NJPW Management on CMLL, Omega

[HMARK Center]

Naoki Sugabayashi gave an interview to CMLL going over their partnership:

(Spanish only, Sugabayashi is in the first segment)
Summary from Reddit:

They start talking about the woman that introduces the wrestlers on the Fantasticamania promotional video. Sugabayashi says she's a college student.

He says that this year they sold out all the Fantasticamania shows and are looking forward to selling even more tickets next year. He also says that they sell tacos and Mexican beer during this tour.

Tiger Hattori will be the referee in a match on the next Friday show.

In regards to how New Japan chooses the wrestlers that take part of Fantasticamania, Sugabayashi says lots of fans watch the CMLL shows and request the names they want to see in Japan.

He's asked if New Japan will ever do a Fantasticamania in Mexico. He says they'd love to have a show in Arena Mexico and that they're talking to send more New Japan wrestlers to Mexico next year.

He's asked if they're interested in having CMLL wrestlers for a longer time than usual in Japan and Sugabayashi says they want it and are in talks with CMLL's owner.

He says he wants Kawato to return to Japan as a star.

They talk about the possibility of selling New Japan merch in Mexico. Sugabayashi says they want to talk about doing it through CMLL's store.

He's asked if they plan to increase the number of CMLL wrestlers for future Fantasticamania tours and Sugabayashi says they don't want to bother CMLL taking more wrestlers since they're still running shows in Mexico in January.

They talk about the long story of the partnership between the two promotions and Sugabayashi says he wants fans to watch both companies.

Notable: No mention of the Dragon Lee situation, and it appears that, for now, the NJPW/CMLL partnership is steady.

As for the Omega issue, it came up in an article that Harold Meij wrote for NJPW's Japanese language site:

Makes me continue to think that this is likely a case of NJPW just simply not sponsoring Kenny's work visa anymore.

[corndog]

I read about the Meij quote on NJPW reddit. Several have said that it could many things. New Japan pulled his work permit, he's no longer a permanent resident of Japan and once you haven't entered the country in a month to work, it becomes much more difficult to re-enter the country.

As far as the CMLL deal, it is interesting to see double down on the deal, but makes sense in ways as well. It could be a way to butter up CMLL if they decide to work with Dragon Lee again, but at this point they could easily lose Dragon Lee to AEW. Also with their situation in the states and what seems to be cut ties with ROH, they may be doing this to reassure their partners that they won't do the same thing to them. Granted, ROH had this coming and sealed their own destiny with the MSG booking.

[eJm]

Nov 14, 2019 10:18:57 GMT -5 corndog said:

I read about the Meij quote on NJPW reddit. Several have said that it could many things. New Japan pulled his work permit, he's no longer a permanent resident of Japan and once you haven't entered the country in a month to work, it becomes much more difficult to re-enter the country.

As far as the CMLL deal, it is interesting to see double down on the deal, but makes sense in ways as well. It could be a way to butter up CMLL if they decide to work with Dragon Lee again, but at this point they could easily lose Dragon Lee to AEW. Also with their situation in the states and what seems to be cut ties with ROH, they may be doing this to reassure their partners that they won't do the same thing to them. Granted, ROH had this coming and sealed their own destiny with the MSG booking.

Like, it just comes down to it not being really logical to do shows in Mexico when a) the scene's crowded with the big two and b) CMLL isn't exactly in an ROH style spot, just incompetent as all hell and making money regardless. The shows with CMLL talents draw well and it makes sense to try and want to do the same, especially with AEW growing their relationship with AAA.

And the hunger in America at the moment is there and it's not like WWE have the real ability, regardless of how many rosters they have, to try and counter both companies' shows. Doesn't really make much business sense.

[corndog]

Nov 14, 2019 10:22:43 GMT -5 eJm said:

Nov 14, 2019 10:18:57 GMT -5 corndog said:

I read about the Meij quote on NJPW reddit. Several have said that it could many things. New Japan pulled his work permit, he's no longer a permanent resident of Japan and once you haven't entered the country in a month to work, it becomes much more difficult to re-enter the country.

As far as the CMLL deal, it is interesting to see double down on the deal, but makes sense in ways as well. It could be a way to butter up CMLL if they decide to work with Dragon Lee again, but at this point they could easily lose Dragon Lee to AEW. Also with their situation in the states and what seems to be cut ties with ROH, they may be doing this to reassure their partners that they won't do the same thing to them. Granted, ROH had this coming and sealed their own destiny with the MSG booking.

Like, it just comes down to it not being really logical to do shows in Mexico when a) the scene's crowded with the big two and b) CMLL isn't exactly in an ROH style spot, just incompetent as all hell and making money regardless. The shows with CMLL talents draw well and it makes sense to try and want to do the same, especially with AEW growing their relationship with AAA.

And the hunger in America at the moment is there and it's not like WWE have the real ability, regardless of how many rosters they have, to try and counter both companies' shows. Doesn't really make much business sense.

