AXS Ratings For NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Up From Last Year, Ratings For Dallas Show Higher Than San Francisco Show Last Year

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that ratings for this year’s Best of the Super Juniors finals on AXS TV were up 15% from last year, although the actual numbers aren’t available because AXS isn’t covered by Nielsen. It is believed that this is due to several factors, including the quicker turnaround as well as more interest in the matches (Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley’s first match since leaving WWE vs. Juice Robinson).

Meanwhile, the G1 Climax 29 show in Dallas was up 6% from the NJPW show in San Francisco last year. San Francisco was built around Kenny Omega vs. Cody and featured the Young Bucks in a tag title match, and all of those men have since departed to launch AEW. This year’s show was built around Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada. No American stars, outside of local promotion built around Texas native Lance Archer, were advertised. Ratings across the board for NJPW shows had been down through the year and this is being compared directly with the last major live show.

NJPW had had a difficult time selling tickets to its US shows and Dallas was down from San Francisco. Long Beach is also down for the Super J Cup finals at the Walter Pyramid, compared to previosu shows in the building. It’s believed that ratings will keep going up, however, due to the two-hour same day broadcast format for G1 coverage.