Pro Wrestling and the Fascinating World of Free Agency

There has never been a better time to be a pro wrestling fan. Yeah, WWE main roster has some major issues, but NXT is fantastic, AEW is providing an interesting challenger, NJPW is still putting on ridiculous matches on their bigger cards, and NWA seems to get better every week. That doesn’t even include ROH, Impact, and MLW who have all been getting positive reviews. People may long for the good ol’ days, but there are just so many great options to watch right now that my only complaint is that I don’t have time to catch up on all of it.

There has also never been a better time to be a pro wrestler. There is a fit for every talented guy out there. If you’re looking to get the most exposure and have the highest potential for earnings, WWE is still the place to be. If you are looking for an international experience where you can work on a different style, the door to New Japan is open. If you are looking for the easiest schedule while having some flexibility in your bookings, both AEW and NWA have openings. Or you could do a sampler platter which appears to be the plan of Marty Scurll.

Everyone assumed that Marty Scurll would join his Elite friends and sign with AEW, yet he shocked the wrestling world and resigned with Ring of Honor instead. Now, with him signing the ROH deal, he was given freedom to work for the NWA and New Japan, and maybe others as well? At first, I questioned the decision, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

In AEW, Marty Scurll was stuck. He was so tied to The Elite that it could have put a ceiling on his potential. Cody and Kenny are your top guys, the Bucks are the tag team greats, and Page is the future star. Marty was the other guy. He was loved, but he also wasn’t seen as a top star since he did most of his work in six-man tags and the junior/lightweight division. He showed his potential in an amazing match against Kazuchika Okada, but it was going to be tough for him to leap over guys that everyone naturally saw him aligned with.

So he surprised everybody and chose not to go with the big wrestling companies on cable and resigned with ROH where he managed to have a very successful year without his Elite compadres. He’s not only making good money by all accounts, but he has the freedom to work with New Japan where he is challenging a former heavyweight champion and NWA where he is already in the title picture. Oh yeah, and he’s got a good amount of creative control in his home promotion of Ring of Honor.

Right now, you would have to say that Scurll is projected to have the most interesting 2020, and he did it by straying away from everything that people thought he would do. Before this, I think most assumed that top free agents would have two choices between WWE and AEW, but Scurll is showing that there are many doors to choose from, and for some top wrestlers, the best path may be the one less traveled.

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 Future of The Elite

There are many things I would rather not think about involved in the world of professional wrestling. WWE in Saudi Arabia is high on that list, but still well behind Cesaro never being a World Champion. Don't waste your time thinking about those things, as they are depressing, and neither is likely to have a happy ending anytime soon. Still, there are fascinating things happening in professional wrestling, and at the top of that list is that seemingly all of the core members of The Elite, Kenny Omega, Cody (Rhodes), The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, and Hangman Page are all about to become free agents in January 2019. For the purposes of this article, I am going to focus on Cody and The Young Bucks as they seem to have the most entrepreneurial spirit in the group.

This group has managed to transcend the non-WWE wrestling scene due to a combination of great wrestling but mostly due to a YouTube show called Being The Elite. If you have not watched the show, oh man, you are in for a treat. You should probably skip the first 40 or 50 episodes, because it's really just a travel vlog early on, but then they get more and more into storylines, and it's one of the best shows out there, not on YouTube, but anywhere. Like, if next week, Netflix announced that it bought the rights to Being The Elite, I'd just go, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense."

So now they not only have an audience of people who love professional wrestling, which is an incredibly important group that consistently will pay good money to support their obsession. They also have an audience of people who are way into these guys because of the characters they have created on their show.

This past September they tested the influence they had on professional wrestling by going from wrestlers to wrestlers/promoters with a show called All In that became the first show in the United States to have more than 10,000 fans since WCW shut down nearly 20 years ago. Oh, and it took them less than a half hour to sell out those seats.

After the show, Cody alluded to the fact that All In was more than just a supershow, it was a movement in pro wrestling. What also stood out is that Cody challenged and ended up winning the NWA World Heavyweight Title, a title that used to mean the best wrestler in the world, but now means the best wrestler at fairgrounds around the USA.

Now Cody will travel around a defend the belt, and I think this is all part of the plan for their 2019 decision. Instead of signing again with ROH/NJPW, heading to the WWE, I actually think the NWA is the model to follow for The Elite. I don't think the NWA organization truly matters, but instead of constantly putting on their own shows, the NWA lets other shows promote a match with their champion, free to take on anyone, anywhere without the pressure of consistently financing shows. Couldn't The Elite do the same thing, only on a much broader scale?

