10 Things New Japan Does Better Than WWE

The Shield was terrific. It nearly wasn’t, with Roman Reigns being so blatantly cherished by WWE brass over his stablemates, but it ended in spectacular fashion and all three competitors gained momentum. More importantly The Shield didn’t face the grizzly end that The Nexus did...

Factions occupy a slightly different role in New Japan. They aren’t vehicles for development where the teammates are joined at the hip until they’re ready to swim on their own. They are loose affiliations of liked-minded personalities who band together when they need to fight a common enemy. Goto and Ishii will still go out of their way to get a title shot against CHAOS leader Okada, but when the Bullet Club or LIJ step to them or any of their comrades they come together as one.

The best thing about New Japan’s faction system is simply that it is realistic. No one goes through life in isolation and yet WWE expect us to believe that unless one of their superstars is in a tag team or stable with its own name and t-shirt, they go backstage after they wrestle and get into a cupboard and speak to nobody. WWE recently allowed Kevin Owens’ and Chris Jericho’s friendship to be displayed on RAW and it has consistently been one of the best aspects of the show each and every week, but New Japan seem to find it so much easier to allow their wrestlers to act like human beings, with allies as well as enemies, with both an individual and group identity.