Takaaki Kidani on Decisive Moment In Bushiroad’s Decision To Sell NJPW Was Negative Comments Made By Yota Tsuji, WWE’s Deal with Netflix Being Another Reason For NJPW Sale Decision, & AEW’s Creation Affected NJPW

As noted before, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s parent company Bushiroad announced this past May that their Board of Directors agreed to transfer all of the company’s shares in NJPW to TV Asashi and CyberAgent Inc. Bushiroad’s sale of NJPW was finalized at the end of this past June.

Playboy Weekly held a recent interview with Bushiroad President Takaaki Kidani. One of the topics discussed included Kidani’s thoughts about the decisve moment in Bushiroad’s decision to sell NJPW was when Yota Tsuji criticized the company by saying that wrestlers are not cards for a card game and they are giving their lives in the ring.

“To tell you the truth, I couldn’t sleep until morning that day. I’ve been so passionate about professional wrestling, why do I have to be told that way. Not only Tsuji’s statement itself, but also the reaction of some fans who agree with it made me think deeply. Of course, it was at the stage when I was looking for the time to let go.

Bushiroad is a company that started with a card game with 4 people per room of 30 tsubo. My life itself. Just as I have the pride of risking my life in the field, I also have absolute pride in my ancestral work. If they show such rejection and determination, they shouldn’t continue to hold on any longer. It is true that it has become the last break that we should respect the pride of both sides and leave it to the next stage of Tele Morning and Cyber.”

Kidani also gave his thoughts about how WWE signing a media rights deal with Netflix in 2024 was another key factor in Bushiroad’s decision to sell NJPW since he felt they could no longer compete on its own against WWE and NJPW needed to partner with a giant capital firm who “possesses powerful media and streaming infrastructure.”

“It was January 23, 2024 — the day Netflix signed a massive streaming deal with WWE. That was the biggest shock of those 14 years,” Kidani said. “Just for the streaming rights to the shows, it was 740 billion yen over 10 years (at the exchange rate at the time in 2024). There was no way we could win against that. I literally looked up to the heavens. At that moment, I keenly realized, ‘From now on, New Japan has no choice but to partner with a giant capital firm that possesses powerful media and streaming infrastructure. This is no longer a field where Bushiroad can compete on its own.’”

Kidani also gave his thoughts about how the creation of AEW in 2019 affected NJPW.

“Around 2019, I began to wonder if Bushiroad was no longer capable of handling global expansion. Just as I felt we had done everything we could, AEW — a promotion second only to WWE — was launched in the US. Up until then, New Japan had, to some extent, been fueling enthusiasm locally by serving as an ‘anti-WWE’ alternative, so I anticipated that the emergence of a powerful rival promotion would cause demand to shift.”