Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Having done such a wonderful job with my TJPW review (by which I mean no-one has actively shouted at me, although someone did very kindly point me in the direction of a beginner’s guide to the company), I’m back with my first DDT review. Well, that’s not strictly true, I reviewed their show in America. It’s my first of a Japanese DDT show, and not one of you gives a shit about this, so let’s get on with it.
Continue reading “DDT Osaka Octopus (1/9/19) Review”
You might have noticed this says Young Lion Cup at the top rather than Road to Destruction. I am not going to write about/watch the Road to Destruction shows because life is far too fucking short. However, I do want to catch the Young Lion Cup, so I will be doing a series of quick reviews covering their matches before doing full coverage of the actual Destruction shows. Sound good? It better.
Continue reading “NJPW Young Lion Cup (4/9/19) Review”
After talking about doing so for forever, I have finally subscribed to DDT Universe. That means you can probably expect reviews of Tokyo Joshi Pro and DDT going forward, plus anything else that catches my eye. I’m going into these promotions with little to fuck all knowledge of how things stand, so don’t expect anything detailed to begin with, but we’ll get there eventually. If you’re a hardcore fan maybe leave it a few reviews because I’ll most likely annoy you at the beginning.
Continue reading “TJPW The Mountain Top 2019 ~ I Will Not Lose To Anyone ~ (31/8/19) Review”
Having put on two successful shows with RevPro’s assistance last year, New Japan came back to the UK to do it all by themselves. Royal Quest came from the Copper Box in London, and it’s worth pointing out that I was there live. That means this review is conducted purely by the memory of what I could see from my floor seats after the visual aid of many a pint of beer and while being overwhelmed with the excitement of my first New Japan show proper. That means that it will all be getting the famous live bump, making matches that might have appeared merely fine at home, a lot more exciting to witness in person. Understood? Great, on with the show.
Continue reading “NJPW Royal Quest (31/8/19) Review”
Every AEW show feels like a big one this early in their fledgeling life as a wrestling company, but with their TV debut drawing ever closer, keeping the momentum up has to be their prime goal. Could All Out do that? Or would it be their first major misstep?
Continue reading “AEW All Out (31/8/19) Review”
Well, this took a while to turn up, didn’t it? Not only that, it’s apparent some changes are going on behind the scenes in Stardom, and I don’t think they’re necessarily good ones. The quality of the presentation on these videos, especially the subtitles, has dropped and, by the sounds of things, Sonny (who runs the English Twitter and I believe does the subtitling) is no longer doing it. I’ve no idea why, but he’s asked if anyone has complaints to Tweet at Stardom, so if you feel similarly to me, maybe do that.
Anyway, this is the third show of the 5STAR Grand Prix and the first of two that Stardom held in Osaka that day. Christ, just thinking about that sounds exhausting.
Continue reading “Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix (Afternoon 25/8/19) Review”
The first of GCW’s shows in Japan was a whole load of fun, so night two had something to live up to. With the way this company has been going recently, you’d have been daft to bet against them keeping the good form up.
Continue reading “GCW The New Face Of War (23/8/19) Review”
Towards the end of 2014, Kota Ibushi announced that he was moving to New Japan’s Heavyweight Division. Kota was no stranger to Heavyweight competition, he’d competed in the 2013 G1, but he’d done so while still officially a Junior (much like Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi did this year). Now, he was only wrestling the big boys, and for his first challenge? He went after Shinsuke Nakamura’s Intercontinental Title.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kota Ibushi (4/1/15)”
GCW’s rise over the last few years has been as fun as it has been astonishing. Not long ago they were a deathmatch promotion, unknown to wrestling fans outside of that niche. Then, they figured out how to capture the minds and attention of a much larger crowd, blending that deathmatch style with comedy, great wrestling and a little bit of magic. It’s been so successful that they’ve been able to take this show on the road, heading to Tokyo’s Shin-Kiba 1st RING for two nights that blended their roster with a few notable Japanese faces.
Continue reading “GCW Worst Behavior (22/8/19) Review”
I had a lovely time reviewing the 5STAR for the first time and was only kept from going straight into this show by the need to wait for it to be uploaded (no complaints, Stardom are going a good job in getting them up). Day one gave us a great match and a handful of very good ones, so day two has a lot to live up to. Can they do it? Why not?
Continue reading “Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix (18/8/19) Review”
Ramblings About Wrestling 