Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Spit in my eye and call me Shirley because New Japan Pro Wrestling has done it again. This was one hell of an event, and I’d go as far as saying Dominion might be the best show I’ve seen from them yet. If you like wrestling and aren’t watching NJPW right now, you are doing it wrong. It’s like loving rock music but only listening to Shinedown. Sure, it has guitars, but you’re just punishing yourself. With that in mind, here are ten things we picked up on at Dominion.
If you were to guess what a side-project from members of Converge and Cave In was to sound like you might hit on something close to Wear Your Wounds the album released by Jacob Bannon earlier this year. It’s a dark and unsettling piece of music and while you’d struggle to call it heavy in the way you do Converge, it most definitely is. What you wouldn’t expect, is Mutoid Man.
Childhood neglect and abuse are unlikely to be the topic of the next Disney animated smash. Even as Inside Out dives into the child psyche, they tend to avoid such unfriendly children’s fare. My Life As A Courgette has no such qualms. In the opening scenes, we are introduced to Icare (who prefers to be known as Courgette) leaving his alcoholic mother behind to live in an orphanage. There he and his new gang of friends, all of whom come from equally (if not worse) traumatic backgrounds, have to try and find a place in the world without the reassurance of family. It’s all presented in a delightful stop-motion style and Christ, it could have been a disaster.
Mixed tags! Matches where breaking the rules means losing your belt! Submission matches! LET’S GET EXTREME! Yup, Sunday night was the one day of the year where WWE gets extreme, apart from all those other days that they do it. For some daft reason, I sat down and watched all of it despite having all the enthusiasm of Dean Ambrose (more on that below). So here are ten things I observed during WWE Extreme Rules.
I’m worried friends. On January 4th I decided this would be the year that I got into New Japan. Around six months later, they may well have ruined all other wrestling for me forever. Holy shit is this company good. This Best of the Super Juniors tournament was a joy from start to finish, and I don’t think I can put into words quite how much fun I’ve had watching it. Despite that, I’m going to try and take you through 10 observations I had from BOSJ as a whole.
Continue reading “10 Observations From Best Of The Super Juniors”
Jushin Thunder Liger has always been a mystery to me. Growing up I never watched WCW, and I’ve only got into Japanese wrestling in the last six months. Liger, therefore, was a distant God. Someone who I caught glimpses of but who was shrouded in mystery beneath his mask. I respected his obvious talent, and I was sure there was a reason he was as loved as he was, but on an emotional level he was locked away under that full body suit. Cold and untouchable. That is until the last few weeks.
Mitusharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta is seen as a turning point for All Japan Pro Wrestling. It was the moment when the supremely talented Misawa stepped up to take his place at the top of the company. I’m by no means an All Japan historian, though, so rather than setting up this scenario myself, I’ll point you in the direction of this article which does the job wonderfully.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, 8/6/90”
Us Brits do a hell of a lot of things right when it comes to music. Punk, metal and rock and roll, we have it all. However, if there’s one thing that America nails and we don’t, it’s skate punk bands who discover feelings and get all earnest on us. Which sounds like an insult but is intended as nothing of the sort. There’s something about America’s long roads and tiny towns that breed bands like The Wonder Years and The Menzingers that we just don’t have here. Or at least we didn’t.
If you took the hipster mumblecore of Noah Baumbach strapped it into a sports car and drove it at a 100 miles-per-hour into Godzilla, then the resultant debris would look a bit like Colossal. I mean it wouldn’t, Godzilla is massive so he probably wouldn’t even notice, but you can at least pretend to play along.
You didn’t think we’d seen the last of Ric Flair, did you? Following his iconic series with Ricky Steamboat, it didn’t take the Nature Boy long to find his next opponent. Just minutes after their final match Terry Funk put his boot up Flair’s ass and all roads led to Clash of the Champions IX in an I Quit match.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk, I Quit Match, 15/11/89”
