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Originally Posted by dubb93
Does anyone think any US city is even capable of supporting something like this? Would, say a 2000 seat venue in Chicago, Philly, New York, Vegas or LA be able to stay booked and draw crowds if they committed to combat sports and wrestling or would it be a big loser? Why do they all run in different venues instead of consolidating to a more specialized venue that caters to them specifically?
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I really don't think it'd work here. The money doesn't feel like it'd add up.
A lot of that is, I think, cultural. You know the stigma that's associated with pro wrestling here, that's far less in Japan. It seems a lot more okay for a young salaryman to get off work, catch a train and be at the venue by 6p on a Wednesday night than it would be here. And they're doing it weekly, sometimes more than once a week.
It's been interesting to hear his observations about the crowds at Korakeun. For example, the NOAH show was at least 60% female, in a crowd of what he figured was north of 300. DDT/Gleat last night was smaller, a little more male, but also younger, a fair number even younger than him (he's 26 now for context). Usually in groups of 2-8, most of the groups were male & female. He also noted that last night was a "very DDT crowd" he was one of the distinct minority reacting to the Gleat performers strongly, most there didn't seem to know who most of them even were. To the extent that he actually noticed CIMA and some of the other Gleat older hand watching him / his reactions from the balcony with some interest as the night went on.
Compare that to an U.S. indy crowd, where basically the people you'd see at an (old days) ROH show are the same faces at a PWG show or a puro/lucha show or a GCW show, etc etc. The company cultures are strong enough in Japan, with enough differentiation at even the lower levels that you can stay in your lane & still do okay. The interest is broader overall, so there's leeway to sort of specialize (for the fans).
There's a lot of cultural stuff wrapped up in all that I think. Here, we tend to scream about our individualism (or whatever) from 9-5, then fall into mostly safe niches after hours. There, it seems like the reverse is true, rigidity from 9-5 and then virtually anything goes after hours.
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Also can throw in that your boy is taking one of my dream vacations. Hope he’s having the time of his life.
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Thanks. He's enjoying himself a lot I believe, though so far he's still feeling the effects of the long travel day a bit. He's been wanting to do this for a very long time now, I can't even tell you how many years of YouTube videos -- travelogue stuff like Abroad In Japan, countless food videos starting with Strictly Dumpling and expanding into many many others, on & on -- have been watched.
Then NJPW of course, which had followed naturally from his interests in the visiting workers that made such an impact in ROH, and over the past several years he's done a good job of working his way back through puroresu history (there are several really good YTers in that niche). He was 7 to 10 years old when Marafuji & Morishima and the rest were coming over and having classics with guys like Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson and others who were already his favorites (being a TNA/ROH fan far more than a WWF fan).