In its original incarnation, NJPW Strong was the name of a weekly professional wrestlingstreaming television show produced by NJoA. The series debuted on August 7, 2020, airing on Saturdays at 8 pm ET on NJPW World and FITE TV until its final episode aired on January 28, 2023.
After the program's end, NJPW Strong became the branding for NJPW events held in the United States. These events are distributed live via PPV under the NJPW Strong Live banner, and are later distributed as part of the NJPW Strong on Demand series.
History
Background and Early format
On November 24, 2014, AXS TV, under the AXS TV Fights banner, announced that it had acquired a thirteen-episode series produced by TV Asahi featuring matches from New Japan Pro Wrestling. The series premiered on January 16, 2015, airing on Friday evenings.[4] This was the first time NJPW had been aired on an American television network since its formation in 1972.[5] NJPW content would continue to air on AXS until December 2019.[6][7]
On October 21, 2019, NJPW announced the formation of an American subsidiary called "New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America" (NJoA).[8] On July 31, 2020, NJPW announced a new weekly series titled NJPW Strong, with its initial episodes to feature matches from the inaugural New Japan Cup USA tournament. As part of NJPW's expansion into the United States, the series would be produced by NJoA.[9]
The premiere episode of Strong aired on August 7, 2020, broadcast live from NJPW's training dojo in Los Angeles, and streaming on NJPW's service NJPW World.[10] The event was held with no spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11] On August 19, NJPW announced that Strong would be streaming on FITE TV in conjunction with NJPW World.[12]
Change in format
On January 6, 2023, Hiroshi Tanahashi announced on his blog that the January Strong tapings would be the last, and that "overseas tournaments" would be held in a different format in the future.[13]
On January 30, NJPW announced that all of the promotion's future American events would be branded under the NJPW Strong name, and be available for purchase via pay-per-view (PPV) providers. Beginning with Battle in the Valley on February 18, the NJoA PPVs began airing as NJPW Strong Live. These PPV events will later air on NJPW World in hour-long installments known as NJPW Strong on Demand.[14]
August 7, 2020 – October 24, 2020 November 28, 2020 – December 18, 2020 January 8, 2021 – April 30, 2021 May 21, 2021 – August 20, 2021 September 25, 2021 - October 2, 2021 November 6, 2021 - November 13, 2021 November 20, 2021 - January 8, 2022 January 22, 2022 - June 25, 2022 July 16, 2022 – August 27, 2022 October 29, 2022 - November 5, 2022 November 26, 2022 - December 17, 2022 January 8, 2023 - January 28, 2023
Japanese
Katsuyori Shibata, Hirooki Goto, and Shigeki Kiyono
October 9, 2021 - October 30, 2021 July 2, 2022 - July 9, 2022 September 3, 2022 September 24, 2022 - October 1, 2022 October 1, 2022 - October 22, 2022
Japanese
Katsuyori Shibata/Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yuji Nagata, and Shigeki Kiyono
September 10, 2022 - September 17, 2022 October 9, 2022
Japanese
Takami Ohbari and Shigeki Kiyono
January 15, 2022
Japanese
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Takami Ohbari and Shigeki Kiyono
November 12, 2022 - November 19, 2022
Japanese
Katsuyori Shibata, Takami Ohbari and Shigeki Kiyono