Wrestling Forum banner

NJPW USA Territory Starting in 2018

7K views 50 replies 28 participants last post by  gingerinferno 
#1 ·


Owner and former President of NJPW, Takaaki Kidani, discussed to Weekly Pro-Wrestling part of NJPW's international expansion efforts that will be in the coming years.









Entire interview found here: https://twitter.com/i/moments/821702645681307648
 
See less See more
5
#3 ·
I'm not from USA so I have very limited understanding of who works where, but wouldn't their expansion hurt their relationship with ROH? Since at a glimpse it looks like they'd be providing similar thing.

Other than that I guess it makes sense, more or less. Looks like they are going to keep most of their talent Japan focused while signing new guys in USA.
 
#21 ·
I think it would probably help ROH, mainly because it will be easier to share talent across promotions.

On the other hand, if a US territory gains traction, they're gonna be looking for more talent, which could spell the death of TNA, if TNA is even still around by then.
 
#9 ·
See, this is a problem with people who simply don't know NJPW at all(not that I'm an expert or anything), Wrestle Kingdom 11 drew 26k(increase from last year) on a Wednesday afternoon. Having a big show in the middle of a week is always going to hurt attendances . Do you believe that if the WWE put on PPV's on a Wednesday they'd sell out 50k arenas? Most likely not. The problem is NJPW's wanting to keep their tradition of January 4th being their dome shows. It really should be the first Weekend of the new year , that way they can maximize the attendance which means more money(theoretically) and can continue the growth of the company overseas as it would be more accessible for people to watch on a weekend .

In saying that, NJPW world grew subscriber numbers and live viewers outside of Japan . If I recall correctly, it was something over 20k viewers streaming outside of Japan with majority being from North America. Will that translate to success in the USA? Not sure, but they've done well in the past(their first IC champ was MVP who won the title in Philly) and if they stick to wrestling cities, they could do well.
 
#27 · (Edited)
They can't get people to watch the main events of their main shows on YouTube for free, yet they're speaking of some kind of TV deal. Can't even sell out their shows at home, yet they're speaking about going aboard.

The WWE barely tries to do anything in Japan yet their House shows out drew the majority of the PPV events and regular shows that New Japan had in Japan last year. Kidani has a dream, but he also has shown to have a fundamental lack of understanding of how things work in the West. He speaks of TV deals as if he learned it from some smark on these very forums. The goal when getting the TV deal is to get more money from your network, not less.

Like it's cool for him to try, but the way he speaks about the WWE, you'd think what he was proposing would be actual competition to them. When he'd basically be competing with TNA/ROH/LU and all the other insignificant minor league promotions for third place. Behind WWE and NXT.
 
#28 ·
#1, WWE and NXT are the same company, period. NXT is developmental and the product has cooled off within the last year.

#2, a company has to try don't they? WWE fans have no clue how the business was 20,30 years ago when you had competition. Competition makes the product of other promotions better. If NJPW can make waves in the US as many think they can now after Okada v Omega, it will force WWE to improve its product and not give us the same ole crap week after week. It's another alternative which do not have to draw WWE numbers to be successful. Hardcore wrestling fans such as myself will watch NJPW, RoH, Progress, the mall indy shows ect. w/o blinking because the in ring product is usually more entertaining than WWE.

#3, its hard to get people to watch when they automatically poo-poo anything non-WWE, no matter how good it is.
 
#29 ·
Wow, there's a lot going on.

NJPW trying to start their own territory in the West will essentially kill the ROH relationship. They will take their guys from ROH since there is more of a handful of guys who work ROH with the understanding they can work NJPW. If Young Bucks or Bobby Fish have the option of working for ROH or NJPW+NJPW USA then they don't have much of an option unless ROH finally decides to throw around money. Granted, seems rather foolish to go for America, especially on the West Coast, when Europe seems like a prime location. Eh, who knows though.

Also, while WWE and NXT are the same company you could argue they are separate brands which cater to slightly different audiences. Though I agree, they will be competing with the second tier promotions instantly and not New York.

I'm interested for no other reason than I love me some chaos. This will produce prime crazy stuff.
 
#31 ·
A deal with Ring of Honor is the most likely scenario but I don't think you can forget about Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Wrestling. Their relationship has always been strange to me and if you think about a guy like Jarrett that has started a promotion before would be a good choice to help get one of the ground. Everybody jokes about all his meetings in L.A. and now NJPW is coming to California. I think it's a better fit for them to go with Global Force then Ring of Honor.
 
