The One Thing WWE & AEW MUST Learn From NJPW

Gedo isn't a perfect booker. His neglection of NJPW's tag divisions has left them feeling as unimportant as Raw and SmackDown's. Constant rematches and 50/50 booking have become increasingly common in 2019 in as well, though caveats sometimes apply. Contextually, Kazuchika Okada's upcoming successful IWGP Heavyweight Championship defence over SANADA after losing to 'Cold Skull' in the G1 Climax isn't the same as EC3 and Dean Ambrose trading arbitrary Raw victories one week after each other. On the flipside, extreme repetition rendered Destruction in Beppu's Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. main event skippable, and they're two of the best wrestlers in the world.

But despite all this, and despite subjective, taste-based complaints on who he is or isn't pushing, no modern booker is as adept at nailing the things that matter. When it comes to creating and sustaining drawing, engaging main event stars for his product, Gedo is the master. He is peerless in this regard.

It's all relative, but Tanahashi, Okada, and Tetsuya Naito are more over with NJPW crowds than Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Becky Lynch are with WWE's. New Japan's attendances are growing with those guys on top; WWE's are shrinking.

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