#NJPW world

[elitehanitje]

💅🏾

[xomegaman]

A showdown with Gabe Kidd at Tokyo Dome!

"AEW" Kenny Omega returns to New Japan!

"WRESTLE DYNASTY"

January 5, 2025 (Sunday) Start: 13:00 (1pm usa time!)

[theweirdbean]

Elp interacting with a little girl from the crowd 🥺 from @/njpwworld on twt

[bullet-clubs-bitch]

KENNY FKN OMEGA IS BACK IN NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING

[vicstwashington]

Official for Wrestle Dynasty- the International Women's Cup!

🌟AEW, CMLL, ROH, STARDOM to stage qualifying four-way matches 🌟Winners advance to a four-promotion match at #wrestledynasty 🌟Winner receives shot at title of their choice

This is REALLY cool and can't wait to see who gets picked and makes it to the final 4.

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

This is a poll blog that asks the question…could your favorite fictional character be a pro wrestler? Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[hanitje]

I was watching NJPW NJRiot - great matches and all, please have more tours around the world, but let's get to the meat and potatoes:

I jumped from my seat during the Jack Perry vs Shota Umino match because Jack did the UNPRETTIER - that was Christian Cage's move. I know everyone was talking about CM Punk's move the GTS or whatever I don't give a shite, but I saw that Unprettier, and I was like... can Christian appear in NJPW? He doesn't have to fight, just sits amongst the audience, smirking, watching Jack, and then the young man notices him and freaks out.

The match between Matt Riddle and Zack Sabre Jr... hoo-boy, that wasn't good. It wasn't bad, but I was like... they could do better than this. What the hell was this... Like, NOBODY CARED about this match. I was happy though that the crowd and the fans were behind Zack all the way, even I could see that ZSJ was jetlagged and definitely needed a stiff drink. Good performance from Zack, as always, and I am not being biased or anything. But Riddle... yiiissshh... Glad he lost, please get lost, Zack won, and all is well in the world now. But Zack seriously needs a better rival because Riddle is just not even at the top of the chain. Blergh. In the end, Zack was talking to the audience and being his charming and funny self.

[kayfabe-is-king]

Yoh’s chest looks like raw ground beef but Roppongi Vice pulled an upset. That was a banger of a match.

[kayfabe-is-king]

I’ve had a NJPW World subscription for well over two years. I can 1000% say it’s worth it. Plus they now have device apps (Roku, etc.) so it’s easier to watch on a television screen. There was a time I had to hook an HDMI cable between my tv and my computer because NJPW World was a website only.

Also, while the Japanese wrestlers do their promos (both in ring and backstage) in Japanese, if their English commentator Chris Charlton (who also speaks Japanese) isn’t there to translate, they put up commentary with English subtitles relatively quickly post event.

I discovered Will Ospreay, Jay White, Okada and Aussie Open through NJPW years before they came to AEW. And there are so many insanely talented wrestlers in the promotion now. If you’ve never watched Japanese wrestling, you are in for a treat.

The biggest thing to know is House of Torture takes cheating to a whole new level. Like if cheating in a wrestling match was an Olympic sport, their mantels would be loaded with gold medals.

I've been seeing a lot of AEW fans who aren't sure how to watch the upcoming Wrestle Dynasty show, so here's a brief explanation!

Wrestle Kingdom, Wrestle Dynasty, and NJPW's big "mystery card" show New Year Dash are all included with a NJPW World subscription at no additional charge! All you have to do to watch them is subscribe to NJPW World.

A 30-day NJPW World subscription is $9.99 USD. The subscription will allow you to watch shows as they're streaming live, and watch them in the archive after they've aired. It also gives you access to the rest of the videos in the archive.

You can subscribe whenever you want - you'll get 30 days of membership starting when you subscribe. Just be aware that the subscription renews on Japan-time, so if you only want a month, cancel a day early to make sure the time zone difference doesn't get you.

All three shows will have live English language commentary. To change the commentary language on any match, click the gear button on the bottom left corner of the video and select English audio.

The app should default to English. The website is also available in English - If it doesn't default to English for you, just click the button on the upper right corner to switch it to English.

You can subscribe in the app, but I don't know if the app stores add any additional fees, so I'd suggest subscribing on their website to be safe.

Shows taking place in Japan will of course happen on Japan-time, which tends to be late night or early morning in the US.

Wrestle Dynasty is scheduled early to accommodate American viewers - it starts at 1 PM Japan-time, which is 11 pm EST / 8 pm PST. If you want to watch the livestream, I suggest hitting play about 5 minutes before the show is actually scheduled to begin - sometimes the service gets overwhelmed right as big shows start and everyone starts watching all at once.

The other shows air at more standard times in Japan, which means later at night from the US, so if you want to watch them live from the US you'll have to wake up early or stay up late. But you can also just watch the archived shows later.

Wrestle Kingdom is New Japan's biggest show of the year, and absolutely worth watching. It will air on 1/4, the day before Wrestle Dynasty. Each year of NJPW is structured like a season of a TV show, and Wrestle Kingdom is the climax of the different stories from the previous year. You can think of it as the "season finale" for NJPW's 2024 season.

New Year Dash is New Japan's annual "surprise card" show. It will be on 1/6 this year. New Year Dash functions as the first episode of a "new season" of NJPW, by introducing new storylines for the new year. There are always some big surprising events, and it's likely that at least some wrestlers from AEW will show up for it this year.

