NJPW World Has Arrived

[Archibald]

Well number of English shows is increasing with each year so they are moving towards that?

[Jiji]

In typical NJPW fashion, slowly and surely. I understand the rationale behind the conservative approach to expansion but it does feel like they're leaving a lot of money on the table and underestimating the size of the hardcore wrestling fanbase in the west. 

[Raziel]

To be fair, the last 2 times they tried a Western expansion, first they fucked their partner promotion with Dragon Soldier B and the second time the bankrupted their partner.  And they also saw another Japanese promotion trying and not quite succeding in Western Expansion.  Now, they never came close to going in as far as they have this time and they're doing most of the work themselves, but I can see taking their time with the push in instead of going all in like we'd like them to.  

 

They have time and leeway right now, since while they're still a distant #2, they are the #2 promotion in the world, with no one close behind.

[Beech27]

Matches involving New Japan guys from the ROH and Rev Pro NOLA shows have been uploaded to World. I haven't seen the Rev Pro matches yet, but of the ROH set, I'd say Ibushi/Page is the best--though you know what kind of match it is,and whether that will appeal to you--followed by Kenny and Cody, who had a very long and interesting episode of BTE in-ring, and also a pretty good match. (That works for me, but again, ymmv.) The tag was way less than the sum of its parts.

[Pete]

4 hours ago, Beech27 said:

Matches involving New Japan guys from the ROH and Rev Pro NOLA shows have been uploaded to World. I haven't seen the Rev Pro matches yet, but of the ROH set, I'd say Ibushi/Page is the best--though you know what kind of match it is,and whether that will appeal to you--followed by Kenny and Cody, who had a very long and interesting episode of BTE in-ring, and also a pretty good match. (That works for me, but again, ymmv.) The tag was way less than the sum of its parts.

Are those geo-locked?

[Beech27]

46 minutes ago, Pete said:

Are those geo-locked?

They don't appear to be, which does seem a bit odd.

[OSJ]

I think that the NJPW expansion is being handled superbly. As a fan, I'd love to see them go all-in with a monthly PPV  in the UK or USA, but looking at it from a business standpoint and considering the two previous failures, I can understand moving slowly. Of course, they have a totally different scenario now and I'm not sure they realize what they've got. The Bullet Club  has been  adopted by the mainstream wrestling fans, they have English-speaking stars who are familiar to the US and UK audiences. They've never had a Cody, Kenny Omega, or Young Bucks for the American audience before, and they've never had a Zack Sabre jr. or Will Ospreay previously to draw the UK customers. They've still got the hardcores like me tuning in for Tanahashi, Naito, Okada, Liger and Suzuki, but the most important demographic that they're pulling in are the golden goose of the 25-45 year-old bracket. These are the folks wearing Bullet Club t-shirts at WWE events and buying the streaming service.

This demographic is exactly the customer-base that you want, they have jobs (usually good ones), and don't mind spending money on their hobbies. Right now, it's cool to be a fan of NJPW, but NJPW has to be cautious about one thing, this is also the most fickle bunch of people that you can imagine. If you suddenly start to bore them or something else bright and shiny comes along, they leave in droves and don't come back. These are the same people that had Nitro parties back in the day, but once WCW was no longer a thing they didn't switch to WWE or come back in few years to watch TNA, they just left and having come to wrestling fandom late in life, there was no long-term underlying emotional investment to  cause them to come back and check things out. 

Now I'm not trying to be elitist here at all, but there's a significant difference between me and many of us here on this board and the folks that started watching ROH or NJPW in the last few years. It's likely that all of us watched as kids, equally likely is that we've walked away a time or two as interest diminished due to the stupid shit being served up. The thing is, we always came back to see if anything had changed and often times we came back to stay. These newer fans don't have the long -term investment in the product, when they leave (for whatever reason) they don't come back to see how things have changed, for them it's like watching a TV show that sucked so bad in season five that they stopped watching. They aren't going to tune i n on season seven to see if it still sucks, they've already decided to move on. NJPW has to be cautious about how they build their fanbase, in short, they have to turn these casual fans tuning in now into hardcores that will stick around no matter what. And with VKM just a few checks away from grabbing their stars, it's a worrisome position to be in. 

[Jenalysis]

I'm kinda concerned about the Bullet Club stuff ending- I could see that driving things down- I just don't see the Lovers being as hot in the US as they are in Japan.

 

[Archibald]

I think argument could be made that Bullet Club with Cody + Golden Lovers being a permanent thing combined would be hotter than Bullet Club with Omega.

[Beech27]

Is this the first we’ve seen of NJPW World subscription stats? 100,000ish overall, with 40% outside of Japan. 

