NJPW's expansion into the United States: Would this work?

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If Sinclair wants to do something with ROH, the time is now as the channel could use some diversity and has already dipped their feet into the world of professional wrestling, airing Saturday Morning Slam and WWE Thursday night Smackdown a few years ago when they were kicking Raw's ass in the ratings. The product(s) will come gift-wrapped with an already established install base. Hardcore wrestling fans and casual fans who want to know what all the fuss is about surrounding Kenny Omega and the Bullet Club. Basic cable networks like NBC, CBS and ABC are extremely unlikely although a pretty shitty late night/early morning spot on the CW or Fox (which are LARGELY just re-runs or infomercials) would be an immediate improvement over Axs, the only problem is, with the great success of the G1 Special in the USA, they wouldn't let NJPW which is their ONLY program that people watch go so easily. It's painfully obvious that they're not going to expand without a more accessible channel, but NJPW has outgrown Axs. Would this work, /asp/? I don't see why it wouldn't. If, say, this were to work, how would you go about programming the shows? Would you air PPVs live from Japan in early morning blocks? Would you merge with ROH and air a weekly show from the United States? Would you take Dave Meltzer's approach and air big events on basic cable for free and run a few shows in major markets every month here in America? The demand is obviously there, the product just needs to be more accessible. Would you say "FUCK YOU" to Japan, merge with ROH and go all-in on a global brand with Japanese talents being held primarily in the United States? How would you expand NJPW, /asp/?

>>3013130
yawn

>>3013130
On one hand, it's be comfy as fuck watching wrestling on CW again. CW Smackdown was kino as fuck
On the other hand, CW is already packed to the brim with shit to air

>>3013154

>>3013154

Like what? They wouldn't make room for NJPW? I'm unfamiliar with their schedule and their website is hard as fuck to navigate through.

>>3013130 Well, get rid of the word Japan, and call it New World Pro Wrestling, Mighty Morphin' Wrestle Rangers, or something weebophobes will be okay watching with other people, keep JR and it could work, before Vince poaches all the good talent.

>>3013130
Can't wait for you chucklefucks to find another bandwagon or shiny new thing to obsess over. Hopefully it will happen during the post-G1 down period.

Then the fans who know their shit can get back to watching in peace.

>>3013413
>reeee muh seekrit club

Holy shit get a load of this triggered snowflake

New Japan just doesn't create the stories to compete at a large scale in the United States. If all you needed was great wrestling ROH would have succeeded long ago. ROH also had significantly better writing and storylines 04-08 and nobody cared. Pure wrestling is never going to be more then niche entertainment in America, as depressing as that is to say.

>>3013413
>people shitpost about how good njpw is
>njpw actually picks up big-time
>people start giving it a shot
>they like it and discuss it
>aforementioned people are upset by this
>new njpw fans just have a nice time watching it
>90% of other njpw fans have a nice time watching
>10% of people screech autistically about bandwagoners

Sounds good to me.

>>3013459
>RoH had significantly better writing and storylines 04-08

lmao no

>>3013130
>>3013140
tl;dr

give me the single sentence abbreviated version pls.

>>3013154

They surely don't have original programming on Saturday nights do they? Saturday night wrestling needs to fucking return.

>>3013467

>Joe-Briscoes feud
>Joe-Punk Fued
>Dragon-Homicide Fued
>Summer of Punk
>Making fans mark over goddamn Jaime Noble
>Getting Matt Hardy over
>Best in the world
>CZW invasion
>Danielson facing everyone, everywhere
>Danielson feuding with KENTA, McGuiness, and Joe
>Rise of Homicide
>Morishima getting over
>Jimmy loves lacey
>Whither-Jacobs feud
>Age of the Fall

ROH had tons of classic storylines every year for several years.

>>3013130
You want to put NJPW on the CW Network? The teen drama network? Because that's what all those shitty CW shows are, drama that's a step above soap operas for teenagers and young adults to watch pretty people and relationship drama.

>>3013493
Not a patch on Okada's arc, Omega's arc, Okada's rivalry with Omega, Tana's arc, Tana and Naito's rivalry.
NJPW defines their characters much more coherent and consistently.