The Elite Heavyweight Champion could defend his title at NJPW, ROH, Impact, or even places like Revolution Pro, Progress, and MLW. The tag champs could do the same. The Young Bucks have consistently said that they love pro wrestling, but the travel is rough on them as it's not only traveling on planes around the world, but leaving their families for weeks at a time. Why should they do TV tapings and house shows when they could focus on only the most major events for the best organizations in the world? With Cody as the current NWA Champion, is this just him dipping his toe in the water to see the demand that he holds as a truly independent performer?

This also gives them the chance to ease into the promotional side of wrestling. It'd be insane for them to not do an All In 2. So maybe they look into expanding into two events in 2019, four events in 2020, and maybe getting into a monthly event by 2023. There is a chance that the Young Bucks or even Cody would strictly be promoters by that point in their careers.

The biggest issue that wrestling promotions have is trying to grow too big too fast. With wrestling still being their main income and being able to leverage their wrestling for working agreements to use any organization's talent for supershows, they don't have to rush in growing their organization and can let demand guide their growth.

And at that point, does WWE get to continue to pick the best talent out of the Indys as they please? Hell, does WWE even get to keep the talent they already have under contract? It's hard for me to see former indy darlings like Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Cesaro not at least consider jumping ship to go back to a world with indy wrestling but now with major paydays.

For those wrestlers, it is by far the riskiest decision, but it also has an unbelievably high reward. Judging by their past, I don't think they're going to hesitate to go All In.

My First Ring of Honor Show

I went to my first Ring of Honor show last night in Lakeland, Florida. I am a pretty big wrestling nerd, but the first thing I noticed is that, oh man, I've got nothing on these wrestling nerds. Although I have gone to some independent shows, the only things that I follow on a weekly basis are WWE and Lucha Underground. The only champion I could have reliably named in Ring of Honor or New Japan is that Cody is the ROH World Champion. Still the show was going to have the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega on it, and even as a WWE fanboy, I knew how big of a deal that was so I decided that this was definitely a show I needed to see.

After going, I will 100% be back.

Ring of Honor put on an awesome show from beginning to end. My only real complaint about it is that it lasted nearly five hours, and five hours is simply too long of a wrestling show. Three hours is really the sweet spot where you are getting your money's worth but not being totally worn down by the end of the night. But even though I was worn down, they gave enough cooldown matches where the entire crowd was still hyped for the main event.

I told a buddy that I was going to the show (tried to convince him, but he decided he wasn't a big enough wrestling fan to fly from Iowa to Florida for wrestling), and he recommended watching "Being the Elite" YouTube videos. I told him that I had no interest in stupid YouTube shows, but then I ended up giving them a shot, and I'm glad I did. it made everything The Elite did that night make way more sense, because there are a lot of inside jokes that you would only know by watching their YouTube show.

Speaking of The Elite; they are pretty damn awesome. Cody (formerly Rhodes) does a great job as the arrogant heel. Hangman Page, who I knew very little about, put on an awesome match with Flip Gordon. The Young Bucks are super fun, and Kenny Omega might be the best wrestler on the planet. But the MVP was probably Marty Scurll. I had seen him one other time, but only as part of a 10-man tag match at WrestleCon, but he was my favorite part of The Elite that night. His entrance is fun, his wrestling is fun, and he just put on a really great show.

Other guys who stood out were Flip Gordon, former Bachelorette contestant Kenny King, and Dalton Castle who has a ton of charisma. One other thing were how big former WWE guys are. Sometimes they look small compared to the massive human beings in the WWE, so you forget how big guys like Simon Grimm (formerly Gotch) and Trent Baretta are.

It was five hours, but outside of a little longer breaks between matches since it was for TV tapings, the matches flew by, tons of incredible spots, and overall it was well worth the time and money spent. It's really tough to beat great pro wrestling, and this was definitely great pro wrestling.

Finally, I would just like to point out this hero.

But he woke up just in time for the main event, and he was as hyped as you would expect from a guy who just had a three hour nap. This guy lived Sunday Funday to the fullest, and for that, I salute you.

The 41 Best Matches of WrestleMania 33 Weekend - The Top 10

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 finally we have made it to the top ten, featuring former best friends, wrestling royalty, and the best tag team action I have ever seen in my life.

10. Wrestlemania - Raw Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Ladder Match - The Hardy Boyz def. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (c), Cesaro and Sheamus and Enzo Amore and Big Cass
I’m not even a big Hardy Boyz guy, but still, the entrance and how excited the crowd was really added to this match. It was shorter than I expected, but each team got to show off their prowess, and when the Hardys came out, there was no doubt that they were going home with the titles. It was a fun match all around, and there was no way a match with Cesaro wasn’t going to make my top 10.

