10 Things You Learn Converting From WWE To New Japan Pro Wrestling
9. Tagged Classics
Jarring at first but understandably employed to ensure the physical rehabilitation of performers in between mammoth displays on grander stages, multi-person matches are both a crutch and a safety-net for New Japan Pro Wrestling.
The company is helpfully divided up by groups, stables and loose allegiances, affording easy booking shortcuts that prop up undercards on pay-per-view and television. Far from the low-rent time-fillers dished out by WWE on lazily scripted go-home shows, the contests are often cannily used to deliver shock pinfalls that play into future feuds, or pile internal strife on particular units.
An overhanging bonus of the faction action in recent years has been the stupendous revenue accrued from licensed merchandise. As spiritual successors to the New World Order and D-Generation-X, Bullet Club became arguably the most recognisable brand in the entire industry thanks to the canny marketing and gamesmanship of their gimmick, whilst the Tetsuya Naito-led Los Ingobernables de Japon has actually outsold the 'Too Sweet' crew in t-shirts on their home turf.