A press conference was held by BASARA today at their Pro Wrestling Clutch bar in Shinjuku to announce a change in management. BASARA’s founder Isami Kodaka has stepped down as president of the company and the role has been handed over to Ryota Nakatsu. Also the Sales Manager role has been given to Takumi Tsukamoto while Takato Nakano has been chosen to be the president of BASARA’s Players Association. Kodaka remains a part of BASARA as a representative partner and still bears responsibility for the company while a person named Mika Oyama is an executive partner.
It was revealed that BASARA is currently in debt with half of the shows they have put together being run at a loss because of low attendance. Their move to become an independent company happened around the time the Covid pandemic began and the lockdowns had a big effect on their attendance numbers dropping. They thought the attendance numbers would eventually recover coming out of the lockdowns but it never happened and they admit it will be difficult to survive unless they make drastic changes. The immediate goal for the new management is to improve attendance at the shows.
Kodaka believes he is unable to make the most of his position as both a pro wrestler and a company president so he is passing the baton over to Nakatsu. He thinks Nakatsu is well respected in the locker room and has earned the trust of everyone in the company to take charge. Kodaka will now get to focus on wrestling while Nakatsu, Tsukamoto and Nakano run the company in his place. He gets to have the final say but all authority now belongs to the new management team. All three promised to do their best to revitalize BASARA.
For the moment Nakatsu wants BASARA to continue running local village shows at Ryuichi Sekine and FUMA’s hometowns. He understands how everyone in the company now has different jobs and responsibilities compared to when the company was launched a decade ago. But he wants everyone get back the feeling they had when they first launched the company and work together as one. He is also aware that BASARA’s precursor Union Pro Wrestling made it to ten years before closing down. He wants BASARA to keep going for many decades more, pretty much until he retires. Kodaka had a similar mindset when he launched BASARA, claiming at the time he would retire whenever the company goes away.
Dramatic DDT 