Mike Bennett has seen the benefit of companies crossing over before.
Ring of Honor has long had a working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and thanks to that he’s had tours of Japan with the company. One of those tours resulted in him and Matt Taven becoming IWGP Tag Team Champions. He’s seen the benefits of what a partnership between two promotions can do, and he feels partnerships like that can only help make the business grow.
Mike Bennett spoke with Vikram Prashar from Wrestling With Awareness, where he talked about how being able to jump promotions like that not only excites fans, but it helps change mentality where it only makes things better for business.
I am a huge proponent of, of jumping to different companies, I am a huge proponent of all of us working together because… spoiler alert, the only reason why companies don’t is because of egos. Because we all can’t just figure out how, like in this sport where it’s predetermined, we can’t get past our own egos to be like, “well I don’t wanna lose and I don’t want this guy to win” as opposed to being like “no, this moment could be like, really friggin cool for professional wrestling” and to think of the people who actually spend the money, which is the fans, that’s what they wanna see, so if we could just set our egos aside, and that’s why I love seeing Kenny go to Impact, and then seeing The Good Brothers jump over to AEW, I would love it if Ring Of Honor started doing it, I would love to see, me and Taven show up at AEW, or me and Taven show up at Impact. Because, that’s good for professional wrestling. Because, me and Taven will put our egos aside, I know The Good Brothers will put their egos aside, like we understand what makes good professional wrestling and we, we, I’m a wrestling fan at heart, I’ve always been a wrestling fan at heart and when I see the possibility the guys could-“Oh my god Kenny Omega could show up at Ring Of Honor or Matt Taven, The Kingdom could show up at AEW” that excites me as a wrestling fan, not just as a, as a wrestler but as a fan, I’m like, think of the possibilities. Or like maybe once a year we just have a big show where all the wrestling companies, I mean, excluded WWE because I don’t see them ever doing it, but if you think like, New Japan, and AEW, and Impact, and Ring Of Honor, once a year come together for this massive collaborative show of crossing promotions, like it’s so exciting, I get goosebumps thinking about it as a fan and then as a wrestler, I’m like “oh, that would just be the coolest thing ever” but, uh, yeah, I just, I think what AEW and Impact are doing right now is really cool, and I think it’s good for professional wrestling and I like, I’m happy to see people put their egos aside for the better of professional wrestling, if we want the sport to evolve, if we want the business to evolve, if we want there to no longer to just be a monarchy at the top of the wrestling industry we have to be able to do this, we have to expand, and we have to start thinking outside the box.
The partnerships are starting to build, as AEW has a partnership with both New Japan and Impact Wrestling. Ring of Honor still has their partnership with New Japan, along with CMLL, so it’s always possible Ring of Honor enters this partnership with the companies. It could lead to great things as fans begin to fantasy book some of their dream matches.
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