{"id":7643,"date":"2016-01-07T12:30:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T18:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2016-01-07T17:18:40","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T23:18:40","slug":"how-tna-factors-into-the-wwe-njpw-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/01\/07\/how-tna-factors-into-the-wwe-njpw-story\/","title":{"rendered":"How TNA factors into the WWE-NJPW story"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-142204906\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>One of the interesting side stories to the WWE-New Japan story this week is another player in the mix, TNA.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, Mike Bennett &amp; Maria Kanellis, who built a niche for themselves in New Japan with former stablemate Matt Taven. However, because Bennett &amp; Maria signed with TNA, they will no longer be working for New Japan.<\/p>\n<p>It is widely known across the industry that New Japan is not interested in working with TNA because of how TNA handled Kazuchika Okada&#8217;s venture\u00a0to the U.S. to grow as a wrestler in 2010.\u00a0TNA booked Okada as a sidekick\u00a0act or a jobber, mainly wrestling on Xplosion matches.<\/p>\n<p>Okada, the current IWGP World Hvt. champion, then returned to New Japan in 2011 to begin\u00a0his career resurgence as The Rainmaker.<\/p>\n<p>TNA has a new Creative team in place that were not around to mess up Okada&#8217;s one-year stint, but NJPW officials have not forgotten how TNA handled Okada&#8217;s brief run.<\/p>\n<p>Also, Bullet Club members such as Karl Anderson and A.J. Styles could have pursued TNA in 2015, but that would have ended their New Japan runs.\u00a0Anderson and Styles, along with Doc Gallows, are now heading to WWE with that door opening.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson has wrestled mainly in Japan for about eight years, which is stressful making the regular trek from the U.S. to Japan and back. Anderson seems to be following the path of his former NJPW tag partner, Giant Bernard (Tensai\/Albert), returning to the U.S. through a WWE deal.<\/p>\n<p>Coincidentally, Anderson &amp; Bernard dropped the IWGP Tag Titles on the 2012 Tokyo Dome Show before Bernard left for WWE. Four years later, Anderson &amp; Doc Gallows dropped the IWGP Tag Titles at the 2016 Tokyo Dome as part of\u00a0the current decision to leave\u00a0for WWE.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-4163042900\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-529658146\"><div id=\"pwtor-2690743223\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>One of the interesting side stories to the WWE-New Japan story this week is another player in the mix, TNA. Specifically, Mike Bennett &amp; Maria Kanellis, who built a niche for themselves in New Japan <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/01\/07\/how-tna-factors-into-the-wwe-njpw-story\/\" title=\"How TNA factors into the WWE-NJPW story\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13,4,3],"tags":[87,404,120,202,71],"class_list":["post-7643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_japan","category-news_nxt","category-news_tna","category-news_wwe","tag-new-japan","tag-njpw","tag-tna","tag-tna-wrestling","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TNA_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7645,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions\/7645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}