Post by andrew8798 on Jul 22, 2015 17:57:40 GMT -5
AXS TV and TV-Asahi have announced the signing of a multi-year contract to continue Friday night broadcasts of New Japan's World Pro Wrestling Returns show.
The third season will run from 8/14 to 12/11 (there will be no first-run show over Thanksgiving weekend), and will include five separate shows airing the matches from Wrestle Kingdom 9 on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. The Tokyo Dome shows, with Mauro Ranallo and Josh Barnett doing voice overs of the matches previously called by Jim Ross and Matt Striker, will air from 10/9 to 11/6. The final two shows will have the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada title matches. The season finale will be another match of the year candidate, the ***** match with Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma over the Never title.
The shows have become a strong success story, as they are averaging 200,000 viewers for matches that for the most part have been more than a year old (they will have closed the gap somewhat to less than ten months by the end of this year) with English subtitles since virtually all the interviews are in Japanese. There were no expectations for numbers since nothing of this sort had ever aired in the U.S., but the show's success and reaction has been described as a very pleasant surprise and that's clear since AXS pays for the programming and has renewed the show twice now.
The show would be the fourth most watched weekly wrestling series in the country on cable, behind Raw, Smackdown and Impact, beating ROH and Lucha Underground, although both of those shows do the bulk of their audience on syndicated platforms instead of cable and would have more overall viewers for that reason.
The plan is to try and catch up the time lag, although the one hour show is the Japanese language show that airs on BS-Asahi, a satellite channel in Japan. In the past, World Pro Wrestling Returns would air on a six month lag in Japan, and until those show are produced, they can't air in the U.S. However, the plan in 2016 would be to get the lag to three months in Japan, and slightly longer than that in the U.S.
The plan in 2016 is to run the show just about 52 weeks per year, instead of seasonal as they did in the first year. In addition, most weeks will air a two hour block, where the show from the prior week will be replayed at 8 p.m. the next week, with a new episode coming at 9 p.m. The show will remain as the lead-in for the station's popular Friday night live fights. Some weeks the show will only air one hour, with the new show at 8 p.m., when live fights on the East Coast start at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.
Ranallo and Barnett will continue to call the action, although there are several shows, including the past two weeks, that due to Barnett movie commitments, that had Ranallo work with Frank Shamrock (who in a trivia note was trained somewhat early in his career by Minoru Suzuki), and Shamrock called the Suzuki vs. A.J. Styles 2014 match of the year which aired on AXS on 7/17.
The new schedule is:
8/14 (8 p.m.): From 9/21/14 in Kobe: Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka; Tetsuya Naito & Kota Ibushi vs. A.J. Styles & Tama Tonga; Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title.
8/21: From 9/21/14 in Kobe: Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata (which placed third in the 2014 mach of the year balloting).
8/28: From 9/21/14 in Kobe: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi for IWGP tag titles; Bad Luck Fale vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for IC title.
9/4: From 10/13/14 at Sumo Hall: Taguchi vs. Desperado for IWGP jr. title; Nakamura & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Shibata & Goto; Okada vs. Naito for Tokyo Dome title shot.
9/11: From 10/13/14 at Sumo Hall: A.J. Styles vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IWGP heavyweight title.
9/18: From 11/18/14 in Osaka: Alex Shelley & Kushida vs. Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish for IWGP jr. tag title; Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taichi for IWGP jr. title; Chase Owens vs. Jushin Liger for NWA jr. title.
9/25 (8 p.m. Show): From 11/8/14 in Osaka: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Goto for Never Open weight title; Tanahashi & Ibushi vs. Okada & Yoshi-Hashi; Nakamura vs. Shibata for IC title.
10/2: From 12/7/14 in Nagoya: Tanahashi & Ibushi & Makabe & La Sombra vs. Okada & Nakamura & Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi; Goto & Shibata vs. Anderson & Gallows in the finals of the tag team tournament.
10/9: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: O'Reilly & Fish vs. Kushida & Shelley vs. Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov vs. Young Bucks for IWGP jr. tag titles; Taguchi vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP jr. title.
10/16: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Ishii vs. Makabe for Never Open weight title; Sakuraba vs. Suzuki
10/23: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Anderson & Gallows vs. Goto & Shibata for IWGP tag title; Styles vs. Naito; Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Honma vs. Jeff Jarrett & Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
10/30: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Yano & Naomichi Marufuji & Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste vs. Takashi Iizuka & Shelton Benjamin & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.; Nakamura vs. Ibushi for IC title (this will actually be listed in the cable guides as "a five-star classic bout").
11/6: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Tanahashi vs. Okada for IWGP heavyweight title
11/13: From 1/19/15 at Korakuen Hall: Triton & Captain New Japan vs. Naito & Taguchi; Atlantis & Volador Jr. & Tanahashi & Ibushi vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Nakamura & Okada; La Sombra vs. Mascara Dorada.
11/20 (8 p.m. show): From 2/11/15 in Osaka: Omega vs. Taguchi for IWGP jr. title; Anderson & Gallows vs. Goto & Shibata for IWGP tag titles.
12/4: From 2/11/15 in Osaka: Tanahashi vs. Styles for IWGP heavyweight title.
