Okada is expected to sign with AEW according to the dirtsheets

Yeah, WWE offered him substantially less cash it is said, counting on his desire to work wrestlemania to be enough to get him to sign.

Can't blame him for passing on a low ball offer.  

Seems WWE low balls everyone with this agent though, funneling them all to Tony in the end.  Same agent Will used, same one Jericho was using, and the same one that had the Bucks and Omega pass on WWE to start up AEW in the first place.

Also very telling that out of the 3 major hot talents that WWE wanted in Mone, Will and Okada, they got none in the end. Will and Okada barely negotiated and Sasha walked away twice in the negotiations.

So no Okada/Gunther? Sigh.

Feb 11, 2024 18:06:44 GMT c said:

Also very telling that out of the 3 major hot talents that WWE wanted in Mone, Will and Okada, they got none in the end. Will and Okada barely negotiated and Sasha walked away twice in the negotiations.

They wanted Jay White too.

Honestly WWE doesn’t need them or else they would have tried harder. And as much as Okada probably wants to work Wrestlemania, he wasn’t going to be in any main events or high profile matches any time soon, and he wouldn’t be allowed to work other promotions/travel to Japan to work like he probably wants to.

Signing with AEW is a no-brainer, even if Ness is right and Okada vs GUNTHER would have been amazing. Oh well, maybe one day.

The other side of AEW is there are no regular house shows. So you work half as much, for the same pay. Allows you to be at home a lot more, and for international people, go home.

WWE may struggle to get talent as it really seems like TKO is pushing down contracts to reduce costs. Jay White was said to be a lock for WWE, then went to AEW. Almost certainly was a money issue too. Even Cardona passed on resigning with WWE.

Should raise warnings signs as there is some talent in NXT, but not enough to sustain WWE as people leave or retire. The people they do get to jump, either do not need cash like Cargill, or have wives in WWE like Andrade. Even Cody jumped to work in the back of WWE someday.

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Also seeing Endeavor has a role in contract renewals and handles them as they come up now and not beforehand, which is why people like Drew are not locked in.  Feels like Endeavor is hoping some of the big names do leave because they are under much higher contracts than they want to offer now.

WWE isn’t going to overpay for talent, while AEW will. And frankly, there’s no reason to. They’re a machine now. For the next half decade, their revenue streams are locked. Overspending against AEW for talent doesn’t make sense when WWE has shown they can create talent.

AEW … confuses me on the talent spending they do. None of these folks are going to move the needle, but they continue to raise company overhead substantially. I get TK is playing with house money, but spending money to remain in the same spot over and over again is just bad business.

He just wants to hang out with his heroes. That's it.

Gotta collect them all.

Being critical of WWE is easy. But it's hardly warranted. Okada would be a Shinsake position at best in WWE, and if ROI is a factor, he isn't exactly a marquee in WWE, therefore would have very little input on the overall success of the product. The same with Will. And Sasha... good luck. Tantrums, walking out, fighting with half the roster... jeez, that sounds familiar.

But if want to talk about critical errors, losing the guy who has since won two Royal Rumbles and main evented two Wrestlemanias since, is a massive misjudgement on top of losing the only guy that popped the ratings and bought any sort of interest to the brand due to a lack of leadership is also a massive misjudgement.

So he can sign has many pretty new toys as he wants, but he's lost the two most valuable to his brand in hindsight and has shelfed and barely uses some of the absolute best talent he has.

Tony did not exactly lose Cody. Cody wanting to go back to WWE is different than people willing to work either place.

And sure WWE does not need to hire guys or retain them. But the last time they had this attitude their popularity plummeted to the point of people starting to question if they would survive long term or not. And this time they cannot jumpstart things with a second attitude era as they would lose most of their largest sponsors moving to hard pg-13 stuff.

Are you kidding? Surely. WWE is as popular as ever, and most importantly, more profitable than at any point in it's history. Creatively, it's the best it's been in over 20 years. And arguably, it is delivering on a consistency that supersedes any year throughout the famed " Attitude Era " in terms of storytelling and match quality.

Passing on a few niche performers who were popular in a niche market, performing in front of a niche audience isn't going to hurt them. Nor will it send any sort of shock waves through the WWE to counterbalance with another crash TV Attitude Era type product as a response.

Jay White has been in AEW for a while, Will the same, albeit unofficially. And Okada has made appearances. If they had the ability to move needles or add a significant amount of value that could be measured in any conceivable way, it's failed to be seen. And arguably NJPW is the least relevant it's been in 15 years. Notably, an era where Ospreay and White were it's top guys.

So, signing either of the three to WWE would certainly be great, but it's hardly make or break.

