I think NJPW Strong is Ending And That’s a Good Thing

2026 is nearly here and while we can’t slow down the flow of time we can look towards the future. With the retirement of John Cena this December and Hiroshi Tanahashi on January 4th we are entering an unknown time. While I’ve moaned about New Japan’s refusal to build the new ace I want to talk about the scheduling instead. 

I found it interesting that an American show has been announced for New Japan. We previously had reports about they weren’t running shows out of Japan due to budget concerns but I seems like 2025 they are back on it (see you in the Copper Box in October lads). But my main interest is the dropping of the NJPW Strong logo in its place the traditional Lion Mark. 

I feel if this is a cha he in tactic a change in promotion it’s a great thing. To me, I’ve always felt that the NJPW Strong branding always gave off second fiddle vibes. It’s not quite the New Japan you watch online instead it’s got a lot of random American indy working and no continuity to the main shows. They for the most part felt like shows run to just have an American show and it’s odd the main one that has actual build and stories behind it (Windy City Riot with Jack vs. Umino and Naito vs. Mox) was the one that sold really well. Does wrestling outside of WWE have a marketing problem? Yeah I think so l, New Japan announced a world title match between ZSJ and Goto about 3 days before the show which has on a Friday and shockingly it didn’t move tickets. I dunno if the show doesn’t matter to the show then why should the fans care.

So if we get rid of the STRONG titles? Oh those titles, bad in design so much care even New Japan goes eh whatever we won’t advertise they’re being defended we won’t even bring both of the tag champions over for Super Junior Tag League. I dunno what the plan is but I’d have Saya Kamitani the current Strong Women’s Champion unify it with a win of the IWGP Women’s Championship. Create that IWGP Women’s World Championship and have that defended on show. If you get rid of STRONG titles the only one I’d keep is the tag belts. I do think there’s money in Openweight Tag Belts in New Japan. I’d rename them NEVER Openweight Tag Titles and give them that NEVER design (and I dunno the colour for this one is green) and get them on Oiwa and Fujita right away. Not only would it give you tag belts for teams like ZSJ & Fujita a reuniting Drilla & Clark or weirder pairing like Ishimori & Kidd or EVIL & SHO to go for. Look, they’ll matter as much as the 6-man belts but they’ve be main New Japan belts and actually be mentioned and cared for allowing for some fun new teams and gives some talents things to do.

What this sounds like is me saying get rid of every American but that’s not true. New Japan needs to be smart these American shows need to be shown as a platform for Japan bookings. You ran Matt Vandagriff being undefeated and all that ended up being was pre-show matches and a nickname that went nowhere (and now he lost all those tights mean nothing). He didn’t get a shot at the STRONG title or anything. What does that show? All that work really doesn’t mean anything. Yes some matches can be just American talent but if that’s most of your card with belts you don’t care for what bother?

For one final point, let’s talk about venues. Part of the reason New Japan stopped running American shows was they were booking big venues and not moving tickets. This is due to the aforementioned lack of cards until a few days or so beforehand and no real advertising. They have that AEW problem of thinking everyone uses social media, they don’t think again. Maybe New Japan needs that AEW approach of smaller venues. 2,000 people looks better in a venue for 3,000 than a venue for 15,000 it’s all about the look. 

To conclude we have a lot of time for New Japan to figure it out. With no Tanahashi past January 4th New Japan must take big swings and big hits especially to open the year now the ace is done. In an ideal world you’d have your next ace ready and 2026 would essentially be a worldwide grand tour of them to give them the fan connection. Maybe we will get that and Wrestle Kingdom is Tsuji vs. Takeshita title for title winner take all who knows? All I know and hope is New Japan has a plan.