411’s Buy or Sell 05.13.11: NJPW East Coast Invasion and CHIKARA!

Welcome everyone to Week 207 of BUY or SELL. For those of you who haven’t been with us since the beginning, here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what this column is all about. BUY or SELL is very much like 411’s long-running Fact or Fiction column. The main difference is that BUY or SELL focuses on topics like the U.S. Independent scene, Lucha Libre, Japanese Wrestling and pretty much anything else that isn’t mainstream wrestling (WWE and/or TNA). This allows for these areas to get a bit more press and for you, our loyal readers, to learn even more about the sport of professional wrestling.

BUY or SELL – The New Japan Pro Wrestling Invasion 2011 events are poised to be America’s best non-WWE or TNA events of the year.

Ryan Byers: BUY – I don’t mean to sound like I’m knocking all indy guys when I say this, but there’s a good reason that many of them are indy guys. They’re missing something that will put them up on the main stage. New Japan isn’t an independent group, though. There’s a certifiable, big league promotion, and the vast majority of their roster consists of top flight professional wrestlers a league ahead of many if not all of the members of the rosters of companies like ROH, CHIKARA, and PWG. As anybody who watches NJPW regularly can tell you, the talent disparity is such that there’s no way these won’t be better than virtually all US indy shows this year.

Kevin Ford: SELL – Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, but I’m really not overly impressed by the cards overall. Some matches like Low Ki vs. Prince Devitt have potential to be outstanding, but when you run a triple shot such as this, the watering down of the undercards (and at worst, some of the top matches) is all but guaranteed to happen. Liger in the U.S. no longer seems special, and talents like Tanahashi being put against Charlie Haas is a head-scratching decision. There’s potential in these cards, but I certainly don’t think it will be the best non-WWE or TNA event of 2011.

0 for 1.

BUY or SELL – Despite taking place in America, it’s a virtual lock that a NJPW talent will win the Intercontinental Championship tournament.

Kevin Ford: BUY – The title could either serve two purposes; getting an New Japan talent a championship rub by crowning them the inaugural champion, or spreading their international footprint by giving the title to a “gaijin” and having them defend the belt across the globe. Quite frankly I think New Japan will do the former, especially if their political pull at ROH’s Super Junior tournament years ago is any indication. I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing, I just think New Japan is more concerned with what their talent is doing rather than anything else.

Ryan Byers: BUY – There are only two guys who are not contracted to New Japan who are in the tournament, Josh Daniels and Dan Maff. Neither of them have made the sort of regular guest shots in NJPW that would lead me to believe they’re going to be considered for a championship right out of the gate. If I had to pick a winner for the tournament, it would probably be Montel Vontavious Porter. Some might call him a non-NJPW talent, but my understanding is that he’s signed a deal that keeps him committed to the company for a year, so it’s hard not to consider him a New Japan guy in my mind. Giving Porter the win basically gives you the best of both worlds, as it’s a big American win on shows that are taking place in the States but at the same time puts the belt on somebody who will definitely be back over in Japan with the promotion.

1 for 2.

BUY or SELL – Charlie Haas was the best choice to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Ryan Byers: SELL – Don’t get me wrong, I like Haas and it’s probably going to be a great match, but, if we are going to have an IWGP Title match in the United States, I would prefer that the challenger be a regular member of the NJPW roster as opposed to an American independent guy. The whole draw of these New Japan shows for me (and I would imagine several others) is the allure of seeing the NJPW product replicated as closely as possible in the United States, and some of that goes away when you’ve got a guy like Haas getting a championship match instead of a guy like Togi Makabe. Like I said, I’m sure I’ll love the match when I finally see it, but I’d rather have a more “pure” NJPW experience.

Kevin Ford: SELL – I personally have no interest in Haas competing in singles matches. While most of his Ring of Honor work has been good, I wasn’t in the least bit excited to see him announced as Tanashi’s opponent. There’s a number of guys on these shows I would have much rather seen challenge for the title (see: Ki, Low).

2 for 3.

BUY or SELL – Saturday’s Low-Ki vs. Prince Devitt singles match will be the match of the weekend.

Kevin Ford: BUY – Like I said before, this sticks out as the best amongst the pack on paper. I’d be surprised to see anything else top this.

Ryan Byers: BUY – There’s a reason that they announced this one so much earlier than all of the other matches, and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that, among American fans who follow puro, it’s something that on paper will put the proverbial asses in their seats. Ki has wrestled for NJPW for and is a former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion himself, so he’s quite familiar with the style that Devitt will be bringing into the match, while young Fergal is probably one of the most red-hot in-ring performers on the planet right now and has something to prove since this is his highest-profile match in the US to date. Barring an unforeseen injury, I don’t see how this couldn’t be awesome.

3 for 4.

BUY or SELL – We can expect NJPW’s Invasion tour to be a yearly or even semi-yearly event.

