Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
As noted, Michael Cole and Byron Saxton did the announcing for WWE Beast In The East live from the WWE Studios in Stamford, Connecticut.
This was done as a cost-cutting measure; the show wasn’t a pay-per-view quality production so costs were kept low. WWE did send a production crew over to Japan, and the show did air on an On-Demand live feed for 1,000 yen (which is about $8.25 USD), which was the first live PPV for a Japanese market. The video was the same as seen by Japanese announcers and in WWE Studios; Fumi Saito, a well-known Japanese wrestling reporter and historian, was one of the Japanese announcers.
WWE’s Michael Cole and Byron Saxton called the US / WWE Network broadcast of the show, which was noted as being a very different style than a normal WWE show. They spent a lot of time calling the match instead of adding the “WWE storytelling style”, but neither knew much about Japanese wrestling.
Some of the inaccuracies in Cole and Saxton’s broadcast included saying Sumo Hall was the largest arena in Tokyo, which is untrue, and saying new NXT Champion Finn Balor’s win was the third WWE championship change in Japan, when there had actually been more than 20. This dates back to the mid-1970’s until 1985 when then-WWF and New Japan were business partners. Cole and Saxton may have had inaccurate research information provided, as Cole may have been referencing Bull Nakano winning the Women’s Championship in 1994, and Tajiri & William Regal winning the World Tag Team Championships in 2005.
