Formation and early history (1972–2000) , seen here in 2012. The promotion was founded by
Antonio Inoki on January 13, 1972 after his departure from the
Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance promotion. The first NJPW event, titled
Opening Series, took place on March 6, 1972, in the Ota Ward Gymnasium in Tokyo, to a crowd of 5,000. The following year, NJPW signed a television deal with NET TV, now known as
TV Asahi. The promotion was a member of the
National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from 1975 to 1985 and once more from 1992 to 1993. NJPW was briefly reaffiliated with the NWA in the late 2000s to the early 2010s as well. On January 4, 1992, NJPW partnered with
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to produce
Super Warriors, the first ever
January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, an event that would become an annual tradition for NJPW and is considered their biggest event of the year and comparable to
WWE's
WrestleMania event. In April 1995, NJPW and WCW held the two-day
Collision in Korea event at the
Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in
Pyongyang,
North Korea. The event was the first professional wrestling event held in North Korea and holds the record for most attended wrestling event of all time, with 355,000 people packing the stadium over the two days.
Decline and Inoki's departure (2000–2011) In the early 2000s, the burgeoning popularity of
mixed martial arts (MMA) in Japan was noticed by Inoki, who wanted to integrate elements of
shoot wrestling to make the company appear more realistic. The company would partner with martial arts organization
K-1 and begin to insert wrestlers into MMA fights, with the goal of pushing NJPW in a more realistic direction and to make it appear as an actual sport. The company's new management was criticized by critics and fans. Inoki later departed NJPW in 2005 after selling his share of the company to
Yuke's, and began his own promotion, the
Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), in 2007. After his departure, Inoki's son-in-law Simon took over the company, before Naoki Sugabayashi was appointed president in 2007 after Simon also left NJPW to join Antonio in IGF. Also in 2007, NJPW hosted its first ever
pay-per-view (PPV) event
Wrestle Kingdom I. The promotion debuted a new series called
NEVER in August 2010, designed to be a series of events spotlighting younger up-and-coming New Japan talent and feature more outsider participation in the promotion. On January 4, 2011, New Japan officially announced the
NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast, the promotion's first tour of the United States to be held in May 2011. The tour featured shows in
Rahway, New Jersey on May 13,
New York City on May 14 and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 15, as well as cross-promotion with American independent group
Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW). As part of the tour, NJPW introduced a new title, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Acquisition by Bushiroad and expansion (2012–2020) On January 31, 2012,
Yuke's announced that it had sold all shares of New Japan Pro-Wrestling to card game company Bushiroad for
¥500 million ($6.5 million). New Japan aired its first internet
pay-per-view, the fourth day of the
2012 G1 Climax, on August 5, 2012. The October 8, 2012,
King of Pro-Wrestling pay-per-view marked the first time viewers outside Japan were able to order a pay-per-view by the promotion through
Ustream. On October 5, 2012, New Japan announced the creation of the NEVER Openweight Championship, which would be contested for on the NEVER series. A two-day tournament to determine the inaugural champion was held between November 15 and 19, 2012. The final NEVER event was held in November 2012. In February 2014, New Japan announced a partnership with
Ring of Honor (ROH), which saw the promotion return to North America the following May to present two supershows;
Global Wars in
Toronto and
War of the Worlds in New York City. During the tour, New Japan wrestlers also took part in an event held by
Canadian promotion
Border City Wrestling (BCW). A year later, NJPW and ROH announced another tour together to produce four more supershows;
War of the Worlds '15 on May 12 and 13 in Philadelphia and
Global Wars '15 on May 15 and 16 in Toronto. In June 2014, New Japan announced a partnership with the new American
Global Force Wrestling (GFW) organization helmed by
Jeff Jarrett. In November 2014, GFW announced that it would be broadcasting NJPW's
Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome on pay-per-view in the United States as a four-hour event. Also in November 2014, the American
AXS TV network announced it had acquired rights to rebroadcast a series of thirteen episodes of NJPW matches from
TV Asahi. The series premiered on January 16, 2015, airing weekly on Fridays. Averaging 200,000 viewers per episode, the show was considered a success, leading to AXS TV and TV Asahi signing a multi-year deal to continue airing the show. In June 2016, the show was also acquired by the Canadian
Fight Network. On December 1, 2014, NJPW and TV Asahi announced
NJPW World, a new worldwide streaming site for the promotion's events. On July 18, 2015, NJPW announced the "New IWGP Conception", a global expansion strategy centered on their international partnerships with
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), GFW, ROH,
Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW),
Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), and the
National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) as well as holding more shows in
Thailand,
Singapore, and
Taiwan. Also announced was the
Lion's Gate Project, which would feature NJPW rookies as well as up-and-coming outsiders working trial matches in an effort to earn a spot in the promotion. Finally, it was announced that there were plans to take the company public with a listing on the stock market within three to five years. On December 21, 2015, NJPW announced the creation of its seventh active title and the first six-man tag team championship in the promotion's history, the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On January 5, 2016, NJPW announced a partnership with the
