HazzaF5

Wrasslin'

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@guyevansbooks TNA... go on!

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@MikeGilbert311 If I kept on at my mates for being wrong, I'd end up with no mates.

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@IANdrewDiceClay It will proper affect Jack's swagger though.

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@DosEvil This is mad.

CMLL trimming their roster? 😆 do you know how many shows a year they promote compared to MLW?

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@NitroCircus @DarbyAllin

[Puro Power @ThePuroPower]

In 2012, just 616 fans outside Japan paid to watch New Japan online. Ring of Honor’s biggest online show had only around 2,300 buyers and its stream still struggled. Two small audiences, right? The promotions, however, would change wrestling.

By 2014, the American landscape looked bleak for anyone challenging WWE. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff had arrived in TNA in January 2010 with dreams of reviving the Monday Night Wars, moving Impact head-to-head with Raw. The experiment failed, the company returned to Thursdays, and by late 2013 TNA was focused on controlling costs rather than expansion.

Ring of Honor had the talent and the dedicated audience and in 2011 it gained Sinclair Broadcast Group as an owner. But ownership by a television company wasn’t the same as WWE’s resources and there was no overnight fix. In May 2012, Border Wars, headlined by Kevin Steen and Davey Richards, suffered major streaming problems, and by 2013 there were serious doubts about ROH’s profitability.

Across the Pacific, New Japan was being reborn. Bushiroad bought it from Yuke’s in February 2012 for a reported 500 million yen, about $6.55 million, and Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Shinsuke Nakamura were producing some of the most acclaimed wrestling in the world. NJPW's iPPV King of Pro Wrestling drew 52,617 orders in Japan but just 616 abroad (mainly the US and Canada). The audience was there but the route to it wasn’t.

NJPW also knew the risks of trusting an American partner. Okada’s time in TNA saw him reduced to a masked associate of D’Angelo Dinero, before he returned to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship within two years.

Two promotions had two different problems. ROH needed stars and reach, while New Japan needed venues, experience and fans already receptive to its style. But questions of booking control, protecting talent and who benefited most hung over any deal.

On 22 February 2014, at HonorCon, New Japan announced joint shows in Toronto and New York.

The partnership was about to begin and its consequences would reach far beyond either company’s expectations.

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@Switchblade97 😆 politely disagree

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@Switchblade97 Stop with the 🎣

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@LucyisjustLucy Sounds like how much my mum and nan paid for Will vs Gareth in 2002.

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@TheRealDisco 3000 fans is bad? On a Wednesday night?

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@Noahgilberto19 Must we relive the rest of 2023 so soon? 😆 🤣 😂

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@aewfanhub @myaewofficial @AEW @AEWonTV @TonyKhan Love MyAEW

Would love some classic content from around the world that isn't locked away in Stamford, CT 🙏 @TonyKhan

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@TheRealDisco It's a media rights business. Not a live event business.

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@marykayfabe @jericho_cruise Looks like ROH ring skirts are behind the black?

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@myaewofficial @MysteryWrestlin @1FWrestling @AEW @ringofhonor @ProWrestlingEVE @CMLL_OFICIAL @unitedwrestling @CWFHMarquez love that @unitedwrestling is a weekly part of @myaewofficial

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@MFCollectibles Thats @MyWorldPod in Australia 2000

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@IANdrewDiceClay That Bread and Butter pudding creates families

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@rob_bohanan @1FWrestling and @myaewofficial star

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@IANdrewDiceClay I promise I was brought up around a load of prudes so nobody batted an eyelid when I said I watched "TNA"

[HazzaF5 @HarrisonFarrow]

@AngryDeuce_DSH @MajorWFPod @AEW @MFCollectibles @ShopAEW Yep I can't get on board with that instantly