NJPW Confirms Chicago Meeting With CMLL and MLW
Summary: NJPW said on its website on Nov. 9 that its chairman and Tiger Hattori met CMLL's OKUMURA and MLW's Court Bauer and Joseph Cabibo in Chicago over SuperFight weekend. NJPW says "major collaborations" will follow. No project was named.
The quick version
- NJPW's website says representatives of NJPW, CMLL and MLW met in Chicago during MLW's SuperFight weekend to discuss collaborations. The post is dated Nov. 9, 2026.
- Named in the post: NJPW's chairman and Tiger Hattori, CMLL's OKUMURA, and MLW's Joseph Cabibo and Court Bauer.
- No project, date, show or format is named. The post says only "Keep your eyes on these future projects!"
NJPW has confirmed on its own news page that the leaders of New Japan, CMLL and MLW met in Chicago. The post is dated Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. It follows MLW's Saturday Night SuperFight on Nov. 7 in Cicero, Illinois.
What NJPW said
The post is headed "NJPW, CMLL, MLW Gather in meeting of wrestling forces," with the line "Major collaborations to follow." It says that as MLW marked SuperFight, which it describes as featuring Yota Tsuji "in victorious form against Trevor Lee," representatives of all three promotions "met in the Windy City."
It names NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi and Tiger Hattori for NJPW, "CMLL's OKUMURA," and MLW Executive Vice President Joseph Cabibo and CEO Court Bauer. NJPW's page spells the chairman's surname "Subagabayashi." We use Sugabayashi, the spelling in our earlier coverage, and could not check it against a second source. The post says they met "to discuss some exciting collaborations for fans of all three promotions to come."
What it adds
On Nov. 7, Bauer told the SuperFight crowd that MLW, NJPW and CMLL were working on a "special project" for 2027, with NJPW's chairman in the ring. See our story on that tease. That was MLW's account. This post is the first we found from NJPW itself, and it puts all three companies' leaders at one meeting.
What is not known
The post does not say what the collaborations are. It gives no year, so it does not confirm the "2027" Bauer used. It does not say whether the plans involve a show, a tour or a media deal. We found no matching post from CMLL or MLW in what we read, and we did not contact any of the three.
NJPW announced on Nov. 6 that its U.S. subsidiary will close, per our earlier story. The post does not mention that, and we are not linking the two.
What to watch
A joint announcement from the three companies. NJPW's next dates in the region are Lucha Kingdom with CMLL on Monday, Nov. 16, at Arena Mexico in Mexico City. See our card story.
Source: NJPW's own news post, "NJPW, CMLL, MLW Gather in meeting of wrestling forces," dated Nov. 9, 2026, which we read in full on njpw1972.com. It is a primary source. We did not contact NJPW, CMLL or MLW. Nothing in this story is a rumor.
Sources
- New Japan Pro-Wrestling, "NJPW, CMLL, MLW Gather in meeting of wrestling forces", Nov. 9, 2026 (official news post: the meeting, the names, the quotes). https://www.njpw1972.com/681215
- WrestlingNews.com, "MLW, NJPW and CMLL Tease a 2027 Project at SuperFight", Nov. 8, 2026 (Bauer's Nov. 7 remarks). https://wrestlingnews.com/story/mlw-njpw-cmll-tease-special-project-for-2027/
- WrestlingNews.com, "NJPW to Close Its U.S. Subsidiary and Enter Liquidation", Nov. 6, 2026. https://wrestlingnews.com/story/njpw-of-america-to-close-and-enter-liquidation/
- WrestlingNews.com, "NJPW and CMLL Lucha Kingdom Full Card for Nov. 16", Nov. 2026. https://wrestlingnews.com/story/njpw-cmll-lucha-kingdom-full-card-nov-16/
- WrestlingNews.com staff reporting: read NJPW's post in full and checked it against our earlier stories. We did not contact NJPW, CMLL or MLW.
How we credit sources: Editorial standards.