12/11: From 2/14/15 from Sendai: Ishii vs. Honma for Never Open weight title
The third season will run from 8/14 to 12/11 (there will be no first-run show over Thanksgiving weekend), and will include five separate shows airing the matches from Wrestle Kingdom 9 on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. The Tokyo Dome shows, with Mauro Ranallo and Josh Barnett doing voice overs of the matches previously called by Jim Ross and Matt Striker, will air from 10/9 to 11/6. The final two shows will have the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada title matches. The season finale will be another match of the year candidate, the ***** match with Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma over the Never title.
The shows have become a strong success story, as they are averaging 200,000 viewers for matches that for the most part have been more than a year old (they will have closed the gap somewhat to less than ten months by the end of this year) with English subtitles since virtually all the interviews are in Japanese. There were no expectations for numbers since nothing of this sort had ever aired in the U.S., but the show's success and reaction has been described as a very pleasant surprise and that's clear since AXS pays for the programming and has renewed the show twice now.
The show would be the fourth most watched weekly wrestling series in the country on cable, behind Raw, Smackdown and Impact, beating ROH and Lucha Underground, although both of those shows do the bulk of their audience on syndicated platforms instead of cable and would have more overall viewers for that reason.
The plan is to try and catch up the time lag, although the one hour show is the Japanese language show that airs on BS-Asahi, a satellite channel in Japan. In the past, World Pro Wrestling Returns would air on a six month lag in Japan, and until those show are produced, they can't air in the U.S. However, the plan in 2016 would be to get the lag to three months in Japan, and slightly longer than that in the U.S.
The plan in 2016 is to run the show just about 52 weeks per year, instead of seasonal as they did in the first year. In addition, most weeks will air a two hour block, where the show from the prior week will be replayed at 8 p.m. the next week, with a new episode coming at 9 p.m. The show will remain as the lead-in for the station's popular Friday night live fights. Some weeks the show will only air one hour, with the new show at 8 p.m., when live fights on the East Coast start at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.
Ranallo and Barnett will continue to call the action, although there are several shows, including the past two weeks, that due to Barnett movie commitments, that had Ranallo work with Frank Shamrock (who in a trivia note was trained somewhat early in his career by Minoru Suzuki), and Shamrock called the Suzuki vs. A.J. Styles 2014 match of the year which aired on AXS on 7/17.
The new schedule is:
8/14 (8 p.m.): From 9/21/14 in Kobe: Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka; Tetsuya Naito & Kota Ibushi vs. A.J. Styles & Tama Tonga; Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title.
8/21: From 9/21/14 in Kobe: Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata (which placed third in the 2014 mach of the year balloting).
8/28: From 9/21/14 in Kobe: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi for IWGP tag titles; Bad Luck Fale vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for IC title.
9/4: From 10/13/14 at Sumo Hall: Taguchi vs. Desperado for IWGP jr. title; Nakamura & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Shibata & Goto; Okada vs. Naito for Tokyo Dome title shot.
9/11: From 10/13/14 at Sumo Hall: A.J. Styles vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IWGP heavyweight title.
9/18: From 11/18/14 in Osaka: Alex Shelley & Kushida vs. Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish for IWGP jr. tag title; Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taichi for IWGP jr. title; Chase Owens vs. Jushin Liger for NWA jr. title.
9/25 (8 p.m. Show): From 11/8/14 in Osaka: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Goto for Never Open weight title; Tanahashi & Ibushi vs. Okada & Yoshi-Hashi; Nakamura vs. Shibata for IC title.
10/2: From 12/7/14 in Nagoya: Tanahashi & Ibushi & Makabe & La Sombra vs. Okada & Nakamura & Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi; Goto & Shibata vs. Anderson & Gallows in the finals of the tag team tournament.
10/9: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: O'Reilly & Fish vs. Kushida & Shelley vs. Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov vs. Young Bucks for IWGP jr. tag titles; Taguchi vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP jr. title.
10/16: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Ishii vs. Makabe for Never Open weight title; Sakuraba vs. Suzuki
10/23: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Anderson & Gallows vs. Goto & Shibata for IWGP tag title; Styles vs. Naito; Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Honma vs. Jeff Jarrett & Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
10/30: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Yano & Naomichi Marufuji & Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste vs. Takashi Iizuka & Shelton Benjamin & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.; Nakamura vs. Ibushi for IC title (this will actually be listed in the cable guides as "a five-star classic bout").
11/6: From 1/4/15 at the Tokyo Dome: Tanahashi vs. Okada for IWGP heavyweight title
11/13: From 1/19/15 at Korakuen Hall: Triton & Captain New Japan vs. Naito & Taguchi; Atlantis & Volador Jr. & Tanahashi & Ibushi vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Nakamura & Okada; La Sombra vs. Mascara Dorada.
11/20 (8 p.m. show): From 2/11/15 in Osaka: Omega vs. Taguchi for IWGP jr. title; Anderson & Gallows vs. Goto & Shibata for IWGP tag titles.
12/4: From 2/11/15 in Osaka: Tanahashi vs. Styles for IWGP heavyweight title.
12/11: From 2/14/15 from Sendai: Ishii vs. Honma for Never Open weight title
-WON