Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
After the madness that was Fantastica Mania New Japan gets back onto the serious stuff with The New Beginning in Sapporo, a show that kicked off Suzuki-gun’s invasion of New Japan proper. Even with a second event next weekend this was a stacked card and gave me plenty to think about as I continue my New Japan education.
Continue reading “10 Observations From The New Beginning in Sapporo”
While Flair has been a regular in this series so far, we are now hitting what many might see as his heydey. His feud with the Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat is still spoken about in hushed tones, and there are three five-star matches between the two in 1989. The first one is for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and took place at NWA Chi-Town Rumble.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Steamboat vs. Flair 20/2/89”
Two weeks ago Kenny Omega walked out of Wrestle Kingdom as the hottest thing in wrestling. Ignoring the fact that Kazuchika Okada was as important to that match as he was and that Omega has been brilliant for years, it suddenly felt like the world woke up to The Cleaner. Yet, rather than turn his sights towards a potential rematch with Okada and a chance to become only the seventh non-Japanese wrestler to hold the belt and help spearhead New Japan’s push into the US, he began talking about taking some time off.
The UK Championship worried me. It worried me because I saw a future when WWE stepped into the British market and ripped apart something that has taken decades to build. That they would cherry pick the best talent and walk away having added nothing to what they left behind. It wouldn’t be the first time WWE played the big bully. Thankfully, it looks like I was wrong.
Coming into 2017 I made the decision that from now on I was going to watch less WWE. With five hours of Raw and SmackDown and two PPVs a month enough was enough, and it was dampening my enthusiasm for other wrestling. Alongside that, I vowed that this would be the year I finally got into New Japan. I’ve watched a couple of Wrestle Kingdoms in the past, but it is time for me to give it the effort it deserves. With that in mind, the last two days have seen me sign up to New Japan World and tune into Wrestle Kingdom 11 and New Year Dash and as this is the internet in 2017, here are some things I learnt.
‘This is War Games,’ as we dive into 1987 we hit our first five-star match which would feel at home in the world of sports entertainment. War Games sees two rings sit side by side with a giant cage covering both. Two teams of five go head to head, taking it in turns to have a man enter the structure until all ten men are in the ring at which point the match ends when someone is knocked out, surrenders or submits.
There was a time when people questioned whether AJ Styles could make it in WWE. Did he have the charisma and even if he did would Vince see in him what countless others always had? Well, that view looks pretty fucking stupid now.
It’s the end of the line and quite possibly the end of WWE’s fan patience when it comes to 2016’s PPVs. There are a lot of pointless WWE events, but Roadblock is battling out for that top spot and has seen 2016 flutter out like a deflating balloon. So, with that in mind, today’s review is going to be split into two sections. PPV Worthy and Raw Worthy. Let’s see how much of this show needed to be filmed on a Sunday night.
After years of British fans screaming for a PPV to be held on our rather messy shores WWE has finally answered. Except, rather than dropping TLC or Cyber Sunday into Wembley Arena we instead have a tournament. A tournament that will crown WWE’s first UK Champion and I don’t know what I feel about it.
Barry Windham and Ric Flair have done it all together, and for the second time, the two men appear on the list of Dave Meltzer’s Five Star classics. This time we are in 1987 and the match is taking place at the Crockett Cup for the World Title.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham II”
Ramblings About Wrestling 