Will Vince McMahon Be A Major Player In Signing ROH Free Agents?, How Valuable Would Bullet Club Be To WWE?

On a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Garrett Gonzalez asked Dave Meltzer whether WWE CEO Vince McMahon sees Ring of Honor’s recently booked Madison Square Garden show as a threat and whether McMahon would utilize his deep financial pockets to sign Ring of Honor’s most popular free agents.

Meltzer replied,

“I’ve got to think he’s gonna go with that tact. They could have let them do the Garden, if they didn’t care. Obviously he cares because they didn’t let them do it. They tried to block the Garden because of the idea that if the Garden is a big success it opens a lot of doors. It legitimizes them. If you go in there and sell out Madison Square Garden at the ticket prices they’re gonna charge, you’re now a legitimate product. You’re not WWE. You can’t compete with WWE; but, they’re gonna be somebody and they’re gonna be viewed – again because it’s in New York, not Chicago, not San Francisco – it’s gonna be viewed as like, ‘Oh there’s another wrestling company that sold out Madison Square Garden.’ Vince doesn’t want that so the best way to keep them from selling out Madison Square Garden…is The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, perhaps Marty Scurrl and Adam Page, that whole Being the Elite crew. Realistically they’re probably not going to get [Kazuchika] Okada. I’m almost certain they’re not gonna get [Hiroshi] Tanahashi and they’re not gonna kill New Japan in Japan. That’s not gonna happen; but, Ring of Honor is a different story.”

Meltzer went on to praise Ring of Honor’s recent successes; but, credited Bullet Club for the majority of them,

“Ring of Honor’s had great success by its standards in the last year. What was it? 27% growth last year in attendance and this year another big jump in attendance; but, it’s also not so much Ring of Honor as much as it is Bullet Club. You take The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes and Marty Scurrl out of the picture and they’re going back down to where they were before, if not lower…..those guys are more valuable, realistically, than anyone in WWE as far as value to WWE other than maybe a [John] Cena because you could lose a Roman Reigns or a Seth Rollins, it’s not gonna make a difference to WWE, or a minor difference. You lose [Kenny] Omega it’s gonna hurt New Japan, especially internationally. You lose The Young Bucks and Ring of Honor’s gonna be in a lot of trouble. It’s good for all those guys and also the other thing is if you get those guys there’s not gonna be an All In 2, which is another example of a non-WWE annual show that could build itself up to be a kind of a big destination deal. At least the first one was. I think these negotiations will be very interesting.”

The ROH/NJPW G-1 Supercard is scheduled to take place at Madison Square Garden on April 6th, 2019.

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