Smarkside

As New Japan Pro Wrestling was about to start its biggest show of the year, four major stars--IC champion Shinsuke Nakamura, 36, top foreigner A.J. Styles (Allan Jones, 38), and tag team champions Karl Anderson (Chad Allegra, 35) & Doc Gallows (Andrew Hankinson, 32)--all gave notice. All four are expected to head to WWE. WWE was hoping and planning to debut Styles as one of the surprise entrants in the Royal Rumble on 1/24 in Orlando, figuring he’d get a huge reaction from that audience. That could change, given the word is out. WWE was hoping it could pull off a surprise like it did when Alberto Del Rio, the champion from AAA, showed up to face John Cena on 10/25 in Los Angeles, and obviously that’s not happening. After we had reported the story, it grew so big that WWE even acknowledged it on 1/5, doing a story on the rumors and stating that HHH declined to comment on the story, as opposed to denying it.

Booker Gedo was said to be blindsided by the move and given he’s notorious for long-term planning, they likely have to get ready to make a lot of changes. With the big program that has carried the company over four years, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, clearly past its drawing power peak (even if their last match was a classic), Okada vs. Nakamura seemed like the long-term future hot program. When you look at the 2017 Tokyo Dome, taking Styles and Nakamura out of the picture, there’s no main event. Okada vs. Tanahashi may be the best draw, but it would struggle to do the business it did this year. Okada against Tetsuya Naito, Togi Makabe or Kenny Omega is not a Dome main event. They need to strap the rocket on Kota Ibushi when he returns, but coming off surgery for a herniated disc in his neck, it’s hard to know if he can perform at the same level.

It should be noted that at press time, all four are still working for New Japan, although unless things change and the WWE deal falls through, Styles finished up with an angle where the rest of the Bullet Club turned on him on 1/5 at Korakuen Hall. Omega was groomed to take Styles’ position as the top foreign star of the promotion.

Anderson, whose contract with New Japan expires on 1/31, along with Gallows, lost the tag team titles to Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, which had been planned even if they were staying. But they will are expected to be getting a rematch in February at one of the New Beginnings shows. Nakamura defeated Styles to retain the IC title in a classic match that lived up to, and even exceeded its high expectations. Styles & Omega beat Nakamura & Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match when Omega pinned Nakamura with his one-winged angel finisher, which shocked the live crowd and immediately established Omega as the next contender for the IC title. Omega then attacked Styles and gave him the one-winged angel. The Young Bucks then both superkicked Styles and Omega stated that Styles was fired from the Bullet Club. Omega then said he was tired of pretending to be a junior heavyweight, and is going after Nakamura’s title.

Styles has no more dates left with New Japan or ROH at this point in time. According to those very close to the situation, while no comments are allowed to be made regarding going to WWE, past the point it was noted that no actual contract has been signed at this moment. Styles did not have a New Japan contract, but had committed to shows through this week. Styles is still doing his U.K. dates, with shows for Five Star Wrestling on 1/13 in Newcastle, 1/14 in Sheffield (for a first-time ever singles match with Rey Mysterio Jr.) and 1/15 in Liverpool. He is also still scheduledfor his 1/16 Revolution Pro date at York Hall at Bethnel Green in London, where he will defend his Revolution Pro championship against Zack Sabre Jr., in what I believe is another first-time-ever match, and a 2/5 match for Deep South Championship Wrestling.

While not specifically stated, whether he does other dates would be dependent upon the nature of the WWE contract, whether he signs and what they have planned. Styles had said all along he was going to go wherever the best offer was, and it was always just a question as to whether WWE would offer a number that would make it worth it for him to give up his New Japan and indies deals, which made him, along with possibly Rey Mysterio Jr., as one of the two highest paid U.S. wrestlers not with WWE. Another factor in all this is his back injury. Styles apparently said that doing DDP Yoga has helped his herniated discs out. Still, given his age and the nature of the injury changes the game for him. As an independent contractor, the upside is you make your own schedule, but you have to hustle like crazy. But if you can’t work, you don’t get paid. A WWE schedule is far more difficult, but if you’re under contract, you can afford to rest while injured and at least have a regular paycheck coming in. Of course, WWE does very thorough exams of talent before actually signing them and guys expected to be signed have gotten flagged due to injured body parts. But the injury could change his perspective if WWE were to offer a multi-year contract.

Anderson had been negotiating with TNA. The hold up had been that he was looking to continue to work for New Japan, a tricky political move since New Japan works with ROH in North America and ROH and TNA are considered rivals. But WWE must have made a serious offer to him at the last minute, likely aware that he would be just about ready to ink a new one-year deal. The belief is WWE is interested in marketing “Balor Club” T-shirts after the worldwide success of the “Bullet Club” T-shirts (New Japan had a worldwide trademark for Bullet Club). WWE is doing teases already now that the word is out, as Balor had a photo of himself wearing a Bullet Club shirt posted with the idea he was waiting for his buddies to come saying, “They should have been here by now.”

