By Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist

With the announcement of Jim Ross being the lead voice of New Japan's “Wrestling Kingdom” PPV broadcast by Global Force Wrestling in January, many hardcore wrestling fans are wondering if NJPW could become a legitimate Number Two promotion to WWE in the U.S.

There are several things working against NJPW becoming the #2 promotion, with the biggest factor being the lack of television. If NJPW is going to take off, it likely means that the company is going to have to invest in bringing over a full-time English announce team to announce the shows. It would also mean that a notable cable channel along the lines of Spike TV would broadcast NJPW TV weekly.

The way the company tours with smaller shows building up to big PPVs, it would be difficult for NJPW to capture a mainstream audience in the U.S., but not impossible with the right announce team and TV presentation in place. It would be near impossible for NJPW tournaments like the Best of the Super Juniors and G1 Climax to play out on TV in the U.S., as it’s hard to imagine an audience being large enough to sustain all of the content that would have to be broadcast on TV to properly follow the promotion at certain points during the year.

It’s too early to begin thinking about the prospect of NJPW becoming a player at all in the U.S. right now. It’s hard to imagine GFW getting a big buyrate for “Wrestle Kingdom” with no avenue to push the show on TV. There’s likely a large enough hardcore audience out there mixed with some fans that have heard about NJPW, but are now only interested in the PPV because of Ross’s involvement.

If the numbers come through for the PPV in a positive direction, I wouldn’t be surprised to see GFW broadcast some of the bigger NJPW PPVs during the year. Perhaps with an avenue on TV to introduce NJPW to the mainstream American audience in the near future, NJPW could have a presence in the U.S., but I don’t think they will be contending for the #2 spot any time soon.

It’s hard to imagine any company, let alone a company based in Japan, competing with WWE. When you talk about a #2 promotion in the U.S., you’re simply talking about the company with the most visibility behind WWE. WWE holds a huge market advantage and even TNA with their resources couldn’t come close to competing with WWE. And, I don’t think they would have come close even if the product had been firing on all cylinders due to the lack of visibility they had on Spike TV.

The addition of Ross to the NJPW PPV presented by GFW is an exciting announcement for people in the U.S. that have been following NJPW in recent years or longer. The expectation for now should be for those fans to hope for more PPVs being presented with English commentary going forward, but we are a long way away from the company competing to be the #2 promotion here in the U.S.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

PWTorch VIP members can listen to audio roundtables on all three nights of CHIKARA’s 2014 King of Trios Tournament. I enjoyed the tournament as a whole and although the common factor between all three shows was that the middle of each card dragged a bit, the overall storytelling was very well-done. Jimmy Jacobs was especially a joy to watch in a lead role in The Flood vs. CHIKARA storyline that played out through all three nights. Reviews for all three nights of the tournament have been posted on the free and VIP PWTorch websites, so if you’re on the fence about ordering the shows from SmartMarkVideo.com, be sure to check out my reviews first. CHIKARA returns to iPPV on Dec. 6 on SMVOD.com with their season finale… WWN Live is on tour in China this week and although I’ve gotten limited feedback about the shows, it has been fun to hear about what excites the fans. One source I spoke to said the fans were really into the stomps, but on the first night A.R. Fox accidentally took a powerbomb to the floor and it didn’t get any reaction. We have the results of the first show up on the site right now and should have the results of the second show posted in the near future. The venues for these shows look stunning from what I’ve seen and I can’t wait to see these shows when they get posted on WWNLive.com on VOD…

One of my favorite things to do each year is watch PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament. I finished the first night and posted my review on the website. Needless to say, the show was very good with the Michael Elgin vs. Tommaso Ciampa match being the best of the first round matches presented on the show. The main event with The Young Bucks & Adam Cole taking on Chuck Taylor & Kenny Omega & Zack Sabre, Jr. was a blast to watch as well. I highly recommend picking up these shows. I had heard a lot of buzz about Sabre’s performance during the tournament and he had some amazing exchanges with Adam Cole during the opening moments of the main event. He is one of the best technical wrestlers in the world right now. Of course, The Young Bucks were fantastic in the match as well. They carry themselves like stars and their style of match is just a blast to watch. The spot where they hit a double superkick on Kenny Omega from the apron as he came through the ropes in an attempt to hit a dive on Cole was nothing short of spectacular. You can pick up all three nights of the 2014 edition of BOLA at Highspots.com…

(Sean Radican has watched wrestling for 28 years and has attended hundreds of live wrestling events from WWE and WCW to ROH and many indy events. He has reviewed hundreds of independent wrestling DVDs and major WWE DVD releases on the PWTorch website and for the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter. He has interviewed many wrestlers over the years for his columns and podcasts including Bully Ray, Rikishi, Samoa Joe, Davey Richards, The Road Dogg, Austin Aries, Antonio Cesaro, Christopher Daniels, Seth Rollins, Zach Gowen, Rhino, and Kevin Steen. He has reported on Ring of Honor for Pro Wrestling Torch since its early years along with the DGUSA/EVOLVE brands since their launch in 2009. He shares his expertise and knowledge of the top indy promotions with his VIP exclusive VIP Audio Show, the Radican Wrestling Community, on a regular basis. Follow Sean on Twitter at Twitter.com/SeanRadican or email Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Visit and like the RWC fan page on Facebook at Facebook.com/SeanRadicanRWC.)

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