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NJPW announces New Japan Pro Wrestling of America subsidiary

The US subsidiary was officially announced at a press conference overnight.
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NJPW announces New Japan Pro Wrestling of America subsidiary

NJPW's expansion plans are reaching their next phase.

At a press conference overnight, NJPW officially announced the formation of an American subsidiary. It's named New Japan Pro Wrestling of America, and it was noted that this is phase three of NJPW's international business plan. Step one was searching for talent, while step two was running shows in the United States and other countries and markets.

Operations are scheduled to begin next month. A map of markets New Japan Pro Wrestling of America is focusing on for events was shown at the press conference:

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Here are notes from NJPW's English-language Twitter account.

[CEO Takami Obari]: There is plenty still to be undertaken when it comes to furthering the brand in the US. Fans though, have a very close association to talent and core concepts of strong style, as evidenced by market research in Dallas.
Obari: Live events will be an important basis of New japan of America. It is important that fans get close to our wrestlers and see our wrestling close-up.
Obari: What fans in America value is the NJPW brand and concept, and the style of wrestling that represents. The NJPW brand is important, hence the name of New Japan of America.
Obari: There is absolutely no plans to sell the Japanese market short. An office in the US allows for better talent relations in the US, and allows talent to further our brand within the American market, while allowing American fans to more easily support the brand.
Obari on key differences between US and Japanese markets: America is skewed more toward male fans, and they consume content digitally as opposed to through TV.
In the immediate future, US tours will take place while the Japanese schedule is between tours, but there may be cases where tours run simultaneously, with talent schedules an important factor.
Obari: The plan will be to broadcast American events live on World wherever possible. Where that isn't feasible, they will be available VOD on delay.
Obari: 2020 schedules are still being considered, but there could be as many as double the 2019 slate of 12-13 events. There will not be a reduction in the number of Japanese events.
Obari: We have worked well with AXS TV, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Other partnerships may be something we can discuss and consider as we move forward.
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Obari responded to a question about the scale of the events NJPW plans to run in the US: "We’re currently running and looking at venues in the 2000 seat range, that may be lower depending on circumstances. We are a live event company, and the first priority of a live event company is to run in more venues. Once people are in those venues, then we can fire them up and have them ready to spread the word to larger and larger audiences. First though, it’s about growing the number rather than the size of venues. The long term plan will absolutely be to run big venues on a regular basis."

NJPW's next shows in the US are set for next month. New Japan Showdown in San Jose is taking place at the San Jose Civic on Saturday, November 9, while the Globe Theatre is hosting New Japan Showdown in Los Angeles on Monday, November 11.

The San Jose event will feature Jushin Thunder Liger's final US match. Kota Ibushi, Juice Robinson, Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Jay White, Chase Owens, Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, and Taiji Ishimori have been announced for both New Japan Showdown shows. Liger, Kazuchika Okada, and Will Ospreay will only be appearing on night one.

NJPW held their first set of solo shows in the US in 2017. The IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship was introduced then and is currently held by Lance Archer.

NJPW's US dojo in Carson, California opened last year. Katsuyori Shibata is its head coach.
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www.sportingnews.com

Where does Impact Wrestling fit in the current wrestling boom? | Sporting News

Where does Impact fit in the current wrestling boom?
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Where does Impact Wrestling fit in the current wrestling boom?


Impact Wrestling presented its most significant annual event on Sunday with Bound for Glory from the Odeum Expo Center in Villa Park, Ill.

While the event wasn't the best show of the year, it was still a very solid outing from top-to-bottom with the five-person ladder match featuring Tessa Blanchard, Ace Romero, Ace Austin, Jake Crist and Daga along with a very physical main event between Impact heavyweight champion Brian Cage and Sami Callihan.

With All Elite Wrestling and WWE battling for pro wrestling supremacy, how does Impact fit into the grand scheme of things?

The wrestling landscape changed when AEW debuted "Dynamite" on TNT at the beginning of October and WWE signed highly lucrative deals to air "SmackDown" on Fox and "Raw" remaining on the USA Network.

But Impact made a significant move of its own that flew under the radar in September. That's when its parent company, Anthem Sports and Entertainment, announced it was buying a majority stake in AXS TV and Impact Wrestling would be airing on the channel starting this Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. While the channel airs in about 50 million homes, it's a significant upgrade from when they were airing on the Pursuit Channel, a low-level network where they were only seen by a couple thousand viewers each week.

Add in the fact that New Japan Pro Wrestling has gotten significant traction in the United States since being on the network. Now, with Anthem having a controlling interest in the channel, Impact is going to receive a ton of publicity that will drive even more people to its live events.

Under the new regime of Scott D'Amore and Don Callis, Impact has gone under a rejuvenation from the days of being utterly disorganized on every level under Dixie Carter and on the brink of extinction on numerous occasions to now becoming a place where you're seeing storylines thrive and younger talent getting a chance to show the world that there's more than just WWE and AEW.

