English speaking fans of New Japan Pro Wrestling will be very excited by this news as they have announced that plans are in place to broadcast 12 shows live with English commentary in 2017.
Kevin Kelly has been confirmed as a member of the announce team for these broadcasts although his Wrestle Kingdom 11 broadcast partner, Steve Corino won’t be accompanying him because Corino is now a trainer at the WWE Performance Center. Therefore a new broadcast colleague for Kelly still needs to be chosen.
This announcement is due to the overwhelming response in English speaking markets to Wrestle Kingdom 11 and other recent shows. New Japan has big plans to provide an alternative to English-speaking fans and wants to branch out into America. They have big plans for 2017 and this is just one of the first planned moves on their part.
One of the biggest hindrances for English speaking fans is that New Japan is a Japanese-speaking show. Now with this language barrier out of the way, NJPW hopes to bring in even more fans that have been turned to the product due to groundbreaking match-ups like Okada versus Omega.
At this time Jim Ross and Mike Bennett are still planned to carry on announcing New Japan’s weekly television show on AXS television.
The shows which are currently planned to broadcast with English commentary are:
- March 6: 45th Anniversary show at the Tokyo Ota Ward Gym
- March 20: New Japan Cup Finals
- April 9: Sakura Genesis at Tokyo Sumo Hall
- May 3: Wrestling Dontaku in Fukuoka’s International Center Arena
- June 3: Best of the Super Junior Finals
- June 11: Dominion in Osaka
- July 1: Long Beach, CA
- July 2: Long Beach, CA
- July 17: Night One of the G-1 Tournament in Sapporo
- August 11: A block finals of the G-1 at Sumo Hall
- August 12: B block finals of the G-1 at Sumo Hall
- August 13: G-1 Climax Final at Sumo Hall