Between medical and other testing, it can be several months between when a performer is given word they are looking to ink him to a deal, before the actual contract is offered, and usually the talent continues with the promotion they are working for until a date WWE gives them to report, such as the several month period between Kevin Steen, as an example, agreeing to come to WWE, and still finishing out his programs with ROH, and there was even time after that before all the medical reports were back and he was actually offered and signed his contract. But it was months earlier when he was given the original offer and agreed to come. In the case of Styles, because they were looking at debuting him rather soon as a surprise (an idea that is out the window now because the story got out), like with Del Rio, the situation can be different.

On 1/5, they shot an angle for Nakamura to defend his IC title against Kenny Omega at one of the two February PPV shows. But Tokyo Sports and Yahoo Japan both reported Nakamura finishing at the end of January when his contract expires and Nakamura did an interview confirming his departure. That looks to necessitate putting the Omega vs. Nakamura title match on the 1/30 show at Korakuen Hall. “The world, the world, that’s it,” Nakamura said. “I want to live a life where I keep aiming for an ever bigger stage.” The belief is he will drop his IC title on the way out, unlike Del Rio, who never dropped the AAA belt. If he doesn’t, that would be a clear sign WWE is really trying to screw with New Japan for fun, like they did with AAA with Del Rio. When Fergal Devitt (Finn Balor) decided to leave New Japan for WWE, his contract expired in January and it was generally known before that time he was probably leaving. But he stayed through April and didn’t report to Orlando until May.

Nakamura was a surprise because no Japanese wrestler at his level has ever left the home company to sign with a U.S. promotion. Even when WCW was paying out huge money, Keiji Muto and Masahiro Chono stuck with New Japan (although they were making huge money in Japan at the time). WWE had been after Nakamura for months. While KENTA was NOAH’s top star and left, NOAH at the time was a dying company and KENTA (now Hideo Itami) had always had the goal to make it in WWE and was running out of time due to age. Nakamura would be similar except New Japan, while past its peak, is still a vibrant, healthy company and he was a genuine superstar past the small promotion level. Nakamura was also working for a major corporation, Bushiroad, the parent company of New Japan, with an owner, Takaaki Kidani, who had publicly said their competition was WWE & UFC and their goal was to become a worldwide power. Kidani had also in the past talked about how it was inevitable that they may have to pay up to $1 million per year for their top three guys to keep them from inevitably going to WWE. However, Nakamura wasn’t making anywhere close to that.

WWE would have had to have made a significant financial commitment to get him. It’s not just offering more money than he is currently earning, but Nakamura would have tremendous long-term job security provided New Japan stays healthy as a company. New Japan continues to use wrestlers like Manabu Nakanishi and Hiroyoshi Tenzan, who can’t do much anymore, because the company does have more loyalty to talent than most companies. When his body gives out, he probably, with his charisma, could continue in a toned down lower card role in multiple person matches for more than a decade, and on occasion, get some nostalgia runs. But in leaving, that company loyalty situation changes. Still, if it doesn’t work out, he would be accepted back and it would be a big return. But there is the writing on the wall. New Japan had a great comeback, tripling business over a few year period. But they peaked with last year’s Tokyo Dome and Dominion shows, and look to be starting a period where they’ll be paying for the lack of developing new stars. WWE is the opposite, as they’ve been aggressive in building talent for their future, even if most of it was talent really created elsewhere.

There are two key lessons in this. New Japan has attempted to copy the WWE business in many ways, such as making the Tokyo Dome week like WrestleMania, giving up on PPV and iPPV in favor of a streaming service and just all kinds of business and promotional changes. The first lesson is that they need to sign their top guys to longer than one-year deals. The top WWE talent that they rely on is signed up for eight to ten years, and renegotiated with and given new deals long before the current ones expire. Even the minor guys and developmental guys are usually signed up for three years minimum. This prevents a rich billionaire wanting to start out from being able to execute a raid. New Japan’s one-year deals that expire in January left them as sitting ducks for this.

The second is, instead of a system where they just create their own stars from scratch, they should be open to poaching good young talent from other promotions. There is a ton of great young talent in Japan, or even great talent in smaller promotions that could work out great in New Japan. It’s not the Japanese way of doing things. But WWE, whether in 1984, 1994 or 2014, has always been built more on taking talent that worked in other promotions and was already good. Sure, there are Kurt Angles and Dwayne Johnsons who they started on their own, and Roman Reigns fits into that category as well. But in New Japan, virtually everyone (Kazuchika Okada ironically being the exception as he was trained originally by Ultimo Dragon) came from their dojo. Kota Ibushi, when he returns, needs to become a “big four” guy, which is tricky since he’s under a dual contract and doesn’t work the spot shows.

