All Japan has a new owner

[Warner2BruceTD]

So it looks like some eccentric millionaire fanboy purchased All Japan for a little over $2M.

-The company is over $10M in debt, and they plan to declare bankruptcy, terminate all the current contracts/deals, and start over.

-The new owner says he is going back to the isolationist days of Giant Baba, so no more DDT/Big Japan/New Japan dudes will be brought in, and nobody under contract will wrestle elsewhere.

-He says he wants Shuji Kondo to move to heavyweight, because he doesn't want him in "meaningless matches". That sounds like bad news for the juniors, which if this guy is a mark for the All Japan glory days, makes sense, because Baba never pushed juniors and treated them all like jobbers, even the champs.

-Koji Kanemoto is apparently now a full time All Japan wrestler, which he sorta was anyway, even though he was technically still considered New Japan.

-They are shopping around for a new TV deal. Networks are interested.

-Crazy owner guy claims All Japan will take over the Tokyo Dome within three years. Presumably he means that they will overtake New Japan as #1. I guess he wants to run January 4th in the Dome when that happens, or something.

-Crazy owner guy says he now has full creative control and wants certain wrestlers to change their style, or else. Specified KENSO (Kenzo Suzuki of WWE fame, who still sucks, but gets over with crowds because he sucks so bad, but not on purpose in an ironic way, just because he sucks and they are sort of mocking him but not really...if that makes sense). Flat out said he will fire KENSO if he doesn't change his style, whatever that means.

-Says he wants to buy an "MMA company" (didn't say which one), and also buyout New Japan. Ok.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Wacky translated press conference notes

Shiraishi: "AJPW will exceed NJPW's sales within one year. I will support AJPW financially. I will make AJPW to be leading company of pro-wrestling. I want to buyout MMA company. I want to buyout event NJPW as well."

Speed Partners(SP) buyout AJPW. The president Shiraishi said the reason of the buyout. He said AJPW will exceed NJPW's sales within one year, hold its show in Tokyo Dome, new TV show. SP buyout AJPW about 200 millions yen. ($2,170,840.00)

SP created new company called "All Japan Systems". AJS will hold all AJPW shows. Pro-wrestling book "Takarajima" reported that it is planned bankruptcy of AJPW. It also said that AJPW's deficit is over 1 billions yen. ($10,854,200.00) Shiraishi denied this report. SP is god for AJPW? or ........,

[Warner2BruceTD]

This Shiraishi guy seems like he's completely nuts, but all kidding aside this could be a good thing. Some of the most successful wrestling people through history are/were completely crazy (Vince, Inoki, Heyman, Antonio Pena, etc), and if he is rich, driven, and nuts he will probably be willing to do whatever it takes to make this work. Or, he'll fall flat on his face. It'll be one extreme or the other.

[Bigpapa42]

Have no idea what to think about this. I was kinda hoping the whole Burning thing would have a chance to play out, especially as attendances have apparently been up. But this should be interesting...

[EmpireWF]

A version of 04 Cary Silkin with the volume turned way up?

I wonder if hell go after some of the NOAH guys who cant be making too much these days.

[Warner2BruceTD]

A version of 04 Cary Silkin with the volume turned way up?

I wonder if hell go after some of the NOAH guys who cant be making too much these days.

They already got half the roster. Anybody still with NOAH is very happy there.

What I think will change, is with some money to spend, the overall look of the shows will improve. On the last tour, they didnt even book half of the ex-NOAH guys due to budget. Maybe they bring in some better gaijins, too.

Anyway, they've been searching for a buyer for several years, glad they found one. Hope it works out.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Its not really apples/apples, but this dude saying All Japan is going to beat New Japan in two years and then buy them out would be like Sinclair buying ROH and then claiming they will overtake WWE and buy them out.

Good luck crazy guy.

[FedEx227]

Low-Ki is looking for a job if they are looking for relative big name gaijins. He's basically exhausted every US indie.

[FedEx227]

Its not really apples/apples, but this dude saying All Japan is going to beat New Japan in two years and then buy them out would be like Sinclair buying ROH and then claiming they will overtake WWE and buy them out.

Good luck crazy guy.

Yeah, I thought that was interesting. That's like unfathomably impossible, right?

[EmpireWF]

Have they even had any steady TV distribution?

[SuperKevin]

Crazy is good for business in professional wrestling because it typically means there are no boundaries

[Warner2BruceTD]

Yeah, I thought that was interesting. That's like unfathomably impossible, right?

It's not as improbable as the ROH/WWE comparison, but ROH is pretty much the level All Japan is at right now. Major league talent on top, but a thin roster and running small/mid size buildings.

New Japan has sold twice in five years or so, so it's not like the WWE which the McMahons will never lose control of, plus it's not nearly as big as WWE, but for All Japan to pass them that fast AND be able to buy them out is nothing more than grandstanding and highly unlikely.

Have they even had any steady TV distribution?

Like everybody else,m just really bad late night TV at like 4:40am on Wednesdays or whatever. But this crazy dude has connections and supposedly networks are interested. But if New Japan struggles to get a good timeslot, I find it hard to believe networks will jump to give what is basically a high level indie a better one.

