New details on NJPW sale process
A new report has provided some more details on how Bushiroad’s sale of NJPW came to be.
It was announced on May 27 that Bushiroad, which had owned NJPW since 2012, was transferring all of its shares in the promotion to TV Asahi and CyberAgent. While those two companies will hold an equal 46.3 percent stake, NJPW will operate as a “consolidated subsidiary” of TV Asahi while receiving support from CyberAgent.
Japanese publication Weekly Gendai reports that Bushiroad had been considering selling NJPW since last year and approached TV Asahi about the possibility around February 2026. TV Asahi is NJPW’s longtime broadcast partner and already owned 22.7 percent of the promotion.
“Bushiroad felt they had reached the limits of how much profit they could make from New Japan Pro-Wrestling, so they had been considering selling it since around last year,” Weekly Gendai wrote. “That’s when, around February, they approached the upper management of TV Asahi, which has been broadcasting New Japan matches for many years.”
Citing a TV Asahi source, Weekly Gendai says TV Asahi reacted positively to the idea but, feeling limited in what they could do on their own, brought CyberAgent into the process. NJPW has touted TV Asahi and CyberAgent as being ideal owners because of the former’s strong broadcasting business and the latter’s excellent digital media operations. CyberAgent owns the streaming platform Abema, which already offers pro wrestling and currently has the WWE broadcast rights, though WWE will be moving to Netflix in Japan soon.
CyberAgent owns Pro Wrestling NOAH, DDT Pro Wrestling, and Tokyo Joshi Pro through its subsidiary CyberFight. In the Weekly Gendai report, it’s noted that CyberAgent considers wrestling to be strong content with the potential for overseas expansion.
Possible inter-promotional matches between NJPW and NOAH/DDT —
Though plans are still undecided, Weekly Gendai’s report mentions the potential for inter-promotional matches between NJPW and the other CyberAgent organizations.
“Furthermore, Cyber also owns major organizations such as NOAH and DDT,” the report says. “If they acquire New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the top organization in the industry, the professional wrestling world will become a ‘Cyber Empire.’ They will also be able to hold events that fans will enjoy, such as inter-promotional matches. However, future plans are still undecided.”
NJPW’s sale to TV Asahi and Cyber Agent is worth approximately 3.6 billion yen, or roughly $22.6 million, which Dave Meltzer described as being “shockingly low to those involved in the wrestling business.” Bushiroad had owned 70 percent of NJPW, with 3,550,200 of those shares being transferred to TV Asahi and the other 6,950,200 shares going to CyberAgent.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.