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. 

Pro Wrestling Phoenix Wrestlerama report

Review of the Pro Wrestling Phoenix out of Omaha, NE Wrestlerama show

The show opened with a fun match of Con Ar Tist v. a guy whose name I didn’t catch.  The crowd was very into this match.  Con Ar Tist was a face (who would have guessed) and had a specialized theme song that had people chanting.  He dominated most of the match and hit his Choo-Choo finisher in the corner, and then when the crowd asked him to do it one more time he obliged.  Great opener.  Con Ar Tist was super over with the crowd, and he made a special point of coming back during the intermission to say hello to my 13 year old.  He immediately became my boy’s favorite.

The next match was Dalton Lee Roth and Purple vs. Rising Phoenix Champ and an Australian rule football guy with a very cute manager.  It was kind of an odd match as clearly PWP had been teasing a break up between Roth and Purple, but the heel tag team were not exactly a real tag team.  They smacked each other around.  In the end, the heels won, the Rising Phoenix champ looked strong, and Roth made the heel turn.  I wish the turn had been better executed.  Someone messing something up to give a reason, getting in each other’s way, or just frustration showing through the match. 

Then came Pat Powers, who is running for President.  He got mic time and was pretty good.  He teased a VP pick later, and wrestled a great match against Paco, who may have been a new guy.  Both showed good skill, but Powers pulled an injury card, and after the ref threw up the X sign (to who was a question), Powers hit his finisher on Paco and won the match.  Nice heel tactics, but it took a little too long to pull off.  Good in ring wrestling.

Then was the last match before intermission and it was for the PWP Tag Titles.  The Daniels brothers led by Axel Greece against Guns n Beer.  Guns n Beer are a fun tag team and were also pretty popular.  They did a good job.  One time holding out the whiskey bottle to encourage the stretch for the tag and it worked.  Fun stuff.  The Daniels brothers worked over a hurt shoulder and ended up with the win after manager help.  Nice match with a heel win. 

Opening the second half of the show was KLD (Kenneth Lee Davidson) against the Canadian Hercules.  This was a good story.  Was Hercules strong enough to overcome the very large KLD.  They did the shoulder block test, they did a test of strength (long time since I saw that and it made sense for the match), they did trying to suplex each other bit, and pulled out a very under used kick out at 1.  The wrestling was strong guy wrestling, but it was a beautiful story, and KLD picked up the win in the end with a very powerful looking chokebomb finisher. 

Then was Zac James against Devin Carter.  This was another great story match.  Carter had attacked James last time when teased retiring because of head injuries.  So the story was head injuries.  It played for the vicious nature of James’s opening.  Carter eventually shrugged him into a ring post and it then became a question of would James make the 10 count as he was motionless.  When he was going to make it Carter would go out and bang his head again.  Carter yelled at him to just lay down and quit many times.  It was perfect story telling.  Eventually Carter was overthrown with a sliced bread and was set up for a top rope finisher, but Pat Powers came out and clipped the feet.  This led to a Carter superplex and victory.  Nice match.  Carter is now the VP candidate, which was a little weird, and made the post match promise of revenge in a tag match also a little strange, but great over all. 

This led into the main event with the PWP champ, , putting the belt on the line against local legend Hype Gotti and Unbreakable Michael Elgin.  Elgin and Gotti can really go.  Both men showed great athleticism.  The champ is a bigger fellow and wrestled in that way, so the match of styles was sometimes harsh.  Hit a Vader Splash in the corner on Gotti, which was neat.  Gotti suicide dived on Elgin out of the ring then ran back into the ring and dove out the other side on the champ.  It was a small bar, so it was gutsy stuff.  Elgin showed amazing strength when he picked up the champ on his shoulders.  Of course his chops were awesome and a couple of the lariats I thought were going to take a person’s head off.  They did a superplex, powerbomb out of the corner combo with Elgin doing the superplex, but taking the bomb from the champ leading to the champ hitting his finisher on Gotti to retain.  Harder to tell the story when the three guys in the ring were all faces and it was kind of a one off, but a very good main event. 

Just a quick note on the National Title

I just wanted to post something about Greg Anthony and the National Title.  His home promotion of Mid South is a weekly show, and so he is there defending it often.  But a National title ought to be moving around.  He has gone to some places to defend it, but I have always hoped this would be a way Greg Anthony got around the NWA because frankly he would make a good World champ. 

