NJPW Sales Confusion Reportedly Led To NXT UK Cardiff

Earlier today we reported on Triple H’s comments that NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff was not done in response to AEW or NJPW but had been planned for some time.

However, new information has come to light via podcast Super J-Cast via their Twitter account which claims otherwise.

According to their sources, WWE had a “spy” in one of the ticket agencies working with NJPW for their August 31 UK show Royal Quest at the Copperbox Arena in London.

The spy in question saw that NJPW had only sold 2,000 tickets for the event and reported this back to WWE in March.

Believing sales were bad and seeing an opportunity to take advantage, WWE booked the NXT UK Cardiff date for the same day as a way of encouraging fans to come to their event instead of the New Japan show.

What they did not realise was that New Japan and the Copperbox are working with two different ticket agencies for the event and have actually sold in excess of 5,000 tickets.

That means the number of hardcore wrestling fans who might be willing to travel to the NXT UK event decreased dramatically.

WWE also failed to consider that there is a major Wales v Ireland Rugby World Cup warm-up game taking place in the city on the same day at the Principality Stadium (formerly Millennium Stadium), which is expected to draw around 73,000 people.

The rugby match means that transportation on the day of the show is going to be difficult, with the dual issue of congestion and inflated prices.

This also applies to hotels, which are likely to be highly priced and with limited availability.

There was a similar situation for NXT UK last year when WWE booked back-to-back shows at the Royal Albert Hall directly against England matches in the World Cup. As a result the attendance was a lot lower than expected.

WWE may have dropped the ball on this one.

• Cardiff
• NJPW
• NXT UK
• wwe

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