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.
When trying to figure out what should top this list, it quickly became clear that the answer was actually kinda easy. While I loved a lot of wrestling over the last twelve months, the match that defined 2021 took place at GAEAISM. Not just because of what happened in the ring, but because of everything that came together to make it. Marvelous and Sendai Girls could have so easily dropped the ball on this one, the multiple delays and an injury to Takumi Iroha disrupting their plans, but they did nothing of the sort. After a build packed with brilliant tag-team matches and a gauntlet that was booked to perfection, it finally went ahead, and everything was in place for a hell of a main event.
Why am I not using pictures of the Up Up Girls more? Credit: TJPW
This month started pretty quietly but then took off in the last week or so to the point where I am not caught up on all the wrestling. (Actually, I’m never caught up on all the wrestling, but hey, it’s nearly the Christmas holidays and who needs to spend time with the family?) The end of November has been a veritable feast, and there were all sorts of lovely treats to get my teeth into. So, as usual, I’ve put together a list of some of my favourites. Enjoy!
Rookie tournament alert! Sendai have got a load of rookies together, and we’ve got the first round on this show, so there was no chance I was going to miss that. Honestly, they could have just left it at that, but they’re giving us a Saki Akai ASUKA team and a tag title showdown, so we’re spoilt, really. Should I get on with it? Yea, I should get on with it.
How are we at the end of July? Where the fuck is 2021 going? Anyway, I feel like I’ve watched less wrestling than usual this month, mainly because of my newfound love of 3×3 Basketball and Volleyball, but that’s a different round-up. And, even if I have been taking it a bit easy, I’ve still seen more than enough to give you all a round-up of my favourite stuff. So, what are you waiting for? Get reading.
Sometimes you have more fighting spirit than sense. Credit: Sendai Girls
I don’t normally write about Sendai Girls, but with their storylines getting ever more intertwined with those of Marvelous, it felt like it was probably time to stop by. Plus, Mio was challenging for the belt, and I’m never going to miss an opportunity to rave about her and Big Hash.
It’s been a hell of a month for wrestling, and, if I’m honest, I’ve fallen a bit behind. I’m not even caught up on ChocoPro, which never happens! Still, that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen enough to pack this with lovely treats for you all, so dig in, and if you do think I have missed anything brilliant, let me know below.
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.
Assemble is back! It’s the third show for the joshi collective, although I’ve also seen it being billed as volume 4 because volume 3 was cancelled, which was confusing, so I decided to stick with three. Sorry, none of that is important. What’s important is that we have a whole load of wonderful companies in the same venue, all going out of their way to make me happy. Isn’t that nice of them?
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.
Ramblings About Wrestling 