10 Things WWE Can Learn From NJPW Dominion

1. The Key To Success Is Creating Marketable Full-Time Stars

Omega Okada
NJPW

Despite all of New Japan's great work this decade, the company is still far behind WWE in terms of exposure and revenue. At the same time, though, New Japan's business has steadily grown over the past several years, while WWE's has declined.

Needless to say, WWE is making some mistakes that New Japan isn't - and the top one has been getting worse. For the past five years or so - right around the returns of Brock Lesnar and The Rock - WWE has been increasingly building around part-time stars. While Lesnar and Rock both have mainstream media cachet, making them - and Goldberg, Triple H, and The Undertaker - look like the most unbeatable stars on the roster has served to undermine the full-time talent.

During the Attitude Era - the last time the company experienced meteoric growth - WWE didn't have the luxury of getting big names to come in part time. Instead, they had to make the talent they had 100% of the time into stars. New Japan did the same thing when they put the company on Hiroshi Tanahashi's back, and today, Okada carries the load... and the growth continues.

WWE, take note.

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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013