KENOH Suggests Pro Wrestling NOAH Should No Longer Interact With NJPW

By: Lewis Carlan

Back on May 27th, the announcement came out that Bushiroad sold all of its shares of New Japan Pro-Wrestling to CyberAgent and TV Asahi for 3.8 billion yen. CyberFight is a subsidiary of CyberAgent in which Pro Wrestling NOAH, DDT Pro-Wrestling & Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling all operate under.

With Pro Wrestling NOAH and NJPW now owned by the same company, the expectation of many fans is that we could see increased cross-over matches between the two top rival promotions. But NOAH megastar KENOH is not a fan of that scenario, in fact KENOH believes that the two promotions should cease interacting altogether.

KENOH explained while speaking with Tokyo Sports and hinted that he is not seeking NOAH to be on bad terms with NJPW.

From KENOH:

“It’s fine for fans to have expectations, but if we end up interacting exactly as they expect, I don’t think there will be a future for the pro-wrestling industry. I think it’s better to maintain this healthy distance and never interact. It’s a matter of which company increases its corporate value. It would be good if NOAH surpasses them (NJPW) in the pecking order. Since they’re the younger brother, so to speak, I can act superior in my heart.” (English translation via Deepl.com)

With NJPW and NOAH now operating under the same umbrella, it will be interesting if CyberAgent plans on increasing the interaction between the promotions or if they will listen to KENOH’s advice and keep them separate entities with minimal or no cross-overs.

With an increase in cross-over matches being what many fans are hoping to see, it would be very surprising if CyberAgent doesn’t pull the trigger and raise the level of interaction between NJPW & NOAH in the future and add another chapter to their rivalry.