{"id":21575,"date":"2018-07-06T22:22:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T02:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=21575"},"modified":"2018-07-07T09:13:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T13:13:08","slug":"notes-from-njpw-g1-special-press-conference-more-2018-us-dates-added","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/07\/06\/notes-from-njpw-g1-special-press-conference-more-2018-us-dates-added\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes From NJPW G1 Special Press Conference: More 2018 US Dates Added"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)<\/strong> held it&#8217;s G1 Special Press Conference today in San Francisco, the day before the upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2018\/07\/02\/preview-njpw-g1-special-in-san-francisco-7-7-18\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>G1 Special in San Francisco<\/strong><\/em><\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2018\/03\/19\/a-brief-history-of-the-iconic-cow-palace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the legendary Cow Palace<\/a>. Per the norm, the bulk of the time was spent with NJPW wrestlers like IWGP Heavyweight Champion <strong>Kenny Omega<\/strong>, IWGP Tag Team Champions <strong>The Young Bucks<\/strong>, IWGP United States Champion <strong>&#8220;Switchblade&#8221; Jay White, Cody &amp; Brandi Rhodes<\/strong>, <strong>EVIL &amp; SANADA<\/strong> and <strong>Juice Robinson<\/strong>. But there was some serious business discussed too, featured in the dialogue when newly appointed NJPW President\u00a0<strong>Harold Meij<\/strong> took the field. The Dutch businessman, who is a former Senior Vice President of <strong>Coca Cola Japan<\/strong>, executive with <strong>Heineken Japan<\/strong>, and then <strong>President &amp; CEO<\/strong> for Tomy, one of Japan&#8217;s largest toy companies, the 54-year old marketing whiz was announced as the new President of NJPW on May 13, 2018.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21585\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21585\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21585\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DdNXhzxW0AAdqIo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DdNXhzxW0AAdqIo.jpg 450w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DdNXhzxW0AAdqIo-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DdNXhzxW0AAdqIo-80x60.jpg 80w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DdNXhzxW0AAdqIo-265x198.jpg 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21585\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harold Meij with NJPW Parent Company Bushiroad&#8217;s New Japan Rep Takaaki Kidani (Photo: NJPW)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h1>JPW G1 Special Press Conference<\/h1>\n<p>Today, he told the media about what many were hoping for &#8211; although for some it may have been earlier than expected.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NJPW president Harold Meij announces that NJPW will return to Long Beach on September 30 for \u201cFighting Spirit Unleashed\u201d and debut in Anaheim with a Young Lion-led \u201cThe Lions Break\u201d show on November 10 and 11.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Voices of Wrestling (@voiceswrestling) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/voiceswrestling\/status\/1015312795708088321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The announcement of three more New Japan dates in the US for 2018 &#8211; including two based around their <strong>Young Lions<\/strong>, their developmental brand &#8211; is a bold move for a company that has only just scratched the surface of their US expansion. Last year&#8217;s two night <em><strong>G1 Special in Long Beach<\/strong><\/em> was New Japan&#8217;s first solo produced event on US soil since the last date of their <em><strong>NJPW Invasion Tour<\/strong><\/em> in May of 2011. After that, New Japan avoided the west, most likely after a souring with TNA&#8217;s use of New Japan wrestlers such as <strong>Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito<\/strong> and <strong>Shinsuke Nakamura<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21577\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21577\" style=\"width: 366px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21577\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DVu-mA0VQAAtce6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"366\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DVu-mA0VQAAtce6.jpg 366w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DVu-mA0VQAAtce6-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DVu-mA0VQAAtce6-279x420.jpg 279w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This masked sidekick would eventually go on to make it rain and become IWGP Heavyweight Champion. (Photo: Impact Wrestling)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2014, New Japan opened their trust again, but this time turned to <strong>Ring of Honor<\/strong>. Together, the two began to create co-branded events in the US and Japan, <em><strong>War of the Worlds<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>Global Wars<\/strong><\/em>. Since then, ROH has become invaluable to integrating NJPW wrestling back into North American consumption, starting with the perfect entry demographic &#8211; the indie wrestling fan. They were the ones who would put more attention on the ring work than the characters, and the ROH fans ate it up. This lead to ROH stars appearing at <strong>Wrestle Kingdom<\/strong> in Japan, and New Japan stars showing up at ROH events.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21580\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21580\" style=\"width: 388px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21580\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/roh-globalwars_L.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"388\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/roh-globalwars_L.jpg 388w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/roh-globalwars_L-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/roh-globalwars_L-300x420.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 388px) 100vw, 388px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21580\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: ROH\/NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But last year, after years of rebuilding New Japan back from near closure in the mid 2000s, NJPW was ready to take the next step in their legacy &#8211; international expansion. And not the leap frog kind, like through ROH in the US or <strong>Revolution Pro UK (RevPro)<\/strong> in the UK, but time to start standing on their own legs. Last July 1, they held the first NJPW event since May 13, 2011 in Philadelphia, with the <em>G1 Special in Long Beach<\/em>, where they sold out the 2300 seat venue for two nights. Main evented by Kenny Omega winning the inaugural IWGP US Championship in a finals match against <strong>Tomohiro Ishii<\/strong>, the weekend was a resounding success. They could have sold out a much bigger venue.