Hiroshi Tanahashi Reveals His 10-POINT PLAN To Turn Around New Japan Business 

as a very casual NJPW fan it always felt to me like covid really screwed them up and they just never fully recovered, then they started losing talent left and right and a lot of their drawing power just dropped. most of the wrestlers i enjoyed watching in NJPW now wrestle in both AEW and WWE.

I'll give Tanahashi credit, at least he can admit when there is obviously a problem and try to address it.

The problem for New Japan is they didn't do a good job building up the young guys before the old guard aged out. As of this year they were still relying on Okada and Naito to carry the company. With Okada gone and Naito slowing down they're in a position where they have to get the next generation going but they're not ready yet. They do have guys with promise so with the right booking they can get it turned around within a year.

Gedo should be in the hot seat then. His booking hasn’t been stellar since the Pandemic Began. Also if they want the titles to feel important, either get some better looking designs or just go back to having just the IC and US belts

I actually love the idea of having high-caliber AEW talent that is not being used being sent to NJPW so they have something to do. Ricky Starks, Keith Lee, Claudio, and Miro are an example of some guys who can do great stuff in New Japan.

I really miss the IWGP heavyweight championship v4 belt. It was prestigious and defended with honor and tradition

All I can think about is when Michael Scott was talking about a 45 day plan to fix Dunder Mifflin from going bankrupt 😂

Why not use Ring of Honor for a development system for AEW, Tony?

Covid and Japan's old ways really screwed Japanese wrestling.

You're right. AEW should ship some people over. They aren't doing much with a majority of the roster. 😂

I'm for Tanahashi having one more reigh as IWGP champion.

I was there in the Tokyo Dome early this year for Wrestle Kingdom, Stardom, DDT and TJPW (hell of a 3 day wrestling trip. Highly recommend it) and it really did feel like an end of an era. Okada, Osprey and Tama's last WK. To me, having been a fan since Wrestle Kingdom 9 which was part of the company's upswing in drawing an international audience. It's been a mixed bag but if I could point out where the biggest gaffe was in terms of the company's direction was losing Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi's injuries that caused a lot of problems with the booking. Kenny was supposed to be the international face of New Japan that could appeal to both Japanese and American/Canadian/English audiences but some backstage politicking...quite possibly the genesis of AEW put the kibosh on his push and standings with the company. Kota was just bad luck being injured as champion then being injured again in his G1 match with Okada. After that, we got filler champions like fucking EVIL or Jay White though I will defend Shingo's run as champion from a wrestling standpoint. New Japan is kinda stuck. Quite bluntly if they want an international audience they need to put a belt on someone English speaking but because of how powerful the draw of working in America is both economically and exposure-wise they are just bleeding talent. It's the Ohtani Effect with every athlete in NPB wanting to play in the big leagues. Same as wrestling.

Just like AEW and all their problems, I still lovr watching NJPW despite their all their own issues and it's my 2nd favorite promotion behind AEW. Regarding the 10 step plan to improve NJPW, I think building up new talent and strengthening ties with Stardom an AEW are among the most important steps imho.

You only need 3 titles you need Tag titles a Midcarder title and a World Title

Its sad to see the state of NJPW and Japanese wrestling in general because Japanese wrestling is so great and used to be the best promotion in the world

I really appreciate this... THX!!!

People think that New Japan's partnership with AEW is to blame for their issues and not; their own questionable booking decisions; bad Japanese economy; being unable to keep talent due to not being able to compete financially with the two rich American companies; etc. This is just the 'AEW bad' brainrot that's been going around recently. Like, do people think that if AEW didn't associate at all with NJ that White or Ospreay wouldn't have left? These companies still exist regardless and would be options for them, partnership or no.

good video

I thought new Japan is the greatest promotion in the world with 7 star matches everywhere. And it's world title being featured on AEW more prominently than the AEW world title.

They have a gem in Gabe Kidd 🙏🏾

AJ should be the Drew Mcintyre of New Japan

Some of Tanahashi's points are good in wording maybe, but they miss the point. Pushing the young star is good of course, but they already had a good model to that, they were extremely successful at it over the years: take those young stars ready to breakout and have them work repeatedly with the over, enstablished top stars until they get more and more victories over them, while showing they can perform at their same level both in terms of workrate and connection to the crowd. Those who succeed will get to the next level, those who don't get over will be relegated to the midcard and upper midcard. On that note, NJPW was great because they enstablished very clear "tiers" in NJPW for talenst to work their way to the top. This worked consistently in the years of rebuilt and the recent golden age of New Japan. That's how Okada, Naito, Omega, Ibushi, White, Ospreay got over to the next level. What they were supposed to do was repeating that level by having those new top stars working consistently with guys like Yota Tsuji, Shota Umino, Ren Narita, Yuya Uemura and I'll throw even Kosei Fujita in the mix even though he's a junior. But in the last 3 years, NJPW let those top guys leave the company without even making stars on their way out. Why in the world did Okada leave by only working tag matches and win all of them? Why was his only single match on his way out with Tanahashi? I understand appreciation for him, but he's leaving. Have him leave by doing the job to a guy like Yota Tsuji clean, 1 vs 1, and then use that to push Tsuji to the World Title, put the belt on him right away and try to make him feel like the next big thing. Same thing with Jay White and Will Ospreay, they did jobs on their way out but homegrown japanese talents should have been the one to get that rub, instead they lost respectively to Hikuleo and Eddie Kingston (White) and to David Finlay (Ospreay). Not exactly guys NJPW would have springboarded to the top after those wins. Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura and Ren Narita would have gained much more from that than them. Also the titles thing....sure, less titles is better, but what made that title scenary great in New Japan years ago was that their belts had their own "identity". The Heavyweight Title was THE belt, reserved to only a small class of top tier wrestlers; the IC Title was for the guys who were on the verge of breaking out to the top and for other top tier stars to work with those guys breaking out; the NEVER title was the strong style title, it was that "intense match" with lots of striking and fighting spirit belt. The Jr. Title was were the exciting, fast pace, crazy high flying and big bumps matches were at. The titles in NJPW today feel like they don't have an identity, except the World Title, that has the identity of the most ugly ass world title belt out there.

