>>14906028>AJPW finally emerging from years of safe, careful booking with a crop of healthy young talent is seemingly poised for growth. Shame they have such a daunting hill to climb as they fell so far. If they can just avoid following in the footsteps of NOAH and NJPW we might have something.As long as Suwama and Kento are there, I think AJPW will be okay.
NJPW's big issue was Kidani's commitment to expanding into North America no matter what even when Covid manage to disrupt those plans. It led to Kidani working with AEW and Tony sinking his fangs into NJPW.
Noah's problems are manifold, but if you really want to trace them back to a single source it was when Noah tried to push Big K out the door after he aged out leading to a mini-exodus to AJPW in 2012. It established a very bad precedent where Noah would retain workers as long as they wanted to work there and wouldn't force them to retire. Noah becoming a stodgy and moribund promotion with a roster that knows they can collect a pay check no matter how washed they are to the detriment of the promotion itself.
AJPW is in a pretty unique position at this moment as it is the only one of the three promotions listed which is not a publicly traded company. With Tsuyoki as the owner AJPW is capable of working at a loss without the threat of lawsuits pushing them towards short term gains at the risk of long term stability. Both Suwama and Kento are AJPW lifers who have stuck with the promotion through the lowest of the lows when they bother could have left for better paying prospects at multiple times in their careers. Kento has carried AJPW as it's ace during the darkest times and his loyalty to the promotion and the audience is now reaping its rewards as they have cultivated an intensely loyal audience which is growing by the day. Likewise Suwama has single handedly scouted and trained this entire new generation which is driving AJPW towards it's first sellout shows in ages.