The four-match cards continue, and – surprise, surprise – this one actually looks a bit tasty. I haven’t been coming into these shows excited about what I’m going to see, but this might buck the trend. Which probably means I’m going to come out disappointed. Damn, heightened expectations. Let’s dish out some cautiously optimistic stars.
The photographer gets a lot of love for this one. Credit: NJPW
We’re on night five, and these shows are already blurring into one. The next few have upped the quota to four Tag League matches, so that’s, well, annoying. Let’s dish out some stars.
Night four of World Tag League and we’ve got some Young Lions in action. I’m a Lion lover, though, so that’s A-okay with me. I’m not going to chatter away for too long here. Let’s dish out some stars.
Remember my complaint about mediocre tag-team action? I was thinking about cards like this. A night of New Japan dads vs Bullet Club backbenchers. There was a chance it would be God awful. The things I do for wrestling. Let’s dish out some stars.
Jeff doesn’t look too sure about this. Credit: NJPW
I did all of the G1, and I’m determined to do all of World Tag League. It’s an easier job as there are only two matches on most of these shows and New Japan isn’t releasing the undercard. Still, it’s going to be a lot of mediocre tag-team wrestling for me to watch so have some sympathy. Let’s dish out those stars.
Juice is the only person I’ve ever seen make that move look decent. Credit: NJPW
World Tag League might not have the prestige of the G1 or even the Super Juniors but this year has the potential to be interesting. They’ve left the big names out and brought in a load of fresh foreign talent to create some intriguing combos. It’s set up a tournament that promises to be a lot of fun. Let’s dish out some stars.
After the roaring success of night one (I’m still giddy about that Ishii vs Lee match) RevPro was charging into night two of Global Wars on a high. If anything, it was a better card with Matt Riddle vs Minoru Suzuki and Ospreay vs Sabre leaping off the page. Could they live up to the hoss fight? Let’s dish out some stars.
Photos aren’t up yet, but I’ll get some when they are. Credit: NJPW
This was one hell of a card. New Japan’s last major show of the year was stacked, as every title match not involving a bull rope looked like a guaranteed success. Throw in some intrigue over the debut of Switchblade and Wrestle Kingdom beginning to take shape, and this was unmissable. Let’s dish out some stars.
As usual, there isn’t much in the way of pictures.
You wait months for a Meltzer’s Classic and then two come along at once. We spoil you, we really do. We’re still in Japan, but we move away from Joshi and back to New Japan Pro Wrestling where two all-star teams go head to head for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. In one corner we have a very young Keiji Mutoh teaming up with Shiro Koshinaka, and in the other, we have Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada. I’ll be honest, outside of Mutoh these wrestlers are unknown to me, so I guess it’s time to see what they’re like.