Rumors of instability in New Japan are running rampant, and a wrestling veteran has advice.
After reports that several New Japan Pro Wrestling talent are unhappy, the news caught the eye of NJPW President Harold Meij, who shot down the rumors. After Fightful revealed that George Carroll had been let go from the company earlier this year, Michael Craven has taken over in a talent relations role.
On a recent episode of X-Pac 12360, Sean Waltman offered up his advice to Craven:
You kinda had to see some of this stuff coming as far as, the business, the industry is heating up. You have All In, you have the New Japan expansion here in the United States. The big buzz with wrestling and truthfully there is a little bit of brand confusion. With ROH, New Japan, and Impact. Even NWA and a lot of the talent can be seen on a lot of these different shows... So eventually when the money starts... higher stakes are involved here. I can see how companies are going to get,’ Hey, you can't go do this because you're with us and all that.’ And I understand that. However, you have to have somebody that deals with the talent that knows how to deal with the talent properly. Let moral go down in your company and see how quickly all that forward momentum you have going on comes to a halt. Trust me. So what's his name (Michael) Craven? This is a message for you. You have to understand that... you've got some big egos that you want, that you have to have for people to care about these guys, they have to have an ego, a colorful character, an eccentric personality with them. That's what makes people brilliant, that people want to get behind. And you have to understand that this is not some corporate job where you are dealing with a bunch of people that are working at the Amazon plant or whatever you call it. You can't do that because they will leave. Trust me, as much as you think, ‘Okay everyone is happy here’. Trust me, there can be a mass exodus to WWE in a second (Snaps Fingers) because WWE will cherry pick every single one of your guys you have. Just to have them. Just to put them on the shelf and pay them good money if you don't want to make them happy. Trust me on that.
NJPW has several talent contracts expiring after their January 4 Tokyo Dome shows.
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