As a (useless) pastime I have been keeping track of the attendance progress and comparisons of NJPW tours and while this tour has been largely uninteresting in terms of overall attendance shifts I thought I'd share the data regardless.
Overall the tour ended with a higher attendance than last year with 435 fans more than the New Beginning tour last year a rise of 2.34% (18622 vs 18187)
There were nine nights of the tour that shared the same venues as last year. Of these nine shows, five venues are returning. And these are the shows I will focus on.
Blue Justice XVII (Sunday)
Venue: Sakura Civic Gymnasium
Attendance: Up 34.73% (1693 fans total)
Main Event: EVIL, Narita, Togo & Yujiro vs Nagata, Oleg, Yano & Wolf
Yuji Nagata's show brought in the largest % increase of any show this tour, with almost 1700 fans coming out to see the wrestlers. This is up from 1105 at the same time last year. Both shows were held on a Sunday, and both shows were live (Live events tend to draw better as the matches on the card often have more stakes). This show also marks the last EVIL main event of his tenure in the company.
Night #1 (Monday)
Venue: Korakuen Hall
Attendance: Down 0.99% (1009 fans total)
Main Event: Ishii & Taichi vs Uemura & Umino
The first of four shows held in Korakuen Hall with the #1 contendership of the IWGP Tag Team Titles on the line. This show was the poorest drawing of the Korakuen shows only just breaking the 1000 fan mark. I imagine the show being on a Monday can explain some of the low attendance, but it the drop on last years Wednesday show is negligible (10 fans).
Night #2 (Tuesday)
Venue: Korakuen Hall
Attendance: Up 18.36% (1231 fans total)
Main Event: Desperado vs DOUKI (IWGP Jr)
The second Korakuen show drew much better than the first with over 1200 fans coming out to see Desperado (not) win the title off DOUKI. The comparison of this show is last year's 20th Jan show. held on a Thursday, with an attendance of 1005 fans, and featuring the main event of Oiwa vs YOSHI-HASHI. I believe the key item here to look at is Desperado. He is a consistent draw (maybe not a sold out show here but a vast improvement on the previous night/year). This "Desperado effect" will come into play later.
STRONG SPLASH Night #1 (Saturday)
Venue: Boat Race Miyajima East Wing
Attendance: No Change 0.00% (800 fans)
Main Event: Hiromu, Nagai & Tsuji vs Lee, Newman & Young
STRONG SPLASH Night #2 (Sunday)
Venue: Boat Race Miyajima East Wing
Attendance: Up 5.56% (900 fans)
Main Event: Ice, OSKAR & Tsuji vs Lee, Newman & Young
These two shows are a bit of an asterisk, as I would not truly put them in the same category as the other shows, they are more of a side piece to a larger event. But they are within the confines of the tour and have a corresponding event at the same time as last year, so I will include them.
Night #4 (Thursday)
Venue: Iwate Prefectural Gymnasium
Attendance: Up 1.92% (1040 fans total)
Main Event: Akira, Jay, Lee, Newman & Young vs Hiromu, Ishimori, Nagai, Robbie X & Tsuji
This is a house show, so I can't really make too much of a comment, but it has an increase on last year's show by 20 fans, outdrawing (just) the Hontai vs TMDK main event of last year.
Night #5 (Sunday)
Venue: Korakuen Hall
Attendance: Up 24.80% (1234 fans total)
Main Event: Akira & Lee vs Ishimori & Tsuji
The third Korakuen show shows the most improvement, with a drastic increase from the 928 fans at the third Korakuen show last year, featuring the main event of Cobb vs Phantasmo for the TV Title. Part of this increase can definitely be attributed to the Sunday vs Monday positioning.
Night #6 (Monday)
Venue: Korakuen Hall
Attendance: Down 19.94% (1073 fans total)
Main Event: Goto vs Oiwa
While not the poorest drawing of Korakuen, this show went up against last year's best drawing (Desperado vs Fujita), so the comparison suffered. Oiwa got his second Korakuen main event (Within the New Beginning tour), and the Monday positioning couldn't have helped attendance.
New Beginning in Osaka (Wednesday)
Venue: EDION Arena Osaka
Attendance: Up 0.09% (5507 fans total)
Main Event: Lee vs Tsuji (IWGP Heavy)
There isn't actually too much to add about the final show. It was the only sell out of the tour and outperformed last year's show by 5 fans. The positioning changed from Tuesday to Wednesday, but I believe the 11th of February is a holiday in Japan, so the day didn't impact attendance (It sold out, so what can I say)
Wrap Up
Overall, in returning venues, NJPW saw an average increase of 8.05%, with the only venue to lose fans being the first and last nights at Korakuen Hall.
I know these numbers aren't a direct correlation, days change, and there are five shows that had different venues than last year, so this probably isn't a true comparison, but I thought it would be an interesting data set to compare, nonetheless.
In head to head comparison (ignoring venues, first night vs first night, etc.), only four shows drew less: Night #1, Night #3, Night #5 and Night #7.
by moagrieve