Do you watch any non-New Japan t.v. and what do you think about the t.v. product at the moment?
“I watch it all. I literally watch everything that’s on television. And I watch quiet of bit of, what I’ll call, the Youtube stuff that’s posted. I hate to sound like a broken record but there’s a lot of good things going on. Is everybody doing everything right? No, it’s impossible. You see different fan-bases being hyper-critical about certain situations. But I can tell you, producing a 3 hour live program every Monday has it’s challenges. You’re going to have some good, bad, up’s, down’s. That’s a very very hard challenge to accomplish every Monday, but the economics is why you do it. NBC Universal is writing the McMahons a very fat check and so, you know, you do “what’s best for business”. Outside of the WWE and I guess you could say the televised product, there’s promotions all over the world that I get a chance to see and they’re good, they really are.”
Why do you feel that we’re on the cups of a next great boom?
“I can’t put my finger on the main reason. I think there’s a bunch of contributing factors. I think the Rock-effect, when you had a guy come on the scene like that during the attitude era, Rock and Stone Cold, the Monday Night Wars. The kids that were 10,12, 14 years old who were watching it, are now 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 years old and these guys have all been wrestling 4,5, 6 years. There was such an enormous exposure to the mainstream. Everybody was watching wrestling and now we’re seeing some residual payoff of that. I also think that the wrestling fanbases that have popped up, ROH has been around as long as TNA has and they have their fans. …You have t.v. being produced in South Africa, in India, small promotions you guys have probably never heard of are being produced. Just all around the globe, wrestling as content is being produced and I think when you have that, a lot of wrestlers having a lot of matches, and the cream, slowly but surely, rises to the top and I think NXT is the best example of that today. Kevin Steen is a 12 year pro and he’s just now stepping onto the scene. I think all those contributing factors are to me, what are hte biggest. But the proof is in the pudding. You got RAW, Smackdown, NXT, all under the WWE umbrella, you referenced Lucha Underground earlier, you got AAA in Mexico, you got TNA, you got ROH (New Japan, New Japan World, it) and that’s just a few who are producing content.”
Who’s your favorite to watch in NXT?
“Steen (Kevin Owens) He’s very good. There’s a bunch of other ones, but I’m excited him because of the road he’s traveled all these years. When he hits the main roster he’s going to shake things up.”
Did he watch NXT special:
“I’ll be watching it.”
Also, his take on the Intercontinental Championship, his thoughts on the WWE Brand Extension, why TNA did their biggest pay per view in October, plus his thoughts on Jim Ross, Vince Russo, A.J. Styles, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle and more!
People can listen to the full interview by going here; http://noeentertainment.com/
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
