What’s the story?
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, NJPW is looking into venues at New Orleans next year to hold a show at WrestleMania weekend.
In case you didn’t know...
NJPW held their first show in the United States this past weekend: The G1 Special in the USA. It was a 2-day event, with the first day being headlined by Kazuchika Okada and Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The second day saw the crowning of the inaugural IWGP United States Champion: Kenny Omega.
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After the event was over, NJPW announced that they would be returning in 2018 to the United States. Their two-day show at Long Beach, California was reportedly sold out in less than half an hour.
The United States is a huge market for NJPW, as Wrestle Kingdom 11 this year headlined by Okada vs. Omega got 10,000 new subscribers from the one country alone. Omega appears to be quite a draw for the US market.
The heart of the matter
The Observer stated that Ring Of Honor had booked a 5,000 seat building for WrestleMania weekend, and an NJPW card featuring all their top names shouldn’t have trouble selling a building out.
In fact, NJPW likely has a better chance selling out a show than ROH does. A show featuring Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii and the like should have no trouble drawing. Even if they go head-to-head with a WWE show, be it Hall Of Fame or Takeover: New Orleans, there shouldn’t be much of a problem for them drawing a full house.
Dave Meltzer revealed why doing a US tour then is quite a surprise to him:
That’s a surprise to me because they are usually building up to one of their biggest events, the April show at Sumo Hall, during that time period. By 2018, they may be running split crews anyway because they really have too much talent for one crew, which is one of the reasons there are so many multiple-person matches.
Meltzer also stated that Okada and Omega are clearly the two biggest stars. According to him, Okada is a much bigger star there in the US now than he was last year, primarily because of the quality of matches he consistently puts on.
He continued to state that Omega, The Young Bucks and all NJPW merch has been selling very well at hot topic outlets.
What’s next?
NJPW will be getting ready for G1 Climax and their road to Wrestle Kingdom 12 will then commence. There is much anticipation over who is going to win the tournament and even more anticipation over who could possibly dethrone Okada.
Author’s take
NJPW could definitely go to the United States during WrestleMania weekend and sell a show out. It should definitely be interesting to see whether NJPW swoops in and takes advantage of the weekend swarming with tens of thousands of wrestling fans present. One thing is for sure: they’ll put on a stellar show with high-quality matches.
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