It’s a small sample size, but WK + NYD were as eventful as I can remember in terms of storylines and bookings being advanced all the way up and down the card
Your guess is as good as mine to what is going on backstage and those could all just be Gedo specials, but I am feeling a bit of Tanahashi’s mid-late 90’s WWF TV influence, and wondering how we might see that play out going forward
To explain what I mean (the tl;dr part) – The UE/BC feud, Dolph Ziggler debut, NYD opening hot with a title match, EVIL trying to shark Naito’s roll call and SANADA saving the day, the Shooter/Ren blood feud, all the different stories and bookings at all levels of the card, it seems like they’re evolving a bit on Gedo’s 80’s style American wrestling which hyperfocuses on the top of the card (“main events sell the tickets” mentality) and trying to have some narrative everywhere. There’s a lot of fluff in 90’s American wrestling, but the peaks are off-the-charts high because talent like HBK, Stone Cold, Mick Foley, and The Rock were so good at making you give a shit about them. Tanahashi cites HBK as one of his biggest influences in wrestling and you can see it in his selling.
by officerliger