"I know when I first got to Impact ... I’m not going to lie, I asked myself, ‘Maybe I made a mistake by coming here,’” Impact talent Moose told Sporting News in March. "As soon as Anthem bought the company and (executive vice presidents of Impact) Scott D’Amore and Don Callis came on board, things have been working great. You could see the improvement TV show after TV show. Everything takes time for people to start seeing the improvement. I think we are showing that improvement. Fans just need to be patient, and things will keep on getting better."

While all of the wrestlers in Impact aren't household names, Impact possesses the best overall female wrestlers led by the woman who not only is the best in the company, male or female, but one of the top talents in the business, period, in Blanchard. Everything about her equates to a superstar. She carries herself as a major star and it resonates with the fans, as Blanchard got by far the largest reaction during Sunday's show.

Fans were into whatever Blanchard did in the ring. She made what looked to be an average match on paper appear above average. Simply put: Blanchard is a once-in-a-generation type of talent as she has the ability inside the ring, mixed in with her looks and charisma. That type of individual doesn't exist in WWE or AEW. Blanchard is the individual you hitch your wagon to and it would help get more eyeballs on Impact and get the company to the next level.

If you mix in Callihan, Moose, Knockouts champion Taya Valkyrie and Cage and continue to make them major focal points of your programming, then fans will continue to gravitate toward Impact and start to see more sold-out shows as you saw on Sunday evening right outside Chicago.

"You are giving them (young wrestlers) the light that gives people energy and some drive and lifting the talent up to be at an elite level whereas I thought everyone else had a jump on Impact," former Impact heavyweight champion Ken Shamrock recently told SN. "Now, all of a sudden, with the way things are going, Impact is among the big three."

Will Impact overtake WWE and AEW in the United States? No, but being number three isn't bad whatsoever. Most weeks, Impact is putting on quality shows that are often better than what WWE has been presenting. And that is due to giving D'Amore and Callis the keys to the kingdom and allowing them to bring in the right talent who work their tails off.

Impact is once again creeping into their minds of pro wrestling fans. Slow and steady isn't the cool way to do things in this day and age where WWE acts on the whim of a 74-year-old Vince McMahon, who changes his mind as often as the wind blows, and AEW looks to continue to establish itself.

However, Impact is doing things the right way and continuing to grow brick-by-brick. As long as Impact stays the course, it's an absolute number three brand that people can watch every week and show the world they can be the perfect mix of what WWE and AEW aren't offering fans every week.
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www.fightful.com

Joey Mercury Goes Off On ROH GM Greg Gilleland For Treatment Of Talent And More | Fightful News

Things are not fine in ROH.
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Joey Mercury Goes Off On ROH GM Greg Gilleland For Treatment Of Talent And More

Things are not fine in ROH.

On Thursday, PWInsider reported Joey Mercury and Ring of Honor had parted ways in what was described as a "mutually agreed upon decision." Mercury had been working as trainer at the ROH Dojo since May 2018 and joined the creative team and worked as a producer since February 2019.

ROH, putting ROH GM Greg Gilleland on blast for his treatment of talent, among other things. You can view the tweets below, but to summarize:

- Mercury accuses ROH of providing an unsafe working environment for talent, pointing out "No security, no medical staff, no women on creative, worst looking wrestling on or off TV."

- Claims Shane Taylor will not be re-signed on January 1, but Taylor had not been informed of this decision.

- Accuses Gilleland of not taking proper care of Jay Lethal after his arm was broken during the Honor United tour.

- Reveals why ROH's relationship with Alex Shelley has fallen apart.

- Calls Gilleland a "liability" who is "inexperienced and unqualified to generate revenue in his field." Also accuses Gilleland of taking advantage of Bandido.

- Calls out Gilleland and ROH for not implementing proper concussion protocol and accuses of Gilleland of allowing Kelly Klein to travel to South Africa to wrestle despite having a "brain injury."

- Recalls treating Flip Gordon's elbow dislocation with the help of Bandido and Brody King instead of ROH providing proper care.

- Shows proof that Gilleland accuses Mercury of being "high at shows" and responds by wondering why he wasn't given a drug test.

- Accuses guys from GVP and SBG of asking him for his prescribed medications.

- "Hypothetically," says the contracts of Taylor and Bandido expire on Jan. 1 while PJ Black's contract expires on Feb. 1.

- Recalls the "be a fan" incident with Bully Ray and criticizes ROH for not having security and putting Ray in that position.
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www.mandatory.com

IMPACT Wrestling Announces Date & Location For 'Hard To Kill' PPV

IMPACT Wrestling has announced the date and location for their upcoming "Hard To Kill" pay-per-view (PPV) in January of 2020.
www.mandatory.com www.mandatory.com

IMPACT Wrestling Announces Date & Location For ‘Hard To Kill’ PPV

IMPACT Wrestling has announced the official date and location for their upcoming “Hard To Kill” pay-per-view (PPV) event. The show will go down in Dallas, Texas on January 12, 2020. The news was made official during Tuesday night’s IMPACT Wrestling broadcast on AXS TV.
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