New Japan Pro Wrestling has some big, big plans for expansion into the United States. They’re hoping to establish and launch what amounts to a satellite territory in California in 2018, and the groundwork for those plans begins in July, with two G1 Special shows in Long Beach. Tickets for the two-night event went on sale over WrestleMania weekend and completely sold out pretty much immediately.
So now that we know the G1 Special shows are basically guaranteed to be money-makers, and New Japan has announced its first batch of talent for Long Beach — which unsurprisingly includes its four biggest stars in IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, face of New Japan Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, and Kenny Omega — it’s time to start hyping these historic shows the only way you really can: with “IN A WORLD”-style voiceover and Inception BWANNHHHHs.
Suddenly, we’re only like two months from these shows. You can bet that the events will feature pretty much the whole roster of available talent, plus all of their featured foreigners who are regulars in California promotions anyway. I would imagine that Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, KUSHIDA, Gedo, and some more Los Ingobernables stable members are pretty much locks, along with the Young Bucks, Roppongi Vice, Michael Elgin, and some more Bullet Club representatives.
At any rate, it’s shaping up to be a wild weekend with a packed, raucous house. This is probably going to be a pretty effective way to sell more New Japan World subscriptions.
