News

NJPW News: New NJPW President Talks Future Of Company, Growth

Published

6 years ago

May 17, 2018

As we previously noted, New Japan Pro Wrestling has hired Harold Meij as its new President (which you can find here), making him the first non-Japanese President in the company’s history. Meij recently was interviewed by Nikkei.com and spoke in-depth about taking the position, as well as the future and growth of the promotion. Below are some highlights, translated c/o @reasonjp on Twitter.

Why He Took The Position, Why He Sees Potential In NJPW
“The two big factors were whether I wanted to do it and whether there was potential there. The last 5…6 years, pro wrestling has really grown and lots of concepts are becoming reality. There’s a lot of possibility I think.

In Takara Tomy, we operated under three tentpoles; goods, brand awareness and accessibility. In terms of quality of the product, NJPW far exceeds the biggest wrestling company in the world, WWE. The moves, the drama, the talent, even how attractive the talent is. There’s a lot of strong points that appeal regardless of age, gender or other demographics. So the goods part is down. All we have to do to really take off is improve brand awareness and acessibility.”

His Goals For The Company In The Coming Years
“I want to get to 10 billion Yen in sales in three years, at least. The Sumo Association pulls in 12 billion in revenue and that’s just domestic so it would be a failure if we’re not at that level. Long term, I want us to trouble WWE. If you’ll just look at our product, you’ll see that’s not out of the question.

Japan represents 10% of global economy. Language, culture, business style are all big hurdles to growing that. The Japanese sense of duty doesn’t translate to a foreign contract driven culture. It hurts Japanese companies in acquisitions and negotiations. For me, I don’t have problems of culture or language. I can do business anywhere. And I can become the model of marketing sports content worldwide.”

EA’s Take: Dude is dropping bombs like he’s Rafi from The League and you have to love his enthusiasm if you’re a New Japan fan. Unless for some reason you’re against NJPW trying to grow and if that’s the case, you’re “S.O.L” as they say. I find this a bit ironic after I brought up how expanding to Japan could become a problem for WWE earlier in the day (you can find that here) and while I think Meij’s goals are pretty lofty given the timeframe he’s put on it, they’re not unattainable should they keep taking the steps that they already have been. I think some of his WWE comments are a little outlandish, but it gets people talking, that’s for sure. At the same time, he makes a lot of great, fact-driven points as well (such as the language and culture barriers preventing growth in the past) and also has a history of bringing success to other Japanese companies. Does he necessarily understand “the business”? Who’s to say, but he understands BUSINESS.

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Related Topics:New Japan Pro Wrestling News

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AEW Coverage

Mitchell’s AEW Continental Classic Update! (11/27/23)

What a start to the tournament!

Published

5 months ago

November 27, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Did your picks win points?

The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!

Here are your Gold League standings!

Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
Rush: 0-1, 0 points
Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points

Here are your Blue League standings!

Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete

My Thoughts:

Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.

Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.

In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

AEW Coverage

AEW announces Continental Classic entrants

The C2 is set!

Published

5 months ago

November 22, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”

Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:

Blue League

Bryan Danielson
Andrade El Idolo
Brody King
Claudio Castagnoli
Daniel Garcia
Eddie Kingston

Gold League

Jon Moxley
Swerve Strickland
Rush
Mark Briscoe
Jay Lethal
Jay White

Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:

Every match has a 20 minute time limit
The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action

Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!