Japanese WWE Equivalent Making Netflix Style Streaming Service, American Sports Next?

The Japanese equivalent of the WWE, entitled New Japan World Wrestling, has a respectable amount of popularity. It is the most relevant wrestling organization in Japan and second most popular in the world (WWE is first). They have come up with a clever marketing plan that could prove to be groundbreaking for the sport of wrestling -- a program that will be similar to streaming services offered by Netflix. If the service does even half as well as Netflix, then other wrestling organization, like the WWE, will be sure to follow suit.

All of you MMA heads or WWE fanboys out there probably haven't heard of the NJPW. However, if their new business model works out, they have a good chance of gaining a lot of viewers.

Cage Side Seats has the scoop on Japan's latest idea:

"New Japan World does follow the WWE Network's model in terms of offering archived content and new productions such as documentaries. The wrestling content dates back to 1972, and includes all of the important matches and shows from the past three years. Features include in-depth looks at historically sigificant programs such as Antonio Inoki vs. Willem Ruska, Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan, Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid and Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada."

This could be a very interesting advancement for all sports. However, it remains to be seen how such a niche business will do in the open market. Hopefully, their earnings will look something like Netflix's.

As Billboard tells its readers, streaming services can generate major revenue:

"Netflix is the only publicly traded company that deals almost entirely in the streaming of licensed digital media. Streaming accounted for 85.5% of the company's $1.34 billion of revenue last quarter. The remainder, $195 million, came from the legacy DVD rental business."

This news is exiting for those of us who love catching up on old matches. Again, though, this should be exciting for sports fans in general.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.