From 2010 to 2019, NJPW had one of the best runs ever seen by a wrestling promotion, only matched by runs from the likes of WWE in the Attitude Era or in the 90s by AJPW. Unfortunately, every great run has to come to an end.
NJPW has not been the same since 2020 and there’s a lot of factors that have led to this. The first one being COVID-19. The pandemic affected NJPW’s plans on big ways that are even felt to this days. NJPW has always been a long term booking promotion and the pandemic ruined a lot of the plans the promotion had for 2020, but we are two years past it and NJPW has yet to recover.
While NJPW still has the best wrestling in the world, watching the product is difficult nowadays. First you have the no cheering and only clapping crowds, and in some occasions are can become quiet, but this is not an excuse for NJPW. NOAH and STARDOM have had to face the same conditions than NJPW and have adapted a lot better than the number one promotion in Japan.
Since Gedo took the booking duties of NJPW, the promotion has had a booking philosophy that has many similarities to that of the US, while maintaining the booking ideas that work in Japan. But since Dick Togo joined the booking team, the booking has got worse, especially when you talk about the House of Torture stuff. It could be said a decline of the booking was starting to show back in 2019 before COVID happened.
Another major problem is the roster. NJPW’s roster is great but it needs new additions to it. While Okada vs. Naito is always fun to watch, NJPW needs new wrestlers to mix things up a bit and have other interesting match ups. The Forbidden Door with AEW could be a solution to this, but NJPW can’t count on that until things go back to normal in Japan and the rest of the world, whenever that’ll be.
NJPW has been a cold product these last two years but there’s still time turn things around in terms of their product.
