New Japan Pro Wrestling and BUSHIROAD’s Takaaki Kidani was very active on his Twitter account earlier this week discussing New Japan Pro Wrestling’s strategy going forward in wake of the news that WWE announced that they will be debuting a WWE UK Championship and tournament to crown that first-ever Champion in order to help them establish more of a footing in England.
Kidani stated that the WWE are trying to build new global territories as another way to generate revenue and to tour internationally at a lower cost stating, “WWE’s strategy is to raise roughly 2 Billion Yen from the Network to create a network of global territories and tie up talent. It’s very possible that WWE purchase a promotion in Japan. WWE are shoring up their network because of cable cutters and prevalence of streaming, meaning declining TV ratings. The cable TV structure as is, will collapse in the US within 3-5 years.”
Kidani also notes that WWE are attempting to cut costs and create new stars in the process stating, “There are many reasons for WWE to create local territories. It cuts costs just to send talent on international tours and not the whole infrastructure. WWE are only functionally profitable in the US, Canada and UK. They have TV elsewhere, but that’s all. By creating territories, they’re able to actually create products with awareness of cultural differences and characteristics of markets. WWE have had difficulty in creating new stars. By going to local territories and broadcasting them, they can create network stars. WWE are taking big gambles, in IT for one.”
Kidani then teased fans regarding what could happen in 2017 with New Japan Pro Wrestling stating, “This isn’t the platform to discuss NJPW strategy fully, but we will announce something soon. We are entering a phase where you are either with WWE or against them. WWE have a lot of weaknesses and time is not on their side.”