Rocky Romero: I’m Probably Going To Try To Bring NJPW STRONG Back To A Weekly Format

13 comments

1. I personally miss the weekly Strong shows and I wish they’d go back to the tapings format. Even if they were to partner with IMPACT’s production crew, I would greatly appreciate that. Strong was must see for me — as I loved its approach to Western wrestling, and I really loved the roster Rocky assembled.

   Also, shoutout to the “Keepin It Strong Style” podcast. They posted this episode in the sub recently, however I just didn’t see anyone talk about this quote from Rocky! Really good stuff.

2. Let it be. Rather bring back Roppongi 3K … 3K, 3K.

3. I do miss seeing some of the regular Strong wrestlers.

   I think it would be hard to convince NJPW management to fund this. He might need to bring tapings back in a different format. Maybe do an event and a taping the next day so you have big names from the event on the tapings. Events are not regular enough to have content every week, so also piggyback on partnership tapings. When MLW, ROH, and Impact tape, film a few matches at their tapings. They won’t be in front of traditional NJPW fans, but you would have far fewer production costs then doing your own set of tapings. They might even be able to gain a fan. In return, the partnership promotion can use the talent Strong flown in.

4. Could be a good or a bad thing depending on your viewpoint of NJPW.

   Their roster isn’t particularly big, and while that allows for more intimate fan/talent relationships it can stagnate pretty quickly. Having Strong as a weekly show can not only give new talent a job as well as somewhere they otherwise wouldn’t be able to showcase their skills, but if they treated it like WWE’s NXT, you would have a stable pool of talent you could call up when needed, not to mention another place for Young Lions to hone their skills.

   Negatively, it’s going to cost money before it’s going to make money, and if NJPW doesn’t back it fully it’ll be absolute shit that’ll end up hurting thr company more than help it. They original pandemic STRONG shows were unique in their production and setting, sort of like a slightly elevated indie vibe, but that isn’t going to fly for very long if you’re hoping to get more out of the product than what you’re putting in. It’ll be a considerable money sink to buy up better production, venues, touring…if Romero is serious about it, I’d love to see it but just hope he has the resources to back it up

5. Here’s what I’m thinking would be the big issue for the revitalization of a STRONG weekly show: most likely the only way it would make enough money to justify it existing is with a TV deal or partnership with another company that will foot the bill for it. Because judging from how little discussion I saw about OG STRONG in the IWC at large, it probably didn’t generate many new World subs. And I don’t know much about this kind of thing, but I’d assume ticket sales won’t be much higher than operating costs unless they keep the prices high (and fans are already complaining about the current pricing for PPVs) or keep production costs low and book low-tier venues (which was one of the turnoff points of OGS).

   You could argue that if they’re able to bring in more imported talent it would justify the ticket prices/boost popularity, but they’re doing that right now with the PPVs and I’m not sure it’s working well enough to be sustainable. IMO the upcoming Vegas show will be a big indicator of where they’re at (if Mercedes isn’t back for it, as her fans that will tune in only for her and don’t care about the rest of the product skew the numbers).

   But maybe I’m wrong with all that, or maybe Rocky’s got a money deal in the works. However there’s also what I think is the issue with STRONG as a whole, which is the Americanization of the product.

   NJPW seem to believe US fans will watch anything with the those four letters attached to it, when really the main value of the company in the States has always been the import of Japanese talent/international talent who don’t work here often.

   I’m not saying they shouldn’t book domestic talent (Lawlor and Rosser were absolutely two of the highlights of OGS). But I could probably walk into any notable US indie and see two dudes from North America working a decent enough NJPW-style or quality match. And I can turn on my TV or laptop pretty much any day of the week and probably see one or more, as well.

   So unless they’re able to regularly import talent, or I guess at the very least sign the key domestic guys to exclusive deals and book them so they’re important enough to be draws (which they didn’t do before and still don’t do now), weekly STRONG will essentially just be another US indie company; and they have a *lot* of competition in that regard. (One of which is run by their old pal Tony and just had an NJPW title match on their own weekly show.)

   Also Rocky would need to hire a booker who’s good at storylines, because for the most part OGS was (and honestly, PPV STRONG still kind of is) pretty lacking in that regard. Especially considering I think the regular NJPW formula of storytelling mainly in the ring just doesn’t work for weekly TV, especially in the west.

6. I admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the STRONG weekly TV episodes before it switched to STRONG Live, but there isn’t really a difference is there? Even before it switched to Live and On Demand it all just seemed like it was a regular 3/4 hour NJPW show featuring a series of matches cut down into 4/5 episodes.

7. How about doing Strong in Mexico to save a bunch of money? If it’s gonna look and sound like shit with an audience of 100, have the amount of money invested make sense. Lean into the CMLL relationship a bit more. If it gets success, then go up to Los Angeles twice a year for a bigger show at Long Beach Pavillion.

8. Is Rocky running Strong?

9. You don’t need it and it was definitely not the best to to invest in that. They need to rebuild their fan base in japan first.

10. No offense but why ? I feel like most of the more popular wrestlers in njpw are frequently on other promotions cards now . And the strong specific wrestlers are on other cards or not big draws with this format . They need to treat Strong like current nxt to a degree . Not as developmental but as a feeder brand . They can build up the talent there and make the belts worth more and even do a tournament of some kind for G1 spot

11. As a wrestling fan, I would love to see it. It had an identity crisis at the start, but eventually evolved into an entertaining show that gave a bigger stage to talent that would benefit from the exposure.

    From a business perspective, I’m not so sure on that. I gotta believe getting a venue, production crew and talent is worth more than whatever you would get from running these shows. Between an already saturated market in the US, and NJPW still financially recovering, it’s likely cloud talk more than anything.

12. Id love if this happened but truly feels like NJPW management considered Strong its side project that purely came about bc of Covid and that was it.

13. Some small tweaks and I think it could really work. The production needs a little more love, and having a decent crowd would be very important. The vibes were kind of off before. But I have a lot of time for the previous roster and I think it makes a lot of sense as a way to grow stars. Would be another avenue for the many talented indie wrestlers of the USA to get some tv time and connections etc too