What Happens to NJPW if The Elite Leaves?

Obviously, the biggest question in wrestling right now is what The Elite is going to do when their contracts run out in January. It appears that the Young Bucks, Cody, Hangman Page, and Marty Scurll are all free agents t the beginning of the month where Kenny Omega has a contract that runs until the end of the month. If they leave New Japan when it is all said and done, does that kill NJPW's impact in the American market?

Without the members of The Elite, the (North) Americans that are left are Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Chase Owens, Rocky Romero, Michael Elgin, Jeff Cobb, Killer Elite Squad, Best Friends, and G.O.D. That list is off the top of my head, so I apologize if I forgot someone, but I doubt I forgot anybody too important. Out of that list, I would say the guys with the most star potential are Juice, Cobb, and Davey Boy Smith Jr. from the Killer Elite Squad. Although those guys are super talented, they are widely known as a failed hippy on NXT, wait is that the guy from Lucha Underground, and The British Bulldog's kid. That's not the most inspiring viewpoint for many casual fans, and even with how good they are, I don't think you can count on any of them becoming a future World Champion.

Now, to just focus on the Americans is a tad xenophobic and I get that, but the reason I got into NJPW was last year's match between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega. If you want to include the English speakers like Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Will Ospreay, and Zack Sabre Jr. you could, but as bad as this sounds, those guys are going to be there to increase interest as opposed to causing interest in the first place when it comes to Americans.

Obviously things are cyclical, but it looks like NJPW would have to depend even more heavily on the Japanese talent to continue interest in the product. Although there are obviously a lot of great wrestlers, how many guys are totally must-see? For me, it's just Okada, Naito, Kota Ibushi, and Hiromu if he returns. Outside of that, I could basically take or leave the other talent. Even for a legendary guy like Tanahashi who I like, but I don't need to see Tanahashi matches.

There are only so many hours in a week to devote to watching wrestling. I technically play Raw and Smackdown on the TV each week, but it is nothing more than background noise, and if I cut out the noise, I don't think I'd be missing out. NXT is great, and NJPW has put on some amazing shows over the past year, but if they have that big of an exodus of talent, it would definitely decrease my interest in the product, especially if there is an All Elite Wrestling product to fill that void.

Ultimately, I still The Elite continues a working relationship with NJPW. I don't think you'll see Kenny Omega in a G1, Marty Scurll in a BOSJ, or Hangman in a World Tag League, but they should still make it around for big shows where they can legitimately be considered title contenders. They have made it very clear that they want to help out professional wrestling as a whole and having working relationships with NJPW, ROH, and even Impact would not only help their product but help create a real competition for the WWE. But if The Elite goes all in on the American market, it likely dooms any thoughts of NJPW expansion for the near future.

Right now, it is all speculation, but no matter what happens, it will continue to be the best time to be a fan of professional wrestling.

Defy 8 Was Great

A few months ago, my brother let me know that he had two front row tickets for an independent wrestling show in Seattle. I live in Clearwater, FL, nearly the furthest place possible from Seattle in the United States. I have NXT shows five minutes from my house. It makes zero sense for me to trek across the country to watch more professional wrestling. But I am a child, so I looked at flights, got approval from my wife, and booked my trip to the great northwest. Traveling that far may seem insane, but Defy 8 was well worth the trip.

So before I even knew who would be on the card, I booked the trip. But I really lucked into things, as an organization really couldn't have brought in a more ideal collection of stars at the top of the card for this event.

Shane Strickland - Also known as Killshot on Lucha Underground. He's pretty awesome, but since he is also the Defy Champion, I basically knew I could count on him being there for the event.

Jeff Cobb - Also known as "The Monster" Matanza Cueto on Lucha Underground. He's a former Olympian in Greco Roman Wrestling, which means he has stupid strength and can basically throw around anyone from any angle.