I stopped watching njpw basically when aew started . It was nice to see people I knew from New Japan on forbidden door but now they all work for aew

A 10 point plan sounds exactly like what the west wing was if any of you remember the final season.

AJ Styles should Beat Moxley for the IWGP Heavyweight Title and wear it on WWE TV. AJ was a 2 time IWGP Champion.

There's a lot of things I agree with President Ace about, but the point he made about improving NJPW World still has me asking the same question. Why don't they just combine NJPW and Stardom Wrold into one site? They both have their own platforms, and they're owned by the same company. Combine the two into NJPWStardom World and just charge us more. Wrestle-Universe has 4 companies in one platform so there's no way they can say it won't work. Also for the love of Jimi Hendrix can we get rid of that IWGP Womens belt and just use the Stardom belts? Same thing, they're owned by the same company, and even have plans apparently for cross-over shows. So just use the Stardom belts. People take those more seriously anyways.

I like Takahashi's plans. I would add 11th plan of ditch current IWGP World title and Bring Back IWGP Heavyweight belt that Takahashi made as the main top belt again. I miss that beautiful belt so much.

I completely forgot that Hiroshi Tanahashi is the president of New Japan pro wrestling because I don't follow their product lol.

Hontai is the main babyface unit in New Japan. I believe Makabe, Honma, Tiger Mask, Taguchi, The Third Generation and Tana are the longest tenured members of the unit currently.

Hontai is their home unit. for guys like Tanahashi who aren't in a faction.

If NJPW got a Streaming app I would watch their shows more

Too many titles is horrible. It’s not hard to have ONE world champion, ONE women’s champion, ONE set of tag team champions for men and women, then have TWO mid card titles, one for women and one for men.

Not bringing back the IWGP V4 Heavyweight Title isn't helping things

To me for the titles keep them except for the king of pro wrestling title and possibly the jr tag belts. I say that because I don't think new japan's tag division is strong enough to have both belts mean things right now. And the kopw is a gimmick title which I think New Japan doesn't need at the moment. To me the only gimmick title they should have is the never open weight just because it is more unique with it being the tough guy championship. You are expecting hard hitting brawlers and submission specialist trying to prove they are stronger. It is a title where they wouldn't try for a small package because it is more about knocking your opponent out. With that it is a perfect midcard spot because you can easily take someone from that title picture and have them be a challenge for the heavyweight picture. They may not win but someone like ishii or Suzuki will do a lot of damage to the top guy. New Japan strong should be the developmental brand in sense. Get people ready and bring them to be put in mid card picture.

Get rid of the strong titles and use the never Open weight title and get rid the six men titles..

Get rid of House Of Tourture, easy, fixed.

They have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to young talent, but they need time. In the meantime I’m not sure having multiple foreign talents/aging veterans hot potatoing title after title helps. That and the MULTITUDE of titles diluting the overall value of even having titles.

None of this will make a damn difference

Point One: Stop answering Tony Khan's calls.

There will be a lot of dummies in this comment section blaming Tony Khan for NJPW's decline, when the biggest factor is the weakness of the yen against the US dollar. Blame Jerome Powell instead.

NJPW has obvious benefits from their partnership with AEW. Not only do they get to use top stars like Moxley and Danielson, but they also get TV exposure on National television and I imagine TK has a lot of connections for them, might even be paying them.

NJPW hasn't been the same since the partnership with AEW. Use to be the best wrestling company on the planet. Now they are just a feeder system for AEW.

cant be fixed if tony khan is involved with them before they teamed up new japan was booming tk took there stars and thats a big blow

I'm laughing at the AEW fuckboys that show up here to try defend Tony from people with even slight criticism of AEW and role has in this.

Doesn’t matter even if njpw turns it around aew will just poach their talent 😂

New Japan needs to get as far away from aew as possible. Their being lil' brothered like they use to lil' brother ROH. Maybe Karma, idk. Run tho

NJPW needs to cut off AEW. Talent leaving, no major attention for talent heading towards Japan etc

😴 😴

It's not all AEW's fault but they have to take the blame here, NJPW talent was always jobbing to AEW talent whenever they showed up, Moxley as IWGP champion has been a complete joke. The Issue is NJPW was too obsessed with developing an American branch that they ignored their own main branch in Japan, forcing them to not be able to build new stars, and now after COVID, they became so reliant on this partnership that NJPW's booking was based on whatever AEW was doing at the time, doesn't help that whatever white boy that leaves WWE and joins NJPW is given free title shots and reigns just for showing up. NJPW is like Vince in the sense that they cannot see their failure and keep trying over and over thinking it will work and the Japanese fans are too polite to tell them they are idiots for this trash. As for "le yen is down so its expected they would leave" meme, okay, then what about the people staying, what about Naito and Sanada who have denied WWE contracts multiple times? I think their loyalty to this sinking ship should be rewarded in some way, but sadly they don't, because they have to put over an unpopular guy like Moxley over. "BUH MOXLEY IS LE POPULAR IN JAPAN" no he ain't, fans had a chance to vote for the main event at Dominion between the BOSJ finals and the IWGP match and the BOSJ finals won If NJPW wants to succeed they need to drop partnerships with AEW, and worry about themselves for a year or 2, no WWE, no AEW, just themselves and Stardom since they are kind of a package deal.