[ZERO1] ZERO1 vs. BJW 8/5/19

I attended ZERO1's, "ZERO1 vs. BJW" event on August 5 in Tokyo. This event pitted members of the ZERO1 roster against members of the BJW roster. This was a great event, and most likely one of the best ones that I will be attending this summer. The results are below:

BJW: Takuya Nomura & Yuya Aoki defeated ZERO1: Shoki Kitamura & Towa Iwasaki

BJW: Daichi Hashimoto and ZERO1: Yoshikazu Yokoyama battled to a No Contest

BJW: Hideyoshi Kamitani & Yasufumi Nakanoue defeated ZERO1: Kohei Sato & Tatsuhito Takaiwa

ZERO1: Shinjiro Otani defeated BJW: Kazuki Hashimoto

BJW: Akira Hyodo & Yuji Okabayashi defeated ZERO1: Yuji Hino & Yuta Suzuki

BJW: Daisuke Sekimoto defeated ZERO1: Shogun Okamoto

The biggest takeaway from this event is that it further proves that Japanese pro-wrestling companies have a close relationship with each other that American pro-wrestling companies should consider emulating. Both ZERO1 and BJW are major promotions in Japan, and although they are competitors, all egos were put aside with the main goal being to put on a great event. Management and representatives from ZERO1 and BJW were in attendance to represent their individual companies, both with their own areas to sell merchandise of their company. Before the show and during the break, BJW representatives made rounds through the venue to sell merchandise and advertise upcoming BJW events. ZERO1 vs. BJW will take place again this December, and it surely will be an event to not be missed.

Japanese Pro-Wrestling on TV in Japan (and Potentially Beyond) in 2019

A big topic as of late has been the increase of the amount of pro-wrestling shows on American television. This year, WWE, NJPW, WOW, ROH, CMLL, AAA, Impact Wrestling, CWFH, and MLW have been presenting pro-wrestling on a weekly basis. And there may be an addition this year as AEW aspires to have a TV deal in the near future as well.

Meanwhile, pro-wrestling has also been thriving as a television product in Japan. NJPW -Japan's biggest pro-wrestling company- is seen weekly via the TV Asahi network. Unlike the United States, where fans are required to have cable in order to watch programs of the most popular companies in the country, cable is not required to watch NJPW programs in Japan on TV Asahi.

GAORA SPORTS provides viewers with Dragon Gate, AJPW, OZ Academy, and WRESTLE-1. Meanwhile, NOAH can be seen regularly on the Nittele G+ sports channel and Samurai TV via satellite. Samurai TV also shows NJPW, ZERO1, Stardom, AJPW, BJW, DDT Pro, and more on their network. In total, pro-wrestling fans in Japan are able watch at least 10 different companies on television regularly, with the biggest one being able to be viewed without needing cable or satellite.

Although the pro-wrestling scene is very healthy in Japan, it has the potential to be even healthier. Being that WWE is biggest company in the industry, they have made the United States the center of the pro-wrestling industry. Alexa (a web traffic and ranking website) shows how much attention WWE captures from fans who live in the United States, and how much of an impact they have on their traffic rank. According to Alexa, http://www.WWE.com has a traffic rank of 3,009, with the majority of its visitors being based in the United States.

Japanese pro-wrestling companies branching out to the American market would enable them to potentially gain new fans from the same fan base that WWE has, as well as pro-wrestling fans who don't like the WWE product and are looking for something different. NJPW has already done this- they are currently featured on AXS TV, a network that presents the NJPW product to 200,000 American viewers every week. There are many other networks for the NJPW product to potentially be on, including ones that would be better than AXS TV, but the fact remains that NJPW's exposure had a positive impact on the company. Alexa's report on http://www.njpw.co.jp/ 's traffic rankings from the past three months are proof of this. As of this writing, the website was ranked at 75,409, having had moved up 19,483 positions versus the previous three months.

Just as how NJPW has increased its exposure by branching out to the American market, other pro-wrestling companies in Japan can (and should) do the same. Every company has a style of wrestling that is different from what American pro-wrestling fans usually are exposed to, which surely would gain their attention. And along with exposure, the pro-wrestling company would gain the financial benefit of the American television network paying them to show episodes of the wrestling program on the American television network.

Japanese Pro-Wrestling on TV in Japan (and Potentially Beyond)

A big topic as of late has been the decreasing of the amount of pro-wrestling shows on American television. This year, WWE, TNA, NJPW, ROH, CMLL, Lucha Underground/AAA, and the GWF (via ESPN Classic replays) have been presenting pro-wrestling on a weekly basis. However, the landscape may be changing as the year draws to a close, with there being rumors that Destination America will be dropping TNA's, "Impact Wrestling" program, and El Rey has yet to renew, "Lucha Underground".

Meanwhile, pro-wrestling has been thriving as a television product in Japan. NJPW -Japan's biggest pro-wrestling company- is seen weekly via the TV Asahi network. Unlike the United States, where fans are required to have cable in order to watch programs of the most popular companies in the country, cable is not required to watch NJPW programs in Japan on TV Asahi.

NOAH can be seen regularly on the Nittele G+ sports channel and Samurai TV via satellite. Samurai TV also shows JWP, Stardom, Pro Wrestling ZERO1, BJW, DDT Pro, AJPW, Legend the Pro-Wrestling, and more on their network. Meanwhile GAORA TV provides viewers with Dragon Gate, AJPW, Wrestle-1, and Oz Academy. In total, pro-wrestling fans in Japan are able watch at least 12 different companies on television regularly, with the biggest one being able to be viewed without needing cable or satellite.

Although the pro-wrestling scene is very healthy in Japan, it has the potential to be even healthier. Being that WWE is biggest company in the industry, they have made the United States the center of the pro-wrestling industry. Alexa (a web traffic and ranking website) shows how much attention WWE captures from fans who live in the United States, and how much of an impact they have on their traffic rank. According to Alexa, http://www.WWE.com has a traffic rank of 1,468, with the majority of its visitors being based in the United States.

Japanese pro-wrestling companies branching out to the American market would enable them to potentially gain new fans from the same fan base that WWE has, as well as pro-wrestling fans who don't like the WWE product and are looking for something different. NJPW has already done this- they are currently featured on AXS TV, a network that presents the NJPW product to 200,000 American viewers every week. There are many other networks for the NJPW product to potentially be on, including ones that would be better than AXS TV, but the fact remains that NJPW's exposure has increased and has had a positive impact on the company. Alexa's report on http://www.njpw.co.jp/ 's traffic rankings from the past six months are proof of this. On March 4, 2015, http://www.njpw.co.jp/ had a traffic rank of 37,833. As of this writing, the website was ranked at 28,380 (the lower the number, the higher the rank).

Just as how NJPW has increased its exposure by branching out to the American market, other pro-wrestling companies in Japan can (and should) do the same. Every company has a style of wrestling that is different from what American pro-wrestling fans usually are exposed to, which surely would gain their attention. And along with exposure, the pro-wrestling company would gain the financial benefit of the American television network paying them to show episodes of the wrestling program on the American television network.