On Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 9:21 AM EST
Now, I was sitting here getting ready to handle some business, and I was thinking about something. Let me try and explain.
One of my hobbies lately, sparked by my interests in Ring of Honor, has been following Japanese "puroresu", pro wrestling. In Japan, to the best of my knowledge, there are four major companies. Pro Wrestling NOAH, New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, and Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling. I know there are others, HUSTLE, K-Dojo, Big Japan, et al, but for the purpose of this idea, let's use thse four companies right now.
At the present time, in NOAH, they have an ROH stalwart as their current junior heavyweight champion. They have a tag team from New Japan challenging for the junior heavyweight tag team titles. The founder of the promotion, Kensuke Office, is the current heavyweight champion in NOAH. In New Japan, a stalwart from All Japan, as far I am aware of, is that promotion's heavyweight champion. In Dragon Gate, a former ROH "legend" was their secondary champion back in the day. They had a tag team win the tag team championship in NOAH. Also, in NOAH, they've had tag teams win the junior heavyweight tag and heavyweight tag team titles that are either from ROH, or from the United States entirely.
In other words, VARIETY. Taking the entire pool of talent in the country, and abroad, and using them to encompass the product and make it better. Tell me that having GHC Championship matches in a Ring of Honor ring doesn't do some major league business for Japanese promotions. I'm sure it does. Tell me having a former ROH World Champion as the current GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion doesn't do wonders for both promotions. Tell me how a former ROH World Champion jumps up in ranks and wins the GHC Heavyweight title, and that doesn't spark a lot of interest from hardcore wrestling fans that follow ROH and NOAH on both sides of the world.
It does, in every sense. At least, it does, for me. And I think, if the suits in America would get their egos in check, it'd do wonders for this country as well.
For this comparison, let's use ROH, WWE, the NWA, and to make it even, put TNA in there as well. How fun would it be to see ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness take on World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho? How fun would it be to see NWA World Champion Brent Albright take on TNA World Champion Samoa Joe? How fun would it be to see ROH World Tag Team Champions the Age of the Fall take on TNA Tag Team Champions Beer Money, Inc.? What about NWA North American Champion Mike DiBiase defending his belt against World Tag Team Champion Ted DiBiase?
Should I continue? Ok. ECW Champion Matt Hardy vs. Scrap Iron Adam Pearce? WWE Tag Team Chumpions, and yes, I know I typed that wrong, Hawkins & Ryder, get squashed by any tag champ that you can put there.
You get my point. I was talking about this briefly with Andy Knowles during my recent appearance on the Pro Wrestling Rewind, (available online at wrestleview.com/rewind), where we were mentioning how then GHC Champion Morishima was getting shots at WWE in dark matches. Why couldn't the suits in America put this idea to work? It BUILDS UP WRESTLING AS A WHOLE, and puts asses in seats. And isn't that the bottom line for the sport? If it can work in another part of the world, and it obviously is working somewhere else, how come it can't work here?
I'll give you one answer.
Money, money, money, money. It's all about the MOHN---AEEEEEE.
And it makes me ill thinking about the fact that this lovely, simple, and fun idea will never see the light of day on American soil.
I'd like to hear your ideas. Email me your suggestions and/or possible dream cards, and I'll post them on my blog.
Thanks for reading.
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