WWE trying to expand in Japan: Smart or hopeless?

[It's...Baylariat!]

With the recent signing of KENTA by the WWE, the main website's hinted at this being a sign of WWE wanting to make an unprecedented expansion into Japan. For those that don't know Japanese wrestling, it's seen as more of a sport in Japan than in the United States.

Matter of fact, Japan covers wrestling like they cover baseball and sumo over there. So it's a huge deal, and from what I gathered, the Japanese see the WWE as sort of a Ringling Bros kind of entertainment as opposed to pro wrestling. I might be wrong, but I sincerely feel that way.

What are you thoughts? Should WWE try an expansion into Japan? Will it work? Will Japan care enough to make WWE's endeavor over there worthwhile?

 

[Soulblazed]

WWE would be very smart to expand to Japan! One of the points you touched on about the Japanese still taking pro wrestling very seriously is one of the main reasons WWE should focus on a long-term expansion into Japan. You could pretty much look through any of the major newspapers in Japan and see the results of the latest pro wrestling card alongside the baseball results, soccer results, etc

Here's my thing-As long as KENTA is handled correctly, not given a bullshit foreigner gimmick, etc, Then I see this happening-Similar to how TNA is doing talent exchange with Wrestle-1, WWE could do talent exchange, possibly with New Japan(just throwing it out there). If that happens, maybe WWE would actually hold a decent amount of televised Raws, Smackdowns and even a few PPVs from Japan! That in my opinion is long overdue.. I'd love to find out that Summerslam will be held in the Tokyo Dome instead of in LA, for instance..

Say WWE does a talent exchange, I'd love to see some Japanese women's wrestlers goto the Diva's Division and actually put on better matches than the men will have. I don't like how WWE only goes after model-type girls for their Divas Division. I know it's about marketability, looks, etc but they also need more girls (besides Nattie, AJ, Paige and Sara Del Rey who's not even wrestling) to be able to put on 5 star women's matches.

 

[capnwillie]

Of course it's a great idea. Even if Japanese fans don't consider WWE a "real" pro wrestling company, WWE stars and tons of other U.S./Gaijin workers have had great success in Japan. Considering that WWE is looking to expand the network to Japan and KENTA will be working in NXT, they can create a lot of interest through that venue as NXT currently showcases some great in-ring talent. KENTA vs. Neville will be a big part of that, as Neville has worked in Super Juniors tournaments. Add Prince Devitt to that mix and it just sweetens the deal. It would be wrong of me not to add names like Sami Zayn and Kevin Steen, who both have had a presence in Japan and/or worked with Japanese stars previously.

If WWE really wants to solidify their presence, it would be a good idea to cut some deals with NJPW. ROH and TNA would probably suffer if that were to happen, but It would make sense for the two (arguably) most popular/successful promotions in the world to work together and trade talent.

 

[RickRaspberry]

I think WWE expanding to Japan is a great idea for them, business wise. Wrestling is a big deal in Japan. Japanese wrestlers are NOT a big deal in America however. I love Japanese pro wrestling, but I am a die hard wrestling fan. All forms, I like it. But a lot of the WWE fanbase isn't open to Indy wrestling, let alone Japanese wrestling. It's like movies, Japanese subtitled movies don't do well in the American box office. They barely even get released, only major, major films.

Certain wrestlers though if done right could get over. Will there ever be a full Japanese Heavyweight Champion? I honestly don't think so. Could they get a few great wrestlers to match up with a lot of the great wrestlers they already have and maybe pull a few Intercontinental title runs out of them? Sure. Maybe use this to REALLY push the IC title. You have Kofi, Cesaro, Sheamus, Barrett, KENTA, Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, and so on and so forth...You could really bring the Intercontinental title up and make it actually live up to it's name.

Just my thoughts.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

The Japanese wrestling "purists" take it very seriously, but whenever WWE comes to Tokyo or Osaka they tend to sell-out venues and have certainly never had a bad live gate.

