Yeah

... for the, a spectacle.

Um, and yeah, I mean, he, he was just in the, in the re- like, he's a regional star that I believe is deserving of a Hall of Fame, right? I mean, he, inf- is infamously paid, uh, Vern Gagne to become AWA champion [laughs] for a short little run.

But I mean, look, I mean, I think from the '70s maybe to the mid-'90s, he was, like, the biggest star in Central Europe.

Uh, basically j- well, basically just Germany and Austria.

Uh, and, um, was a successful promoter.

I mean, when did CWA… I mean, CWA lasted 26 years, right? Um-

Yeah

And I, and I hit a point where I'm like, "You know, there's really not that big of a difference from a quality perspective between New Japan and some of these other promotions anymore." Where it used to be like-

like-Even, even a few years ago when New Japan had lost some key talent and some other guys like, you know, Tanahashi and Naito had slowed down in the ring, it was still like, yeah, New Japan isn't what it once was, you know, in like 2018 when it was, you know, easily the best promotion in the world.

But it's still a really high-quality promotion that all of these other promotions in Japan are kinda chasing, at least from a quality perspective.

But when I watched the Champions Carnival, and that's of course just All Japan, that's just one other promotion.

We can talk about other promotions as well.

But when I was watching, I was like, you know what? The Champions Carnival's, like, probably going-- probably had as many, like, four-star and up matches as the G1 might have, and that's crazy to think about, like, especially a few years ago if you were looking at the comparative rosters.

And I still think New Japan has more depth than most of these other puro promotions, although we'll talk about what depth really means.

But if it's like a lot of other guys on the roster [chuckles] that are getting that shot, at least in All Japan, if you just were to take like the top four or five guys, you'd be like, "Okay, at least I know what this is gonna be like."

But it wasn't until I, I, I watched a lot of the Champions Carnival this year, and it wasn't really until I got to the end of the Champions Carnival, and I've been watching some other puro promotions, uh, throughout the year and comparing that to New Japan, and I, and I hit a point where I'm like, you know, there's really not that big of a difference from a quality perspective between New Japan and some of these other promotions anymore, where it used to be like-

like-Even, even a few years ago when New Japan had lost some key talent and some other guys like, you know, Tanahashi and Naito had slowed down in the ring, it was still like, yeah, New Japan isn't what it once was, you know, in like 2018 when it was, you know, easily the best promotion in the world.

But it's still a really high-quality promotion that all of these other promotions in Japan are kinda chasing, at least from a quality perspective.

But when I watched the Champions Carnival, and that's of course just All Japan, that's just one other promotion.

We can talk about other promotions as well.

But when I was watching, I was like, you know what? The Champions Carnival's, like, probably going-- it probably had as many, like, four-star and up matches as the G1 might have, and that's crazy to think about, like, especially a few years ago if you were looking at the comparative rosters.

And I still think New Japan has more depth than most of these other puro promotions, although we'll talk about what depth really means.

It's just not, uh, it's, it just, it ha- it feels like his stock has lessened which is kind of unacceptable when you consider what kind of prospect he was considered to be a year ago