Ring of Honor, NXT, and New Japan Pro Wrestling: Refueling The Passion
Ring of Honor's Final Battle, WWE's developmental promotion NXT's Takeover: R evolution and New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom have been the flag barriers for why I love pro wrestling. Is it a male soap opera? Yeah. Is it predetermined? Yeah. Is it "fake"? No.
You can't fake passion. You can't fake athleticism. And the men and women of those promotions can't fake the balls to the walls ambition they show in the ring night in and night out and that along with the heads of those promotions respecting the fans real passion and intelligence.
When you take these three events and line them up against the most recent WWE "special events" or pay per views or whatever they’re calling them these days, you can’t with a straight face say that they aren’t hands down steps ahead of "the #1 company".
It's not because they don't have the roster, no that’s the frustrating part. Most of the WWE roster are more than capable of putting on 4 and 5 star matches. No it’s because an old man, aka Vince McMahon, is running the show and is delusional to the fact that he is out of touch and is somehow trapped in the 80's.
But I digress this isn’t an anti-WWE blog, it’s a pro-Everybody else blog. What we saw from New Japan Pro Wrestling, NxT and Ring of Honor over the course of December and January was nothing less than remarkable. A breath of fresh air maybe, but more importantly a reminder that good wrestling and logical and compelling storylines are what's “best for business”.
One key ingredient to the success of these events is the fact that each respective main title was the focal point of the show. Whether the Fight without Honor between Jay Briscoe and Adam Cole, Sami Zayn’s quest to “win the big one” over Adrian Neville or Tanahashi’s war with Okada over the prestigous IWGP Title.
Each company made it a point to make the World Title mean more than the man holding it, and isn’t this how it’s supposed to be? Shouldn’t the quest to be the World Champion be everyone’s goal? Shouldn’t getting those elusive W’s mean something?
All three shows flourished because of exceptional in ring work not just in the main event, but in the undercard as well. When is the last time you saw an opening bout like NXT's Takeover R Evolution which had former ROH wrestler Kevin Owens battling CJ Parker. In the middle of the match Parker's palm strike splits his hand wide open and ends up breaking Owen's nose. How about the intensity of the vintage Four Corner Survival at Final Battle or the awesome four way Jr. Tag Title Match between The Young Bucks, Forever Hooligans, Time Splitters and the ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon?
For myself this was daunting, its difficult to display the passion I have for wrestling in the written form. The passion that began when I was child and the passion that has grown exponentially in the past month. In the coming weeks I’ll explore in detail just what made all three events so special respectively. So here's some homework for all you wrestling fans, watch ROH Final Battle 2014, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestling Kingdom 9 and NXT Takeover: R Evolution. Maybe after that you will feel like I do and realize that wrestling as a sport still exists, it’s still alive and it’s still real to me dammit!