It will totally depend on what "expansion" looks like. It's not likely they'll tour Japan more than once - maybe twice - per year. We may get a tapped edition of Raw and Smackdown in the future. But they're not going to invest that kind of capital before KENTA even debuts in NXT. Maybe long-term it'll mean WWE tries for a better TV deal in Japan, and possibly a TV taping, maybe two live tours a year instead of one. We're not going to see a PPV or 5-6 live tours, or anything insane.

So really what it boils down to is WWE trying to gain a few fans in Japan, and sell a few international WWE Network subscriptions.

 

[Navi]

I heard that the recent tour of Japan, last week did very well, so it would seem that the WWE are already quite popular over there

I had no idea that Japan takes wrestling so seriously though. I remember a company there that had a creepy kid from the Grudge, a ladder and a dog, among other things as title holders. Actually if I'm not mistaken, a stuffed toy was a two time champion, and the title belt itself was champion once.

Also seem to remember seeing a Silent Match on youtube were they wrestled in slow motion, and I think they had an invisible wrestler at one point in time. So hoping that this is just a one of company and we're not going to see this on RAW or Smackdown every week.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

The Japanese wrestling "purists" take it very seriously, but whenever WWE comes to Tokyo or Osaka they tend to sell-out venues and have certainly never had a bad live gate.

I read a few months back on Reddit in a Q&A of sorts with an American who likes wrestling that lives in Japan, that like Lariat said, they like WWE but they don't view it like they do NJPW, they view it as a circus and less as a real sport which they do puro. No doubt WWE might have a market there, but whenever the Bullet Club use underhanded tactics apparently Japanese media shits all over it for trying to be, "what the Americans think is "wrestling"", so its longevity is questionable.

Signing someone like KENTA is great, but KENTA has been in Japan for forever now and the promotion he was the face of wasn't exactly pushing NJPW for the past five years or so! They were at one point in the last decade considered better, but were never able to fill arenas consistently like NJPW are. Hell NOAH used to go nuts whenever NJPW were using one of their rostered guys, Japanese or foreign on a show and now they pretty much have a working relationship. As do pretty much all Japanese wrestling promotions minus Wrestle-1.

I'm sure WWE will gain some interest in Japan and KENTA will help that, but without regular shows I don't see them making a big impact. Their current TV deal over there is something like 2AM in the morning for RAW on a week delay. They only just got NXT signed to a TV deal solely because of KENTA, and it isn't the regular wrestling channel Ashai TV, it's a network subscription channel. Prince Devitt will help too in any attempt at a Japanese expansion as he was pretty big in Japan, as would a guy like Bryan who was pretty popular there and a well known gaijin.

 

[RedRegan1005]

I see nothing wrong with WWE wanting to expand into all the major world markets for wrestling. They already have the USA locked down, and now they want to move on to countries that also have strong wrestling fanbases. It makes sense to me. Manifest Destiny Eh?! Okay well maybe that term is a bit much but, you get the point.

IMO, the big thing for WWE with Japan is to be reasonable about how strong they get there. There are long time, and big time Japanese wrestling organizations. If WWE thinks they are gonna take over and be Japans number one, they'll be upset with the results. WWE has to go in with a small goal of how much business they wanna get in Japan and then go from their. If it ever happens, it'll take a long time for WWE to become the center of Japanese wrestling fans interest.

 

[J.D Lethal]

Very smart since they are very late to game. WWE wants to be a in every house in the world and generate lots bandwidth on that WWE network. Honestly if this was years ago when they had the chance to get Shinsuke Nakamura on loan WWE/NJPW would a pairring made by the wrestling gods. Now the WWE is getting there talent from the 3rd to 5th best promotion in Japan(maybe they'll make Pro Wrestling Noah in NXT:JAPAN). I will say this though for a company that is losing stock making these rash moves if they don't plan out it hurt WWE.