\u00a0In 2018, so far we&#8217;ve already had three NJPW events this year, with now three more this fall &#8211; that&#8217;s six events only a year after running your first weekend. We had <em><strong>Strong Style Evolved<\/strong><\/em> back in Long Beach this past March (with double the attendance), where <strong>The Golden Lovers<\/strong> (Omega &amp; <strong>Kota Ibushi<\/strong>) defeated The Young Bucks in an absolute tag team classic in the main event, followed by their first Twitch special last week, when they produced an event at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/videos\/279123473\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>CEO X NJPW<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>event at the <strong>CEO Gaming<\/strong> Convention. The main event was The Golden Lovers facing <strong>Los Ingobernables de Japon<\/strong> duo, <strong>Tetsuya Naito<\/strong>\u00a0and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion <strong>Hiromu Takashi<\/strong>. And tomorrow&#8217;s <em>G1 Special in San Francisco<\/em> will feature newly crowned IWGP Champion Kenny Omega defending his title and honor as Bullet Club against Cody Rhodes. The US events are definitely thrusting Omega as the focal point, and is smart business to do so.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21581\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21581\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21581\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/kenny-omega-696x392-e1530929422793.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21581\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The next event will be back at Long Beach, but whether they return to The Pyramid (the site of this spring&#8217;s <em>Strong Style Evolved<\/em>) or try for something bigger is yet to be determined. They got a little bit of a scare when they didn&#8217;t sell out the Cow Palace as quickly as expected &#8211; in fact, with less than 24 hours left to go, there&#8217;s still plenty of tickets left for the 10,000 seat venue. But to be fair, it&#8217;s still a far bigger turn out again than <em>Strong Style Evolved<\/em>, so it&#8217;s not a bad thing. They still did better than the time before, so that&#8217;s still a victory. The date is Sunday September 30, which is ironically the same weekend that their running buddies Ring of Honor are close by &#8211; ROH is holding <em><strong>Death Before Dishonor XVI<\/strong><\/em> in Las Vegas on Friday September 28 and will most likely be doing tapings that Saturday as well. So there&#8217;s a good chance we could see a NJPW presence on Friday and a ROH one on Sunday.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21582\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21582\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21582\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/2jbb6pH-e1530929520470.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"475\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last year&#8217;s Young Lions crop (Photo: NJPW)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the intriguing part is the two night Young Lions-lead event on Saturday November 10 and Sunday November 11 in Anaheim, called <em><strong>Fighting Spirit Unleashed<\/strong><\/em>. For those unaware, the Young Lions are the graduating students from the NJPW Dojo, who work their way up from being the boys around the ring, to wrestling Young Lions events (such as the Lions Gate events), to going on their foreign excursion for international training. In laymen&#8217;s terms, Young Lions is like WWE&#8217;s NXT (the Performance Center recruitment aspect, as Young Lions are young students, not indie free agents). Seeing the emerging talent from NJPW (and future stars) is exciting to see, plus it may feature some of the trainees from the Los Angeles NJPW Dojo, which opened last summer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21586\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21586\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21586\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/Dd3MWznU0AAmge--e1530930142606.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"408\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21586\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NJPW is clearly going full speed ahead with their US expansion, with the blue prints set for a series of regular stops in the US for years to come. And with <strong>Mark Cuban<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>AXS TV<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wrestling\/2018\/07\/05\/wwe-njpw-news-mark-cuban-axs-tv-juice-robinson-matt-cappotelli\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">looking to expand its NJPW content with more live specials<\/a>, NJPW is on the fast track to become a vibrant part of the North American wrestling mainstream.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21584\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/f86bf038210a98e3029c61dbb0551455-e1530929841476.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"388\" height=\"550\"><\/p>\n<p>Cody Rhodes has gone back to being a brunette.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">If Cody Rhodes is not going to have 80s villain blonde hair what is even the point? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QB4rZEKtVK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/QB4rZEKtVK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Art from Friends at the Table (@atebbel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atebbel\/status\/1015394078626705408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 7, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) held it&#8217;s G1 Special Press Conference today in San Francisco, the day before the upcoming G1 Special in San Francisco at the legendary Cow Palace. Per the norm, the bulk of the time was spent with NJPW wrestlers like IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega, IWGP Tag Team Champions The Young [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":21578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13,14],"tags":[2790,98,2611,386,188],"class_list":["post-21575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-njpw","tag-axs-tv","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-g1-special-in-san-francisco","tag-kenny-omega","tag-njpw"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}