Here's a rumour for you. The daily Naigai Times in Japan reported on the front page of Monday's edition that the WWE is in negotiations to purchase New Japan Pro Wrestling. As many fans are aware, the video game company Yukes purchased New Japan a couple of months ago. The article is not online though the cover is and I have included a link to that. After checking out a couple of blogs that discuss the article, Naigai's reasoning is as follows:
New Japan president Simon Inoki is currently on medical leave.
Inoki recently had a secret meeting with the WWE. Well, if they're talking about Inoki's recent trip to Stamford, that wasn't exactly a secret.
Yukes has figured out that New Japan is a badly managed financial black hole.
Yukes produces video games for the WWE.
They want a piece of the WWE's action in the Asian market.
Could this happen? I guess anything could happen but there is a major barrier to point out. Of course the New Japan video library would be of interest to the WWE but New Japan doesn't own it. The footage is owned by TV Asahi. Without the video library it doesn't make sense for the WWE to want New Japan as a separate subsidiary because they don't need the New Japan brand to get over in Japan. The old saying goes "Where there's smoke, there's fire" but there doesn't appear to be any real smoke here to begin with. Here's the link to the cover of the Naigai Times.
http://www.naigai-times.com/top_gallery.php
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