I did just discover that the Golden One has been defending it in more places than I thought.  NWA Central States has had Greg Anthony out twice now.  I missed this because Central States is not always a very active or regular promotion due in large part to horrible regulations in Missouri making wrestling there difficult.  Still, two successful defenses this summer ought to be noticed.  Here is hoping for more Greg Anthony sightings. 

Raw brand booking

So after the PPV the two shows are separate and have different feels and vibes. 

Raw would feature Dean Ambrose defending the WWE title and Charlotte defending the Women’s Title.  It would also have New Day defending the Tag Titles as well as the US Title of Rusev. 

Rusev’s story would be a quick smash of Mojo Rawley after his defeat of Zack Ryder at Backlash.  Then he makes a challenge and say no one in the world can beat him because he is the strongest of all.  Out comes Caesaro.  This begins the feud with Caesaro winning at Summer Slam.  That man needs a title. 

Charlotte was in a beautiful feud with Sasha.  Keep it going.  Sasha’s Monday night win was nice, but they have a match at Summer Slam with Sasha going over.  Charlotte can blame Brooke and then go into a beat down of her after Summer Slam.  Sasha can take on someone like Eva Maria and win and Bailey starts getting built up.  Eventually Charlotte teams with Natalia to head back to the top.  That should get you to Survivor Series where Charlotte, Natalia, Eva Maria, and someone else (like Nia Jacks) can team up against Sasha, Bailey, and some others (maybe Becky Lynch and a returning Nikki Bella). 

New Day has overcome the Wyatts who are no longer together, so they keep their antics up.  You can have a friendly match with the Hype Bros if you want, but the Dudleys take issue with this power of positivity.  They put some people through a table.  I would also start to examine Bubba Ray as a singles wrestler.  Somewhere in this feud Bubba Ray beats Xavier Woods one on one and maybe Big E too.  Kofi can be Devon and the Summer Slam match should be a DQ to lead to a no-DQ match at the next PPV. 

Also related to this I am building up a tag team division so I need the Ascension to run through GoldenTruth.  These punk rock guys weird guys make a natural opponent for the Vaudevillians.  They start a feud that the Vaudevillians win.  They will be the next in line for a title shot, so I need to start building them up.  Large focus on their old timey approach.  I keep Envo and Cass strong as well by winning a feud with Big Show (who ends up on Raw) and whoever he picks as his partner.  Maybe a Big Show v Cass showdown someone in there too.  Then Enzo and Cass take out Shemus and Del Rio.  That one could actually become a feud.  Eventually a four way title match is on the card for Survivor Series (Vaudevillians, New Day, Enzo&Cass, and Dudleys).  New Day drop the belts there to Vaudevillians, who will drop the belt before the Rumble to Enzo&Cass who go into Wrestlemania the champs. 

Roman Reigns is the logical candidate to take on Ambrose.  I would have made Ambrose pin Rollins at Backlash and Reigns asking for a straight up match with Dean.  He can mention how he never got his one on one rematch.  They have their SummerSlam match where the crowd is going to be boing Reigns.  Ambrose wins. 

Then I would start a Bray Wyatt feud with Reigns in the good ole creepy Bray way.  Make Bray point out how much the crowd hates him.  During this Reigns probably beats Strowman, but Bray continually taunts Reigns.  Reigns gets a win, but so does Bray.  Bray is begging Reigns to give in.  And this would be how Reigns turned evil.  You look for a moment when the crowd is cheering Bray or chanting “one more time” for a Sister Abigail on Reigns and Bray leaves the ring so the chants can be heard.  This would make Reigns come back as a heel for a run around Royal Rumble time. 

Ambrose would go into a feud with AJ Styles after Summerslam.  Styles would win some #1 contender match at the Slam.  Styles would be Styles and have the crowd going.  Ambrose doesn’t think Styles can go all the way out there with the loose cannon.  Styles promises he can.  First match is a draw somehow, maybe even time limit or neither can keep going.  Then Styles wins the next one and becomes the WWE Champ.  I would keep the belt on Styles through Wrestlemania at least when he would have a rematch with John Cena.  Whether Styles is face or heel would depend on how the crowd reacts to him against Ambrose and right after.  They might cheer him and if they do, let Styles go face.  He can pull either one off.  That would obviously dictate where Styles goes between his win (probably at the Clash) and Wrestlemania.  If he is a heel, then you can go into Hell in a Cell against a hot returning Neville.  If he is a face, then you let Rusev come out and demand his shot after having the US Title for so long.  Either way, it could be entertaining. 

