Okada vs. Omega 3 is set

[Swarm]

Okada vs. Omega 3

I've really grown to become a huge Okada fan. Would love to see him retain.

[gamtime247]

I’m with you on becoming a big Okada fan. AXS is how I follow NJPW and they’ve done a good job of getting shows turned around pretty quick now. I actually was going to play test Switch’s Okada against Omega, Tanahashi, and Andre just to see how it did.

[Sam Fain]

It’s actually their 4th match. Okada made a point of mentioning that in his post-match comments. He won the first (WK 11), they drew the second match at Dominion, and then Omega pinned Okada in the G1. So their 2/3 Falls no time limit bout is the rubber match.

We talked the challenge and previewed the match on our latest King of Pro Wrestling podcast.

Omega will be the new IWGP Heavyweight champ come 6/11.

[Swarm]

May 7, 2018 9:19:42 GMT -5 Sam Fain said:

Omega will be the new IWGP Heavyweight champ come 6/11.

Seems like he really missed his boat. Nobody was hotter in wrestling a little over a year ago, and best I can tell, that rabid interest in Omega (and the Bullet Club) that was everywhere you looked, has cooled considerably since. 

[Sam Fain]

No way. Omega is still the hottest baby face Gaijin in Japan and the most over North American wrestler in the world not working in WWE. The cheers & chants he got at Dontaku were above anyone on the card, save Tanahashi. He’s even more over than Ibushi right now and that’s saying something. Jericho has mega heel heat, yes, but he’s not a full-timer.

Omega’s name alone sold out the ROH show in Chicago last October and I don’t think it’s going to be hard for his name as champ to add significant ticket sales to All In and, more importantly, the G1 Special at the Cow Palace in July.

[Swarm]

May 7, 2018 9:35:48 GMT -5 Sam Fain said:

No way. Omega is still the hottest baby face Gaijin in Japan and the most over North American wrestler in the world not working in WWE. The cheers & chants he got at Dontaku were above anyone on the card, save Tanahashi. He’s even more over than Ibushi right now and that’s saying something. Jericho has mega heel heat, yes, but he’s not a full-timer.

Omega’s name alone sold out the ROH show in Chicago last October and I don’t think it’s going to be hard for his name as champ to add significant ticket sales to All In and, more importantly, the G1 Special at the Cow Palace in July.

I don't see it. The chatter online on various wrestling sites & Reddit was everywhere 12-15 months ago. Ever since last April, it's fallen off considerably. His program w Cody has gotten a poor reaction too (a long with Bullet Club as a whole). Hardcore fans might still be into him but the casual fan seems to have forgotten about him. Maybe getting back into a program w Okada will reignite interest in him.

[Sam Fain]

The Golden Lovers/Young Bucks match in March has been one of the most talked about matches of the year, his match with Jericho at WK 12 helped to add 10k new subscribers to NJPWWorld, his match with Cody at Supercard of Honor was one of the most talked about bouts of the weekend, and All In is likely to be headlined by Cody vs Omega as the blowoff to a program that started in a YouTube series that has become one of the most talked about pieces of promotion in the wrestling world.

I get that there's perhaps not as much buzz, but he's always in the conversation. There are plenty of posts on reddit about Omega, the Golden Lovers, and the Bullet Club feud. Twitter still has plenty of Omega play. He's established now. He's settled a bit after the meteor shot up, but it's not like he's no longer over or not a top guy.

I'm happy to compromise a bit on this point, but to say he's cooled off or fallen off considerably simply isn't true. He's still one of the top guys in the world right now.

A casual North American fan barely pays attention to WWE, I don't turn to them to help inform my opinion of NJPW. That said, the fact that any of them know who Omega is says something. The fact that you still see as many Bullet Club and Omega and Young Bucks shirts on Raw says something.

[Swarm]

May 7, 2018 10:13:51 GMT -5 Sam Fain said:

A casual North American fan barely pays attention to WWE, I don't turn to them to help inform my opinion of NJPW. That said, the fact that any of them know who Omega is says something. The fact that you still see as many Bullet Club and Omega and Young Bucks shirts on Raw says something.

This may be why you haven't noticed how drastically interest in Omega has dropped with WWE fans (and let's be honest - these are the fans wrestlers need to truly become global stars). You used to see Omega's name popping up in every online article, saying a lot of the same things you are saying here. Those days are gone. I think interest in him peaked during around WM last year, then cooled when he never showed up on RAW. 

Omega is just like Bryan Danielson used to be. Hardcore guy says he's the best, or one of the best etc...but until he proves it in WWE, he's just the best in the Indy scene. I'm an Omega fan, don't get me wrong. But this is what I see across the internet on a regular basis compared to a year or so ago.

