NJPW Obtaining Visas For Foreign Talent

New Japan working on visas for talent for the first time since 2020.

By Andrew Pollard / April 10, 2022

NJPW

While travel restrictions across the globe have started to loosen up in recent months, that has not quite been the case for Japan. As a result, New Japan Pro Wrestling has faced major issues when it comes to talent and running shows.

Throughout this time, NJPW has been forced to run shows in front of reduced, muted, masked crowds, whilst the promotion has also launched its NJPW Strong brand as a place for international talent to perform. Now though, New Japan is set to take a major step towards returning to some sense of normalcy.

Via Fightful Select, NJPW is once again now working on obtaining visas for foreign talent to head to Japan. This is the first time New Japan has done this since early 2020.

The current plan is for several names to be brought in by NJPW over the next few months, with some of those stars to be featured in the upcoming Best of the Super Juniors tournament which is due to start on 15 May.

Of course, it remains to be seen which talent New Japan will be bringing in, but we'll bring you updates on that as and when details emerge.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

Posted On: 10th Apr 2022

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