Ryan Byers: SELL – Really it all depends on how well it does at the box office. I would love to see NJPW expand, but I have a hard time seeing exactly how this will be profitable. Flights out of Japan for twenty or so contracted wrestlers cannot be cheap at all, and I don’t know that the shows are going to draw significantly better than ROH shows, and even that company financially struggles at times without having to pay for the top dollar fly-ins. The only way I could see NJPW being a regular or semi-regular company in the States would be if a television executive from the right company got an eye on these shows and decided to offer the promotion some sort of English-language TV deal.

Kevin Ford: BUY – Whether or not it’s a commercial success is probably the ultimate determination factor, but unless New Japan had a long term goal of global expansion, a one-off weekend in the States doesn’t make much sense to me.

3 for 5.

BUY or SELL – CHIKARA’s continued expansion will lead to it competing with Ring of Honor as the top independent company in America.

Kevin Ford: SELL – And I hate typing that, I really do. Ring of Honor’s name recognition over CHIKARA is pretty huge. Even fans who don’t watch anything aside from WWE or TNA have a better of chance of hearing of ROH than they would CHIKARA. They’ve been considered the top independent wrestling company for years while it took CHIKARA a little longer for wrestling fans to appreciate. Lest we forget Ring of Honor having DVDs in retail stores and being on television for two years makes it a bigger company just by the very nature of those mediums existence. CHIKARA has a tough stigma to shake with fans who view it as “kiddie stuff” or for “geeks”, or whatever other buzz word the trolls decide to use this week. While I think CHIKARA’s expansion is a definite plus, it will take a lot for it to be a more recognizable and successful brand than Ring of Honor.

Ryan Byers: BUY – Obviously no fan has numbers for either company, but, at least in my mind, CHIKARA is already competing with ROH. Maybe it’s just the circles that I travel in, but, among the people I talk to who follow the indies, it feels like CHIKARA’s big shows have a lot more “buzz” around them than ROH’s do on a national level. Even though the CHIKARA shows aren’t drawing houses that are as big, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that their DVD sales equal or surpass ROH based on this buzz. CHIKARA just feels like a company that is on the upswing and a place where exciting things can happen, whereas ROH has been stagnant for the last little while.

3 for 6.

BUY or SELL – CHIKARA put together the perfect mix of talent for 12 Large: The Summit—their round robin tournament to crown the first CHIKARA (singles) Champion.

Ryan Byers: BUY – Really, I don’t know how it could be any better. It’s essentially the top twelve guys (okay, eleven guys and one girl) in the company locking it up in two, six-person blocks. The only thing that I think is really missing from this largely Japanese-style tournament is one or two “outsiders” from other promotions, which are regular features of tourneys like the G1 Climax or Champion Carnival. However, even that you can explain away, as it doesn’t really make sense for an outsider to be in your first championship tournament.

Kevin Ford: BUY – When I first saw the list, I felt satisfied. It’s not as if anyone was “left out” or seemed out of place. All 12 people are logical choices and are strongly identified as being CHIKARA talent. I think there’s so much potential in this tournament and that we could truly see some outstanding matches come of it.

4 for 7.

BUY or SELL – Saturday’s CHIKARA event in North Carolina is being overshadowed by the upcoming Anniversario events the following weekend despite a very strong card.

Kevin Ford: BUY -The North Carolina card by and large looks very good. Unfortunately, with CHIKARA’s 9th anniversary weekend being the following weekend, as well as the start of the 12 Large: Summit, this card has been greatly overlooked. Then again, I don’t know how any fan can’t be stoked to see Eddie Kingston beat the tar out of Jakob Hammermeier.

Ryan Byers: BUY – And that’s not a bad thing. The Aniversario shows in CHIKARA are big freaking shows. If somebody were complaining about the North Carolina show being overshadowed by Anversario, it would be like somebody complaining about No Way Out being overshadowed by Wrestlemania . . . that’s just how it happens. Besides, the fans who are in North Carolina probably aren’t going to be the same fans who are going to Aniversario, so it’s not as though one show being perceived as bigger than the other will hurt the gates. The people who are going to show up in NC will show up in NC, and the people who are going to show up for Anversario will show up for Aniversario. It’s no big deal.

5 for 8.

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A great 5 for 8 outing by Kevin & Ryan this week. And a big “wow” at their responses for the ROH-CHIKARA question, with Byers giving CHIKARA the “competing with ROH right now” love and Ford electing to pull that back. Is Ford sandbagging it for CHIKARA, or is be merely more realistic? Let me know what you think in the comments section!

Stay tuned for next week as two new people step up to the plate for Buy or Sell to discuss the world of independent and international wrestling. Be sure to share your answers to this week’s questions in the comments section.

Be sure to listen to the returning 411 on Wrestling podcast!