#32 ·
I wouldn't go as far as saying that this would damage the ROH relationship. ROH primarily plays to the east coast. I imagine NJPW would be doing something specifically on the west coast, which is pretty fertile ground for indy wrestling. ROH rarely (if ever) comes further west than Las Vegas.

We have PWG here, which is awesome and some of the best wrestling in the world, but PWG is so infrequent and they deliberately play to a very small arena that excludes most of its fans from getting tickets and they have no plans for expansion beyond that. PWG has a friendly relationship with ROH, as well.

Everything else is much smaller. This area could use a good regular indy like ROH that plays more frequently and in different venues that are potentially bigger than a VFW.

NXT finally hit the west coast earlier in 2016, and hopefully will come again, but that's also like twice a year. To really kill any of NJPW's chances, they'd need a foothold of their own over here.

I think there's potential, as long as they remain on friendly terms with ROH and develop their own talent.
 
#36 ·


I don't think the main arena can hold 8,000 at all, and the only way it could maybe get 6,000 is going back to the configuration that they used to use with the barebones entrance in the corner, as shown above. I do fully think that they sell out their configuration in the low 5,000s. It depends on if they open up the seats that are behind and above the stage, as seen below. Sometimes they put in some light fixtures and tarp those off. But this picture is from the G126 show and the building looks as packed as it can be, and a sellout of 5,270 was reported for that show. I know Dragon Gate reports some number like 7,500 for their Osaka shows, and they're pretty notorious for inflating big show attendance beyond venue capacity (they do it especially for Kobe World).



I'd definitely argue that they're growing in Japan, especially in the major markets. They wouldn't have gone to Osaka-Jo if they weren't seeing strong gates or sellouts in Edion. In Ryogoku as well, NJPW only just started opening up the box seats for 4 people instead of two (as of KOPW '16, and they're continuing it with Sakura Genesis). KOPW '16 was their best drawing non-G1 Ryogoku show since 2000 (9671 fans). I actually have a spreadsheet going and I'll be able to report year-over-year attendance once April ends.
 
#38 · (Edited)
I don't think the main arena can hold 8,000 at all, and the only way it could maybe get 6,000 is going back to the configuration that they used to use with the barebones entrance in the corner, as shown above. I do fully think that they sell out their configuration in the low 5,000s. It depends on if they open up the seats that are behind and above the stage, as seen below. Sometimes they put in some light fixtures and tarp those off. But this picture is from the G126 show and the building looks as packed as it can be, and a sellout of 5,270 was reported for that show. I know Dragon Gate reports some number like 7,500 for their Osaka shows, and they're pretty notorious for inflating big show attendance beyond venue capacity (they do it especially for Kobe World).

I'd definitely argue that they're growing in Japan, especially in the major markets. They wouldn't have gone to Osaka-Jo if they weren't seeing strong gates or sellouts in Edion. In Ryogoku as well, NJPW only just started opening up the box seats for 4 people instead of two (as of KOPW '16, and they're continuing it with Sakura Genesis). KOPW '16 was their best drawing non-G1 Ryogoku show since 2000 (9671 fans). I actually have a spreadsheet going and I'll be able to report year-over-year attendance once April ends.
I'm just going by the only thing I can go by which is wiki and wiki says 8,000 capacity and I don't see how a wrestling setup kills 40% of the seats. This isn't a term paper so I feel fine using wiki as a source ;)

I fully expect any shows in Bodymaker to continue to be 5,000 because that's the way things are set up for them. If they go way above that, then it proves that they set up for a lower number just so they could report a sell out.

On Osaka Jo:

In 2015 they did 11,400 in Osaka Jo; in 2016 they did 9,925.

(I know they didn't have Tana and he would've made the difference so I digress)
 
#37 · (Edited)
Look at everyone of these hack feds trying to be DDT and make a bunch of subsidiaries but with about 10% the actual quality of DDT :mj
Anyway
Fucking. Focus. On. Japan. First.
Get more than 30k paid in the Dome in your home country first then worry oh so much about standing your ground in another country.

KOPW was a solid but rare shot because of NOAH's Ace vs New Japan's Ace, which is why it drew so well
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top