The difference between wrestling in WWE and NJPW

As Jon Moxley explained it in an interview with ESPN.com:

“[In WWE,] it’s almost like Vince is in the ring with you, the producer is in the ring with you. It’s like you have two little bubbles on your shoulder, like three heads in the ring. All of a sudden when I got in the ring [in New Japan], five minutes into the match I was like, there’s no chatter. There was no producer-ref-Vince chatter. It was like silence. And I didn’t expect that. I was like, ‘Whoa, I’m alone again. It’s just me in the ring.’ And then I just started beating the [crap] out of Juice and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is what I used to do.’”

We know Vince McMahon has his hands all over literally everything at WWE but the fact that it permeates to such a degree the wrestlers are feeling it the way Moxley describes is downright troubling. I’ve long held the biggest issue with WWE is how overproduced it is, and this supports that in a way I didn’t even think possible.

Most, if not all, of the wrestlers on the roster are talented and well trained. They can do this without an overlord hovering, carefully composing, manipulating every match. Here’s to hoping that changes soon enough.

Moxley is proof that it simply doesn’t work.