9. WrestleMania - United States Championship Match: Kevin Owens def. Chris Jericho (c)
I feel like this is the match that most unfairly will not be remembered down the line. It was a really good match but didn’t quite live up to the Rollins/HHH or Styles/McMahon matches, and it also ranks behind another match that was pure spectacle. It was really well done throughout, and it was enjoyable from start to finish. It’s only hope of being remembered is one finger on the rope, but there was so much more to this match that was done really well. It was just really tough to follow up that Styles/McMahon match as the crowd was still recovering during the first half of this match.

8. Wrestlecon Supershow - ACH, Big Mike Elgin and Mascarita Sagrada def Trevor Lee, David Starr and Caleb Konley
This match started off the Supershow, and it started it off on the right foot. ACH brought the charisma, Elgin brought the power, and Mascarita Sagrada brought the mini. Lee, Star, and Konley were ideal heel foils, and together they put on a fast-paced match that had nonstop action.

7. WrestleMania - Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar def. Goldberg (c)
Earlier I mentioned how I’m a sucker for a good hoss fight, and that is why this match is way too high in my rankings. This match wasn’t even five minutes, but it was everything I could have hoped for. Just nothing but Spears, Jackhammers, German Suplexes, and F-5s. It was the match that it needed to be.

6. NXT - SAnitY def. Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno and Ruby Riot
This was probably the most pleasant surprise of the weekend, as this match was fantastic. It was nonstop action, and no disrespect to No Way Jose, but it was greatly helped by Kassius Ohno. Tye Dillinger may have taken the loss, but when he got the hot tag, he looked like a star, and like most of Dillinger’s run as the Perfect 10, the wins and losses don’t matter, the moments do, and I hope he keeps tenning his way through Smackdown.

5. WrestlePro - Cody Rhodes def. Brian Cage
Some guys are destined to be stars, and Cody Rhodes seems like one of those guys. I’m not sure if anyone benefitted more from leaving WWE and going the independent route, as he has been absolutely tearing it up no matter who he gets matched with. He’s really embraced the independent lifestyle as he’s busy signing autographs and taking pictures. But yeah, Cody Rhodes is fantastic in the ring, and he’s able to fully show his capabilities since he doesn’t have the chains of the WWE holding him back. Also, as I mentioned yesterday, Cage is super awesome too.

4. WrestleMania - Seth Rollins def. Triple H
Since he’s been in WWE for so long, primarily as a heel, people forget how good Seth Rollins is at wrestling. Triple H only has 1-2 matches a year, and he knows how to make them count. You’re going to see a lot of kickouts from finishers, although this one one didn’t rely on that trope nearly as much as past matches. It was great. If you didn’t enjoy it, that really stinks for you.

3. WrestleMania - AJ Styles def. Shane McMahon
I came in absolutely positive that I would not like this match. As much as people love to build up Shane McMahon, he is not a good wrestler. But I have to give him this, this was the best wrestling he’s ever done. He actually had some chain wrestling in there that looked pretty smooth. But AJ Styles is incredible. Like, I could go in there and maybe have a 3 star match with AJ. I don’t know how, because I don’t know anything about how to wrestle, but he’d find a way, just like he found a way to have the best match at WrestleMania with Shane McMahon.

2. NXT - Tag Team Championship (Triple Threat Elimination Match): The Authors of Pain (c) def. DIY and The Revival
This might be WWE’s match of the year, and yet it’s not number one on this list? I don’t know, man. I think if I watched these both back on video, this match could definitely be number one, but part of it is the experience of being there, and that is why this match is only number two. But yes, this match was incredible. Like, wow, it was so good. I was giggling like a child at how awesome it was to see guys teaming up to try to take out the Authors of Pain, and somehow AoP overcoming it all to dominate. You really need to see this match.

1. Wrestlecon Supershow - Team Ricochet (Richocet, Jason Cade, Sami Callihan, AR Fox and Desmond Xavier) def Team Ospreay (Ospreay, Lio Rush, Drew Galloway, Ryan Smile, and Marty Scurll)
But there is nothing that was going to beat this 10-man tag match. Was it a better wrestling match? Well, it’s tough to say. You can’t build months of animosity at a one-off show, which is something that the NXT tag match had going for it, but you can’t suspend disbelief and just have fun at a WWE show, which is something that this match took full advantage of, as it broke into a full-on dance-off. There was so much incredible acrobatics during this match that there is no way that I could list it all. Ospreay and Ricochet did their incredibly athletic choreographed number, which I have to say, is even more incredible in person. For those that think that isn’t wrestling, suck an egg. But yeah, the entire crowd was exhausted after this match, so it was good that they had intermission afterwards, but it took about halfway through the battle royal before the crowd regained their strength. It was so damn sweet, and that is why it is in its rightful place at the top of my WrestleMania Match Rankings.