New Japan Pro-Wrestling has announced that they currently do not have any plans to air any of their 2020 events on American television, including next weekend’s Wrestle Kingdom 14.
Making this announcement on Twitter, NJPW thanked their fans for joining them on TV thus far and directed their audience to their streaming service, New Japan World, to continue following the product in English.
In response to US fan queries
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) December 27, 2019
There are currently no plans for TV broadcast of NJPW events in 2020 (WK14 included) in the US.
Thank you for joining us on TV so far. We invite you to join @njpwworld for all the action in 2020, LIVE and in English!https://t.co/ldAvP7y3CH#njpw pic.twitter.com/C0gV2JuJ37
AXS confirmed to Fightful Select that moving forward, NJPW will not be on the network.
New Japan's regular American television home, AXS TV, was sold to Anthem Sports on September 9. After the sale, Ryan Swift, who acted as Executive Producer of the NJPW program and also played a large role in AXS acquiring NJPW programming, was let go by Anthem Sports.
Anthem is also the parent company of IMPACT Wrestling and that brand immediately moved to AXS TV on Tuesday nights beginning in late October. NJPW and IMPACT have had a tumultuous relationship for many years following Kazuchika Okada's less than stellar run in the promotion from 2010-2011. The relationship has remained rocky in spite of IMPACT trying to mend fences by letting New Japan know that the regime that mishandled Okada is no longer in power.
This past summer, New Japan moved to Saturday nights as part of a block of content that also included WOW Superheroes.
Reportedly, the deal between AXS and New Japan Pro-Wrestling expires in January 2021. NJPW began airing on AXS in 2015.
