7 Reasons NJPW Should Be Worried About 2017

by John Bills

1. WWE's Business Tentacles

Shinsuke Nakamura Vince McMahon
WWE.com

Professional wrestling outside of WWE has had a great couple of years, with the independent scene increasing its profile as NJPW made major incursions into international markets. WWE did little in response outside of talent poaching, a damaging enough tactic but one that could also be seen as a positive for talent recycling.

This is about to change. WWE recently announced a tournament to crown a United Kingdom Champion for January 2017, with a number of top UK talents signed up to take part. Sure, WWE makes all the right noises regarding being open to other promotions, but as the old adage goes there aren’t any morals in business.

And that is what WWE is, it is a business. An international business at that, an international business that wants to be number one in every market it penetrates. WWE’s Japanese stance has improved over the last couple of years, and it seems as though Nakamura and Asuka are sticking around in NXT as the faces of the brand.

If WWE focuses in on the Japanese markets, what will this mean for NJPW? New Japan is in a unique position, a Japanese pro wrestling company that has become a true international phenomenon, and whilst they aren’t going to create true competition for WWE they are still providing an alternative. WWE can’t be too thrilled about such things, and having an angered Vince McMahon on your case can never be good.

2017 could be yet another incredible year for NJPW, but if the company isn’t careful it could well be disastrous.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.