NJPW Strong

NJPW Strong is a professional wrestling brand of the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and its American subsidiary, New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America. It began on August 7, 2020 as a weekly one-hour streaming series on NJPW World, built around wrestlers based in the United States, and was reorganized in 2023 into a brand covering NJPW's American pay-per-view events and the championships created for its roster.^{1 • 2}

Origins and premiere

NJPW announced Strong on July 31, 2020, filling the Friday slot that had been occupied during July 2020 by Lion's Break Collision, a show taped at the LA Dojo without a crowd because of the COVID-19 pandemic and featuring NJPW talent based in the United States.^{3 • 8} The details were presented at an online press conference by Takami Ohbari, chief executive of NJPW of America, who explained that the company's US-based wrestlers could not easily take part in events in Japan at the time and that Strong would give fans around the world a regular look at them.⁴

The series premiered on August 7, 2020 at 10 p.m. ET, airing weekly on NJPW World. Initial episodes were broadcast from the Oceanview Pavilion in Port Hueneme, California, and from August 19, 2020 the show was also carried on FITE TV.^{1 • 3}

New Japan Cup 2020 in the USA

Strong debuted with the LEC presents New Japan Cup 2020 in the USA, which brought the New Japan Cup tournament outside Japan for the first time. The eight-man, single-elimination field was contested over three weekly episodes: first round on August 7, semifinals on August 14, and the final on August 21, 2020. The winner would receive a future opportunity at the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, then held by Jon Moxley.¹

The announced participants were David Finlay, Jeff Cobb, Karl Fredericks, KENTA, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Chase Owens, and Brody King, with first-round matches of Fredericks vs. KENTA, Cobb vs. Tanga Loa, Finlay vs. Owens, and King vs. Tama Tonga.¹ The tournament final, KENTA against David Finlay, aired on the third episode.⁹

Championships

For its first months the show revolved around one-off tournaments such as the New Japan Cup USA and Super J-Cup. NJPW president Takami Ohbari said the wrestlers needed something to aim for every week, and the Strong Openweight Championship was created on April 2, 2021. Tom Lawlor became the first champion by defeating Brody King in the New Japan Cup USA 2021 tournament final.⁵ CAGEMATCH records Lawlor's title reign as beginning April 23, 2021 and lasting 387 days, the longest in the title's history.⁷

A Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship was also created for the show.¹⁰ The Strong Women's Championship was established on May 21, 2023; its reign list includes Mercedes Mone, who held it for 313 days from June 30, 2024 to May 9, 2025, and Alex Windsor, the champion since March 8, 2026.⁶ The Strong titles are defended almost exclusively in the United States, although the Strong Openweight Championship has changed hands in Japan, including Eddie Kingston's win in Tokyo on July 5, 2023 at Strong Independence Day.^{11 • 12}

The 2023 transformation

In January 2023, NJPW star Hiroshi Tanahashi wrote in a blog post that the weekly show, which had run for over two years, would come to an end with the January tapings, and that overseas tournaments would be announced in a different form in the future.¹⁰ On January 30, 2023, the company announced the new structure: every NJPW event in the United States, including pay-per-views, would fall under the NJPW STRONG umbrella, where previously the name had been reserved for the streaming series. The weekly taped show was replaced by two formats, STRONG LIVE for the American pay-per-view events such as Battle in the Valley, and STRONG On Demand, which from March 2023 broadcast matches from those events weekly on NJPW World and FITE.^{2 • 13}

Under this model NJPW holds a small number of major American events each year, such as Battle in the Valley, Windy City Riot, and Resurgence, and releases their matches as weekly on-demand episodes rather than producing original weekly television.^{2 • 14} The brand has also served as a development ground for wrestlers who later moved to larger American promotions, and its Strong Women's Championship has been contested by talent from NJPW's partner promotions.⁶

References

1. NJPW Strong Debuting 8/7 On NJPW World, New Japan Cup USA First Round Matches Set, Fightful (August 7, 2020)
2. NJPW Announces Branding And Streaming Changes For U.S. Events, Wrestling Inc. (January 30, 2023)
3. NJPW STRONG, Pro Wrestling Fandom
4. NJPW of America CEO Takami Ohbari announces NJPW STRONG and New Japan Cup in the USA, New Japan Pro-Wrestling official site (August 1, 2020)
5. NJPW President On The Decision To Create The Strong Openweight Championship, Wrestling Inc. (May 1, 2021)
6. NJPW STRONG Women's Championship, CAGEMATCH
7. NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship, CAGEMATCH
8. NJPW Strong series to air on New Japan World starting next month, F4W/WON (July 25, 2020)
9. NJPW Strong aired order, TheTVDB
10. NJPW pulling the plug on Strong, Slam Wrestling (January 7, 2023)
11. The 2025 NJPW Primer: Everything You Need to Know About NJPW, Voices of Wrestling (December 30, 2024)
12. Strong Openweight Championship: NJPW Title History, The Smackdown Hotel
13. NJPW announces the end of weekly taped show in the US, Pro Wrestling Torch (January 30, 2023)
14. A big schedule of big events to come in 2025, New Japan Pro-Wrestling official site (January 13, 2025)

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Celebrity, family, lifestyle, and court reality series › Lifestyle, dating, and docusoaps › Celebrity and family docusoaps › Premiered 2019 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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