Amuse talent agency with the goal of making the promotion's wrestlers internationally recognized stars in the vein of
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. In March 2017, NJPW partnered with the
New Zealand-based
Fale Dojo, a pro wrestling training facility run by NJPW performer
Bad Luck Fale. NJPW will utilize the partnership as an opportunity to scout talent from
Oceania. On May 12, 2017, NJPW announced the creation of a new title: the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, with the inaugural champion to be crowned during the promotion's
G1 Special in USA shows in
Long Beach, California on July 1 and 2. Four days later, NJPW held a press conference to announce plans to establish a subsidiary company, including a dojo, in the United States. A
Los Angeles office was scheduled to be opened before the end of 2017, with a dojo scheduled to be opened at the start of 2018. NJPW's second American event,
Strong Style Evolved, took place on March 25, 2018, also in Long Beach. In November 2017, NJPW signed a television deal with
Discovery Communications, which would see the company's programming brought to 70 million
Indian homes through
DSport. In January 2018, NJPW announced the four-show Fallout Down Under tour, the promotion's inaugural tour of
Australia spanning from February 16–19. In March 2018, New Japan opened the NJPW LA Dojo with
Katsuyori Shibata serving as head trainer and ROH wrestler
Scorpio Sky serving as assistant trainer. On May 13, 2018, New Japan hired its first foreign president, Dutch businessman
Harold Meij. In February 2019, NJPW re-established their partnership with the NWA and entered into a new partnership with
The Crash Lucha Libre; both partnerships ended later in 2019. On October 21, 2019, NJPW announced the formation of a new American subsidiary of the company, named
New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America (NJoA). On October 31, 2019, Super7 announced the first line of NJPW
action figures.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022) Amidst from the
Japanese onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in accordance with recommendations from the Japanese Ministry of Health, NJPW decided to cancel all scheduled shows from March 1 through March 15. On March 10, NJPW announced that they were cancelling all shows through March 22, which meant that they cancelled the
2020 New Japan Cup as well.
World Wonder Ring Stardom is owned by
Bushiroad, also made adjustments to their schedule, cancelling shows from February 18 to March 14. Their March 8 show in
Korakuen Hall was held without any spectators in attendance, instead streaming live on their
YouTube channel. On March 23, NJPW would later cancel the 2020
Sakura Genesis event that was originally scheduled to take place in on March 31. On April 8, NJPW would cancel more events from April 11 through May 4, which mean both nights of 2020
Wrestling Dontaku were cancelled as well. On May 6, NJPW cancelled their annual
Best of the Super Juniors tournament. The next day, NJPW postponed their Wrestle Dynasty event to 2021, which was to take place in
Madison Square Garden in New York. On June 9, NJPW announced their return with special show with mystery match card called
Together Special on June 15 and the return of the New Japan Cup would now be held from June 16 until July 11, with the final being held at
Osaka-jō Hall in
Osaka alongside
Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall being rescheduled to July 12. On September 29, NJPW announced that Meij would no longer be appointed president of the promotion and was replaced by Takami Ohbari on October 23, who is the current CEO of New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America. In 2020, NJPW partnered with
Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) and
Major League Wrestling (MLW), with both promotions sending wrestlers to the
Super J-Cup tournament. On July 31, NJPW announced a new weekly series titled
NJPW Strong, with its initial episodes to feature matches from the inaugural
New Japan Cup USA tournament. As part of NJPW's expansion into the United States, the series would be produced by NJoA. In February 2021, it was reported that NJPW had entered into partnerships with
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and
Impact Wrestling. On November 19, 2021, NJPW would re-establish a relationship with
Pro Wrestling Noah with Noah wrestlers being involved at the third night of NJPW's
Wrestle Kingdom 16 event. During
Wrestle Kingdom 16 in January 2022, it was announced that NJPW programming, including new programs and reruns of past English broadcasts, would return to
AXS TV and
Fight Network in the United States and Canada. Reruns will begin airing on AXS starting January 20, with all new content to premiere on March 3. On the April 20, 2022 episode of
AEW Dynamite, it was announced that New Japan and AEW would co-promote a supershow called
AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door. The event would take place on June 26, 2022, at the
United Center in
Chicago, Illinois. During September 2022, NJPW announced
NJPW Tamashii, an Oceania-based brand that would stage events throughout the region.
Post-COVID and new partnerships (2022–present) On October 1, 2022, NJPW's founder
Antonio Inoki died from
systemic transthyretin amyloidosis at age 79. On January 4, 2023, NJPW held their
Wrestle Kingdom 17 event in Inoki's honor. In October 2023, NJPW and sister promotion
World Wonder Ring Stardom established the Asia Pacific Pro-Wrestling Alliance, an interpromotional governing body that seeks to connect wrestling promotions across Asia. On January 5, 2024, the alliance was renamed the
Asia-Pacific Federation of Wrestling (APFW). The inaugural event sanctioned by APFW, NJPW's Wrestling World in Taiwan, took place on April 14 in
Taipei. The inaugural UJPW
event took place on May 6, 2024, in the
Nippon Budokan arena. On April 23, 2024, NJPW announced that it would fully acquire sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom on June 28. The acquisition was completed on June 28, with Stardom Co., Ltd. becoming a subsidiary of NJPW. ==Contracts==