WWE-NJPW working relationship in the works

[WingedEagle]

1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said:

Dave is emphasizing that there's a real good chance nothing comes of this, so let's not jump to conclusions.

This.  Not to mention that NJPW has been featured in AEW since these talks commenced.  There's no reason to assume that any discussions have or will amount to anything substantive.  For all we know either party may have leaked this for other purposes.

[strobogo]

3 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

It's interesting how I feel the exact opposite. AEW working with New Japan didn't do much for me (aside from Shota having a prominent role in Dynamite and Miro working a G-1) but WWE sending some talent there feels like a breath of fresh air for NJ's product. Not only it would possible mean more variety with some main events but also showcasing people that could mesh really fucking well with NJPW's house style and that would feel much more fresh than AEW guys working against New Japan guys.

Yeah this is how I feel, too. Plus so many of the big names in AEW were already in NJ against all of those same guys, or currently working with NJ anyway. There are only a handful of AEW guys that I'm interested in seeing in NJ (and it's really mostly just Rusev). Whereas with WWE, there are a whole gamut of potential matches up that could be great for everyone involved. Of course, I wouldn't expect said relationship to last very long before being completely blown up.  

[cm funk]

I'm sure Okada remembers what happened to him in TNA.  I'm sure some people there remember what happened to NJPW talent that went to WCW in the late 90's.  Modern WWE is at that level of ineptitude in my eyes.  I can't imagine them actually booking any young lions well, unless maybe Bryan is put in charge of it and they're kept far the fuck away from Bruce and Vince.

I'm sure this is just due diligence by Khan and the odds of anything coming of it are low, but if nothing else it probably gives NJPW leverage with AEW and ROH, so putting it out there in the ether is smart

As a fan I want them working with AEW and staying far the fuck away from WWE

[sek69]

Drew having some fun with this by posting a tweet seemingly about his match with Kofi but with OKADA as an acrostic. 

Also even if this relationship ever would happen (I assume it was just Big Daddy Nick kicking tires), it wouldn't last long since Vince is eventually gonna Vince and a Japanese company isn't going to let a foreign company call the shots for too long, business culture over there doesn't work that way. 

[Jmare007]

Quote

PWInsider.com has been told today by sources from each company that there have been communications between the two sides for several months but the main crux of it was over the potential of Daniel Bryan being able to potentially work some dates in NJPW.

 

So DB was truly trying to "weasel his way" into this agreement

[Blehschmidt]

The New Japan Young Lions will be much better off after spending some time doing forward rolls at the Performance Center.

[sek69]

I can imagine the Young Lions seeing how training is done at the PC and enraging WWE by laughing at it. Or even better WWE trying to pull a power play and demand NJPW use the PC for trainees only to have Shibata show up and slap the shit out of everyone in the building. 

[Enforcer]

Maybe the appeal of getting in the ring with the best wrestler in the world, Randy Orton, is just too strong...

[El-P]

8 minutes ago, Enforcer said:

Maybe the appeal of getting in the ring with the best wrestler in the world, Randy Orton, is just too strong...

It was only a matter of time. 

Can't wait until they tell Tanahashi that he needs to learn how to work the proper way.

[kid dracula]

I know this isn't true, but my first thought was that this is an evil scheme to keep Danielson from leaving. 

I'm not even sure how I would get excited about this, because I don't know what matches I'm supposed to want to see. Five or six years ago Tanahashi vs. Cena would have been some kind of dream match, but that ship has probably sailed. Roman vs Okada? It would be good, I'm sure, but it doesn't feel like a particularly intriguing match-up.  

Honestly this feels more like something that would happen in NXT, anyway.

 

[sek69]

10 minutes ago, kid dracula said:

I know this isn't true, but my first thought was that this is an evil scheme to keep Danielson from leaving. 

It actually does seem the talks started in part to give Bryan the opportunity to work in New Japan without leaving WWE. 

[Boss Rock]

So apart from letting Bryan work some dates, this looks to be much ado about nothing.

[Coffey]

2 hours ago, strobogo said:

Whereas with WWE, there are a whole gamut of potential matches up that could be great for everyone involved. Of course, I wouldn't expect said relationship to last very long before being completely blown up.  

Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Rey Mysterio, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Aleister Black, Sami, Owens.. would love to see Jason Jordan/Chad Gable again. If we include NXT, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, Finn Balor & maybe a random WALTER appearance. There's a lot they could do. A lot of potential, fun match-ups. 

