TV Asahi Making Changes To NJPW Commentary, Including With Chris Charlton

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that TV-Asahi has been making some changes with the NJPW commentary situation and they mostly involve Chris Charlton. At the G1 Climax shows at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo, the team included Charlton with Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero. However, Charlton didn’t talk very much. The decision was made that Charlton should only be a translator and not actually announce the match. He did make occasional comments, but not nearly as much as he used to. After the news broke, the NJPW office was hit with complaints from English-speaking fans.

The decision came from TV-Asahi, the partners of NJPW World. The TV stations have an idea of what the announcers should look and sound like and they don’t think Charlton fits that mold for whatever reason. Instead, he’s someone with a lot of historical and trivial knowledge which would only appeal to “hardcore fans” as “fan service.” Kevin Kelly is popular as a lead announcer. Don Callis is also popular but he also works for Impact so he has scheduling conflicts at times. NJPW is said to want Charlton to keep announcing. The people who made the decision, after seeing the backlash, decided that Charlton will go back to his former position starting with this week’s shows.