Report: NJPW "Close" To Booking Madison Square Garden Again
Another Supercard is coming...
Back on April 6, 2019, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring Of Honor hosted G1 Supercard, the first professional wrestling show at Madison Square Garden by a promotion not owned by the McMahon family in almost 60 years.
The New Japan portions of the show were widely praised as Will Ospreay faced Jeff Cobb, Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship main evented the show. The event also sold out in one day, and fans have been wondering if NJPW would return to MSG ever since.
In late 2019, it seemed in doubt that The Garden would host any wrestling promotion that wasn't WWE, especially after AAA's Lucha Invades NY had to be moved to the Hulu Theater because of poor ticket sales and WWE failed to sell out the famous arena for Monday Night Raw in September.
Now, however, Dave Meltzer has reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that New Japan is close to booking MSG for an August date. The Japanese promotion is keen to move out of Japan in the Summer due to the negative impact of the Tokyo Olympics, and they have seemingly decided to host a large international show instead.
Meltzer also noted that WWE will again resist another pro wrestling promotion booking MSG, but the arena will ignore their protestations because of how quickly New Japan sold out last time.
For the avoidance of doubt, Meltzer wrote: "There is still talk about a summer show in Madison Square Garden. It's not been announced but they did have an August date talked about a few weeks ago. It is close, but you still have the WWE component that at one point got the show shut down last year. The date wasn't finalized in time to announce it at the Dome on 1/5. But because New Japan did sellout in one day the first time, MSG did not close the door on them for booking even against the wishes of WWE."
The New Japan portions of the show were widely praised as Will Ospreay faced Jeff Cobb, Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship main evented the show. The event also sold out in one day, and fans have been wondering if NJPW would return to MSG ever since.
In late 2019, it seemed in doubt that The Garden would host any wrestling promotion that wasn't WWE, especially after AAA's Lucha Invades NY had to be moved to the Hulu Theater because of poor ticket sales and WWE failed to sell out the famous arena for Monday Night Raw in September.
Now, however, Dave Meltzer has reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that New Japan is close to booking MSG for an August date. The Japanese promotion is keen to move out of Japan in the Summer due to the negative impact of the Tokyo Olympics, and they have seemingly decided to host a large international show instead.
Meltzer also noted that WWE will again resist another pro wrestling promotion booking MSG, but the arena will ignore their protestations because of how quickly New Japan sold out last time.
For the avoidance of doubt, Meltzer wrote: "There is still talk about a summer show in Madison Square Garden. It's not been announced but they did have an August date talked about a few weeks ago. It is close, but you still have the WWE component that at one point got the show shut down last year. The date wasn't finalized in time to announce it at the Dome on 1/5. But because New Japan did sellout in one day the first time, MSG did not close the door on them for booking even against the wishes of WWE."
Written by Aidan Gibbons
Editor-in-Chief of Cultaholic.com Twitter: @theaidangibbons