With Nakamura and Styles, WWE will pick up two of the best wrestlers in the world today, some would argue the two best. Both are geared for the main roster, not NXT, although either or both spending time in NXT wouldn’t be a surprise. After Luis Urive (Mistico/original Sin Cara) went straight from CMLL to the main roster, the doctrine has been to send foreign stars, no matter how talented, to NXT to have them study English and the way WWE presents wrestling as well as the ring style.

This also hurts ROH. It doesn’t appear that Nakamura will be coming to ROH in February, although he did tell at least one person in ROH he would see him there on 1/5 and nothing has been confirmed on the ROH side. The New Japan/ROH relationship was a huge deal in ROH having its biggest year ever this past year, and the relationship between the sides had gotten stronger after working things out when Jushin Liger worked an NXT date head-to-head in Brooklyn against an ROH show where much of New Japan’s top talent worked. With Liger working the NXT date (interestingly Liger has not worked any other NXT dates even though indie promoters in the U.S. that went to book Liger were told WWE has first priority on dates for him and he hasn’t worked in the U.S. since), Nakamura was the most popular of the New Japan wrestlers with the ROH fan base. After Nakamura gave notice, he did indicate to at least one person he was still coming for the ROH tour. ROH booker Hunter Johnston (Delirious) was in Japan this week for the Tokyo Dome and booking Japanese talent in ROH this year was a key part of discussions.

Nothing is known regarding how Anderson & Gallows would be used, past the Balor Club speculation. Anderson had turned down several WWE offers over the past few years. He showed up for the Dome leaner than he had ever been, more muscular and more tanned. He looked like someone getting ready for WWE. He’s a technically talented guy and has some comedic ability as shown in the Maria storyline, which was really more of a WWE type program than a New Japan program. Since WWE very rarely takes back guys that they themselves made the decision to cut, Gallows was very lucky to be partnered with Anderson at a time when WWE was clearly looking to do a 1984 Gagne on them. What’s notable in the U.S. is that while the AXS show had a limited audience, it was a hit on the station, and like with the 1984 Gagne raid, they took the key announcer, the tag team champions, the IC champion and the former IWGP champion. To the America audience, Nakamura, with his charisma, and Styles because he’s American and a super wrestler, and had TNA recognition, were probably the two biggest stars on that show. Other names floated around from New Japan as far as coming to WWE included Rocky Romero, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga. The only thing known is that as of this week, none of the three had given notice. Romero had recent discussions with WWE, with the belief being it involved a player/coach type of job at NXT. Balor is believed to have suggested and recruited Fale and Tonga. Because of his size, Fale had offers of sorts in the past but he lives in New Zealand, has family there, and in the past hadn’t been interested in relocating to Orlando.

Fale has had some success high on cards in New Japan. But even though the wrestling standard is a lot better in main events and he’s done okay, it’s been with guys who are really great and can carry him. He’s effective to a degree in New Japan because he’s 6-foot-4 and probably 340 pounds, and no other regular is that heavy so he can play big powerhouse. His rugby background works since he was a star in that sport in Japan, so he has the legit tough guy thing going for him. He gets over because everyone sold his Bad Luck Fall like it was a killer move that nobody gets up from, and he could do big man power spots because all his regular opponents are a lot smaller. The only two guys of similar size were Bullet Club members Cody Hall and Gallows, and he’s much heavier and thicker than both of them. In WWE, even though the promoter himself historically favors size, once you have guys like Big Show, Mark Henry and Braun Strowman, a guy like Fale isn’t going to stand out just on size and power spots. WWE recruits guys his size all the time and most don’t make it, and aside from the size, he doesn’t have anything special going for him. Ironically, Tonga lives in Orlando. But Tonga, due to the departures, is in line for his first major push in New Japan.

The word from New Japan was that the Bullet Club would remain, and that Omega would be the top heavyweight star, and that Fale & Tonga would move up to be the top foreign tag team. In a sense, that’s a tough one. Omega, Tonga and Fale are not new talent to the Japanese fans, only lesser talent taking spots from better talent. This is exactly what really hurt the regionals in the U.S., when what people saw as top stars were leaving and being replaced in the same spots not by new stars with similar charisma, but by people they already knew and were just lesser stars moving up. Some have compared this to 1990 All Japan, a strong promotion that was thought to be hurt badly when Genichiro Tenryu, Great Kabuki, Yoshiaki Yatsu and others all left together to start SWS. But All Japan had Toshiaki Kawada, Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi who had everything needed to be great main eventers and business boomed with the new talent on top. Omega has great ability but will have to tone down his overacting if he’s going to be the top foreign star.