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When there are simply too many events to cover on Rewind-A-Raw, John Pollock and Wai Ting bring you the DOUBLE SHOT:
Wai & John review Being The Elite (Ep. 111) featuring the announcement of the Chris Jericho Cruise main event and notable appearances from Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro and Juice Robinson.
We discuss the ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden and its implications for The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega.
Wai reviews Total Bellas (Season 3 Episode 8) asthe cast heads to Paris for Nikki’s incredibly uneventful bacheloretteparty.
I’ve started watching Being the Elite more and I’m loving it. One of my favourite lines from this one was Jericho’s “We’ll see you there. See spelt s-e-a” and his continuous indecisiveness of is it Y2Jackson or the Bucks of Jericho. But to me my highlight was Juice, who I thought was hilarious.
Posting some of my own thoughts on the ROH/NJPW MSG Show and John and Wai’s discussion:
I think in order to run that kind of venue at higher ticket prices suggests ROH/NJPW know they will have all hands on deck - Omega & the Bucks included. Whether these are the last appearances by Kenny and the Bucks before appearing at Mania or the Raw after, time will tell. MSG would definitely be a very cool send off for these guys if that does in fact become the case.
Regarding Omega and the Bucks contracts, I think the best thing ROH and NJPW can do to counter big money offers by WWE is to allow those guys to sign non-exclusive deals. I get the sense that Jericho is having a huge influence on the industry (and those guys in particular) in that he could be creating this gray area where guys can move back and forth between WWE and other promotions. Mysterio appears to be another guy doing this, and we are even seeing HHH utilize this strategy with Evolve a bit as well (even though there is an affiliation there between Evolve and NXT).
I think it would be extremely foolish and stubborn for WWE to not work with these guys even if it is not long term deals. The same way the bring in a Goldberg or Jericho for abbreviated runs, so much can be done with the Bucks, and at the same time, the Elite (Kenny and the Bucks) can keep their appeal as Indy darlings changing the industry.
Aside from downside guarantees, can these guys really make more money in Merch with WWE than on their own; and when you consider the idea for BTE sponsorship or even a mini-rights deal with a streaming company, it’s not like these guys are hitting a dead end on the business side. Creatively, Cody has probably told them first hand exactly how the WWE works and I can’t imagine that being all too appealing. So then it comes to downsides and the novelty of performing on the WWE stage.
I personally think everyone wins (including NJPW and ROH) to allow these guys to go on “excursions”, which is ultimately better than losing them altogether.
As for the idea that NJPW guys may be getting over-exposed, I don’t see it. They have milked the California (west coast) market, but still have not tapped into the Northeast or Midwest in a big way, until this MSG deal. And besides, the same could be said for WWE over exposing guys with live tours and too many hours of TV a week. If a promotion is to thrive in this market, the stars must be over and draw regardless of schedules and exposure, as we see with WWE.
