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.

The WWE Is Ruining... Tyler Breeze

As a pro wrestling fan, it is a part of our identity to always know how to utilize wrestlers better than the WWE. If WWE would just give me, random WWE fan, a job a the company, ratings would immediately rise to the levels of the Monday Night Wars, despite how television ratings have changed as a whole over the last 20 years. But until that happens, WWE will continue ruining our favorite wrestlers, and that is why it is time to point out the error in their ways. Because of WWE's incompetence, I am literally going to pick a wrestler at random and point out how they could be better utilized, because WWE is ruining everyone in one way or another.

Today, I continue the series with the Prince of Pretty, Tyler Breeze.

If you remember Tyler Breeze in NXT, you will recall how truly awesome he was when he was first beginning his gimmick. He not only took hundreds of selfies before every match, but he also had a live feed from his phone as his entrance video. His first feud in NXT was with CJ Parker, not the Baywatch star but the man now known as Juice Robinson in NJPW, because Parker kept photobombing his selfies. Breeze was so over-the-top ridiculous that the crowd couldn't help but fall in love, and he backed it up by consistently having matches that stood out on NXT, not an easy thing to do.

So it made sense when he got called up to the main roster, even though he was never able to attain gold at NXT. But although he came out hot by immediately attacking Dolph Ziggler, they didn't actually follow up with anything, and he was soon only there as an enhancement talent, losing to basically anyone and everyone that stepping in the ring with him. When a guy loses that much, it's pretty easy for even his biggest supporters to lose interest.

Somehow, with from the depths of creative hell, Breeze emerged, with the help of Fandango, to create one of the most interesting and beloved tag teams of the past few years in Breezango. They managed to get incredibly over by acting as The Fashion Police who originally just gave people tickets for being unfashionable, but somehow turned into detectives who solved mysteries. It was incredibly stupid, but it was also incredible.

Even though they were beloved, they were never able to turn that into championships, and the gimmick has been on hiatus after Fandango suffered an injury. That has left Tyler Breeze in limbo as his run as a singles wrestler has been...completely forgettable. He's 0-4 on Raw, including two losses to Mojo Rawley. He does have two wins on Main Event, but those are over Curt Hawkins and Mike Kanellis, so a world title push seems a bit far off, and it seems like WWE is just biding time until they can reunite him with Fandango.

But can't the WWE do any better than that?

Tyler Breeze is one of the few people in the company who can not only fully embrace his character but can be consistently entertaining while doing it. Just let the man be entertaining. I do think he can have the most win-loss success with a tag partner like Fandango, but wins and losses aren't everything. Ultimately, with the stacked roster that the WWE has, I don't know if Breeze should ever hold a singles title. He could be a transitional secondary champion, but with his character, a belt doesn't do a whole lot for him. In wrestling, one guy wins, which means one guy loses. It's probably best if Breeze loses more than he wins, but there are plenty of guys that Breeze can beat in order to make him a credible threat against more prestigious competition.

I think the biggest thing that needs to happen to maximize Breeze is to let him use his creativity. He was always great at giving backstage interviews, and the Fashion Police stuff with Fandango was fantastic. It's not like he needs a lot of time, so I'm pretty sure they could spare 1-2 minutes each week and just let something entertain the crowd. Also, wouldn't a fifteen minute match between Breeze and Chad Gable be absolutely awesome? Those are two guys that can easily move from heel to babyface, so you can go either way on it and just let them go out and put on a great match. And the beauty of Tyler Breeze is that he can lose yet still be elevated just by putting on a fun match and show personality.
WWE seems to only want to push "cool" wrestlers, but sometimes I just want to watch fun wrestlers. With Breeze, the push doesn't need to end in title reigns, all he needs is time to let people enjoy him as a character and wrestler. For anybody that says WWE doesn't have endless amounts of time, yes, they do. They currently recap recaps on Raw, and they let Roman Reigns talk for 15 minutes. Just let Roman Reigns kick ass instead of talking, and use that time to get two guys over instead. 

This isn't difficult, guys. In fact, some would say it's a Breeze.

Other Wrestlers WWE Has Ruined
Bobby Lashley
Nia Jax