>>3013507

Nigger the Danielson-KENTA, McGuiness, and Joe feuds lasted for years. It was some of the most coherent, consistent, and strong booking ever done. Which is the point, they put out great stories with awesome wrestling for years and nobody in the u.s. ever gave a damn. The first thing people saw with ROH and the first thing they see with NJPW is floppy shit. Doesn't matter how great the stories are, casuals hate floppy shit. As poisonous and dumb as Facebook comment sections are, they are chock full of casuals and normies. Go look through them sometime and the biggest complaints you'll see are people yelling about flippy shit.

Is it dumb? Oh hell yes, but it's how casuals look at wrestling.

>>3013539
Well it's a difference of opinion, I guess. I'd retain that NJPW is better, but I'm not blemishing what RoH was. I just think New Japan handles more intricate, underlying themes better across the board.
I'd disagree that casuals hate floppy shit, though. Casuals love floppy shit. RoH's problem was trying to exist in a market already dominated by someone else. NJPW has a foothold elsewhere, and WWE is a withering titan now, so it has a better chance, but it's still entering a market dominated by someone else.

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>>3013479

Dude, wouldn't that be the fucking bomb? Saturday night professional wrestling? Meltzer was talking about monthly specials live from the united states in the major markets in front of enormous crowds like Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia. I'd love to attend a comfy Saturday night show. The thing is, how well would that vibe with their already established PPVs? In order to draw a big crowd and a big audience, they need a stacked card each time full of title defenses. Nobody's going to tune in or watch the product if they know these special live events are inconsequential. Obviously, the demand is there. If the show was trending number one worldwide and number one for the USA, not only for the G1 special but the G1 Climax, the latter event of which was completely inaccessible unless you had a subscription or a stream, goes to show you that there's demand for the product here in America. We just need a good channel and we need it to vibe well with the company's best interests. I'd have a Japan vs The West style feud like Survivor Series across two events, one in Tokyo and one in New York City and have Okada face Omega, Naito face Elgin, Tanahashi face Cody, Takahashi and Kushida face Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay, The Young Bucks vs El Desperado and Taka Michinoku, etc. It adds the novelty of finally seeing foes team up and it also creates a team sport loyalty. Put more emphasis on carrying flags to the ring and little flags on the logos to their ring graphics and entrances. Stuff like that. And obviously, have the occasional PPV in which everything is defended on American soil, like I don't know... Have Dominion here.

Another thing is, historically, WrestleKingdom has trouble drawing on weekday nights. WrestleKingdom, when taking place on Saturday and Sunday draws 45,000+ paid. When on weekdays, it draws 30,000, 26,000. Why the hell are they so intent with holding an event on January 4th? Why don't they hold it on Saturday?

>>3013130
No foreign wrestling company can expand into USA now.
Wrestling is basically at his lowest point on general audience interest.

ROH didn't get over when it was at its peak 2004-2008 because WWE was still actually relatively hot (relatively!). ROH had no exposure then, no good TV, social media was just getting off the ground, and again most fans were still behind WWE. One of the things that helped TNA get exposure in the early years to the wider audience and gaining more popularity than ROH was (and everyone shits on bringing guys in from other companies) bringing guys in like Sting and Jeff Hardy.

But all of that has changed now. It's what Dave said at the NXT show, almost everyone was wearing some sort of NJPW merch like 75% BC and 25% LIJ. What the rest wore were literally nostalgia merch e.g. nWo, Macho Man etc. Very very few were wearing current WWE 'superstar' merch.

>>3013584

Right, and we're attempting to change that. So instead of being such a defeatist, why don't you look at this situation positively, the way everyone else in the thread is?

>>3013572
4/1 date is tradition. Japanese people and their traditions. You can't break that.
Dominion won't be moving to US, that's Osaka or Sumo Hall, isn't it?
And gaijin v japanese guys is a bad idea. Cause you don't want to create AGAIN this thing with gaijin being heels for japanese crowd and force the narrative of japanese wrestlers being heels for US crowd. That doesn't make any sense in 2017+. And also it doesn't make any sense in New JAPAN Pro-Wrestling promotion.

>>3013459
New Japan does have stories, the problem is the stories aren't as easy to grasp if you don't speak Japanese or if you aren't able to analyze the matches critically for callbacks and how they're telling the stories in-ring. For example, Naito attempting the Stardust Press for the first time in years was huge as it was the move he used to win his last G1.