Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
For the second night in a row, there were a plethora of empty seats in Korakuen Hall which has been a rare sight at New Japan shows in recent years. It’s not a great sign for the Super Junior Tag League as it’s clearly not proving strong enough to draw fans on its own, and it will be interesting to see if New Japan react to that issue in the future.
Continue reading “NJPW Super Jr. Tag League (17/10/19) Review”
It feels only right to start this review with a shout out to those in Japan who were affected by the typhoon over the weekend, and I hope everyone looks after themselves. It feels a bit cheap to go from that to talk of card changes, as in the grand scheme of things it’s not that big a deal, but it did leave Jon Moxley and Zack Sabre Jr unable to travel. Mox was the bigger loss of the two as his absence forced New Japan to strip the US Title from him and give the match to Lance Archer instead. Amazingly, that’s caused some conspiracy chat, which seems oblivious to the actual typhoon which makes cancelled flights seem perfectly reasonable. Anyway, that silliness aside, this was a hella stacked card, so let’s see what went down.
Continue reading “NJPW King Of Pro-Wrestling (14/10/19) Review”
My review of the tournament that everyone forgot trundles into the final station as we blast through the semis and the final on one show. If you’ve seen any New Japan programming since this happened then you know who won, but let’s pretend we don’t for the fun of it. Who are you betting on? I reckon Caristico is going to take it home.
Continue reading “NJPW Super J-Cup Semi-Final and Final (25/8/19) Review”
I’m plunging ahead with these J-Cup reviews in the hope that someone still cares about this rather lost tournament. The Quarter Final took place in San Francisco and was filmed with a single static camera which is great for a show that features a shitload of dives… Oh well, shouldn’t complain.
Continue reading “NJPW Super J-Cup Quarter Final (24/8/19)”
Does anyone still care about the Super J-Cup? It’s took ages for New Japan to get these up on World and then it’s taken even longer for me to get around to reviewing them. It makes it hard to imagine anyone is clamouring for my opinion (please don’t point out that no-one has ever clamoured for my opinion on anything). Oh well, I’m going to give it anyway. These shows took place in America last month, so let’s see what went down.
Continue reading “NJPW Super J-Cup First Round (22/8/19) Review”
Destruction is a long old tour that generally delivers a shitload of mediocrity elevated by the occasional great match, and that is exactly what we’ve received in 2019. The final night is in Kobe and let’s hope we finish up with more of the great than the mediocre.
Continue reading “NJPW Destruction in Kobe (22/9/19) Review”
Having made the mistake of watching the entirety of Destruction in Beppu, I shall not be fooled again. This review will cover the Young Lion matches, the two main events and nothing more. The tag matches will all be the same as they were in Beppu, so here’s a tip, don’t watch them. Stick with me, and we’ll focus on the important stuff.
Continue reading “NJPW Destruction in Kagoshima (16/9/19) Review”
New Japan took the scenic route to their first Destruction show, but they’ve finally rocked up in Beppu with a solid card. There are a lot of tags on here, but the Young Lion Cup and a brace of title matches make sure that proceedings shouldn’t be too dragged down by the splitting of this tour into multiple dates. Any show with Tanahashi vs Sabre is alright by me.
Continue reading “NJPW Destruction in Beppu (15/9/19) 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”
It’s becoming a recurring theme for this list to go up a bit late, but in my defence, there is a lot of wrestling that I want to review. I have a habit of giving that precedence and I’m not even sure why. Anyway, I need to apologise because this is a New Japan heavy list. I watched every single Super Juniors’ show and while I did catch some other bits and pieces, it was less than I would have liked. Still, it was one hell of a tournament, so I’m pretty sure that every match justified its spot on the list.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Top Ten Matches of May 2019”
Ramblings About Wrestling 