{"id":1620,"date":"2016-12-30T21:07:16","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T02:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2016-12-31T07:24:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T12:24:16","slug":"elitism-kenny-omega-young-bucks-bucks-and-njpw-begin-new-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2016\/12\/30\/elitism-kenny-omega-young-bucks-bucks-and-njpw-begin-new-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Elitism: Kenny Omega, Young Bucks and NJPW Begin New War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in May of this year, we wrote a piece entitled “The Silent War Between WWE and New Japan”<\/a>. In it, we chronicled WWE’s slow signing of Japanese stars in 2014, like Prince Devitt, El Generico<\/strong> and KENTA<\/strong>, the rehiring of Matt Bloom<\/strong> (NJPW veteran Giant Bernard<\/strong>), through the signing of the New Japan 4 (AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura<\/strong>, and Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows<\/strong>) this past January. But if recent events are any indication, New Japan is about to take the fight to the WWE in a global way.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason why the WWF overtook the other promotions like the AWA, NWA<\/strong> and WCCW<\/strong> in the early 80’s, was Vince McMahon’s ability to get in with ground level television technology, the closed circuit television and later PPVs, while the others were still gloating about regional cable deals. Once McMahon took off, everyone scrambled to try and get their promotion in the same gear. But instead of working together on a common solution to benefit all, they splintered, and the Big Bad Vince picked them off one by one.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This time around, the indie promotions are working on and with the latest in streaming services. And instead of isolating themselves from each other like 15 separate horses in a race, they are slowly becoming more like fifteen horses in a stable. There is a cohesiveness in the global indie circuit right night, where kayfabe storylines and characters are crossing over into wrestling cultures from Toronto, Canada to London, England to New York City to Berlin. Tommy End<\/strong> in wXw<\/strong> is the same Tommy End you saw in Ring of Honor<\/strong>. That kind of freedom of character benefits all promotions in the age of online streaming. If a Sami Callihan<\/strong>\u00a0fan in Chicago wants to watch more matches and can watch cards from London or Germany, it can only help those other international promotions to expand its global brand. And thus, the stock of the wrestler\u00a0and<\/em> the brand goes up.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, WWE has been strengthening its brand, both domestically – with the introduction of the WWE Network<\/strong>, the rise of NXT<\/strong> – and internationally – the Cruiserweight Classic<\/strong> and now UK Championship<\/strong>. They are no longer being content being the American company that dips into the world. They want to be the global company that the world dips into. And while it seemingly seemed like the rest of the world of professional wrestling was just sitting back as this juggernaut slowly crept its dark shadow across the globe, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)<\/strong> made headlines for weeks recently with comments made from some key figures in New Japan Wrestling in regards to the WWE’s recent expansion – following the announcement of the UK Championship in London a few weeks back. New Japan was not going to publicly say they were leading a war against the WWE and its financial muscle, but instead were going to show the world that their guts, tenacity and performance were going to at least keep the spirit of the independent promotion and international cultural styles, were going to remain healthy for generations to come.<\/p>\n

Takaaki Kidani<\/h2>\n
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Photo: njpw.co.jp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It started on December 16, 2016, when\u00a0Takaaki Kidani<\/strong>, President of Bushiroad<\/strong> in Japan (parent company of NJPW), suddenly Tweeted a long series of comments on the state of the WWE’s emerging presence in the global wrestling market.<\/p>\n

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WWE\u4e16\u754c\u6226\u75651\u3002WWE\u304c200\u5104\u5186\u7a0b\u5ea6\u8abf\u9054\u3059\u308b\u3089\u3057\u3044(\u65b9\u6cd5\u3068\u3057\u3066\u306f\u8ee2\u63db\u793e\u50b5\u306e\u3088\u3046\u306b\u3068\u308c\u308b\uff1f)\u4f7f\u3044\u9053\u306f\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u306e\u67a0\u5185\u3067\u306fWWE\u30cd\u30c3\u30c8\u30ef\u30fc\u30af\u306e\u30c6\u30b3\u5165\u308c\u3001\u4e16\u754c\u4e2d\u306bWWE\u7d10\u4ed8\u304d\u306e\u30ed\u30fc\u30ab\u30eb\u30c6\u30ea\u30c8\u30ea\u30fc\u306e\u69cb\u7bc9\u3060\u308d\u3046\u3002\u82f1\u56fd\u738b\u5ea7\u8a95\u751f\u306f\u305d\u306e\u4e00\u74b0\u3002\u65e5\u672c\u306e\u56e3\u4f53\u3082\u8cb7\u53ce\u5bfe\u8c61\u306b\u306a\u308b\u53ef\u80fd\u6027\u304c\u3042\u308b\u3002(\u7d9a\u304f)<\/p>\n

— \u6728\u8c37\u9ad8\u660e (@kidanit) December 16, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n