Kevin Kelly on Why He Doesn’t Consider AEW Competition, Calling G1 Climax

– Kevin Kelly spoke with Jim Varsallone for a new interview discussing calling the G1 Climax in Dallas this weekend, why he doesn’t consider AEW to be competition and more. Highlights and the full audio are below:

On calling the G1 Climax tournament and whether he’ll do it solo: “Oh, I will not be working solo. I’ve got my #1 partner Rocky Romero with me. Rocky and I called every G1 Climax event last year, and we’re putting the band back together for this year. So I’m very excited to have Rocky with me, one of the greatest wrestlers in New Japan Pro Wrestling history, and just had a remarkable run in the Best of Super Juniors tournament. It’s a thrill and it’s an honor to be able to be the voice of NJPW, but to also call a G1 Climax tournament from the United States, the first time that the G1 has ever taken place outside of Japan. It’s in Dallas, which is a historic wrestling city as we know, from the Von Erich family to all the greats of the World Class era, and one of the coolest metropolitan areas in the entire country.”

On whether AEW is more competition for ROH than WWE: “I don’t see it as competition. I see it as its own audience. In the height of the Monday Night Wars, there were 10 million people a week watching wrestling on Monday nights. Now that number is two million a week, three million a week. Those seven million people weren’t taken up in the Rapture. They’re still there. These people that just weren’t having their viewership needs satisfied by what the current product was. So New Japan has come in, and we’ve seen phenomenal audience growth. Just absolutely fantastic growth, year after year, week after week, it’s wonderful. And now with AEW coming in, it’s not competition for the existing audience, but it’s going to bring more fans back. Because every time a fan wants to research something now, they don’t necessarily look at the TV Guide now — very few do. They’re going to go on the internet, and they’re going to Google search wrestling on TV. And something is going to pop up about AEW, something’s going to pop up about WWE, something’s going to pop up about ROH, something’s going to pop up about New Japan Pro Wrestling. And fans are gonna go, ‘Wait. I’ve been a lapsed fan, I haven’t watched wrestling in all these years, and something I saw recently just captured my attention.. There’s all these different offerings?’ When I grew up in Florida, I not only had Championship Wrestling From Florida, but I had the Georgia show on TBS, we got Mephix TV, we got Mid-South TV, I got the MSG Network to see WWF shows at the Garden. I had all these shows at my disposal. And I watched all of it. So I think it’s just gonna add to the cumulative audience, as opposed to splitting up what already is a largely unequal pie.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Jim Varsallone with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.