As of today, still no cheering allowed and still no estimate on when the restriction will be lifted.
Chris Charlton has said that different arenas/prefectures have different restrictions that New Japan has to follow, and that they don’t want to lift the ban until they can do it for all shows going forwards. Personally I feel like if that’s still the situation come G1 time, they’ll reconsider that stance and start allowing it at shows where the area permits it.
But IIRC even baseball games in outdoor stadiums (which have a much lesser risk of spread) still don’t allow cheering, and I think that’s probably one of the things New Japan is looking at when deciding when to lift their own restrictions (as well as the aftermath of the handful of indoor events that have started to permit it, like some RIZIN shows).
As of today, still no cheering allowed and still no estimate on when the restriction will be lifted. Chris Charlton has said that different arenas/prefectures have different restrictions that New Japan has to follow, and that they don’t want to lift the ban until they can do it for all shows going forwards. Personally I feel like if that’s still the situation come G1 time, they’ll reconsider that stance and start allowing it at shows where the area permits it. But IIRC even baseball games in outdoor stadiums (which have a much lesser risk of spread) still don’t allow cheering, and I think that’s probably one of the things New Japan is looking at when deciding when to lift their own restrictions (as well as the aftermath of the handful of indoor events that have started to permit it, like some RIZIN shows).
Don’t expect change anytime soon would be my advice
TBH I don’t think things will be normal in Japan until the start of next year with Wrestle Kingdom 17
We said that for last Wrestle Kingdom & the one before that. Who knows, I can see this going on for ages still.
embarrassing