Sheamus against Ishii woo boy.

But I wouldn't wanna touch anything WWE these days if I were another promotion. Even Wrestlemania now feels like an afterthought. 

[Enforcer]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

It was only a matter of time. 

Can't wait until they tell Tanahashi that he needs to learn how to work the proper way.

Anyone who had contact with The Young Bucks while they where there need to learn to shake hands to show respect to the locker room leaders. 

[Strummer]

looking deeper into this it does indeed look like the company trying to gain leverage with Bryan so he will re-sign and not go to AEW

[MoS]

I think there is no chance that we will see a full-blown working arrangement between NJPW and WWE. Vince has never operated like that, and New Japan would have to be really dumb to not realise it. I agree with people who are saying this is a way to keep Daniel Bryan happy, allow him to work some NJ dates. I also think this news was purposefully leaked to Meltzer, maybe because someone is trying to play both sides and increase the money they are being offered in the process. Apparently, these talks started in March/April, but we have seen New Japan wrestlers in AEW as recently as last week, so the "exclusive" part certainly has not happened yet 

[sek69]

I mean, WWF and New Japan did work together back in the day, and while it was a million years ago the same guy's still in charge (I know VKM wasn't technically in charge yet but I believe he was functionally running things toward the end of Vince Sr's life). 

[MoS]

Literally the first thing Vince did after establishing WWF as a national promotion in the 80s was to end that partnership

[sek69]

1 hour ago, MoS said:

Literally the first thing Vince did after establishing WWF as a national promotion in the 80s was to end that partnership

Touche, but to be fair that was because Vince Jr quit the NWA which New Japan was a part of. 

[ButchReedMark]

New Japan will work with anyone seemingly. But illd be gutted if they get in bed with WWE, as I love impact at the moment and things like Kojima vs  Doering won't be able to happen. 

[joeg]

NJPW has always used foreign partnerships for 2 things- getting the young lions needed experience abroad so they are ready for their push when they return to Japan, and the occasional super show.  There isn't a single promotion in the US or UK outside of WWE that runs multiple shows a week every single week. I think its part of why in the last 20 years the only wrestlers to do well immediately after returning to Japan were the guys who did their excursion in CMLL where they got work 4 or 5 times a week. Even Okada was shaky for the first 6 months or so after returning from TNA. WWE could potentially solve that issue for New Japan. 

[Robert S]

8 hours ago, joeg said:

NJPW has always used foreign partnerships for 2 things- getting the young lions needed experience abroad so they are ready for their push when they return to Japan, and the occasional super show.  There isn't a single promotion in the US or UK outside of WWE that runs multiple shows a week every single week. I think its part of why in the last 20 years the only wrestlers to do well immediately after returning to Japan were the guys who did their excursion in CMLL where they got work 4 or 5 times a week. Even Okada was shaky for the first 6 months or so after returning from TNA. WWE could potentially solve that issue for New Japan. 

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.

[cm funk]

Yeah, it makes way more sense for NJPW long term to stick to their guns with the excursions, and I think it's for the best that guys go around the world and work in different places.  REVPRO and CMLL are small potatatoes but they're places to work and get experience, and AEW is absolutely the best place for the young lions IMO with Dark, Elevation etc. and an audience that will be more open minded to young Japanese talent than a WWE crowd might be.  The PC is the last place I'd send them, though as dire as NXT is these days (I blame a lot of it on HBK btw, but that's another topic for another day)...that would be a nice shot in the arm if they didn't book them in stupid angles with ancient Chinese woman and whatever Lumis is

[cm funk]

And no offense was meant to CMLL.....I meant small on the global scale compared to WWE

[joeg]

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.

Yeah but that was due to the pandemic. I would expect they would to go back to running a Smackdown, Raw, and NXT loop every week as soon as they can. And even during the pandemic without house shows and doing mostly empty arenas in Florida, WWE still managed to have over 400 shows in the last 18 months. We could argue as to whether they should have been running that much during a pandemic. But they truth is Okada got less than 20 matches in while on excursion, Oka got less than 30. Evil had less than 50. It shows when these guy come back to Japan that they went away for a year or more and only wrestled a couple dozen times while they were gone. They never seem to look good. Before the pandemic WWE was running over 500 shows a year with most of their regular guys getting 150 to 200 dates a year. If a partnership with WWE meant NJPW young lions were working on half of the NXT shows, that would still be more work than any of young lion got in recent years.