New Japan Pro-Wrestling is going all-in on their American expansion plans.

The company held a press conference in Los Angeles yesterday, with Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, and Cody all in attendance.

"The Cleaner" @KennyOmegamanX has arrived in Long Beach! Tune into the press conference live at 4pmPST/7pmESThttps://t.co/1cR44svZ9k #njusa pic.twitter.com/zRwJyvCuS3

— njpw_global (@njpwglobal) May 18, 2017


Press Conference Highlights

  • AXS TV will air the July 1st show live as it happens. Night 2 will just be on njpwworld.com.
  • The July 1st & 2nd G1 shows in LA each sold out in under 2 hours.
  • The IWGP USA championship will be given to a tournament winner on July 1st & 2nd.
  • Hangman Page and Jay Lethal are the only two tournament entries confirmed so far.
  • They read through some of the roster that will be at the July 1st and 2nd show. No real surprises there, except they have Yoshi Tatsu and Billy Gunn back. They wrestled in the tag league tournament in December.
  • Bullet Club got special attention during the roster unveil portion.
  • They introduced Cody, the Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega to come up and take questions.
  • They are each asked about their matches at the Dominion event in June. The Bucks are challenging for the junior heavyweight tag titles, Cody wrestles Michael Elgin, and Kenny Omega challenges Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship. Dominion is on June 11th, so Omega could be champion heading into the G1 shows in LA.
  • Kenny Omega was on fire. He reminded Okada that at the last show the fans were chanting for him, because they recognize that Omega is giving his heart and soul for this business.
  • Cody has taken bookings during the G1 tournament, leading many to believe he won’t be in the G1. This is just me speculating, but it makes sense for Cody to be in the US tournament on July 1st and 2nd. He could win.
  • Each member talks about how they were the reason the events sold out so quickly. Matt Jackson believes this fact will lead to his wife wanting to make love to him, then asks for the remark to be edited out.
  • The Bucks talked about how much NJPW has grown over the last 4 years, how big the live crowds are etc.
  • Bullet Club then posed for pictures and that was that.



NJPW previously released this commercial for their USA shows: