NJPW April Taipei event to kick off official international partnership 

A special press conference today saw the representatives of six different promotions from across Asia formally announce the Asia-Pacific Federation of Wrestling. With the aim of broadening professional wrestling across Asia and worldwide, the group was represented at the press conference by:

Japan: NJPW (Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi, Yuji Nagata), STARDOM (CEO Taro Okada, Mina Shirakawa)

China: DFW (Wang Bin)

Taiwan: PUZZLE (Touyu)

Thailand: Setup (Pumi)

Singapore: GrappleMax (Gregory Ho)

 Three key goals of APFW were announced at the press conference.

1. Talent sharing. With Japanese promotions leading the way in terms of the best global talent, Japanese promotions will loan talent to various Asian countries and markets. This talent sharing can range in scale from small numbers subject to availability to larger groups of wrestlers.
2. Showcase matches. Loaned wrestlers will wrestle on local cards in each region. Owing to experience levels etc, loaned wrestlers will not in principle wrestle against local talent, but rather in special showcase matches. 
3. Wrestler training. Japan is host to the best development and training systems in the world. To further prospects of wrestlers from member promotions, the Federation will aim to send wrestler to Japan for further training.
4. In addition to the aforementioned, member promotions will cooperate and share expertise in terms of video sharing or promotional activities outside of matches themselves. 

The first major step for this connection will take place in April, when NJPW will present an event in Taipei. More information will follow. In future member promotions will be able to send wrestlers for their own showcase matches in Japan, and allow for jointly promoted events. 

Representatives each gave comments at the conference. 

Naoki Sugabayashi

Over the last ten years, we’ve been able to hold events in Singapore and Taiwan, twice in each country. In all the venues, the reactions from the fans were huge and our wrestlers absolutely want to be back there very soon. We’ll be giving all we have to make this project successful. 

Yuji Nagata

In 2012 I went to Taiwan as part of a joint All Japan and New Japan event. NJPW was on TV there, on Z Channel, and that meant the fans knew us and were really thrilled to see us out there, greeting us in the airport and everything. There was this singer Wu Bai, really famous over there. I met him at the building and he was really excited. It went to show for me that they know us overt in Taiwan and there’s a lot of potential for NJPW over there. 

I went to Thailand as well once, and they put me on a TV game show too. There are a lot of people in Asia, a lot of them English speaking, but in recent years NJPW has been focused on America when it comes to international expansion. I think we’ve been looking past a great opportunity in Asia, and I’m happy for us to take that opportunity.    

Taro Okada

Last autumn STARDOM was a part of Bushiroad Expo in Asia, in Bangkok and Singapore. Obviously these events are geared to fans of Japanese culture, anime and videogames, and to have STARDOM part of that lineup was a real pleasure and got a great reaction. We recently passed one million YouTube subscribers with a lot of those views coming from Asian countries. Just as NJPW has built familiarity through TV, we’ve built a presence through videos and shorts. I hope we can continue to broaden the appeal of pro-wrestling and STARDOM in particular. 

Mina Shirakawa

I weas on those events in Thailand and Singapore. I had known about the Youtube data, but didn’t have a real idea of how much the fans knew about us. But there were fans at the airport welcoming me, and that really put me at ease. Women’s wrestling exists in somewhat of a niche, so I was worried about the matches themselves, but it was clear how the crowd reacted that they knew us, they were familiar with the moves and the wrestlers and they reacted so well. 

We at STARDOM aren’t really able to fly out rings to these countries, so to have the help of SETUP in Thailand and GrappleMax in Singapore was so important and made everything possible. I hope this alliance can help us bring women’s pro-wrestling onto a bigger global stage. 

Touyu

Thank you for the invitation to this alliance. PUZZLE has a history of wrestler exchange with other countries and companies, but I think in particular to have NJPW’s guidance to lean on is a massive step up for us. I’m truly grateful for this opportunity, and to work with NJPW on this first step of an event in April. 

Wang Bin

10 years ago, Antonio Inoki taught the Chinese people about Japanese wrestling culture. That inspired me to bring that culture to Japan. I feel we’ve been able to grow the population of wrestling fans in China from 200,000 to 10 million. I think there are 2 million NJPW fans in China, but that’s out of a population of 1.4 billion. This alliance will, I feel bring the pro-wrestling audience in China to the tens of millions, and I’m grateful for the opportunity. Thank you.

Pumi

I feel honoured to be here and a part of this alliance. This partnership is not just about talent exchange, but the chance to share and learn from the best wrestling promotions in this world. Thai pro-wrestling has more than 15 years of history, so I think this is important for us. As you know with Muay Thai, Thai wrestling has a long history in combat sports, so I want to grow the culture of pro-wrestling in Thailand I can’t wait to show how great Thai wrestling is. 

Gregory Ho

Thank you to Bushiroad, NJPW and STARDOM for this invitation. I’m very happy to represent Singapore. We’ve always been very close to Japanese wrestling. In 2016 when I first came to Japan to learn wrestling here and learn the culture, to 2018 when Grapplemax was the first Singaporean company to do a show in Japan, in Shin Kiba 1st Ring. We’ve always respected and wanted to learn the magic of Japanese wrestling, just like we experienced at Wrestle Kingdom. Our goal has always been to take that magic and make it relatable and relevant to Singaporeans, as well as develop a home for professional wrestling in Southeast Asia.

As part of this Federation, I look forward to working with the members, learning from NJPW and STARDOM and working with the amazing partners here to really grow the wrestling culture. We also hope to contribute our experience, business network and expertise, and broaden awareness of both STARDOM and NJPW in Southeast Asia. Helping STARDOM last year was just the start and we look forward to working together.