WWE has undoubtedly established itself as the world’s leading wrestling promotion, but its grip on the Japanese audience is relatively looser. To overcome this, the promotion is now implying tactics aimed at capturing the attention of the land of the rising sun. Several rumors have since come in from different directions regarding the road WWE will take to come through with this idea.
In a recent update from WON, reports regarding what Triple H and Nick Khan are planning regarding WWE’s expansion in Japan have come to the fore.
WWE’s plan to get over with the Japanese audience
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The interaction between Japanese wrestling promotions and WWE is nothing new. Over the course of history, we have seen several wrestlers jump ship from WWE to other Japanese promotions but seeing a partnership between the competitors isn’t that common. However, the tides seem to be changing.
Recently, Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter provided readers with a potential partnership they should look out for. According to WON, both the CEO and CCO of WWE are looking for Japanese allies to partner with. This week seemed to be step one in that direction.
“Paul Levesque and perhaps Nick Khan are looking at Japanese allies going forward with the step one with All Japan this week and are looking for a women’s group ally as well,” Meltzer said. NJPW is also internally being talked about as a potential ally, which seems likely due to a recent change in the promotion’s leadership.
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If WWE can pull this off successfully, it could be mutually beneficial for all promotions involved in the partnership. As WON suggests, the first step toward WWE’s ally partnership with AJPW is near. The Japanese promotion had started promoting it long before through a hilarious tweet.
WWE finally infiltrated AJPW
A few weeks ago, AJPW posted a hilarious video featuring the president of the promotion. In the video, we can see President Tsuyoki Fukuda on a pretend call with WWE as he is seen asking for an NXT star to come onto his show. Several hints were dropped previously in the Japanese promotion regarding an “assassin” infiltration. And after the video, it was made clear that it would be an NXT star.
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【WWEから全日本プロレス代表の福田社長へ一本の電話が!!】
1.3へ向けて福田社長が三冠チャンピオンへ仕向けようとしている刺客とはまさかの
NXT選手!?
本当か福田社長?
大丈夫なのか福田社長!!悶絶??福田社長室?? 第1話 「Hello WWE!?」
時代の先を行く全日本を見逃すな!#ajpw pic.twitter.com/MMrq7lLOx6
— 全日本プロレス/alljapan (@alljapan_pw) December 23, 2023
The mystery star was revealed to be Charlie Dempsey, who first appeared on 31st December in the Japanese promotion. He won two tag team matches consequently on two different occasions, but lost in a Triple Crown title bout where he challenged the reigning champion Katsuhiko Nakajima for his belt.
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It looks like WWE will go on with this idea for a while and potentially add to it. What do you think about WWE expanding and potentially collaborating with Japanese promotions?
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