One more note of where I would be going.  After putting the US belt on Caesaro, I bring out Sami Zayn as his opponent.  Zayn has fallen short already of winning the IC title.  Now he goes for the US.  And he just can’t beat Caesaro.  Not at Hell in the Cell and not at Survivor Series.  Then Zayn has to go on a mission t to redeem himself.  He would get wins over people like a Neville, but also a feud with Bray Wyatt where he does not go to the dark side (a little Daniel Bryan replay).  Maybe Zayn takes a win over Reigns as Reigns is waffling with being heel in his feud with Wyatt.  Caesaro holds the US Title.  Eventually he takes down SHemus, Del Rio, Big Show, and Strowman proving he is the strongest of all.  Then at Wrestlemania Zayn gets his third and final shot at Caesaro and Zayn wins.  Big moment for him.  Caesaro would go into the main event scene after holding the title for over half a year. 

Obviously Wrestlmania is a Bailey wins title moment as well.  Just build to it.  Probably off of Charlotte again, maybe Natalia. 

My hand at the WWE draft

Let me try my hand at the WWE draft.  I like the push for the younger guys, but this is how I would have drafted and maybe a follow up post soon about story lines. 

I will give how I would have rolled out a few of the picks for the show too.  The key for me is creating a different feel for each show.  I would have played up a bit more competition between the GMs and in more of a back stage setting with breaks for the GMs to confer with their respective boss’s child.

RAW #1 pick is Dean Ambrose.  There is no reason for it to be anyone other than the champ. 
Smack Down picks Seth Rollins in retaliation.  Then Foley laughs and takes Charlette as the Women’s champ.  Smack Down goes with Sasha Banks.  Foley laughs again although saying the wrestler is good and then he picks the New Day.  Foley now has all three world champs.  Foley has been a GM before and Bryan has not.  So Bryan picks the Miz and Foley picks Rusev to end the first segment.  Bryan leaves the room hot and upset. 

After a scene where Shane says stick to the plan, the duo go to pick again.  Bryan gets the first pick this go round and he talks about new era and takes Finn.  Foley is impressed and Foley responds with AJ Styles.  Bryan takes Nakamura (with a nod to being world wide).  Foley says he sees a little of himself in this next one and picks Sami Zayn.  Bryan takes Kevin Owens.  And Foley goes with Bray Wyatt.  Bryan responds with the Club to end this segment, but as Foley leaves this time, Bryan proposes a deal.  He will give the entire Women’s Division to Foley if Foley will give him the Cruiser Weights (plug the Classic).  Foley asks if that means he gets Sasha Banks.  Bryan says yes, but he gets a replacement pick.  Foley looks to Steph who gives him the nod.  Bryan’s replacement pick is John Cena. 

Now we see Steph and Foley being confused at Bryan’s new strategy.  They talk in hushed tones about how to block it.

Foley comes in and picks Caesaro.  Bryan is unfazed.  He picks Bobby Roode.  Foley goes for Enzo and Cass.  Bryan takes American Alpha.  There is your top ten.

The order is unimportant except for this first pick of this segment as Foley then takes Roman Reigns. His other picks then are Apollo Crews, Shemus, Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, Nevile, Zack Ryder, the Vaudevillians, the Dudleys, and Stowman.  Thus ends the 20 on the show.
Bryan takes Chris Jericho, the Usos, Kalisto & Sin Cara (whatever that Tag Teams name is), Samoa Joe, Kane, Hideo Itami, Eric Young (if he is signed), Shelton Benjamin, Wyatts, and Austin Ares.

This would accomplish a few things.
#1 - Keeps a growing women’s division together.
#2 - Separates a couple of long running feuds like Owens-Zayn making their Backlash match a definitive blow off and allowing AJ to head to wrestle mania for the third match against Cena.
#3 - Two shows two different feels.  Raw has big heavy hitters, the women’s division, and new stars like Ambrose and Zayn to mold the show.  Smackdown has fast small guys with an indy star feel plus mega stars like John Cena and Jericho to anchor it. 

