The future of New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV is unknown after news of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of Impact Wrestling, acquiring a majority interest in Mark Cuban’s AXS TV and HDNet Movies.
“Anthem has been public that it has not made any decisions regarding current programming,” said Ed Nordholm, Chief Corporate Officer of Anthem, and who is also in charge of Impact. “We have been long-time broadcast partners with TV Asahi for NJPW at Fight Network and hope to build on that relationship. We are in the middle of a season with WOW and about to tape another series of episodes next week, so no reason to make any decisions there in the short term. We’re looking forward to getting to know them better.”
Per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, NJPW has a contract with AXS TV that runs until January 2021.
NJPW came to AXS TV due to Adam Swift, the company’s former Vice President of Legal Affairs. He was a big fan of Japanese wrestling and sparked the idea of bringing the brand to the network. Swift was laid off following the acquisition, as were a number of other AXS TV staffs members as the Dallas office was shutdown. Swift’s idea was given the okay by Andrew Simon, CEO of AXS TV Fights, who was also let go.
AXS TV has served as the broadcast partners of NJPW since 2014.
It was announced yesterday that Impact will head to the network next month.
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