WWE, New Japan in talks

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May 29, 2021 8:30:34 GMT -5 Swarm said:

May 29, 2021 8:00:25 GMT -5 @kyoken said:

From PWInsider:
And Bryan Alvarez from Observer Live:
So the whole thing really is just so they can re-sign Daniel Bryan.

Bryan vs Okada at WM assuming DBry really has this much pull.

From everything I've seen today, it just seems like a deal to let WWE guys (in this case, Bryan) work New Japan shows, as opposed to a full on talent trade. Doesn't mean there wouldn't be, obviously, but it seems the biggest thing for this is "we want Bryan to stay so we're going to let him go do stuff in Japan to keep him happy if he re-signs."

I don't know that this deal will end up working out, though. New Japan like agreements that mostly benefit them and not so much the other party. Working with WWE, New Japan will be the obvious secondary partner in the agreement and they've really never been that outside of when they worked with WCW but even that fell through when WCW took too much.

[Swarm]

May 29, 2021 12:41:01 GMT -5 @kyoken said:

May 29, 2021 8:30:34 GMT -5 Swarm said:

Bryan vs Okada at WM assuming DBry really has this much pull.

From everything I've seen today, it just seems like a deal to let WWE guys (in this case, Bryan) work New Japan shows, as opposed to a full on talent trade. Doesn't mean there wouldn't be, obviously, but it seems the biggest thing for this is "we want Bryan to stay so we're going to let him go do stuff in Japan to keep him happy if he re-signs."

I don't know that this deal will end up working out, though. New Japan like agreements that mostly benefit them and not so much the other party. Working with WWE, New Japan will be the obvious secondary partner in the agreement and they've really never been that outside of when they worked with WCW but even that fell through when WCW took too much.

Probably just wishful thinking. But Okada in WWE would be great (if used correctly, obviously). Even if just for a short time.

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And now from the 6/7/21 Observer. It's a giant friggin' wall of text but what can you do, it's Dave.

On the New Japan/WWE stuff, this is what was and is happening. According to those close to the negotiations, this was not a Nick Khan idea at first, but he’s been the point man in the mix and there are those who believe he has recommended to Vince McMahon to pursue it. But the idea at first had nothing to do with screwing AEW although an exclusive deal if it’s done would ace out AEW and Impact. This very well could get about as far as WWE’s talks to buy NOAH, Stardom, Big Japan, Dragon Gate and AAA got, which all ended with no deal in place. Logic would indicate Tony Khan would not have cut that video thinking this deal is going to happen any time soon so it’s more likely than not this deal isn’t happening. The deal talked about would have been more likely be NXT focused and would have things beneficial for both sides and it’s not like WWE is going to buy New Japan or bring in Kazuchika Okada to job for Randy Orton or all the crazy speculation from the past week. Vince McMahon has worked with Japanese companies in the past, and they had a long relationship with New Japan which included Bob Backlund losing the WWF title to Antonio Inoki (although even with video proof, in WWE history, that no longer ever happened). That relationship ended when WWF started running so many domestic shows that they couldn’t afford Hulk Hogan going on New Japan tours. I think once Andre put over Inoki via submission, it was over. Andre may have been a separate Andre deal apart from WWE to begin with like Chris Jericho with New Japan, and it may have ended when they pulled Hulk Hogan from the 1984 tag team tournament or shortly after that, once WrestleMania I was successful as the dynamics of the company changed to where they no longer had financial reasons to work with others. Really, the deal was very important financially to a pre-expansion WWF, but not nearly as important to a post-expansion company. They worked with Giant Baba in 1990 on the famous Wrestling Summit Tokyo Dome show. But that partnership lasted one show because of cultural and ego differences that were painfully obvious. A different version of those same issues came up in 1998 when WWF officials sat down with Giant Baba to work with All Japan and that got nowhere especially when WWF officials were told to their face that their top stars weren’t worth the price WWF was offering them at within the Japanese market. However, when it came to booking, WWF only had control of three things for the 1990 Tokyo Dome show, and gave Baba control of everything else. WWF insisted on Hulk Hogan winning, and got to call the winner of Ultimate Warrior (WWE champion) vs. Ted DiBiase and Jake Roberts vs. Big Bossman, since those were WWF matches. They let Baba have Genichiro Tenryu over Randy Savage, the No. 3 star in their company, and WWF’s world tag team champions at the time Demolition, lost clean in a non-title match to Baba & Andre, which WWF allowed because Baba & Andre were both legends. After that blew up, WWF had a lucrative deal with the SWS promotion, that had huge money backing behind it. WWF let their talent job there and even agreed for Hogan to lose to Tenryu clean at the Tokyo Dome, but then Hogan got to Japan and refused to put Tenryu over. Also, while Bryan Danielson was absolutely part of the early talks, that hasn’t been the case of late as far as the major aspect, and one source said he hasn’t been a part of any recent talks. New Japan also would not agree to any deal unless they felt it was extremely beneficial to them, and keep in mind that WWE has regularly tried to talk with them in the past and it’s gotten nowhere and the real difference here is Nick Khan has never been involved in these talks in the past

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Nothing about this in this week's WON that I could find but Dave did mention that New Japan had Lio Rush signed to an exclusive deal and were willing to let him sign a second deal with AEW, which indicates how strong that partnership is.