I agree, trying to run Mexico on their own isn't going to work. Vince has tried for years and failed miserably. The Fantasticamania shows do well for New Japan, they love their lucha in Japan. But at the same time, I can't imagine they are happy about the Dragon Lee situation, although unlike ROH's MSG garbage I imagine they have communicated with New Japan on the situation. However, it's still a good place to send wrestlers on excursion to learn a new style and as you said, they are still drawing well which does not put them in an ROH situation.

The US market is wide open, as WWE has been losing it's grip on the fanbase over the last decade. I have said for a while, wrestling is booming in several countries across the world, namely Japan, Australia and the UK, but WWE has stunted it's growth. There is certainly a change in tides and more modern, less fan insulting products, could bring new fans into wrestling as it has in those countries.

[Deleted]

Dat Super J-Cast must be part of Yakuza, trying to not seem suspicious...

[ogreknee]

Nov 14, 2019 10:18:57 GMT -5 corndog said:

I read about the Meij quote on NJPW reddit. Several have said that it could many things. New Japan pulled his work permit, he's no longer a permanent resident of Japan and once you haven't entered the country in a month to work, it becomes much more difficult to re-enter the country.

As far as the CMLL deal, it is interesting to see double down on the deal, but makes sense in ways as well. It could be a way to butter up CMLL if they decide to work with Dragon Lee again, but at this point they could easily lose Dragon Lee to AEW. Also with their situation in the states and what seems to be cut ties with ROH, they may be doing this to reassure their partners that they won't do the same thing to them. Granted, ROH had this coming and sealed their own destiny with the MSG booking.

People want to believe everything kenny says. But kenny out of kayfabe called the japanese new japan wrestlers lazy while he was given a lighter schedule than brock lesnar.

I bet it is a visa issue. DDT should have figured it out for kenny because they are owned by a large corporation employing guys like mike bailey.

Meij is right no room in mexico for a pure njpw show. But they will send guys to work major shows for cmll. Like anniversario will probably get lij involved.

I think bushi road will continue to flourish in pro wrestling

[Laces]

Why would it be a Visa issue though? Kenny is a Japanese citizen.

[Fundertaker]

Nov 18, 2019 17:04:50 GMT -5 Laces said:

Why would it be a Visa issue though? Kenny is a Japanese citizen.

He may not be an actual Japanese citizen, though. He may be a permanent resident, as every account of him saying anything of the matter he always sounded insecure/dismissive or ran around that question, and NJPW (and DDT before that) might have been the sponsor for that, and without NJPW in the picture Kenny might have lost that status somehow.

That said, I guess only he and the people in authority might answer on what might have actually happened.

[HMARK Center]

Nov 18, 2019 17:40:30 GMT -5 Fundertaker said:

Nov 18, 2019 17:04:50 GMT -5 Laces said:

Why would it be a Visa issue though? Kenny is a Japanese citizen.

He may not be an actual Japanese citizen, though. He may be a permanent resident, as every account of him saying anything of the matter he always sounded insecure/dismissive or ran around that question, and NJPW (and DDT before that) might have been the sponsor for that, and without NJPW in the picture Kenny might have lost that status somehow.

That said, I guess only he and the people in authority might answer on what might have actually happened.

That seems likely; as I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong), taking Japanese citizenship involves renouncing all other citizenship. I can't imagine Kenny going through the hell of getting Japanese citizenship, renouncing his Canadian citizenship, and then moving back to Canada to start working in AEW for at least four years with his citizenship status completely up in the air.

[corndog]

Nov 18, 2019 17:51:35 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

Nov 18, 2019 17:40:30 GMT -5 Fundertaker said:

He may not be an actual Japanese citizen, though. He may be a permanent resident, as every account of him saying anything of the matter he always sounded insecure/dismissive or ran around that question, and NJPW (and DDT before that) might have been the sponsor for that, and without NJPW in the picture Kenny might have lost that status somehow.

That said, I guess only he and the people in authority might answer on what might have actually happened.

That seems likely; as I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong), taking Japanese citizenship involves renouncing all other citizenship. I can't imagine Kenny going through the hell of getting Japanese citizenship, renouncing his Canadian citizenship, and then moving back to Canada to start working in AEW for at least four years with his citizenship status completely up in the air.

All signs point to him not being Japanese citizen, just possible a permanent resident. This has came up on Reddit and those that live in Japan say there is no way he's a Japanese citizen, also I think we have a couple of posters that live there, who could clarify the issue.

[Fundertaker]

Nov 18, 2019 17:51:35 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

That seems likely; as I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong), taking Japanese citizenship involves renouncing all other citizenship.

Basically, yeah. For you to become a Japanese citizen you need to be nationless or renounce to any other citizenship in any other country. Of course there are a few exceptions but none of them apply to Kenny (mostly to do if you're a foreigner born in Japan or you were born overseas but have Japanese parents, etc. but most of those end in the person having to choose between being Japanese or other citizenship).