Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Marvelous’s first show of the year was ramping up the build to GAEAISM as Sendai Girls were in town. Our final two matches feature the two companies going head to head while we’ve also got an exciting proposition for young Leo. So, let’s stop blabbing and get into it.
Continue reading “Marvelous (12/1/21) Review”
It’s been a while since I put together a Wrestler Mixtape and having enjoyed the brilliant Hamuko Hoshi vs Tsukushi Haruka IW19 title match, I was in the mood for some more Skoosh. So, here are three random matches plucked from YouTube and some rambling about the twenty-three-year-old veteran to go along with them. Enjoy!
Continue reading “Wrestler Mixtape: Tsukushi Haruka”
All of the matches on episode 16 of AJW Classics come from the same show, the 7th of November 1986 event in Osaka. It’s a biggie too, as for the second time Dump and Chigusa go head to head with their hair on the line. This feud has defined the first batch of Classic episodes, producing countless incredible moments, so let’s get onto seeing what happened next.
Continue reading “AJW Throwback: AJW Classics Episode 16 Review”
Good old January 4th, a special time of year when Tokyo Joshi hold a yearly show and, well, I don’t know, I’m sure some other stuff happens too. TJPW may have had a bigger event at Tokyo Dome City Hall not that long ago, but this date has a lot of history, and with a packed card, it’s safe to say they aren’t about to ditch it any time soon.
Continue reading “Tokyo Joshi Pro ’21 (4/1/21) Review”
December is a weird month for wrestling as it both feels quiet and busy. We’re building up to the New Year buzz in Japan, but at the same time, everyone is going back and looking at the past twelve months as a whole, picking out their favourite matches and moments. Still, wrestling never sleeps, so there was plenty of stuff to get your teeth into, and these were the ten matches that I particularly enjoyed.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Top Ten Matches of December 2020”
Weakness isn’t something you often find in professional wrestling. When you think of its icons, American superstars like Stone Cold or Japanese aces like Mitsuharu Misawa, everything about them screams strength. In a world defined by macho posturing, to be weak, and even worse to show that weakness, is not only not done, but actively discouraged. You need only go onto certain Twitter accounts to see what old-school wrestling types think of anything that might make a performer not look like a hard bastard.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Match of the Year: Pencil Army vs Tropical Calimari”
The match of the year lists continue with part two of my best of the rest. Honestly, any one of these (or the ten from part one) could be my top pick, and in a different year, they probably would be. As it is, though, they’ll have to be happy with the somewhat crowded runner-up spot.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Match Of The Year: Best Of The Rest Part 2”
According to some, 2020 has been a lousy year for wrestling, an opinion fuelled by New Japan not doing what people want them to do and an aversion to the dreaded clap crowds. Unfortunately, no-one told my match of the year list, which was quite frankly unwieldy. So yes, this is part one of the best of the rest because when I started writing it very quickly got out of hand. Excessive? Perhaps, but despite its many faults, wrestling is still the best, so a bit of excess isn’t too bad.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Match Of The Year: Best Of The Rest Part 1”
I sometimes worry that people think my love of Lulu Pencil is a joke. There is a side of the wrestling fandom which dismisses people like Lulu, declaring them memes or ‘irony’ wrestlers, and it’s always sad to see how many follow along with those opinions blindly. I suspect they would see me name Lulu my wrestler of the year and scoff at someone trying too hard or deliberately going out of their way to be different. So, I want to make it very clear. Lulu Pencil is my wrestler of the year because, in my mind, she was the best wrestler in the world over the last twelve months, and there’s no joke about that.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Wrestler Of The Year: Lulu Pencil”
Picking a wrestler of the year is dumb. How can anyone sit down and compare two people who work in different companies doing a different style with any degree of accuracy? A champion that puts on great matches every week is important, but so is the comedy wrestler who opens up the card, working their arse off to earn those giggles. Of course, in the best companies, those can be the same people, but that’s a different topic. And, despite it being dumb, I’m still going to do it because it’s also fun. However, for all that 2020 has sucked, there has still been a shitload of good wrestling, so I couldn’t pick just one. So, here’s my list of ten wrestlers who could have been wrestler of the year, but for whatever reason weren’t. Except, it’s not really because there are another twenty or thirty people that could also be on this list. Let’s stick with it being ten brilliant wrestlers. That work for everyone? Good.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Wrestler Of The Year: Best Of The Rest”
Ramblings About Wrestling 