Wrestling New Classic

On April 5, 2012, Tajiri held a press conference to announce the forming of Wrestling New Classic, which would hold its first two events on April 26 at Shinjuku Face and on May 24 at Korakuen Hall.^[4][5] The promotion's new financial backer at the time was Tsutomu Takashima, the executive director of real estate company Avance Avant Corporation.^[6] WNC continued Smash's working relationship with Finnish professional wrestling promotion Fight Club Finland.^[7] Unlike Smash, which held, on average, one event per month, WNC had a more regular schedule, producing three events in its official opening month, May 2012.^[8] The promotion is named after a comment made by final Smash Champion Dave Finlay, who, at the promotion's penultimate event, told Tajiri to "keep wrestling classic" with his new promotion.^[9] Several WNC wrestlers also booked and promoted their own events in collaboration with the promotion, including Kana's Kana Pro,^[10] Makoto's Mako Pro,^[11] Syuri's Stimulus,^[12] and Takuya Kito's Kuzu Pro.^[13]

In late 2013, WNC also established a working relationship with joshi puroresu promotion Reina Joshi Puroresu,^[14] as part of which all of WNC's female wrestlers became officially affiliated with both promotions in January 2014.^[15] On June 18, 2014, Tajiri held a press conference with Keiji Mutoh, where he announced that WNC would be going inactive following June 26. Afterwards, all female WNC wrestlers remained affiliated with WNC-Reina, while six male wrestlers, Tajiri and Akira included, transferred over to Mutoh's Wrestle-1 promotion.^[16] WNC held its final event on June 26, 2014, in Tokyo's Shinjuku Face.^[17]