7 Things WWE Can Learn From NJPW

3. Make Championships Matter

Kazuchika Okada
NJPW

Before anyone points it out, I'm not talking about the NEVER Openweight Six-Man titles. Those belts are supposed to be hot potatoes, quite obviously.

One of the great things about New Japan Pro Wrestling (and most wrestling outside of WWE and TNA actually) is how important championships seem to be. Whilst an individual certainly doesn't need a championship belt to be important, it is vital that those holding the belts treat them as such.

New Japan counts title defences and counts champions, instantly giving the viewer a feeling of the history behind each belt. Challengers have to step up too. Whilst a number of championship matches come out of a challenger beating a champion in a non-title environment, this isn't done in a 'Oh my god! [insert name here] has pinned the [insert title] champion!'. No, the general feeling is always one of 'yeah, and I'll do that again if you put the belt on the line'. It matters.

Wrestling is still a performance art where individuals and teams are fighting in an attempt to win these trophies. They must be treated with respect.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.