WWE could look to replicate AAA’s success in Mexico with a similar strategy in Japan

WWE

WWE has had a long-term plan for a number of years now to expand into multiple international territories – something Triple H referred to in the past as “global localization.”

The latest journey in that direction has been the acquisition of AAA, which over the past year, has proven to be a successful endeavor.

Thanks in large part to the popularity surge of El Grande Americano and the already hyper-popular Rey Mysterio, AAA isn’t just an abstract non-English product that WWE promotes for a couple of minutes each week on its mainline shows, but it’s now something accessible that even casual fans are becoming more aware of – as evidenced by the fact that night one and two of TripleMania are, as of this writing, sat at 1.7 million and 1.8 million views respectively for the English YouTube streams of those events last weekend.

WWE has tried in the past to make a real go of things in Europe. NXT UK had a relatively strong start but fizzled out – a lot of which can be attributed to the pandemic – but the idea was that NXT Europe would launch and things would get back on track.

However, there’s been zero sign or word of NXT Europe and there isn’t really a compelling reason to kick it off right now. WWE has signed a whole host of wrestlers from the UK and Europe indies over the past year or so – like Mason Rook, Dorian Van Dux, Lizzy Rain and more – so perhaps the idea is still there for the future, but it doesn’t feel imminent.

WWE already has skin in the game over in Japan

Outside of Mexico and Europe, the other often-mentioned territory for a potential WWE international expansion is Japan.

A relationship that has gone somewhat under the radar over the past couple of years but could easily lead to something similar to the AAA situation in Mexico is WWE’s partnership with Pro Wrestling NOAH.

WWE has sent numerous talents to work for NOAH for periods of time, including AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Omos, Charlie Dempsey, Harlem Lewis, Hank Walker, Tank Ledger, Tavion Heights and Josh Briggs.

There have even been championship reigns among those, with Omos holding NOAH’s GHC Tag Team Title alongside Jack Morris, and Walker & Ledger holding the same title together as well.

There have also been NOAH wrestlers who have gone in the opposite direction, most notably Yoshiki Inamura, who had a run on NXT TV last year that even saw him work in the NXT Championship picture.

This year, NOAH’s Ulka Sasaki has been training at the WWE Performance Center, and while he hasn’t debuted on TV yet, he has had a couple of matches on Evolve and has been working untelevised NXT live events.

With this ongoing positive relationship with NOAH, WWE may be in its best position yet to make some sort of move into the Japanese market with a similar strategy to what’s been pulled off with AAA – using some familiar talent who are popular in the target market, while also working in some established WWE names to attract the more casual WWE viewers, as well as mixing in some developmental prospects.

Whether that looks like starting a whole NXT Japan setup or just running shows like AAA remains to be seen, but it clearly isn’t off the table because as recently as a few months ago, Finn Balor was on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast talking about how he’d quite like to run NXT Japan alongside Shinsuke Nakamura.

Now could be the perfect time… because of AEW

On top of all that, when you look at the overall position of wrestling in Japan right now, the big hitter NJPW is not what it was just a few years ago.

NJPW has maintained a positive relationship with AEW, but that’s despite AEW signing a large portion of the top NJPW talents and leaving the promotion worse off as a result.

Of course, the relationship does mean some top AEW talents work NJPW’s top shows – such as Wrestle Kingdom earlier this year featuring Andrade, Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchika Okada.

However, those are largely one-offs and outside of those special occasions, the regular NJPW roster overall has been depleted by AEW – though there have been a couple of WWE moves this year too in the form of Naraku and Kyoki.

WWE’s patience might have paid off, with AEW inadvertently creating something of an opening for a big play in Japan to pay off under the current circumstances of the market.

With the success of AAA, WWE surely must be looking to replicate – and Japan may be the next place to do it.

To make sure you stay up to date with all the biggest wrestling and WrestleTalk news, follow us on Threads by clicking this link!

• japan
• AAA
• nxt japan
• wwe
• nxt europe
• mexico

Share this article with friends