After over a year of running on Friday nights, the weekly NJPW show is jumping to Saturday nights. They have a big episode planned and highlighted this during the first night of G1 Climax action. However, a reason for the change wasn’t given – but there’s a chance that they don’t want to be competing with AEW Rampage.
NJPW & AEW Are Working Together – Not At War
When it comes to the modern wrestling landscape, AEW & NJPW are close partners. Next week, we have Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer in a featured match on AEW Rampage, in front of AEW’s biggest crowd yet. They’ve been working together more and more, to the point where the “Forbidden Door” opens at both ends with zero resistance.
However, there was an issue there. As NJPW starts to put more focus on Strong, bringing in names like Will Ospreay, Jay White and more for the coming tapings – they’d be fighting for the same time slot at AEW Rampage. Strong is already harder to watch, only being on NJPW World and Fite TV, but putting it in the same time slot at AEW Rampage splits the viewership. This was likely a major reason why things were moved around in this way. These companies aren’t at war – they are allies.
NJPW Strong Is Better Off On Saturdays
This makes the switch to Saturday nights a solid move for NJPW. They’re about to get more eyes on their product due to finally bringing in some big names on a consistent basis, and having a more unique timeslot of Saturday night could be better for them. We could even see AEW Rampage promote NJPW Strong, even just when AEW talents are on Strong or NJPW talents on Rampage.
The first episode of the new era had matches such as Juice Robinson vs. Hikuleo in a tables match, Hiroshi Tanahashi leading Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors to take on Barrett Brown, Bateman & Misterioso, and Alex Coughlin taking on Tomohiro Ishii. This was taped ahead of the G1 Climax, which is how Tanahashi & Tomohiro are able to be both here and in Japan. It’s a strong card, and NJPW is only going to get better as they focus more and more on Strong.
Do you think being on Saturday nights will help or hinder NJPW Strong? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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