Bushiroad CEO Takaaki Kidani spoke to Tokyo Sports about the success of Wrestle Kingdom, Wrestle Dynasty over the weekend.

He confirmed that Wrestle Kingdom had 24,107 attendees while Wrestle Dynasty had 16,300.

Here are the recent attendance figures for Wrestle Kingdom:

  • 2024: 27,422: One night.
  • 2023: 31,618: Two nights combined.
  • 2022: 25,503: Three nights combined.
  • 2021: 20,490: Two nights combined.
  • 2020: 70,071 : Two nights combined.

Of the attendance, Kidani said: “I’d like to have more than 40,000 people attend next year. I think that’s the bare minimum. I’d like to have a lot of other events besides Tanahashi (Hiroshi)’s retirement match. I’ll spend a year on that.”

Kidani also admitted that NJPW has lost some its popularity overseas.

“In the sports world, basketball and volleyball are doing really well, aren’t they? I think pro wrestling is losing out to them. There are still many issues to be addressed, including the fact that we haven’t been able to attract customers from overseas but I’m okay with this being a growing pain as we move to the next stage,” he said.

Speaking of Wrestle Dynasty he admitted there needed to be more of a build up and rivalry between AEW, NJPW and CMLL.

“Maybe it would have been better to do it on January 4th when they were separated. In terms of reflection, I think we weren’t able to get the feel of a joint event, nor of a rivalry, so it ended half-heartedly. That’s something I regret,” he admitted.

Kidani stated that he believes NJPW time and interest in younger talent is paying off for the company but NJPW needs to explore other areas, other promotions and other sports for wrestling talent. He had a lot of praise Japanese breakout star, AEW’s Konosuke Takeshita. He revealed he has signed a one-year contract with NJPW, although he is working for AEW and DDT also.

“I think it’s a one-year contract to start with but there aren’t many matches in AEW. If he wants to be the main wrestler for New Japan that could actually happen. I think it would be fine for him to go back and forth. There are quite a few wrestlers like that,” he said.