J Sports to no longer carry WWE programming in Japan

[Chris]

Source: f4wonline.com

J Sports and WWE's 24-year partnership will be coming to an end, possibly leaving WWE without a major television partner in Japan.

J Sports issued a statement today announcing the end of their partnership with WWE effective December 31, 2021 for new programming and January 31, 2022 for on demand shows.

J Sports had been airing Raw and SmackDown live in English, plus one-hour highlights versions of the shows. Additionally, versions of the shows with Japanese subtitles have aired on J Sports.

WWE's pay-per-view events have been available on the J Sports On Demand platform.

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics tweeted:

"Other than 30-minute “This Week in WWE” updates on SamuraiTV and maybe syndicated regionally in some areas, I think WWE may be without a TV distributor in Japan in 2022."

Subscribers to the J Sports WWE pack have until December 31 to cancel their subscriptions, or else they will be charged for January's on demand content.

 

[Canadian Dragon]

that is surprising

 

[Chris]

Unless it's changed in recent years, I always thought WWE was stip fairly popular in Japan so I wonder if there's more to this. Also not gonna pretend like I know shit about Japanese broadcasters either if they were to switch to another one, couldn't tell you if it would be a better or worse switch

 

[Bobby Barrows]

J-Sports is very much a big deal in Japan so losing the deal like this is disastrous for WWE.

 

[Deezy]

Somewhere in California a certain "journalist" is still masturbating over this headline.

 

[Buffy]

Losing that deal in Japan is going to hurt them.

 

[Deezy]

And people are wondering why they're thinning their roster and took Triple H out of power.

He was supposed to takeover Japan and now they have no TV deal.....these negotiations didn't just happen yeaterday.

 

[Dale]

It's almost like a worldwide pandemic happened and put a screeching halt to their plans to expand

 

[Deezy]

Not sure how the pandemic affected tv negotiations you did on Zoom.

And now we know why Nick Khan was hired and those other execs were let go.

 

[Alexa]

Neat

 

[Dale]

So because HHH couldn't set up a NXT Japan territory due to the pandemic, it's his fault that they lost a TV deal that covered Raw & SmackDown? That's some 2+2=5 shit

 

[Deezy]

Thats how it works....shit rolls down hill, not up.

SMH leave your home town.

 

[Hidden Blaze]

If Nick Khan is so good, he’ll save the deal and get it back.

 

[Deezy]

Or he'll get fired too.

Those jobs there are even shorter than being a performer.

 

[Kross Rhodes]

If Nick Khan is so good, he’ll save the deal and get it back.

He’s been President for over a year and two months.

He’s not saving this deal.