10 Things WWE Can Learn From Wrestle Kingdom 12
The best of both worlds.
It's easy to watch a show like Wrestle Kingdom 12, last week's NJPW super-card, compare it to December's Clash of Champions, and conclude that WWE is essentially just the wrestling equivalent of an Adam Sandler movie: popular, but not very good.
This impression is perhaps a little misleading, though. In reality, there are plenty of things Vince McMahon and co do better than their Japanese counterparts, from obvious things like marketing and production, right down to the use of female wrestlers (an area in which WWE now puts its competitors to shame).
Despite what the more partisan members of the online wrestling community may claim, the fact is that both companies have their good and bad points - and, if ego could be set aside for five minutes, there's plenty of things they could learn from one another to improve their respective shows.
Having said all of that, since Thursday's show was such a resounding success (and we're all governed by an in-built recency bias), it's New Japan and its cast of incredible wrestlers that we're about to heap a boat loud of praise on.
10. Time In The Ring
Tally up the match times at last year's WrestleMania 33 and you get a total of around two hours and 20 minutes; do the same for Wrestle Kingdom 12 and you get three hours and 15 minutes (both excluding the pre-show).
This is nothing new, of course: WWE has been trailing its counterparts in terms of match time (by its own design) for as long as we can remember, a consequence of its proclivity for self-aggrandising ceremony, well-produced entrances and - now to a much lesser extent - the odd backstage skit.
Small wonder, given all of that, that NJPW consistency draws greater acclaim for the quality of its in-ring product. There's simply more of it, with wrestlers afforded ample time to craft a compelling story without having to worry about over-treading their allocation.
It's not something that's likely to change any time soon - impressing the purists has never been a priority for Vince McMahon - but maybe they're missing a trick here. Long matches can be just as effective in terms of star-making as a well-executed promo (in today's era, maybe more so).