John Hennigan - Also known as Johnny Mundo on Lucha Underground. Also known as John Morrison from the WWE, and Johnny Nitro from WWE. Oh, and also he's the star of Boone: The Bounty Hunter which you should definitely buy from Wal-Mart or watch on Amazon Prime. And as an added bonus, that meant that Taya was there to wrestle as well.

Matt Riddle - Also known as Matthew Riddle when he was fighting in the UFC. This was weirdly the guy I was most excited to see despite him having the least notoriety of the big names. I had seen him one other time in Orlando, and it was an eye opening experience. He had me when he came out to Warren G's "Regulate" but his wrestling cemented himself as one of my favorite wrestlers out there.

Even in the matches that didn't feature names that I knew, there was still a lot of talent and some really fun wrestling from guys I had never heard of. I saw a sexually provocative wrestler, fat Aleister Black, ladies wrestling men, ladies taking suplexes on the damn stage, a giant wrestler who called himself The Giant Slayer which really didn't make sense until I saw the woman he was talking to after the show, and TWINS.

But the highlights were the two main events. In the match before intermission, John Hennigan took on Jeff Cobb. This kind of showed the beauty of pro wrestling. It wasn't a traditionally great pro wrestling match, but it was so much fun that it really didn't matter. They had some great spots in it, and they had the entire crowd entertained from start to finish. Jeff Cobb is out there throwing Hennigan around and doing back flips. Meanwhile, Hennigan is out there doing a backflip while mooning the crowd. Why did he do that? No idea, but I was laughing my ass off, because sometimes sophomoric humor just hits the right spot.

As fun as that match was, it still really couldn't compare to the main event with Shane Strickland defending his Defy Championship against Matt Riddle. It was one of the best matches I have ever seen in person. These guys just got after it, and the pace they set was unbelievable. On top of that, every single thing they did seemed to have bad intentions. I know pro wrestling is scripted, but I was totally lost in the moment as the thing felt like a fight. I had so much fun and was truly convinced on multiple occasions that the match would end. Strickland is awesome, and I believe any person on this Earth can enjoy a Matt Riddle match.

Does it help to be a pro wrestling fan to enjoy something like Defy 8? Sure. But shows like that are so much more than a pro wrestling show; it's just a damn show, and anybody can enjoy that.

The 41 Best Matches of WrestleMania 33 Weekend - 30-21

I am about five months younger than WrestleMania. After 30 years of being a wrestling fan, I made my first trip to WrestleMania out in San Jose/San Francisco for WrestleMania 31. It was pretty damn incredible. I know that makes me a giant nerd, and I am totally cool with that. Wrestling doesn't need to be cool, because it is hilarious and occasionally awesome. Two years later, it came to Orlando, and since that is less than two hours away, I knew that I would be making my second WrestleMania trip. Starting on Thursday, I saw WrestlePro, the WrestleCon Supershow, NXT Takeover, and of course, WrestleMania 33. Although I may be a nerd about wrestling, even I have to tap out after four nights of events, so I chose not to go to Raw or Smackdown. But I still saw a hell of a lot of wrestling, and today we move on to part two with some ECW staples and a surprising person going hardcore.

30. WrestlePro - World Champion Bobby Wayward def. Anthony Bowens, Sonjay Dutt and Matt Macintosh 

This was a good match, but I'm a whore for name recognition. Obviously, I knew Sonjay Dutt but hadn't heard of the other three guys, and it's hard to get totally invested in brand new guys unless they do something insane. It was still a good match but probably not a memorable one.

29. WrestleCon Supershow - Low-Ki def Shane Strickland

This match was good but also a little disappointing. I kept waiting for it to really hit that next gear, and it kind of stagnated with good chain wrestling but never the craziness that I would have expected. The ending was good, but I would have liked to see more offense from Strickland to take the match up a notch.

28. WrestleMania - Roman Reigns def. The Undertaker

I was never an Undertaker guy, so this match didn't exactly do it for me. It was fine, and as fine of a match as you can expect from someone who realistically should have retired five years ago. Roman won; that was the right decision, and I'm happy he did it in convincing fashion, but his five-word promo on Raw will be far more memorable than anything from this match.

