July 27, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The Undertaker returns at Battleground, NXT/ROH insanity with Liger booking, and more by Dave Meltzer

Author:Dave Meltzer [Meltzer, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Wrestling, wrestling observer newsletter
Publisher: F4WOnline
Published: 2015-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

NEW JAPAN

After the first show of G-1 on 7/20, owner Takaaki Kidani did say there was a significant increase in subscriptions to New Japan World for the first night.

New Japan A press conference was held on 7/18, two days before the start of the G-1 Climax tournament, with all the participants. There wasn't much to it as far as the wrestlers went past Doc Gallows giving the line that he was going to climax all over the place when he won it. But New Japan officials continued in their path of trying to expand the business, mostly by copying WWE. They've already decreased revenue by moving from iPPV to the New Japan World streaming service, as the big shows are getting fewer viewers and at one-third the price. New Japan President Kaname Tezuka announced they would be expanding merchandising and brand licensing. He also said they are going to cut down on the number of photographers at ringside. The ringside photographers have been a Japanese tradition because the newspapers and magazines have been historically such an important part of the publicity of the business. Tezuka said that there have been many complaints from fans that the photographers block their views and he said cutting down on allowable photographers would help ringsiders see better. When it comes to copying WWE, Bushiroad (parent company) President Takaaki Kidani said they were going to do an IPO in the future and take the company public. New Japan has talked in the past about going public, but the perception at that time was that pro wrestling in Japan was a declining industry. The timing may be better with New Japan's strong economic growth since 2012. He also announced the "Lions Gate Plan," which is similar to WWE recruiting and something they've been needing to do. Essentially they are going to run shows using the best indie wrestlers in small buildings as talent development shows. They also announced a plan to market the company overseas, while working with a number of companies. WWE was not one of them, as they listed the NWA, Global Force Wrestling and ROH in the U.S., as well as CMLL, Revolution Pro Wrestling and wXw in Europe. They talked about running and promoting in more overseas markets on their own, as well as working with the aforementioned partners in sending talent to compete overseas.

Two new matches have been added to the 8/16 show at Sumo Hall, which is the G-1 finals show. Besides the finals and the already announced Young Bucks vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly IWGP jr. tag title match, they announced the expected Kushida vs. Ricochet match for the IWGP jr. title, as well as the return of Bushi after his terrible neck injury. Tiger Mask & Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka will face Bushi & Mascara Dorada & Ryusuke Taguchi.

The Young Bucks, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, Ricochet, Matt Taven, Kazushi Sakuraba, Michael Bennett and Maria Kanellis are all being brought in for all three of the Sumo Hall shows from 8/14 to 8/16.

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