 

[Bernkastel]

I think it would work, given the popularity of theater and daidai kagura performances in the country. Of course the WWE product wouldn't be marketed the same way that the NJPW product [and such] would be. It would be the same as the WWE product and the UFC product domestically. WWE has toured Japan before, and has been met with success.

If WWE wanted the most bang for their buck in the future I suppose embracing a more legitimate style within their product will help their image tremendously. Both domestically and foreign.

 

[ajdb]

I think WWE expanding to Japan is smart. I tend to think while the people of Japan view WWE as "carnival" type of wrestling. The companies are paying attention. I noticed during the Dominion 6.21 PPV-post show press conference that Karl Anderson named-checked about 5 WWE wrestlers when claiming Fale would take on anybody for the IWGP Intercontinental belt. He named John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Cesaro, Kofi Kingston, and someone else I couldn't hear. So obviously New Japan at least is aware that WWE is looking to pounce on the Japanese market.

The main problem I see is that Japan has a rather crowded market. Japan has 5 major wrestling companies:
New Japan
All Japan
NOAH
Dragon Gate
Wrestle-1
I think it may take a decade or so to be able to penetrate such a crowded market.

Lots of Puro fans have pointed out how wrestling is covered like a sport, which is true. I think a lot of those guys would agree that one of the best times to see that is coming up. If you check out Japanese sports news during the New Japan's G1 tournament, it'll probably be the top story most days. It's a really big deal.

 

[whoopin' ass]

Problem with wwe and Japan is wwe is not giving them the real wwe. Read the reports, the guys wrestled a Japanese style over there instead of the usual wwe style. It's a cheat. So what if the bring in Japanese wrestlers, they will need to adapt to the wwe style if they want to be successful. How is that going to gain them a Japanese audience? Plus look at their history with Mexican wrestlers - great way to appeal to a potential market. How will this be any different?

 

[boozinjedi]

While it might make good sense from a business standpoint to try to expand into that market,
Can the PG-era WWE succeed in japan that is famous for their hardcore style "japanese death" matches??

 

[Jack-Hammer]

While it might make good sense from a business standpoint to try to expand into that market,
Can the PG-era WWE succeed in japan that is famous for their hardcore style "japanese death" matches??

I don't see why not. The VAST majority of the biggest stars in Japan haven't been involved in "death matches", nor are they very often employed by the biggest companies like New Japan or All Japan. Wrestlers like Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba frequently panned "death matches" and companies that relied on hardcore wrestling in general. If I'm not mistaken, Baba is credited for coining the term "garbage wrestling" when describing hardcore wrestling.

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling began operations in 1989 was essentially the ECW of Japan, though they went hardcore long before ECW did, and used hardcore matches as it's foundation, The International Wrestling Association of Japan started up in 1994 and that's the promotion where Mick Foley won the King of the Death Match tournament in 1995. Both companies went tits up with FMW folding in February 2002 and the IWA folding in 1996. Tatsukuni Asano revived the company in 2011, but did away with the hardcore/death match format. The last real bastion of the death match and hardcore wrestling in general is Combat Zone Wrestling, but the format hasn't made them a force in pro wrestling.

As for WWE expanding into Japan, I see no real reason why it can't work if Vince genuinely wants it to happen. I'm not saying that it'd work, but I'm pretty certain that it won't work if he decided to do it half assed. Some of what that would entail include the fact that he has to accept that Japanese audiences might not just embrace all of his own ideas and concepts the way he may hope they would, nor all of the guys he'd prefer. For instance, while Vince may personally prefer a top level star to have a certain height & weight minimum, he'd have to accept the fact that probably a good 75% of the biggest stars in Japan from the last 30 years have been right at, slightly over or well under the 200 pound mark. At some point down the line, perhaps when/if the WWE Network is available in Japan, MAYBE they could go the route of creating an alternative WWE brand featuring Japanese wrestlers, if they chose to sign a good number of them, working the style Japanese fans prefer, call it WWE Ronin or something along those lines, create championships, and broadcast weekly shows on the WWE Network.