Kevin Owens voices his opinion.
Over the past year the independent wrestling scene has been in the midst of what is described as a "boom" by those who pay close attention to the independents and by the in-ring performers who make the train go. As of recently with Cody and The Young Bucks selling out their self-financed show 'All In' which takes place on September 1st, it has lit a spark in companies and promotions to aim for the sky when presenting their product. That is exampled by Ring Of Honor partnering up with New Japan Pro Wrestling to present 'G1 Supercard' next year on April 6th.
The general admission tickets for G1 Supercard sold out almost immediately after they were made available to purchase but one individual who does not find Ring Of Honor and NJPW selling out The Garden that impressive compared to 'All In' selling out is former ROH World Champion Kevin Owens. While being interviewed by 'Gorilla Position' prior to this year's SummerSlam PPV, Owens was asked does he feel that other promotions and companies thriving could turn into a threat to the WWE and K.O. responded with the following detailed answer:
“I absolutely don’t think its a threat. I think it's great for everybody involved, and you know, WWE thrives on competition. It did for a long time and I think healthy competition is great and I think WWE would agree but you know, WWE will always go out [and] try to be better than everybody else and I think that’s why they got to the point where they were at." Owens said. "They wanna be bigger, they wanna do things that other companies can’t, and they’re never gonna change that way, but the fact that all these companies are thriving is great for everybody involved I think. Whether its wrestlers that are up and coming and trying to make a career, or even wrestlers that might eventually leave WWE--it gives them a place to go to like look, the wrestling world is changing and it's very exciting to see. But, I think it would be silly for people to look at these companies thriving and not feel like WWE is a big part of them thriving as well.” He continued, “Even Ring Of Honor selling out Madison Square Garden is fantastic, it's unbelievable. But they’re selling it out on WrestleMania weekend you know what I mean? So, I feel people should still be a bit grateful to WWE and I know a lot of people--that’s not the cool thing, to admit that WWE might not be this giant thing trying to hurt the indies. I know that’s what a lot of people feel they are but I couldnt disagree more and I hope that one day, Ring Of Honor can sell out Madison Square Garden when WWE’s not in town and I’m sure… everything points to that happening eventually and that’s amazing."
Owens further elaborated on what he said in the quote above and what's mentioned in the earlier paragraphs of this article. K.O. looked to 'All In' for his main argument which is that what Cody and The Young Bucks have put together is more impressive than ROH and New Japan filling out the Garden because 'All In' is not taking place on the same weekend and in the same city that WrestleMania is taking place.
"Look at All In. All In was Cody and The Young Bucks’ idea and they took it and they ran with it and they made into something huge." Owens said. "Like in my opinion, All In is almost impressive than Ring Of Honor selling out Madison Square Garden because they did it on their own and there’s not a giant, wrestling extravaganza that same weekend in the same town--like those people are going for All In and that’s awesome. But everybody who gets to benefit from that; whether its the fans or the wrestlers, how can you call that a bad thing? Its great.”
Kevin Owens voiced his opinion on the topic at hand. To take a look at the updated match card and roster for 'All In', click here. Also, Ring Of Honor COO Joe Koff recently discussed G1 Supercard selling out the "Worlds Most Famous Arena" and to read what he had to say about the forthcoming event, head over to Fightful's published article concerning his comments.
If you are going to use the quotes above, please credit 'Gorilla Position' with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
