More NOAH news for
@Roadster
NOAH has been bought. According to Tokyo Sports, a IT company is in the process of finalizing the purchase ofPro Wrestling NOAH, all its trademarks and contracts. Former All Japan executive Masayuki Uchida (he worked in All Japan under Mutoh, and was supposed to be president of AJPW once Mutoh sold it to Shiraishi, but Shiraishi fired him instead and that caused Mutoh to start the W1 exodus. So Uchida has a pretty eventful history) is to become the new president of the company. This new ownership/corporate structure is rumored to be revealed at Korakuen on November the third.
This will be VERY interesting to follow. Especially how this impact the NOAH and New Japan/Bushiroad relationship. A lot of the big names in NOAH (Shiozaki, Kanemaru, Suzuki-gun boys etc) are under Bushiroad contracts, not NOAH contracts. And a vast majority of the NOAH roster hates having Jado as the booker. This could lead to some pretty big changes in NOAH fairly quickly and there is talk of the bigger names like Marufuji, Ishimori and Momo no Seishun tag (kotoge and Harada) jumping to New Japan.
Uchida being president is also interesting. He's always been glanced over in the history of All Japan as just a Mutoh stooge, and held the company together during the switch from Mutoh to Shiraishi. But he was fired by Shiraishi for questionable decisions in regards to the company (among the things he tried to implement was a feud between All Japan and WWE and to have the Rock work All Japan shows). So he's not exactly a perfect president either. Just overshadowed by Shiraishi and that debacle.
Fair to say we could see some changes to NOAH in the coming year. Big and small. And hopefully for the better, at least long term.