Dragon Gate has the best TV because Gaora loves them and gives them whatever time slots they want for live shows & shit. Problem is, Gaora isn't very powerful. But at least it's not 4:40am - 5:10am and the like.

Crazy is good for business in professional wrestling because it typically means there are no boundaries

Agreed. Can go either way, though.

[SuperKevin]

Dspite Vince McMahon trying to tell you otherwise, professional wrestling is pretty much like half a step above the circus. It should be about big crazy personalities and things you never thought youd see in your lifetime.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Dspite Vince McMahon trying to tell you otherwise, professional wrestling is pretty much like half a step above the circus. It should be about big crazy personalities and things you never thought youd see in your lifetime.

In the U.S., sure.

Every decade or so somebody tries that in Japan, and it works for a couple of years and then flames out (see: Hustle). At the end of the day, the Japanese want to see guys slap the shit out of each other, drop each other on their heads, and exude fighting spirit. And on the the niche level, they dig comedy.

The only promotion to really buck that trend has been Dragon Gate, who have built a true major league company out of what was originally a gym where Ultimo Dragon was teaching little dudes how to mix junior style with lucha. But if not for the huge gay & female fan base in the early days who came to see the oiled up lady boy like CIMA's & Yoshino's & Hulk's & Doi's, who knows if they are where they are today. But now i'm drifting waaaaay off base.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Observer story

 

It was announced at a press conference on 2/26 that All Japan Pro Wrestling has been purchased by Speed Partners, an IT mobile business in Japan, run by Nobuo Shiraishi.

Shiraishi, 40, is a long-time pro wrestling fan who has been friends with Takaaki Kidani, the president of Bushiroad, the company that owns New Japan Pro Wrestling, for about 20 years. The recent growth in popularity of New Japan made him see that the potential is there for pro wrestling to rebound in the country and perhaps return to its glory days when Kidani and Shiraishi were growing up, where it was one of the most popular mainstream sports in the country.

Speed Partners purchased 100% of the company from its various shareholders for a reported $2.5 million, which included Keiji Muto and Muto’s assortment of business partners. The deal had been in negotiations for some time and was actually finalized on 11/1, but kept quiet until the press conference. The purchase of New Japan by Bushiroad from Yuke’s and other shareholders was for only $6.55 million, a figure which, due to the company’s strong growth this past year, seems low in hindsight.

It was something of a fire sale as All Japan was deeply in debt. There had been talk last spring and summer, although it’s hard to say because of Japan how serious, of Bushiroad buying All Japan. Kidani had talked at one point about having two tours going on at the same time, like Raw and Smackdown. All Japan was looking for a company to take financial control. The companies ran a successful joint show this past year at Sumo Hall in Tokyo on 7/1, and less successful joint shows in Taiwan later in the year.

Speed Partners is reorganizing All Japan and forming two separate new companies, both a wrestling company, All Japan Pro Wrestling, and a merchandise company, All Japan Systems. The belief is they will continue to use the same logos so as to make it appear to wrestling fans and the public that it is the continuation of the 41-year-old company formed by Shohei “Giant” Baba.

Speed Partners had previously been a sponsor for the annual New Japan shows at the Tokyo Dome.

Muto had gotten investors to go in with him in 2002 to purchase the company from Motoko Baba, the widow of Shohei Baba, who had decided to leave wrestling and retire after being involved with the company for 30 years. Motoko Baba had worked behind the scenes running the company with her husband. Giant Baba, at the time the biggest pro wrestling star in Japan, left Japan Pro Wrestling and cut a side deal with its network, NTV, in 1972, garnering both its television time slot and just as important politically at the time, due to working out a deal with Dory Funk Sr., the affiliation with the NWA that JPW used to have, giving them access to much of the top American talent and the NWA world champions, which the company was built around.

However, Muto quickly learned that he didn’t like running a wrestling company, and was not cut out for the role. He had resigned as company president after Yoshikazu Taru beat up and badly injured Nobukazu Hirai in a backstage brawl during the summer of 2011.

Technically, the original All Japan company was closed and a new corporation was formed at the time of the stock transfer. All Japan had been a struggling business for some time, heavily in debt, with periods where some of the wrestlers would be paid in tickets where they would earn their salary by selling them.

The new ownership group has been funding the promotion of late and allowed them to sign Jun Akiyama, Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Aoki, Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru when they left Pro Wrestling NOAH, and also to bring in Ric Flair last month. They are expected to attempt to bring in more legends from the past for big shows.

Shiraishi’s vision for All Japan is to change it and copy the successful formulas of New Japan and WWE. There would be more focus on television distribution and following New Japan’s lead with the PPV and iPPV combination for the big shows.

Shiraishi, when the announcement of the deal that had actually been completed some time back, said that his goal was to have a friendly rivalry with New Japan as the top promotion in the country, like All Japan and New Japan had battled during his childhood. He said his goal was in one year for All Japan to surpass New Japan, and in three years to build the company up to where their big shows would be held at the Tokyo Dome. He said that Speed Partners was also interested in starting an MMA promotion, and would also be interested in acquiring New Japan. Kidani had also talked of adding an MMA promotion to the Bushiroad.

Akira Misaka, 42, a Vice President of Speed Partners, will be involved as the person to head the All Japan business.