(NOAH) CyberAgent affiliation with “single win” core of opposition to New Japan Pro

30th January 2020
Yahoo Japan\Aera

A severe tremor has run through the professional wrestling world.

On January 29, CyberAgent announced that it had agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Noah Global Entertainment, which operates professional wrestling Noah.
DDT joined the CyberAgent group in September 2017, and they have become a group of professional wrestling promotions. DDT president, Sanshiro Takagi, will serve as Noah's president and Noah's Naomichi Marufuji will once again be Vice President. In the future, Noah will aim for further development by taking advantage of the affiliation with DDT.

Although DDT'S entry into CyberAgent was amazing news, Noah's entry is even more surprising.
DDT is relatively young promotion, which launched in 1997. It has a reputation for its planning abilities, and has been referred to as "cultural professional wrestling".
Noah, on the other hand, is a promotion in which the major wrestlers of All Japan (founded by Giant Baba in 1972), launched in 2000 after the mass walkout. The founder of the group was the late Mitsuharu Misawa, who had also been Tiger Mask II. Despite the history of hardship following Misawa's death after an accident during a match in 2009, when LIDET ENTERTAINMENT became the parent company last year, it made new innovations and increased the number of spectators.

Sayoko Mita, the anchor of the pro-wrestling and martial arts channel Samurai TV, said about Noah's joining CyberAgent, "I am surprised, but if Takagi who has a proven track record, can improve management so the wrestlers can concentrate on the match, it will be the best thing. I hope that the ring will be more attractive, and that the appeal will reach people who have not heard of Noah until now, with the support of those who are good at transmitting events".

President Takagi said at a press conference that he will aim for "the top position in the industry", but some fans are hoping to compete against New Japan Pro, in a situation which in wrestling, means there can only be a single victory.

A company employee who is a professional wrestling fan in his 40s, and who is living in Tokyo says, "I want CyberAgent to consolidate All Japan and Wrestle 1 and launch a large professional wrestling business that can compete with New Japan. I like the beautiful and stylish wrestling of New Japan, but I want a promotion that can show you more than that, a promotion like All Japan was in the past."

Hidetoshi Ichise, a reporter and sports writer, and the former "Weekly Pro" editor for All Japan*, says "This is a situation in which the sole winner is New Japan. Other promotions are trying to bring out a different appeal, but it is hard to reach the public. It is useless to try and do something different from New Japan, and you can't do the same. I wonder if it is possible for President Takagi to create a new sense of professional wrestling, that no one has so far been aware of."

"All genres are crushed by mania", was a statement spoken by President Takaaki Kidani, when the Bushiroad Group acquired New Japan in 2012. Ichise says that this was not a sense of values that were found in the professional wrestling world then.
"Whether it is good old wrestling or not, it is not something that Mr. Kitani has launched. Is it possible to come up with a third set of values what will appeal to both the current wrestling fans, and the former ones? I think it is there."

*A big All Japan fan, he joined Weekly Pro part time in 1986, when the relationship between the magazine and the promotion was bad, even to the point that All Japan refused interviews. As All Japan had no idea what he looked like, he was able to buy a ticket and pretend to be a member of the audience. He is also the founder of the "Wrestlers Directory", which comes out once a year. Eventually, he became beloved by All Japan, and was very close to Mitsuharu Misawa.

Link to original article from Yahoo Japan
Picture credit: Yahoo Japan\Aera