FanPost

Vince McMahon's Last Regional Takeover

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When Vince McMahon retires or dies (the one that happens first is anyone's guess, place your bets), there will be plenty written about his legacy. Much of it will frame him as a creative genius, but truth be told, that's never really been his greatest attribute. Vince's major strength, and what has defined WWE throughout his ownership, is staying ahead of distribution trends and using them to expand his reach.

In the 1980s, Vince was wise enough to see the expansion of cable and home video enabling the wrestling business to cast a nationwide net. Notoriously, he ignored previously drawn lines and raided not only the best talent from each region, but also did whatever he could to muscle into their local television market. If you want to transform a new territory to become fans of your product, this is the best way to make it happen: take their best wrestlers, put them on your television show, and get it on the local channels. There have been arguments that what Vince did was unethical or wrong, but he was simply ahead of the curve in seeing how technological advancement would change how wrestling what distributed.

With a pro wrestling monopoly all but firmly in place in 2016, the raid on New Japan Pro Wrestling is probably the last traditional regional takeover we'll see. It is not a coincidence that WWE signed away four of New Japan's stars the day WWE Network launched in Japan. New Japan has a streaming service similar to WWE's, but their TV network slot is 3am; not a great spot for bringing the next generation of fans to the product, or creating new stars. While business in Japan is up relative to where it was a few years ago, it's a far cry from the glory days when All Japan, New Japan, and a handful of strong, smaller promotions like FMW and Michinoku Pro were all doing well.

This is the beauty of the WWE Network: there is no longer a need to work with local television networks, as any country with broadband internet is an opportunity for the company to grow a new fan base. It's Vince's old 1980s strategy boosted by the growth of streaming video.

Make no mistake about it: this is the goal of the recent talent raid. It is not about the individual talents of AJ Styles, Shinshuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows. This is not like signing Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and countless other former indy darlings who will be a huge part of the WWE roster for the next ten years. This is really about muscling in on Japan's wrestling audience.

Styles and Nakamura are well into their 30s, and Styles in particular has been pushing through some pretty serious injuries recently. WWE had an opportunity to sign Styles years ago, and gave him a low offer. To his credit, Styles responded by stepping up his game even more to become the highest paid wrestler not signed to WWE, and this significantly increased his open market value. But if WWE didn't want a younger, healthier version of Styles, it's not like they wanted him at a higher price with a number of injuries based on talent alone.

Nakamura also has a lot of bumps on the odometer, and has more good years behind him than ahead. While his charisma makes him as good of a bet as any Japanese wrestler who works strong style to get over in America, it's doubtful to happen. Historically speaking, the only Japanese wrestler to truly get over in the modern era within America was The Great Muta, who had a lot going for him: an excellent gimmick, Gary Hart as a mouthpiece, a limited schedule which kept his appearances special, and working in WCW where match quality was appreciated more by the fan base. Between size and working differences, plus the language barrier, it's very difficult for any Japanese wrestler to connect with the WWE audience. Given the right opponent and booking, Nakamura might be able to lay in some stiff shots and be framed as a badass, but he's certainly not a prototypical large or muscled American star. His style of charisma seems to be perfectly suited to Japanese culture, but it remains to be seen if it can capture American fans (particularly outside major cities like New York and Chicago).

One signing who won't have a charisma problem is Karl Anderson, who is a fantastic talker and carries himself masterfully both in and out of the ring. This combined with excellent ring work should make him a major asset to WWE, but his wrestling style is not particularly flashy or energetic like Daniel Bryan, and he also has a size issue to overcome at 6'0. Doc Gallows is a solid wrestler who is not likely to ever be a star, but benefits quite a bit in a tag team with Anderson.

Will there be advantages to having this talent on board? Absolutely. AJ Styles could really use some rest or surgeries to heal up, which he can hopefully get after Wrestlemania season. He was the franchise wrestler of pre-Hulk Hogan TNA when they were growing steadily based on great young talent and internal momentum, and is legitimately still one of the best wrestlers in the world. But this is the equivalent of the Yankees signing a slugger in his mid-30s, essentially paying him for what he's done and hoping to get some semblance of similar production on the decline of his career. Anderson and Gallows should add some intrigue and shirt sales combined with Finn Balor in NXT, as has been rumored.

Nakamura? He seems like the perfect example of the kind of accomplished wrestler WWE can't get over given how they operate, and how they've educated the fan base. But at the end of the day, he's going to help sell network subscriptions in Japan, and that's what matters most.

The worst part of this whole situation is that in a post-WCW American wrestling landscape (with Dixie Carter seemingly having run out of her daddy's money to spend), Japan was the one remaining place to make a decent living at the craft if WWE didn't want you. Talent like AJ Styles, Shelton Benjamin, The Young Bucks, MVP, Kenny Omega and even current WWE head trainer Matt Bloom had the ability to be a wrestler and pay a mortgage without a WWE paycheck.

I'm not saying the New Japan raid coupled with a WWE Network regional launch is going to put the company out of business, but it certainly hurts them quite a bit. If New Japan's business takes a downturn, it means the removal of truly the last alternative place to make a good living as a wrestler. It means even less negotiating leverage left for talent, which means if you don't fit WWE's template for a professional wrestler, it's very likely you are no longer a professional.

Is global domination the true nefarious plan of all this? Not exactly, it's just an extension of Vince McMahon's true legacy. With no other land left to conquer, and with technology finally able to provide the proper weapons, he's set his sights on the second biggest wrestling market in the world. The actual talent he's picked up to do it is very much a secondary story.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.