Why the G1 Supercard is the prelude to the changing times in Professional Wrestling

Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that they will be jointly producing the G1 Supercard event to be held on April 6 at the iconic Madison Square Garden during WrestleMania weekend next year. This event will go head to head with WWE’s NXT Takeover show which will take place in the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York.

This news came as a huge surprise after ROH COO Joe Koff had recently denied rumors of the company holding an event in MSG during the said period and explicitly stated that WWE management was responsible for the MSG authorities backing out at the last minute. But now that both ROH and MSG have officially announced the show, Koff might just have worked the fans into believing that the show wasn’t happening in the first place.

Nonetheless, this is huge for both ROH and NJPW and the independent wrestling scene as a whole. ROH can be looking to move to bigger arenas and with NJPW by their side, this is going to be the most talked about show of 2018.

What this also means is that WWE is slowly but surely losing its clout over the industry. They are still the biggest fish in the pond but the competition is only getting tougher and nastier as the days go by. MSG holding wrestling events other than those of the WWE was unfathomable even a month ago. WCW tried to run the Garden during their peak but couldn’t as MSG management flat out refused to entertain any non-WWE wrestling event at the venue.

ALL IN’s sell out has given promotions like ROH and NJPW the confidence to run shows in bigger arenas and they do not get any bigger than MSG. What it also shows is the fact that the authorities managing these areas are no longer dependent of WWE shows as they have now taken notice of the rising popularity of independent wrestling and the massive fan following that promotions like ROH and New Japan enjoy.

The WWE, on the other hand, is seeing its biggest competition since WCW folded in 2001. But this time it feels different as Vince McMahon & Co. couldn’t possibly purchase two of their biggest rivals like they did with WCW and ECW. The only way the company has is to upgrade its product to the level of its competition which sadly they aren’t doing.

The viewers are looking for something new and fresh which sadly is absent from WWE programming. They instead are tunning into other promotions who have something new and fresh for everyone watching. The level of competition and the in-ring acumen displayed by the wrestlers in these promotions is attracting massive viewership.

The time is now for WWE to buckle up or else they be might be a similar situation in arenas all over the country.