke ok, I get not wanting the competition to make money, so why not have them make that money for you instead? Vince really would rather shovel money in the furnace over the fear another company somewhere might make an extra penny.
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953791 The guys at Voices of Wrestling always mention this but it's weird how WWE is going through all these acrobatics trying to re-sign Bryan when it's a guy they really seem to not even want to push. I know it's to keep him from the competition but I can't really think of a scenario like this before
May 30, 20214 yr comment_5953792 4 hours ago, pmo said: Also probably has a lot to do with keeping the Bellas happy. By all accounts DB is also really well liked in the locker room and by management so it probably makes sense to be willing to bend a bit for him. Yeah super important to keep two retired women who are not employees and have no power within the company happy by....letting Daniel Bryan work New Japan?
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