[Sam Fain]

Does the WWE offer more exposure? Of course it does. I was never here to argue that. I came here to talk about Omega/Okada which is a NJPW matchup. And when you suggested Omega had cooled without qualifying that you were talking about casual North American fans, of course I had to disagree, because I'm not talking about casual North American fans. I'm talking specifically about the NJPW product. Which has more eyes on it than ever before, is more popular than ever before (as recently noted in an interview with their president), and has become THE alternative for a lot of wrestling fans. There are a lot of journalists and fans that consider it the #2 product in the world now and I think the numbers are there to support that. It's a distant number 2, sure, but for a company that nearly folded 15 years ago, and inhabits a small geographical location, but has a reach far beyond into North America, the UK, France, etc., it's pretty impressive.

NJPW is not an Indy. ROH is not an Indy. And folks like Kenny Omega, Zack Sabre Jr, Pete Dunne, Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, CODY and the Young Bucks have proven you do not need the WWE to make an incredible living as a professional wrestler. If I were talking about someone like Matt Riddle (who I love and think is one of the best in the world today and makes 6 figures a year), then I could understand the Indy labeling. There's a larger wrestling world outside the WWE than at anytime in the past 30 years. To deny the popularity or drawing power of a talent because they're not in the WWE doesn't fly anymore. There are more guys (and girls, for that matter) making a living as a wrestler in 2018 than there were in 2008 or 1998 or any time in between.

Regardless of the fundamental disagreement we seem to have about Kenny Omega's profile in the wrestling world, which extends far beyond the WWE these days, I'll go back to what this conversation was originally about. Omega vs Okada 4 at Dominion on June 9th. Which is a NJPW card. Which is important to NJPW fans. And I stand by what I said, Kenny Omega will be the next IWGP Heavyweight Champion and he will headline the Cow Palace in July and the All In show in September. And whether or not both sell out is anyone's guess, but I think NJPW will sell more tickets in North America than they ever have before and I believe that All In will come very close to selling out, if not sell out, their 10k seats.

And for the record, more people know who Kenny Omega is than they did Bryan Danielson before he got to WWE. That's not a knock on Danielson, he's one of my favorite guys of all time, it's just indicative of how many more eyes are on the product now than 10 or 15 years ago. In fact, I'd argue that other than AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, Kenny Omega might be the most popular non-wwe guy of the past 15 years.

[Swarm]

May 7, 2018 10:56:25 GMT -5 Sam Fain said:

Does the WWE offer more exposure? Of course it does. I was never here to argue that. I came here to talk about Omega/Okada which is a NJPW matchup. And when you suggested Omega had cooled without qualifying that you were talking about casual North American fans, of course I had to disagree, because I'm not talking about casual North American fans. I'm talking specifically about the NJPW product. Which has more eyes on it than ever before, is more popular than ever before (as recently noted in an interview with their president), and has become THE alternative for a lot of wrestling fans. There are a lot of journalists and fans that consider it the #2 product in the world now and I think the numbers are there to support that. It's a distant number 2, sure, but for a company that nearly folded 15 years ago, and inhabits a small geographical location, but has a reach far beyond into North America, the UK, France, etc., it's pretty impressive.

NJPW is not an Indy. ROH is not an Indy. And folks like Kenny Omega, Zack Sabre Jr, Pete Dunne, Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, CODY and the Young Bucks have proven you do not need the WWE to make an incredible living as a professional wrestler. If I were talking about someone like Matt Riddle (who I love and think is one of the best in the world today and makes 6 figures a year), then I could understand the Indy labeling. There's a larger wrestling world outside the WWE than at anytime in the past 30 years. To deny the popularity or drawing power of a talent because they're not in the WWE doesn't fly anymore. There are more guys (and girls, for that matter) making a living as a wrestler in 2018 than there were in 2008 or 1998 or any time in between.

Regardless of the fundamental disagreement we seem to have about Kenny Omega's profile in the wrestling world, which extends far beyond the WWE these days, I'll go back to what this conversation was originally about. Omega vs Okada 4 at Dominion on June 9th. Which is a NJPW card. Which is important to NJPW fans. And I stand by what I said, Kenny Omega will be the next IWGP Heavyweight Champion and he will headline the Cow Palace in July and the All In show in September. And whether or not both sell out is anyone's guess, but I think NJPW will sell more tickets in North America than they ever have before and I believe that All In will come very close to selling out, if not sell out, their 10k seats.

And for the record, more people know who Kenny Omega is than they did Bryan Danielson before he got to WWE. That's not a knock on Danielson, he's one of my favorite guys of all time, it's just indicative of how many more eyes are on the product now than 10 or 15 years ago. In fact, I'd argue that other than AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, Kenny Omega might be the most popular non-wwe guy of the past 15 years.

His popularity rose globally thanks to cross over tweets with New Day,and his match with Jericho. He's always had the same indy fans, but it was fans interest in seeing him interact with WWE wrestlers that put the interest level in him over the top.

I used to be able to engage in Omega talk any time I wanted, any article, any wrestling site. That doesn't exist any longer.

So while he may sell out NJPW and ROH shows, universal interest and chatter around the guy has cooled considerably. But isn't that how the IWC operates anyways?

Maybe another program w Jericho or some other WWE guy will reignite that online spark.