7 Non-WWE Projects That Do WWE BETTER Than WWE

1. New Japan Pro Wrestling

Wrestle & Flow
NJPW

Read it and weep or - like many who gloat about actively ignoring it altogether - don't read it at all, but New Japan Pro Wrestling excels at Sports Entertainment in a way WWE can sometimes only dream of.

The misconception of NJPW in recent years seems to be borne from a mistold history of a stereotypically serious product. But New Japan isn't a parade of excellent-but-colourless matches contested to an audience of locals and a salivating Dave Meltzer. It's a richly populated amateur dramatics factory capable of laying just as many creative goose eggs as WWE. Fortunately, it fosters some golden ones too.

Up and down any single show, there're characters and stories ranging from silly to sublime. Taichi lip-syncs his way to the ring looking like something the Phantom of the Opera ran scared from, whilst associate Takashi Iizuka literally bites the head of all around him. And don't think the top tier isn't rich in drama WWE would be proud to call it's own. Kazuchika Okada's 2018 breakdown has rivalled the legendary Bret Hart heel turn in nuance and characterisation, whilst the company have somehow found ways to weave the banteriffic Being The Elite into its own supposedly serious storylines.

Few fans leaping to criticise New Japan stans stop to actually wonder why the company has captured the imagination of so many disillusioned fans in recent years. NJPW is the wrestling of the future and the past.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett