10 Things You Learn Converting From WWE To New Japan Pro Wrestling
3. Working For It
Trounced by WCW on a weekly basis by the end of 1996, Vince McMahon began learning some important new lessons about television production in order to try and compete with Eric Bischoff using fine margins rather than just an excellent product. He liaised with USA Network execs on how to feed into commercials, create cliffhangers, and create an immediacy and urgency for valuable channel-hoppers. It being McMahon, he took the hot tips to the extreme, feeding modern audiences endless 'Moments Ago' replays and patronising over-explanations on the simplest of things.
Such as how to watch the WWE Network. Or download an app. Or visit a website.
The company may have banned chair shots to the head, but customer service has never been so infuriatingly on-the-nose for browbeaten viewers. It's prohibitive to overall enjoyment at times, but the company are powerfully motivated to provide fittingly over-the-top assistance for their various goods and services. New Japan are not so f*cked.
The website is unwieldy and Google-translated, as is the potentially magnificent but fatally flawed New Japan World streaming service. Though as loaded the WWE equivalent is with past and present content, the NJPW diamonds require substantially more mining for, particularly with a language barriers to hurdle.