Now it's no secret that once AEW formed their was a shift with western fans who originally came into New japan left for AEW killing the US expansion new japan was planning.
I would say yes & no to a extent. When i look back at the US shows new japan did in 2017-2019.
The first US shows new japan was doing from 2017-2018 felt big & felt like the new japan experience with the format and big matches to end the show.
Onto 2019 new japan were doing US shows that you could honestly not watch outside of the G1 Dallas show. If the marketing was better they could have packed that place out.
And then Covid era(Can't plan for a global pandemic) they had New Japan strong & did some US ppvs. But some of them didn't feel like a must watch unless some big stars or big matches were on the card. They didn't utilize new japan strong well nor transition certain talents to japan at least for a tour.
From strong they brought Jonah & TMDK members but not that many transitioned. And the whole argument of New Japan money situation they were able to afford Nic Nemeth & Riddle for that exposure but those were shit decisions.
Sure new japan got hurt by AEW but Covid was the bigger issue with their booking decisions.
by DeathTriangle720