[Jiji]

Pretty sure Big Dave mentioned the 100k number around the time of the Tokyo Dome, didn't he? Don't recall if he mentioned how many were foreign though... I want to say yes.

That ending comment from Meij makes it sound like he's going to be pretty hands on in terms of big picture direction of the company. 

[Beech27]

Yeah, looks like he reported the totals and an uptick, corresponding with Wrestle Kingdom. I guess the upside would be, if these numbers are current, that they retained basically everyone who might have just wanted that show initially.

It'll be interesting to see if we can discern any change in booking, considering Gedo's famously methodical maneuvering. Although, at first blush, people tend to be pushed more or less as the crowd would dictate anyway--with the possible exception of Naito being something other than the very top guy, right now. I'd also suggest his interviews have been good news for Omega--not that he needs it, really--given the frequent comparisons of wrestlers to video game and/or anime characters, and the emphasis on English.

[Jiji]

If they really pushed people according to reactions, Taichi would be a champion and in the G1, dammit! No Taichi and no Justin Luger at the San Fran show btw. Why am I going again? I really wanted to try to get a taichi for G1 chant going. 

[Craig H]

Since this thread was bumped, I figured I'd ask if there's any new way of watching NJPW World through a Roku. I searched and couldn't find anything, but I figured I'd ask you folks here.

Does Chromecast work?

[Raziel]

Chromecast works just fine.  For Roku, it's not consistant.  You have to use your laptop and turn on screen casting on the Roku (I think it's still "expermental"), then project your screen to the Roku.  It's worked like, 50% of the time, but I always had issues with having to keep my laptop open, so I just ended up plugging my laptop into my TV with the HDMI most of the time if I'm watching on TV.

[Pete]

Anyone else find it odd that NJPW has an Amazon Fire app but nothing for the Roku?

[Raziel]

Not really.  Fire runs on Android archetecture.  I'm growing increasingly frustrated at my Roku's due to apps beginning to run like shit, delays, constant need for reboots, etc etc etc.

[Beech27]

I wonder: if this is why Robinson/Inoki was on his mind; how modern they'll get before classic isn't classic anymore (you might want to catch a large portion of your new audience up on Tanahashi's biggest matches, for instance); whether they'll consciously adopt a historical perspective, or announce as if live.

[Archibald]

If Tanahashi is to main event next WK then highlighting some of his pre-2012 matches would make sense.

[Infinit]

The CMLL shows aren't geo blocked anymore (at least for me in Canada)! Is this new??

[ka-to]

Yes. Only blocked for Mexico.

 

[Ramsey]

Sometimes when I'm in the gym, I watch NJPW World on my phone using the Firefox app for Android. I couldn't log in today at all but it works fine on my computers and Xbox One. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, ya sexy bastards... 

[Jenalysis]

On 4/16/2018 at 1:48 PM, OSJ said:

 

This demographic is exactly the customer-base that you want, they have jobs (usually good ones), and don't mind spending money on their hobbies. Right now, it's cool to be a fan of NJPW, but NJPW has to be cautious about one thing, this is also the most fickle bunch of people that you can imagine. If you suddenly start to bore them or something else bright and shiny comes along, they leave in droves and don't come back. These are the same people that had Nitro parties back in the day, but once WCW was no longer a thing they didn't switch to WWE or come back in few years to watch TNA, they just left and having come to wrestling fandom late in life, there was no long-term underlying emotional investment to  cause them to come back and check things out. 

 

 

I'm wondering , at least among the 35+ set, if the folks watching now were the folks who had those parties back in the day, who turned out/turned away from modern WWE at some point, and NJPW in some days recaptures what they liked about WCW when it was hot in the 90s.

The attachment was always there, but it wasn't to WWE.

[Raziel]

Part of the draw of WCW at it's most popular was the nWo.  Bullet Club is the biggest tribute act to the nWo in existance, so there might be something to those old WCW fans coming back to NJPW because it's familar, but I don't think that's all there is.  Part of the draw could also be that NJPW focuses more on in-ring and builds around that while WWE is still on the story and in-ring means less.  Athletes vs. Entertainers and all that.

[Casey]

I've watched three deathmatches (Onita versus Chono/Choshu, Muta versus Nita) and Singh versus Candido... I need more fucking weird/oddball matches that are on here. Steiners & Muto versus Chono & The Outsiders sucked, but it was in the wheelhouse of what I'm looking for right now. Nothing that's going to get a bazillion stars, but just some fun matches that are weird when you think about it.

Because when I think of "weird" and New Japan (or maybe just oozing swagger), Onita smoking a cigarette on his way to a deathmatch with Masahiro Chono is definitely it.