NJPW President On Wrestle Kingdom 14 Being A Two Day Show
The event will be held at the Tokyo Dome on the 4th and 5th of January.
New Japan Pro Wrestling announced earlier this year that Wrestle Kingdom 14 would be a two-day event. The show will be held on the 4th and 5th of January at the Tokyo Dome.
NJPW President Harold Meij recently held an interview with Fox Sports Australia. When asked about the show being over two days, he explained they wanted to highlight the variety of Japan's nightlife ahead of the 2020 Olympics - with professional wrestling being an alternative to Japan's many bars and restaurants.
He added: "Our shows, generally speaking, all sell out. Our product is very popular here in Japan. Because 2020 is an Olympic year, so there’ll be more global eyes on the sports and culture of Japan, we thought well, we’re part of the culture of Japan as well. Particularly for the nightlife. It’s been said that Japan is very good for daytime tourism but not so much for nightlife. There are restaurants and bars and that kind of thing, but not so much other types of entertainment. So even the government is saying let’s look at pro wrestling as a nightlife alternative to just restaurants. Because 2020 is an Olympic year, and because the demand for our product has been so great, that’s why we decided next year not to have just one Tokyo Dome day but two. The planning for that was more than a year before that - trying to get the venue obviously, but also deciding whether we want to do it because it’s a risk for us as well. Can we suddenly double the number of people coming? We have to see how it goes, of course. Anything if you overdo it becomes stale. We want to keep the specialness of it, so I don’t foresee doing it every year. Hopefully every so often, that would be wonderful, but we’ll have to see how the fans react the first time."
NJPW President Harold Meij recently held an interview with Fox Sports Australia. When asked about the show being over two days, he explained they wanted to highlight the variety of Japan's nightlife ahead of the 2020 Olympics - with professional wrestling being an alternative to Japan's many bars and restaurants.
He added: "Our shows, generally speaking, all sell out. Our product is very popular here in Japan. Because 2020 is an Olympic year, so there’ll be more global eyes on the sports and culture of Japan, we thought well, we’re part of the culture of Japan as well. Particularly for the nightlife. It’s been said that Japan is very good for daytime tourism but not so much for nightlife. There are restaurants and bars and that kind of thing, but not so much other types of entertainment. So even the government is saying let’s look at pro wrestling as a nightlife alternative to just restaurants. Because 2020 is an Olympic year, and because the demand for our product has been so great, that’s why we decided next year not to have just one Tokyo Dome day but two. The planning for that was more than a year before that - trying to get the venue obviously, but also deciding whether we want to do it because it’s a risk for us as well. Can we suddenly double the number of people coming? We have to see how it goes, of course. Anything if you overdo it becomes stale. We want to keep the specialness of it, so I don’t foresee doing it every year. Hopefully every so often, that would be wonderful, but we’ll have to see how the fans react the first time."
Written by Aidan Gibbons
Editor-in-Chief of Cultaholic.com Twitter: @theaidangibbons
