Disagreeing with 537

I love FiveThritySeven.  I like stats, and this kind of web site is up my alley.  And when they cross over and talk about wrestling, my head explodes. 

However, this time I want to disagree.  The theme of the article is that the New Era in WWE was born in Japan.  I think they make a few mistakes.  I do want to say it is obvious that the WWE is much more open to other companies existing than in the past and do appear to be recruiting in Japan, but that does not mean that they are letting Japan dictate as much as the article implies. 

First the stat about the winners at Summer Slam and the amount of time they spent in Japan is a little misleading since the article is talking about being born in Japan.  AJ Styles went to Japan and wrestled a lot in Japan, but he was a made man by the time he got to Japan.  Japan has always been where independent wrestlers go to make real money.  Styles was already a superstar, so his matches over there should not really be factored in.  Luke Gallows became a star over in Japan, but had already worked for WWE in the past prior to going to Japan.  He even worked with CM Punk so much that Punk dropped his name in a RAW interview when Gallows got fired.  And it is true that Balor has major Japanese influence in his wrestling, but he did spend the first six years of his career in Britain.  It is there he actually began. 

Just for the record as an NWA fan, it was the NWA that saw potential in so many of these guys first.  In 2007 Balor lost in a tournament for the vacant NWA World Title to Brian Danielson (Daniel Bryan), who was later hurt and pulled out of the finals.  Most believe he was scheduled to win the World title.

So matches in Japan does not equal coming from Japan.

Their biggest piece of evidence is also their worst.  It is the pushes given to outright Japanese wrestlers as they have come over to the WWE.  Nakamura is 25-0 and Asuka is 73-0 and Itami was derailed by injury.  Now this sounds impressive.  Until you realize the problem is that none of these competitors is on WWE main roster TV.  They are all on NXT.  Instead of saying they have won so many matches in a row and thus their push is greater we need to measure how fast they were pushed up to the main roster. 

Kevin Owens was pushed immediately into the NXT title picture and while holding that title beat John Cena at a PPV.  He did all of that before he had his 25th match in WWE.  Now, he dropped that match back to Cena and the NXT title to Balor so he could be full time on WWE main roster before he ever got to 73 matches.  So who really had the better push?  Balor had to finally lose to Joe and drop the title so he could go to the main roster and immediately win the newly created WWE Universal championship before he got to 25 matches total.  Does that mean Nakamura had a better push than Balor?  Of course not.  And it has to be said that people lose more often on the main roster than on NXT.  If Asuka goes 73-0 on the main roster or Nakamura 25-0 with a title then we can talk about amazing pushes.  Right now you would have to say Roman Reigns is getting a bigger push than Nakamura as Reigns is a multi-time WWE World Champ and currently in the US title hunt going on after Balor at Summer Slam despite never winning the NXT title. 

And this remains the point.  Nakamura was the biggest or second biggest star in New Japan.  New Japan is easily the second biggest promotion in the world.  He helped sell out WrestleKingdom over and over again in the Tokyo Dome.  Yet, WWE has him in the developmental system.  He is in the minors.  Not only is he in the minors but is remaining their longer than Kevin Owens who was an ROH man.  Longer than Balor who was from New Japan, and a lesser star there than Nakamura. 

Itami was a big star in Pro Wrestling NOAH where he is a seven time champ.  He invented the move that Punk used, yet when Itami came to WWE he was forbidden to use it (until recently).  Not exactly the marks of a strong push. 

Asuka is an amazing 73-0.  Yet, Baley, whom she has beaten twice now, is on the main roster and Asuka is not.  The Women's Division is much thinner than the men's, but Asuka remains in the minors while everyone around her moves up to the main roster. 

Now it is true that a call up to the main roster does not mean better wrestler.  Sometimes people like Adam Rose get called up or Dana Brooke because you need a mid card comedy act or a flunky to help out the champ, but it is hard to argue for a strong push without making it to the main roster.  I doubt Asuka would think her career good if she went 235-0 without ever wrestling for the main roster.  She would probably consider it a failure.  As would Nakamura. 

So while I can agree that WWE is opening itself up to new things, it is too early to say the New Era is born in Japan and too early to say that the Era is even that new.