Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Tokyo Joshi now hosts several more extravagant yearly shows than their annual Ittenyon trip to Korakuen Hall, but there is still something special about this one. The combination of the date, that venue, and it being TJPW’s traditional ‘big show’ gives it a magical feel, even if they are now in that old hall nearly every month. Without fail, this is one of my shows of the year, so let’s see if TJPW can keep that run going.
Continue reading “Tokyo Joshi Pro ’24 (4/1/24) Review”
As 2023 draws to an end, people like me decide to spend far too long coming up with a match-of-the-year list. Honestly, even I think this one is somewhat excessive, as I have nineteen matches to cover in what I’m describing as the best of the rest. However, I didn’t want to let any of my favourites go, as I’d be happy to have any one of these as my number one. As usual, these are the matches I loved, so while you can feel free to throw some suggestions my way (in fact, please do), don’t waste any time telling me I’m wrong. I don’t care how good you think Will Ospreay vs Kenny Omega was – I’m never going to watch it. Anyway, on with the list!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Year 2023: The Best of the Rest”
As the year draws to an end, thoughts inevitably turn to matches of the year and things of that nature. However, that doesn’t mean the good wrestling stops. There are plenty of interesting things going down, and while I can’t claim to have covered it all here (it’s another month in which I’ve focused on quality over quantity), I reckon everything on this list is worth the time I took to get into it. So, read on, and perhaps find a late addition to that list.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for November 2023”
It’s another quieter month for my roundup as work started to pick up over the last few weeks, and I’ve been tired. Still, quality over quantity, and I believe the seven matches listed below are all fantastic pieces of wrestling. Read on to learn more, and, as always, if there’s anything you think I should have seen, feel free to throw it in the comments. I’m sure I’ll get to it eventually!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for October 2023”
April and the start of May are the busiest months of the year for me, so I haven’t watched anywhere near as much wrestling this month. However, I consume a stupid amount of the stuff on average, so let’s not pretend I haven’t still spent a lot of time watching people pretending to fight. With that in mind, here are my favourite matches from April of 2023.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for April 2023”
Maybe it’s just me, but January always feels like a fresh start for my wrestling viewing. My backlog from the previous year goes out of the window, under the assumption that if I haven’t watched it yet, I never will, and it’s a chance to jump back into promotions that I might have fallen away with it. When you throw in Ittenyon and all the excitement around that, it’s usually a good month, something this list makes clear.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for January 2023”
Somehow, we’ve made it through another year, and while I think it’s safe to say all is not well in the world, the wrestling has at least been very good. 2022 was a year of change in the world of joshi, a lot of which was quite anxiety-inducing for someone who takes comfort from this nonsense, but I think we’ve come out the other end of it all with the scene in strong and (more importantly) interesting health. There have also been a lot of incredible matches, and this is my list of the ones that aren’t quite my match of the year but which, on a different day, may well be so. Enjoy!
Quick note: I sorta cheated this year and snuck an extra match in by writing about it elsewhere. The brilliant and lovely Flupke (FlupkeDiFlupke on Twitter) invited me to write about the wonderful Ice Ribbon gauntlet of gauntlets as part of his newsletter. You can find my thoughts (alongside his much better ones) on that here. Then, once you’ve read that, you should also read the rest of his end-of-year stuff, which is equally great.
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Year 2022: The Best Of The Rest”
October is over, and with it, another month of rather good wrestling. Between Wrestle Princess, the end of the 5STAR and who knows how many smaller events going on over the last thirty-one days, I had plenty to get my teeth into, and fingers crossed that there is something here that will entice you into checking it out too. Enjoy!
Continue reading “Ramblings About’s Matches of the Month for October 2022”
Over the last few months, TJPW has been running Dream On The Ring, a reality show where they took a group of models and trained them to be wrestlers. That culminated at Shinjuku Face, where (under the watchful eye of Aja Kong) the three remaining rookies made their debuts. To be honest, I haven’t watched the show, but new wrestlers are always exciting, and with a bonus Max match included, I went in expecting to enjoy it all. Let’s find out if I did.
Continue reading “TJPW Dream On The Ring (14/10/22) Review”
Wrestle Princess has cemented its position as one of TJPW’s biggest shows, and the card for the third iteration was no different. Tokyo Joshi gave us the return of Max the Impaler, put every title on the line, and more. It made this a show that I have been incredibly excited about, so all it had to do was live up to my very high expectations. Could it? Let’s find out.
Continue reading “TJPW Wrestle Princess III (9/10/22) Review”
Ramblings About Wrestling 