Backstage Report On Bushiroad Selling NJPW

It’s been a week of change in pro wrestling so far, with former WWE stars Nikki Cross and Big Damo purchasing Progress Wrestling and DEFY Wrestling on Tuesday, followed by Bushiroad selling New Japan Pro Wrestling to TV Asahi and Cyberagent on Wednesday. And the latter has many wondering if it could be the beginning of a working relationship between NJPW and WWE, in part due to Cyberagents ownership of Pro Wrestling NOAH, a current associate of WWE.

At least for the moment, however, that doesn’t seem to be a scenario in the cards. Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline reports that, after speaking with a source described as “a major New Japan player in its heyday,” the sale of NJPW had nothing to do with WWE, AEW, or any other promotion. Rather, it’s believed that the decision was ultimately “driven by their [Bushiroad’s] own portfolio priorities.”

As for why Bushiroad sold to TV Asahi and Cyberagent, the source believes it may have been motivated by selling NJPW to a “natural domestic partner,” and that a sale like this followed “very normal Japanese corporate logic.” It was noted that TV Asahi is a long-time partner of NJPW’s and that Cyberagent and TV Asahi are respectively the majority and minority owners of Abema, one of the biggest Japanese streaming platforms. As such, a sale to both would allow NJPW to remain associated with Asahi, and open up other broadcasting opportunities on Abema.

Though Bushiroad has decided to sell NJPW, it does not mean that the company is out of the wrestling business. As of now, Bushiroad remains the owner of joshi promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom, which the company purchased in 2019 before making a subsidiary promotion for NJPW in the early summer of 2024.

Obviously with news as big and out of nowhere as this, it’s natural that wrestling fans are immediately going to speculate on what this means for NJPW and particularly its partnerships, given that NOAH is a Cyberagent promotion and NOAH and WWE work together. In reality, there’s likely nothing to that. While Cyberagent does own NOAH, it also owns Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and DDT, two other Japanese promotions that have worked with AEW for years. That alone should tell you that Cyberagent is pretty hands off when it comes to who their promotions work for, and that likely isn’t going to change now. In fact, that’s going to be the theme across the board; anyone expecting NJPW to become a different company overnight is, to be blunt, kidding themselves.

Now of course, there will be changes. The thing is that you should expect those changes to be gradual instead of immediate, and more to do on the business end than when it comes to promotional partners. This is where the TV/streaming factor comes in. Lost in this news is that Abema is soon to be minus one wrestling promotion, as WWE is moving from the service over to Netflix in Japan later this year. That now seems to be a slot that is likely filled by NJPW. Is that a big reason this sale happened? Probably not. But it feels too coincidental to be unrelated, and it’s the type of stuff you should expect to change immediately when it comes to New Japan Pro Wrestling. There may be a day where more significant changes come. But that day is far away; for now, expect the changes to be slow, and on a lower scale.