Jeff Jarrett talks New Japan sale number being “shockingly low”
It was recently revealed that a major corporate change had taken place as it relates to New Japan Pro Wrestling. Bushiroad recently sold all its shares in NJPW to its broadcast partner TV Asahi and digital media company CyberAgent. The share transfer is valued at approximately 3.6 billion yen, or roughly $22.6 million.
Reacting to the sale of the promotion on his My World podcast, Jeff Jarrett would comment on what he called the “shockingly” low number that the shares were sold for:
“That number to me was shockingly low, but I think it’s very telling in that the live event business has not come back [since the pandemic], they don’t project it’s going to come back anytime in the near future and New Japan World has not created a substantial revenue stream.
“I think wrestling again is a priority because we don’t have seasons, we run 52 weeks a year. I’m not saying it’s massive leverage, but it’s leverage, because we create live content every week, weekend, and that rates,. No, you’re not going to get blue chip broadcast advertisers, but it’s up there.”
NJPW shares sale numbers in context
Jarrett is someone that has history when it comes to the worth of promotions and selling to new stakeholders. Double J sold sold his remaining minority stake of TNA to Dixie Carter in 2015, although the amount he got for the sale has never been publicly disclosed.
To put the $22.6 million into context compared to some historic pro wrestling sales/contract deals:
- WCW sale price in 2001 – $4.2 million (originally valued at around $67 million by Eric Bischoff and Fusient Media), which is around $8.1 million-ish in today’s money
- TNA reportedly made $24 million a year on Spike TV domestically (according to Jarrett – TNA was on Spike TV from 2005 to 2014, but Jarrett did not confirm when the company were being paid that amount for the TV rights)
- WWE purchased the defunct assets of ECW out of bankruptcy for approximately $1.3 million to $1.5 million in the early 2000s.
- Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased Ring of Honor in May 2011 for an undisclosed amount. Tony Khan then purchased the brand in 2022 for reportedly less than $4 Million.
Jake is the Head of Audience at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012.
He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling as Head of Media as well as working on the social channels of the company.