(NOAH) New President Sanshiro Takagi, and a bullish challenge to New Japan

30th January 2020
Yahoo Japan

A new boatman leads The Ark! President Susumu Fujita of the major IT business CyberAgent, announced on the 29th January that they have acquired Pro Wrestling Noah. The new president will be DDT'S Sanshiro Takagi (50), with the vice president being Naomichi Marufuji (40). After the press conference, President Takagi intensified his enthusiasm for the revival of Noah in a discussion with this newspaper. He also hit a "bullish" challenge against the industry leader, New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Q: What are your goals as new president?
TAKAGI: First, I want to create "assets". For example, video is one of them. DDT has this strength, so the first priority is to stabilize management, while leaving the assets properly. I don't think that this is just limited to Noah, but I feel that we are in an era when we have to reconsider the way that both local and Tokyo box offices should be.

Q: Regional?
TAKAGI: Big matches are really important, but the important thing for that is to connect the dots to make a line. The important thing is the region. Local events are no longer just waypoints, and from a management perspective, it is better to develop big matches in rural areas.

Q: Is running the Tokyo Dome, like Noah used to hold in the past, the biggest goal?
TAKAGI: I haven't envisaged that yet, but as a manager the Tokyo Dome is certainly the sight that you want to see. There are various styles, and with timing it can be done in the best way. I think that "Tokyo Dome" is one of the keywords on the way to get there.

Q: What is the sales target?
TAKAGI: New Japan is 40 billion yen, so I guess its 50 billion (about 5.4 billion yen in sales in 2018), so there are things here that can be reached in five years. I think exposure is important for that. Expansion in power? I'm not thinking about that right now. The responsibilities are too big. With DDT, Noah and Tokyo Girls, I have to think about how big these three things will be.

Q: How aware are you of New Japan?
TAKAGI: To be honest, "it is not interesting if your place is always on the top". There may be new things when we become opponents. Here we (CyberAgent) have Noah, DDT and Tokyo Girls. Over there Bushiroad has New Japan and Stardom. That is something that everyone sees.

Q: Competition is likely to intensify?
TAKAGI: There may be people who say, "this is a proxy war* between Bushiroad and CyberAgent" (laughs). Whatever the form this takes, this has been reported as encouraging news. That is why we have to tell the world that "Puroresu is so exciting." On the contrary, I don't think that New Japan is the only way to convey such a thing. We too have to be able to play the part of spreading it to the world.

*A proxy war is a fight between two sides who use a third party as their representatives.

Link to original article from Yahoo Japan
Picture credit: Yahoo.co.jp\East Sports Web