Justin is the regular WrestleZone Daily guest on Mondays and this week he chatted candidly about:
- When AJ Styles and The Bullet Club will debut in WWE
- Mark Madden’s comments about AJ Styles possibly winding up in the WWE mid-card
- The leaked footage of Brock Lesnar vs Sheamus that came out of the WWE Live event in Houston, TX
- More…
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You can find some of transcribed quotes and the full audio from Justin’s appearance below. Justin’s appearance begins at the 23:49 minute mark in the embedded audio player:
On when he thinks AJ Styles and the other rumored NJPW Superstars could debut in WWE:
JL: With the Royal Rumble there’s a creative side of it and a legal side of it. On the creative side of it AJ Styles is the biggest name of the four. You are in Orlando for the Rumble where AJ Styles was the face of TNA for over a decade. That’s just kind of a natural creative fit. Let AJ Styles get that pop so it’s accepted there. Of course there are people, especially younger fans, who might not know who AJ Styles is. Who are only aware of WWE or maybe weren’t even alive when AJ Styles started with TNA. I don’t know. You can have the commentators and such give a little backstory on him. I am sure there will be a WWE.com feature on him. Yada yada yada. Everybody else… Nakamura needs to finish up over with New Japan. He also needs to get some legal stuff taken care of. Like work visa and what have you. He’s the kind of guy that makes sense for maybe a post-WrestleMania time frame. Maybe night after WrestleMania. I definitely think with him you need to give some hype videos and some packaging. I don’t think he should be a guy that appears cold. You almost have to do what you did with the original Sin Cara. You need to give some back story. Show some highlight videos. Get people pumped for his debut. He’s going to be the most foreign… no pun intended… to the audience. Gallows and Anderson, I think they are going to get big time money. I think they might be best served initially depending on how WWE wants to do it. Assuming that they don’t have this grand plan for this massive takeover. Which I know sounds great on one hand but we also have to stay realistic. I think Anderson and Gallows are two guys that would make a big impact on a live NXT Takeover. That kind of an audience would really appreciate them. That could be a great benefit for that NXT brand. Of course they can maybe go to RAW or Smackdown afterwards. I don’t think there’s any limitation to it. There’s a lot of potential but my biggest thing to say is, “Let’s keep in mind what’s going on here.” This isn’t necessarily a case of Vince McMahon and Triple H and everybody saying, “God, we’ve wanted to have AJ Styles for all these years.” Or, “God, The Bullet Club is more brilliant than anything we’ve ever came up with.” This is down to one thing: The WWE Network. It just launched in Japan. It’s a simple philosophy of let’s take what’s the most over thing to that audience there that’s a wrestling audience and let’s make them pay to see it. Hence why Anderson and Gallows on NXT would make a lot of sense because you have to have the WWE Network to watch it.
On whether there is anything suspicious about the way the Brock Lesnar vs Sheamus match was leaked on-line:
JL: The guy on the film wasn’t on the WWE take if that is what you are asking. I’m sure WWE has become aware if it’s sitting there and getting as many views as this has had. They are obviously aware it’s there. They haven’t pulled it for the simple reason of, why would they? The whole job of Brock Lesnar doing those kinds of events is to up that live attendance gate. Especially when you are losing guys like Cena, Rollins and Orton who are huge, huge draws for those live event, non-tv shows. For the demographic that goes there. Same thing as Del Rio’s match with Lesnar a few weeks ago. This is all to just up the live event credibility and make it seem like it’s worthwhile going. Even if it’s not TV. Keeping it out there does no harm to WWE. It’s not like something that was supposed to be WWE Network only that they would be losing money on having it on Youtube. All it is is just cheap promotion, basically.
Related: Full Match Video: Watch Brock Lesnar vs Sheamus in Houston
Justin will be back next Monday, and every Monday, on the WrestleZone Daily at 12:30 pm EST right here on WrestleZone.com
The full archives of WrestleZone Daily can also be listened to in the embedded audio player below:
