I’m being facetious and I welcome people turning on AEW, don’t get me wrong, but I will say this:
Tony Khan really wants this New Japan thing to work. I think there are problems there. Their partnerships prove problematic because they spotlight the guys on AEW and there’s no sticky reason to follow them to New Japan, AAA, Impact Wrestling, whatever. AEW audiences just get the flavor and move on. Plus it creates market confusion for some fans who just want to watch AEW and are kind of fatigued by seeing all these other people come in without much introduction. And then they’re going to go away.
But TK is not booking Will Ospreay to lose unless New Japan gives it the go-ahead. Some things with this are going to be “LolAEW.” Especially things like a guy just showing up and the show expecting us to know/care who they are. But this is a reflection of what New Japan wants too, so there should be criticism there too if you’re not buying this Trent Beretta thing.
I think it’s a safe bet that New Japan wants him and/or FTR featured in prominent roles. And New Japan is going to get a lot of what it wants. It’s possible that Beretta is going to spend a bit of time “on excursion” working for them, whether that be stateside or in Japan proper. They seem to like him. The problem is, talented as he might be, AEW’s booking of him to this point in time, has been to be goofy and completely mid-card. That’s on them.
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