Off air I would divide the jobbers as needed.  Making sure to put the Ascension on Raw as well as Baron Corbin, and Mojo Rawley too.  I put Primo and Epico on Smackdown along with Tyler Breeze and Fandango.  The rest is take your pick.  Now Smackdown would get the winner of the Cruiser Weight classic, but you could also put Brian Kendrick there too as he works backstage already as a trainer.  But not everyone from the Classic is on Smackdown. 

Now this leaves NXT.  I would have worked toward a quick NXT fatal four way for the title with Nakamura, Joe, Rhyno, and Tye Dillinger.  Joe and Nakamura go at each other tooth and nail, but Rhyno takes the win over Dillinger and is the new NXT champ. 

You may have noticed I have devastated NXT here.  NXT has to start over with Rhyno being the gate keeper.  The Revival would still lead the tag team division,  Ciampia and Gargano would step up to be lead title chasers and story lines.  This house cleaning makes room for guys who do need it (unlike Nakamura).  There is actually good talent signed, but not on any shows yet.  Rich Swann has been at house shows.  Lince Dorado is signed, but has not shown up.  He would be featured.  Mascara Dorado is also under contract and has lots of experience.  He could be pushed up to the top of the show quickly for in ring work with Rhyno if needed.  But now it is time for NXT to go out and sign guys.  Guys like Jason Kincaid or Chase Owens or ACH or Raymond Rowe or Kenny Omega or guys who have an independent following, show the skills, and deserve a shot.  This is where they belong training at NXT. 

Tyson Dean is new North American Champ

The glorious NWA Summer rolls on and continues with a title change.

It was not the title change I predicted as the Iron Empire won by DQ over the Revolution (Seth Allen and Dane Giffen).  It appears that another round between these two ought to be in store as the Revolution remain NWA Texoma Tag Team champs. 

At that same Texoma event Amber O'Neal defended her title.  The night before she defended it at NWA Top of Texas, and she defended it on Sunday too, although I am not sure where.  Three defenses in one weekend. 

The big news happened at a jointly promoted event by several southeastern promotions.  Tyson Dean defeated Tim Storm to become the new North American Champ.  The promotions included NWA Georgia Extreme Wrestling, Combat Sports Pro. NWA Florida, and NWA Southeastern.  Dean is now a known person in all of those venues.  Add in Dean's long title reign in NWA ATL, and we should get some good NA Title defenses.  Dean did hold the NWA SAW tag titles briefly as well with Andy Anderson and participated in the National Title tournament in SAW when they had it last year.  Dean should give new exposure to the North American Title and help some of these younger NWA promotions.

The Hot NWA Summer

The NWA has seen some interesting developments lately.

NWA Mid South put on a huge show outside of their territory as they are occassionally want to do, and it included Matt Rivera winning the Unified Title and Mustang Mike winning the NWA National Title.  Golden Boy Greg Anthony won the title back in a rematch at the regularly scheduled Mid South match and is now a two time NWA National Champ.

Over in NWA Elite, Battleborn John Saxon defeated NWA World Junior Heavyweight champ Steve Anthony.  Saxon was a brief National champ, and now adds a world title to his collection.  Anthony, a two time champ, now moves on to something else.  Saxon had a really good promo against Jushin Liger a few years ago when Anthony eventually emerged as the #1 contender and won his first title.  Liger is going to be coming to the states as he was recently announced for Battle For Las Angeles.  Maybe . . . .

I still hold that Badd Blood is a top contender.  He defended his title in a three way match that involved three falls.  He pinned none other than Jason the Gift Kincaid to retain his championship.  Kincaid, the longest reigning champ (although the title he was defending that night was not the SMW title, but another held by Kincaid) is in Mexico in a tag tourney this week and has appeared on Ring of Honor TV now too. 

July 15 is a huge Tag title defense with the Iron Empire going up against Seth Allen and Dane Griffen, who just beat former ROH champs, War Machine.  I would not be surprised to see a title change at this event at NWA Midwest. 

It would be nice to see a little more from Amber O'Neal and the Women's Title.  Santana Garrett is still all over the place touring the world (including Tag teaming with O'Neal in one promotion).  Garrett is headlining a women's wrestling event against Barbi Hayden soon too.  O'Neal is a big name, but Garrett is the hotter wrestler right now.  I would love to see her gain the title again. 

Lots of promotion are having big shows in July and August.  Go check out the local wrestling in your area!