27. WrestleMania - John Cena and Nikki Bella def. The Miz and Maryse

So this was the most cookie-cutter wrestling match of the weekend, but The Miz kind of saved it by making it a lot of fun. The end was never in doubt, but sometimes charisma can carry a rather nondescript wrestling performance. Good for Miz. Also, it's tough to top the evidence that true love exists.

26. NXT - Oney Lorcan defeated El Vagabundo
All anyone is going to talk about this match is that El Vagabundo was actually Elias Samson the whole time, but this was actually a pretty good match, even without the enjoyable stupidity of El Vagabundo. But yeah, El Vagabundo is great. I've been way higher on Elias Samson than most people, so I think he's finally got everything he needs to become loved by the NXT Universe.

25. WrestlePro - The Blue World Order def. Team WrestlePro
Yo, Stevie Richards is still in great shape. Although I don't think I'm quite ready for DDP Yoga yet, my fitness journey will inevitably lead me to DDP Yoga. The Blue Meanie looks exactly like you would expect, and Nova, well, let's just say he got off the Simon Dean plan and got on the Jimmy Dean plan. Was this some amazing match? No, but it was fun, and Team WrestlePro had Mario Bokara, a super proud Croatian, who, as a fellow Croat (25%, yo), was my favorite wrestler. I wasn't even an ECW guy, but this match worked for me.

24. WrestlePro - Swoogle def. Grado
I had zero expectations in this match, but it was actually pretty damn good. Grado is stupid and fun, and Swoggle got to play the tough guy and hit a bunch of German suplexes. As Broken Matt Hardy would say, it was "Wonderful." My biggest issue is that I had "Like a Prayer" stuck in my head for the next two days. I forgot how catchy that damn song is.

23. WrestlePro - Ryback def. Colt Cabana

So a lot of guys that leave the WWE for the indy scene, like Cody Rhodes, Drew Galloway, Johnny Mundo, etc. take their games to the next level when they are given a chance to shine. You're really only allowed to do so much in the WWE, and a change of scenery greatly helped those guys show how unbelievably talented they are. With Ryback, you get what you get. That's not a knock on Ryback, but he's your classic WWE big guy wrestler. He's going to deliver his power moves, throw a flying cross body when things get crazy, but never give you any holy shit moments. That's what this match was. Colt Cabana made it fun, but Ryback was going to win and he did, finally getting revenge on CM Punk blasting him on the Art of Wrestling.

22. WrestlePro - Jeff Cobb def. Fallah Bah
I am so high on Jeff Cobb it's ridiculous. Even if I didn't know anything about his Lucha Underground work, the dude is a former Olympic Wrestler, and that alone makes me know that this guy could become a huge star. He is so stupid strong that it is absolutely awesome to watch him wrestle. He took on Fallah Bah who looked to be near 400 pounds, but Cobb still powered him over in a suplex. Also, Fallah was pretty entertaining as Cobb was trying to knock him down, and he heartily replied, "No, no, no." The only thing catchier than, "Like a Prayer' is yelling "No, no, no" anytime you disagree with something.

21. WrestlePro - Brandi Rhodes def. Joey Ryan to win the DDT Ironman Heavymetal Title
Brandi Rhodes is a very attractive lady. That does not make her a great wrestler. But it’s not like she’s spent years crafting her talents on the indies, so she is what she is for right now, which is not good, but she may get better. Still, Joey Ryan is the perfect foil for any female opponent as he’s good enough in the ring for any move to happen, and he can add entertainment outside of the wrestling to keep fans entertained. Still, this match came down to one thing, Brandi Rhodes getting dropped on thumbtacks. Obviously, when thumbtacks came out, everyone expected Joey Ryan to be dropped in them, but they did a swerve, and there was a split second of silence before everyone erupted in cheers. Plus, she ended up overcoming all of that to submit Joey Ryan to win the HeavyMetal Title.