New Japan Pro Wrestling is very clearly the #2 pro wrestling company in the world right now, which is pretty crazy considering that their reach outside of Japan is miniscule in comparison to WWE’s global reach. They are looking to change all of that — kind of — with their new subscription service called New Japan World.
I say kind of because it is still entirely in Japanese and we aren’t sure that they expect anyone outside of Japan to sign up for it or use it just yet, although they might have plans for expansion in the future. The fact that they are going to be on American PPV with their Wrestle Kingdom 9 event in January and that they inked a new deal with AXS TV to air “best of” shows in the United States that they are aware that there are American fans who love their product and want more of it.
They announced New Japan World last night as a premium subscription service that will sell for an outstanding 999 yen a month. Yes, just like WWE’s $9.99. Of course, the conversion rate for yen means that it comes out to about $8.40 or so right now, which is a steal considering they plan on airing live events on the service as well as give fans access to their archives.
Their schedule for December alone includes four live events starting this weekend and seven in January, including their big Wrestle Kingdom event. This is all, of course, entirely in Japanese, though. So if you aren’t comfortable with using something like Chrome’s automatic translation tool or are scared off by Japanese commentary this might be a bummer.
It’s definitely worth checking out, though.
What is interesting to note here is that the two biggest wrestling companies in the world are making the transition to streaming services
