This weekend, The Rock created much discussion on social media when he took to Instagram while wearing a New Japan shirt. This would see some fan to speculate that WWE was about to purchase the Japanese wrestling promotion, while some even suggested it was shot at Karl Anderson, who recently said he was “disappointed” in The Rock. And while the reason remains unclear, New Japan’s social media team has decided to capitalize by sharing a photograph themselves with the caption, “iffff yaaaaa smelllll what the lion is cooking.”
New Japan was founded in 1972 by the legendary Antonio Inoki, and by the 80s, it was so big that it had a prime-time television slot in Japan, making household names of the likes of Tatsumi Fujinami, Tiger Mask, Riki Choshu, Hulk Hogan, and André the Giant. Still, its popularity would begin to wane over the decades, and due to TV deals not being anywhere close to as big as they are in the United States, New Japan struggles nowadays to keep hold of its biggest stars with Kazuchika Okada, Jay White, and Will Ospreay’s AEW signings an example of this.
