An interesting social media post I cane across that was shared by former Tokyo Joshi Pro wrestler (now YouTuber too) Nao Kakuta-it seems that WRESTLE UNIVERSE may now be available as part of ABEMA, the major online streaming service in Japan. A graphic in Japanese indicates you can now subscribe to ABRMA and watch all live broadcasts of DDT, NOAH and TJPW on the service for 1250 Japanese yen per month or around $8 US. That’s 48 yen (about 30 cents) cheaper than WRESTLE UNIVERSE. Free broadcasts on ABEMA will remain free. However, some live WRESTLE UNIVERSE content is not part of the ABEMA plan (Sendai Girls and maybe the other smaller promotions), and the only thing UNIVERSE won’t have in comparison is the NOAH talk show program that streams on ABEMA. Also, the ABEMA plan WILL NOT include on demand broadcasts-those will remain exclusive to WRESTLE UNIVERSE. It sounds like, as far as UNIVERSE goes, nothing will change. The only thing you’ll miss out are the occasional ABEMA-only live NOAH events (like 1/1) unless you can set up a VPN and figure out a workaround if you’re outside Japan.
In other words, if you already have WRESTLE UNIVERSE stick with it as you don’t need this ABEMA add-on. Just try and get a good VON and setup so you can watch free content on ABEMA like the live major NOAH events, sumo, etc.