And in the Superstar era WWE was as popular than ever and more profitable than at any point in its history. Then they failed to retain talent and nearly went out of business.

WWE clearly was interested in these people as they did make them all offers. They just apparently are not negotiating anymore with take it or leave it offers. Which is how WCW raided their talented and nearly killed them.

Feb 12, 2024 12:26:56 GMT c said:

And in the Superstar era WWE was as popular than ever and more profitable than at any point in its history. Then they failed to retain talent and nearly went out of business.

WWE clearly was interested in these people as they did make them all offers. They just apparently are not negotiating anymore with take it or leave it offers. Which is how WCW raided their talented and nearly killed them.

I get what you’re saying but you can’t compare the two. Times have changed. WWE just signed a $5 billion deal with Netflix. Okada could give AEW the entire country of Japan and it still wouldn’t matter.

My biggest fear is that they'll have him debut as Copeland's mystery opponent at Revolution. It'll be a nice moment and they'll get some engagement on social media but after he's served his purpose as the big surprise signing, he'll be completely aimless and having random Rampage main event matches against Wheeler Yuta.

Presentation is important, and if you want to make Okada a star than you have to go all in. If we're watching an AEW Revolution, let's roll with it and have Okada knock Sting's head off and make him the EVP's golden child. Lean into Okada being the chosen one and give him the AEW equivalent of Gedo and Jado.

At least give him a role and something he can sink his teeth into instead of the international star they throw into main events when they have nothing better to run. Lord knows it would only be a matter of weeks before he finds himself working eight man tag team matches with the Best Friends.

Or worse, a return match with the Painmaker.

Still salty he is not going to WWE. WWE is just where he belongs IMO and has the better matches for him since he did fight a lot of AEW already.

Feb 12, 2024 13:41:01 GMT Big Pete said:

My biggest fear is that they'll have him debut as Copeland's mystery opponent at Revolution. It'll be a nice moment and they'll get some engagement on social media but after he's served his purpose as the big surprise signing, he'll be completely aimless and having random Rampage main event matches against Wheeler Yuta.

Presentation is important, and if you want to make Okada a star than you have to go all in. If we're watching an AEW Revolution, let's roll with it and have Okada knock Sting's head off and make him the EVP's golden child. Lean into Okada being the chosen one and give him the AEW equivalent of Gedo and Jado.

At least give him a role and something he can sink his teeth into instead of the international star they throw into main events when they have nothing better to run. Lord knows it would only be a matter of weeks before he finds himself working eight man tag team matches with the Best Friends.

Or worse, a return match with the Painmaker.

I don't think you need to worry about that. Copeland's whole arc is that he promised to beat everyone that steps up to him in order to make a rematch with Christian undeniable. Beating Okada in his debut match would be brutal booking, and having Okada show up to hand Copeland a loss on his quest to face Christian wouldn't make any sense.

Also Okada has been established as a main event star in AEW already with his appearances at Forbidden Door. I think he will show up similar to Jay White, getting strong booking early and probably a world title feud.

If a match wasn't already booked I would have said he would probably pop up as a mystery opponent for Orange Cassidy and take the International title off him. With Best Friends falling apart and their ties to CHAOS it would make sense for Okada to show up and slap the shit out of them. It would also restore some integrity to that title after it got stuck on Cassidy forever and ever amen.

I love your idea of him coming in as the Bucks golden ticket though. That would be incredible. I would go the same route and make it a big reveal at the end of Revolution. Bucks retire Sting and take the tag titles, then after the main event when Joe inevitably retains because Hangman and Swerve can't leave one another alone, The EVPs and new AEW Tag Champs show up and double super kick Joe into dust. Nobody knows why until the coin drop is heard and Okada walks out and Rainmakers Joe into oblivion. The Chosen One has arrived.

I imagine Okada is going to go through most of the roster one by one. He either had bangers with a lot of them already in Japan, or are fantastic matchups.

Okada avenging his embarrassing loss to Joe could be a fire angle. Joe brutalized him on his way up, but Okada is not a young lion anymore.

Sadly I got a feeling there is no real story associated with Okada, he just shows up and gets a match booked.

Feb 11, 2024 20:46:06 GMT Ness said:

He just wants to hang out with his heroes. That's it.

Unpopular take: this is cringe. I get he's a fan and he's happy, but he's also the boss. Pull yourself together man. A very unprofessional look. 

I think Okada is where he needs to be.  I don't see WWE using him to his full potential. 

Feb 12, 2024 16:25:09 GMT RT said:

I don't think you need to worry about that. Copeland's whole arc is that he promised to beat everyone that steps up to him in order to make a rematch with Christian undeniable. Beating Okada in his debut match would be brutal booking, and having Okada show up to hand Copeland a loss on his quest to face Christian wouldn't make any sense.

