Why I Cancelled NJPWWorld

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What a difference two months makes. If this was a video it’d cut back to all the positive things I said to fade into me looking as the ground sad from my desk chair doing one of those YouTube thumbnail faces. Man for New Japan Pro Wrestling my smile and my optimism are gone, killed at the hands of the man they call Gedo.

But before the negatives let’s look at where we were. January 4th 2026 was a massive success. Not just for TV viewership but for fan perception. Combined with the return of the IWGP Heavyweight Title and set philosophy for that and the Global Title it really felt like New Japan was back. Sure they would have issues retaining talent as they always do with Japan’s economy being a shitshow but they had a definitive draw again in Aaron Wolf.

However, what we’ve seen in the last two months is a return to old form and just House of Torture run ins. I must be missing something but having your top star and draw lose to Bad Luck Fale is terrible optics. I guess we are doing a suffering builds success story for Aaron Wolf but he already smacked House of Torture about at WrestleKingdom. The belt loss I can understand slightly you want Ren as new House of Torture leader to be established and a screwy finish as long as quick retribution is gained makes sense. I mean it would if not every House of Torture match for coming up to 6 years is the same.

I left off from the above as it was Revolution week just to see if my thoughts continued and they do. I’m happy with the New Japan Cup Semi-Finals in Oleg vs. Uemura and Umino vs. Newman and this isn’t because I said the final would be Uemura vs. Newman when the graphic came out but two matches does not a company make. Your biggest star in Aaron Wolf will just trudge through months of House of Torture heat and probably a big show match with Bad Luck Fale. It’s just a waste of him you want a visual of him slamming a massive guy. I have no doubt the booking of Wolf is centred around the fact Dominion is on TV in Japan in June and you want another massive moment for him there but still it’s a waste of time. What do you achieve? 6 months of Wolf vs. House of Torture and nobody has evolved nobody has gotten more over it’s just a holding pattern.

New Japan needs to take big swings in 2026 and as its stands we had that for a week and now it’s back to the same. If Gedo will not change what he is doing then the booking team needs to change. Fresh ideas needed for fresh talent and until I see change in a positive direction my subscription will remain cancelled.

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