Report: Reason AXS TV Cut Ties With NJPW Revealed

On December 27th, New Japan Pro Wrestling confirmed their US TV deal with AXS TV had been terminated early. Their deal was expected to run until January 2021 but both parties agreed to go their separate ways.

The stumbling block to continuing relations was ultimately Anthem Sports & Entertainment's purchase of AXS TV back in September, according to Dave Meltzer. As Anthem is the parent company of IMPACT Wrestling, they tried to leverage New Japan's TV deal into forcing the promotion to establish a working relationship with IMPACT. New Japan refused to accept this arrangement, which resulted in AXS cancelling their TV deal.

"When AXS bought it (IMPACT) they said that New Japan was under contract until January 2021. So New Japan was under the impression they were going to be on until January 2021, and they thought there was a really good chance they would be off because its IMPACT’s station and they’re probably not going to want a better-looking product on their station than their own product.

"So what ended up happening was IMPACT and AXS basically said you can stay on the station if we get a working relationship going, and New Japan turned down the working relationship so they lost their television."