A huge story in professional wrestling broke overnight with ownership of NJPW changing hands.
Bushiroad, which oversaw NJPW through its 2010s revival and international expansion efforts, announced that it has transferred all of its shares in the promotion to TV Asahi and CyberAgent. NJPW now becomes a “consolidated subsidiary” of TV Asahi with support from CyberAgent.
TV Asahi is NJPW’s longtime broadcast partner and already owned 22.7 percent of the voting shares in the promotion. Bushiroad owned 70 percent of NJPW, with the transfer of their shares being broken down into 3,550,200 shares to TV Asahi and 6,950,200 shares to CyberAgent. TV Asahi and CyberAgent now own an equal number of shares at 46.3 percent.
The share transfer is valued at approximately 3.6 billion yen, or roughly $22.6 million.
CyberAgent (through its subsidiary CyberFight) already owns three of Japan’s biggest wrestling companies in Pro Wrestling NOAH, DDT Pro Wrestling, and Tokyo Joshi Pro, so it will be interesting to see how closely NJPW collaborates with them going forward. CyberAgent operates the streaming platform Abema, which broadcasts WWE content in Japan. However, WWE programming will be moving to Netflix in Japan before the end of 2026.
In statements regarding the share transfer, NJPW says this will be a good move for the company given TV Asahi’s strong broadcasting and video business base and CyberAgent’s excellent digital media operations. NJPW does not plan to make any changes to its event schedule. As for NJPW World, its future has not been directly addressed, but TV Asahi has been part-owner since the streaming service’s launch and controls the NJPW video library.
“Currently, we have no plans to make any changes to our various business operations, including the events we organize, as a result of this Share Transfer,” NJPW said. “We would like to express our gratitude to Bushiroad, which has supported our business for many years as our largest shareholder, and we look forward to working together with TV Asahi and CyberAgent to further expand our business.”
NJPW/Stardom relationship —
One potentially significant change is that Bushiroad still owns Stardom, meaning that NJPW and Stardom are no longer under the same umbrella. NJPW transferred its ownership stake in Stardom to Bushiroad back in March.
Stardom president Taro Okada — who also works for NJPW — tweeted that the two promotions will continue to work together as fellow members of the Japanese wrestling community.
Bushiroad’s NJPW ownership history —
Bushiroad, a Japanese trading card company led by wrestling fan Takaaki Kidani, acquired NJPW from Yuke’s in 2012. The following years were an important period for NJPW as the promotion continued to break out of its dark ages and find business success during the Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada era. Developments in streaming technology meant that NJPW was now able to broadcast its events live worldwide, which helped build the NJPW fan base internationally and give existing fans easier access to the product.
The impacts of COVID brought another lull as the Japanese wrestling scene was hit hard economically. But the final Wrestle Kingdom of the Bushiroad era did serve as a high point, with NJPW selling out the Tokyo Dome this January for Tanahashi’s retirement match. Tanahashi currently serves as NJPW’s real-life president amid this ownership change.
“Our mission to create the best wrestling and bring joy to everyone remains unchanged,” Tanahashi said. “We sincerely appreciate your continued support and encouragement.”
