Rumors of AJPW merger with WWE hits Japanese media

Tokyo Sports is covering the rumor of a possible merger between WWE and All Japan Pro Wrestling which would see AJPW being absorbed by WWE and possibly renamed to NXT Japan.

WWE has been looking at the possibility of expanding the NXT brand to Japan after the successful launch of NXT UK and opening the third WWE Performance Center in the country.

In comments to Yahoo! Japan, AJPW President Takeshi Fukada said that he’s glad to see that the company has a worldwide value but there’s no final decision yet on what will happen about a possible merger with WWE. He said that he hopes that the visit of Jun Akiyama to the WWE Performance Center in May will shed more light on the situation as Akiyama meets Triple H and other WWE officials.

If WWE ends up absorbing All Japan Pro Wrestling it would mean that another major player has taken control of another wrestling promotion in Japan. Bushiroad owns New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom while Cyber Agent owns Pro Wrestling NOAH and DDT.