Asia-Pacific Alliance, Historic X-Over follow-up and more announced in noteworthy presentation
October 10 saw NJPW and STARDOM combine for a joint business strategy presentation in Tokyo’s Hikosen Theater. A newsworthy presentation gave fans plenty to be excited about both in and outside Japan for the year to come.
A strong rebound
NJPW’s part of the presentation started with a reflection on the last four years of business through the pandemic. Peak revenue levels in 2019 saw the lion’s share of 5.4 billion Yen revenues come from ‘in venue’ sales such as tickets and in person merchandise. With the pandemic necessitating a shift to out of venue business from content licensing to pay per view sales, apps and more, the steady return of fans to venues has seen 2023 revenue hit 5.3 billion Yen, the level now at 98% of its 2019 peak. With an emphasis on growing in venue business further over the next year, forecasts are for record setting revenues in 2024.
A focus on Youth
The new generation of talent in NJPW was focused on, with the Best of the Super Jr. tournament seeing the likes of Clark Connors and Kevin Knight make an impact while Master Wato scooped his first tournament win. G1 Climax 33 saw a wave of new entries, including star turns from the so-called Reiwa Three Musketeers, while Yuya Uemura returned from excursion just one day earlier at Destruction in Ryogoku. Yuto Nakashima, Oskar Leube and Boltin Oleg are all poised to make big strides, while Kosei Fujita has recently graduated and is on a world tour, and Ryohei Oiwa is currently on excursion in Pro-Wrestling NOAH.
Early this year, a reality TV series produced by Kazuchika Okada, The Spirit, traced a series of hopefuls as they prepared for the notoriously demanding Noge Dojo tryout. With more hopefuls currently in the Dojo system, there’s much to look forward to from new names, and some of whom may even be making their debuts before the year is through.
New markets, big matches
There are 34 events still on the agenda for 2023, with NJPW looking to end the year strong in Japan (31 events) and abroad (three across London, Las Vegas and Texas. All these events will be building toward Wrestle Kingdom 18, which had its main event just officially announced between Tetsuya Naito and SANADA. As tickets continue to sell strongly, fans can expect a big push and grand celebration of Wrestle Kingdom Week, with the entirety of the recently redeveloped Tokyo Dome area full of Wrestle Kingdom signage and much more.
2024 will also see a long awaited tour for NJPW in the Hokkaido area. While the beautiful city of Sapporo sees NJPW action roughly two weekends per year, a full tour of the northern island had been scheduled for the summer of 2020 before the COVID pandemic hit. Now 2024 is set to see a grand tour of the island for the first time in 11 years.
While NJPW has advanced into the US and Europe, with Fighting Spirit Unleashed and Lonestar Shootout to come in the US this fall, and Royal Quest III hitting London this weekend, other parts of Asia may have felt left out. A NJPW event in Taipei is on the way with more details to follow.
As NJPW and STARDOM both seek a bigger presence further afield in Asia, the announcement was made of the Asia Pacific Pro-Wrestling Alliance connecting promotions across the continent. Taiwan’s PUZZLE, DFW in China, SETUP from Thailand, Grapplemax from Singapore and more to come will see promising collaboration and exciting possibilities in the months and years to come, growing professional wrestling as a whole in the Asian market.
Media for the message
Friday saw the premiere of In Search of Antonio Inoki, a feature documentary on the iconic founder of NJPW. As the film continues its run in cinemas across Japan, the hope is for fans young and old to get to know the legend for the first time, or to reacquaint themselves with a bygone era.
On a modern note, NJPW’s TV presence in Japan and further afield continues to be strong, with World Pro-Wrestling and World Pro Returns (the later now in a more prime 9PM spot in Japan) joined by the ever popular Shinnichi Champion, and streams on ABEMA TV. AXS TV continues to bring NJPW action every week, and Destruction in Kobe recently aired across Europe on Pluto TV through Extreme Sports. The big news from this segment though was the announcement of a November 9 launch date for the renewed NJPW World service, complete with all new apps for iOS, Android, Roku and Amazon, offline play, full HD streams and plenty more improvements.
NJPW and STARDOM
Rounding out the NJPW presentation was more discussion of the alliance between New Japan and STARDOM. January 12 2024 will see the two companies combine for a special collaborative booster pack for the popular ReBirth For You trading card game. And…
Another NJPW and STARDOM joint event is indeed in the works! After 2022’s Historic X-Over was a massive hit in the venue as well as on pay per view, a second cross over, (tentatively titled Historic X-Over 2) is on the way. Stay tuned for more news!
