Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported in the latest issue that WWE officials met with their counterparts from Dragon Gate and World Wonder Ring Stardom promotions during their short tour in Japan earlier this month.
Dragon Gate features mostly wrestlers from Ultimo Dragon’s wrestling school, focusing mostly on the junior heavyweight style. The promotion was founded in 2004 and also had the spinoffs Dragon Gate USA and Dragon Gate UK, but those two promotions have folded.
World Wonder Ring Stardom is a women-only promotion in Japan founded in 2010. Kairi Sane and Io Shirai are two of the alumni of Stardom and over the years, the company has welcomed some of the top women in professional wrestling to wrestle for them.
WWE is planning to open several more localized NXT brands with Performance Centers around the world and Japan seems to be one of their next targets considering how popular pro wrestling is in the country.
