NJPW STRONG was the topic of conversation.
Since the launch of NJPW STRONG, Rocky Romero has been heading up the brand. Present day, Romero is continuing in his liaison role and representing NJPW in their negotiations and conversations with the likes of AEW, MLW and other partners.
When it comes to Romero’s goals for STRONG, one of them is to present yearly event(s) at Korakuen Hall and he expressed that during his appearance on Midnight Wrestle & Kingdom.
Really my dream and my hope is that every year, we’re able to do a day in Korakuen or two nights in Korakuen, just branded as New Japan STRONG because, you know, really, there’s such a strong audience, no pun intended. There’s a strong audience for our brand and I think Japanese fans would like to see all the players from New Japan STRONG come over.
During the summer of 2023, NJPW STRONG ran their Independence Day events at Korakuen Hall. Romero reflected on that and said he hopes the New Japan office sees how important that was and is.
He wants to build on that. Rocky thinks that was just a small taste of what the STRONG brand can accomplish in Japan.
I think that-that (NJPW STRONG Independence Day) was just like a very small taste of what New Japan STRONG could be in Japan for the Japanese audience. So, I hope to build on that again this year and I hope that New Japan, the office understands how important it is for the fan base here so that we can continue to have a yearly event with STRONG-branded shows to show the difference between the two brands and also to build upon that; what we already started last year.
Continuing on the topic of STRONG, Rocky feels the booking of the brand has began to influence matchmaking that NJPW does in Japan. Romero cited the Steel Cage match between United Empire and BULLET CLUB War Dogs as an example.
I also see the influences of New Japan STRONG starting to kind of come into the Japanese matchmaking as well. Just with Osaka having the Cage match and things like that, that would be something that would be very New Japan STRONG-style, that style. So now I feel like it’s starting to influence even the Japanese matchmaking.
On April 12th, NJPW STRONG is presenting Windy City Riot from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois. The following month on May 11th, they’ll be running the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California for their Resurgence event.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Midnight Wrestle & Kingdom with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
