Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Wow, March was a packed month for wrestling. We got Stardom in Budokan, Assemble Volume 3, ChocoPro 100 and more, which has made for a varied and all over the place list. Not that I’m complaining. The more great wrestling that is going on, the better, and I had plenty to get my teeth into.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for March 2021”
For DDT’s 23rd Anniversary, they dished up a rematch that everyone has been waiting for. Akiyama vs Higuchi makes sense, no matter what way you look at it. So let’s sit back and watch the two big boys hit each other.
Continue reading “DDT Judgement (28/3/21) Review”
It’s been a while since I last wrote about DDT. That wasn’t a decision I made on purpose or because I’d stopped enjoying the company, there is simply too much wrestling and too little time. Occasionally, something has to slip, and for a bit, that something was DDT. However, after enjoying a few of their recent big shows, I’m back and looking forward to catching up with what’s gone down.
Continue reading “DDT Day Dream Believer (14/3/21) Review”
I’ve decided to make a couple of tweaks to my matches of the month round-up. The most obvious one is that this hasn’t been a top ten list for a while, so there is no real need to stick to ten entries. Some months it might be more, some months it might be less, and it’s silly to force myself into a corner for no reason. Secondly, I am going to make a tiny change to the kind of things I write about. There are often brilliant wrestling matches where I have nothing to say. That doesn’t take away from how good they are, but not everything requires analysis beyond saying it rules. On top of that, if they come from one of the promotions I write about regularly, I’ve often reviewed them before. So, rather than stretching myself to come up with something new, I’m adding an honourable mentions list to the bottom of each month, where I’ll round up all the stuff you should watch, but where I have nothing new to add to the conversation.
Apart from that, it’s business as usual! Here are a load of matches from the last month that I loved.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for February 2021”
The calendar has ticked over, and we are into 2021, bringing with it, em, well, much of the same so far, but fingers crossed it gets better! It does mean we’re into a fresh year of wrestling, though, with a whole new set of opportunities for people new and old to impress. With it comes, of course, my monthly round-ups of my favourite matches, where I bring you a taste of all the stuff I’ve been enjoying. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s dig in.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Top Ten Matches of January 2021”
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”
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”
The year may be coming to a close, but November has proven a hell of a month for wrestling, giving me a tough time as I tried to trim my favourite matches down to a mere ten. I succeeded, so you can all be proud of me and hopefully enjoy my monthly round-up of all the action that’s been keeping me entertained over the last thirty days.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Top Ten Matches Of November 2020”
It’s D-王 time! DDT’s annual tournament may not have blown me away with the line-up (where’s Saki?), but I guess I’m willing to forgive that slight and enjoy it. They certainly packed the opening night, treating Korakuen to a load of big matches.
Continue reading “DDT D-王 Grand Prix (22/11/20) Review”
Wrestling titles are weird. You don’t need to work to make a football league or an Olympic gold medal feel important. In a pre-determined sport, however, a title only has as much value as the people competing for it give it. It means that in some companies, they are mere props, McGuffins to build stories around, but with no real value. In others, they are everything, the backbone of what they do and the conduits to incredible moments. That feeling you get when you watch your favourite scratch and claw their way to the top, finally winning the big one, well, there are few things like it. Rarely, though, and I do accept that it’s uncommon, those titles are hats.
Continue reading “Lulu Pencil’s Hat”
