Thanks to a translation from the most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter, we now know that Takaaki Kidani, the head of Bushiroad, which owns NJPW and Stardom revealed to Tokyo Sports that he has his eye on signing Io Shirai and Kairi Sane as soon as their WWE contracts expire:
“The first thing he said was that they are looking at bringing back Io Shirai and Kairi Sane after their current WWE deals expire. Whether this will happen or not really depends on things down the line when their deals are up, in some form with Shirai if she’s making main roster money. The key is whether or not they would like to return to living in Japan and in the end, the WWE main roster money is strong. He also talked about more heavily recruiting of new talent from other sports like women in martial arts. Unlike with Shinsuke Nakamura, which New Japan wanted to get return when his deal was up he loved being in the U.S., plus really, he’s far better suited for WWE right now because it would be difficult for him to go back to the New Japan style physically. They are said to be open to living in Japan.
“Bushiroad takes over the company officially on 12/1 and have started marketing, setting up media and photo shoots for the top talent. The goal is to take the company from sales of $2 million per year to $6 million by 2022 or 2023. They are pushing media that hits young women in Japan, trying to change the audience base from almost exclusively young men to both men and women, in particular trying to get the teenage girls that made Japanese women’s wrestling such a hit on television and live in the 70s and 80s, or the mixed audience of male wrestling fans and women fans that attended in the 90s. At the press conference when they bought the promotion, they pushed attracting more women fans. He also brought up the idea of creating an IWGP women’s championship belt, with the idea that the IWGP name of the title has become big in Japan.”