That's exactly why it wouldn't make any sense, but I could see a scenario where they put that all aside for a dream match. Kind of like how Jericho had to go through all these arduous matches to challenge MJF and one of them happened to be against a washed up Juventud Guerrera, because Chris just wanted an excuse to have that match.

Similarly, they could always book around this and have Christian screw Copeland out of the match. Copeland acts like a good sport, raises Okada's arm, we'll hear from Copeland at Collision, Copeland gives a gracious promo, Christian's gang interrupts but we've just got word from Tony Khan and if Copeland defeats Killswitch one week from tonight, he'll earn a TNT match at Big Bu$$iness! Meanwhile Okada is in catering sipping his Starbucks wondering what Yoshi-Hashi and the boys are up to.

Feb 12, 2024 16:25:09 GMT RT said:

Also Okada has been established as a main event star in AEW already with his appearances at Forbidden Door. I think he will show up similar to Jay White, getting strong booking early and probably a world title feud.

Jay White is one of the reasons why I'm fearful. I'm not sure if it's true, but I can buy into the theory that AEW didn't expect to land Jay White purely based on how bad his booking was until Collision came around. Even now, I think he's being completely wasted in this six man tag division and that program he had with MJF was brutal.

While I think it's a positive that AEW acknowledges that there is a world outside their company, you still have to present these guys as stars if you want the fans to accept them as such. Okada is 0-3 in AEW and it wasn't like those matches blew away fans or he was involved in any memorable segments.

I don't expect him to get jobbed out or find himself in a position where he has to put over Satnam Singh. However I could see a scenario where he's firmly in the mid-card facing Matt Taven at Fight For the Fallen.

Feb 12, 2024 16:25:09 GMT RT said:

If a match wasn't already booked I would have said he would probably pop up as a mystery opponent for Orange Cassidy and take the International title off him. With Best Friends falling apart and their ties to CHAOS it would make sense for Okada to show up and slap the shit out of them. It would also restore some integrity to that title after it got stuck on Cassidy forever and ever amen.

Yeah, if OC didn't have his hands full with Roddy, this is exactly the type of program I could have seen Okada being thrown into and I would have been completely disinterested.

There's enough logic there to make sense of it, but I wouldn't want a potential star associated with a group of mid-card slackers - either as friend or foe. It's also something of an albatross to hand Okada the International Championship and try to make it more than just the OC title. You're putting fans in this position where they have to care because it's Okada and this is a sign of victory if you ever beat him.

There's a separate conversation to be had about the International title, but I'm not really a fan of it just becoming the new TNT title, while the TNT title becomes the Sports Entertainment championship. It probably wouldn't mean as much to us, but to foreign fans, having a guy like Takeshita & Fenix defending the titles would have been an easy way to sell the product.

One way or another we'll find out, but if this all leads to Adam Copeland standing in the ring looking puzzled staring at the entrance ramp only for the penny to drop, I won't have to post anything - you'll all know. :lol:

Feb 12, 2024 17:27:32 GMT iron maiden said:

Feb 11, 2024 20:46:06 GMT Ness said:

He just wants to hang out with his heroes. That's it.

Unpopular take: this is cringe. I get he's a fan and he's happy, but he's also the boss. Pull yourself together man. A very unprofessional look. 

I think Okada is where he needs to be.  I don't see WWE using him to his full potential. 

I think it's funny honestly. I used to attribute this stuff to maybe Aspergers or something but maybe I am being very unfair in projecting that onto Tony Khan. It's up there with his attempt to hold the ropes for an veteran or female. Or saying every week "Justified This is Awesome! Chants" message he has for like every match on Dynamite. 

Tony is really just a weird wrestling nerd at the end of the day.

He talked about all this in a recent interview too saying this is the type of stuff that makes AEW different from other feds. For better or worse, Tony clearly cares about wrestling, something that most other owners you really do not get that from anymore.  And for people who claim it makes him look bad, the more negative engagement he seems to get, the better numbers he also seems to get on his media.  Watch or hate watch, people still interact.

A midget wrestling promotion is beating both Rampage and Collision in the ratings, I'd like to known where these numbers are.

I do not feel optimistic about how Okada will be booked or presented (or Ospreay for that matter). I point to Jay White as a comparison. Jay White in NJPW was almost as big a star as Okada was. In AEW the only time Jay White felt like a big deal was the Continental Classic. Yes, I am including his world title program, which wasn't very good. Now Jay White is kinda irrelevant, hanging around the tag team division. I fear the same fate for Okada.