[schadentekkers]

G1 CLIMAX 34 WINNER ↳ ZACK SABRE JR.

[elitehanitje]

Cody Rhodes Supports Body Shaming

"This is a vanity business. This weird online contingent doesn't realize how important that (physique) is. We're wrestling with our shirts off, folks, it's ok to go the gym...and you hear fans be like "You can't body-shame wrestlers" - what are you talking about? We're standing there half naked and you're paying hundreds of dollars to see us. Body shame me all you want. Currently, I know it might seem toxic and stuff, but amongst the boys and girls, everyone [is saying] who does your diet? Who’s training? There’s a whole ‘nother health-conscious' now in WWE, and I love that. We’re trying to look our best."

This is normally the part where everyone might rant about how wrong Cody is on certain points, but the fact that he admits his answer “might seem toxic and stuff” pretty much does the work.

The world of professional wrestling today is quite different from the past. Gone are the days of wrestlers who were just overly muscular; now, more fit and diverse athletes are the norm.

Someone like Adam Cole, who has been receiving a lot of body shaming lately, might not agree with what Cody Rhodes had to say. Nevertheless, Rhodes has made his stance on body shaming clear and has no regrets about what he said.

Especially when AEW haters body-shame wrestlers such as Orange Cassidy, Adam Cole, Nyla Rose, Eddie Kingston, Deonna Purazzo, Samoa Joe, Marko Stunt, Jack Perry, Zack Sabre Jr, JD Drake, Beef, Willow Nightingale, Joshi Wrestlers, NJPW Wrestlers, CMLL/Luchador wrestlers, The Young Bucks, and many more, many fans are trying to figure out whether Rhodes wants fans to attack AEW/non-WWE wrestlers or just insult wrestlers in general.

Hana Kimura committed suicide following a series of troubling tweets addressing online bullying and body shaming directed at her from "fans", she was found dead in her apartment in Tokyo on May 23, 2020. She was only 22.

Deonna Purazzo was harassed and body-shamed by many "fans" and she had to make a statement about it. Cody Rhodes' green light about allowing body-shaming wrestlers is a dangerous path toward harassment and bullying. Even a champion such as Zack Sabre Jr was being called a skinny jobber by WWE fans for winning the G1 Climax, not even knowing what his face looked like because they'd never seen him wrestle.

Marko Stunt was body-shamed during his tenure as a wrestler especially when podcaster Jim Cornette fueled his hatred toward him by telling his fans to harass the wrestler. Luchasaurus was fired from WWE when he filed a complaint against many people who bullied and body-shamed trainees and wrestlers.

Wrestler Sheamus was body-shamed a lot during his tenure especially because of his weight gain. Fans also quickly pointed out that Cody Rhodes' father, the late Dusty Rhodes was well-known to have a large body type, which is ironic that Cody allows this behavior. His half-brother, Dustin Rhodes is also an AEW wrestler who doesn't react to Cody, but tweets words of encouragement to his fans.

Some critics say Cody Rhodes is saying these things because he is playing a character, so he's becoming toxic. But this is actually a genuine interview from him, not when he was playing a character. He wants to appeal to those WWE toxic fans who like to insult AEW, Japanese wrestlers, and Luchas wrestlers.

Critics immediately have something to say about his toxic beliefs:

[xomegaman]

Kenny Omega commented backstage after defeating Gabe Kidd in the Tokyo Dome at WRESTLE DYNASTY!

He said that he felt he was past his peak but still wanted to do it. Even though people booed him during the match and he regretted for some brief moment mid match his decision of doing his comeback match in NJPW he doesn’t regret his decision. He also mentioned that he won and New Japan created a new star in Gabe Kidd. He thanked the people that supported him because they were energy to him. And mentioned that he felt alone in this war because the only person that never turned his back on him wasn’t allowed to be in the building.

[princedevitt]

[bullet-clubs-bitch]

FUCK YES

THE YOUNG BUCKS ARE BACK IN NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING!!!!!

My delusional ass is praying for OG Bullet Club back

[wrestlingisfake]

Just to warn you, the AEW content on NJPW World is only available in Japan (or with a VPN maybe?), and probably only with Japanese commentary. I've never tried to watch AEW over there, so I don't know how difficult it might be.

NJPW World is kind of intimidating for a newcomer because everything is laid out for the convenience of people who use it all the time. For me, it's easy, because when I go to the site I just want to see whatever is airing live right now (at the top of the page), or whatever show aired last night (right below that in the "New Releases"). For a newbie, there's no guidance on where you should start, or where to go in the archives.

If you just want to pull up a great show, the easiest place to start is searching for the Wrestle Kingdom events. That's New Japan's version of Wrestlemania, and they always try to deliver the best show of the year. I'm not saying every match on a Wrestle Kingdom will be five stars or anything, but usually the second half of the show is full of bangers. Watching Wrestle Kingdom 18 (this year's show) would be a good intro to the current major players in NJPW. I'm also fond of Wrestle Kingdom 11 (2017), personally.

I think the best way to jump into a wrestling promotion is to just start watching the current shows, and let the commentary team explain what you need to know. For AEW, I'd suggest you just start watching Dynamite until they convince you to start watching Collision, and if they're doing their job right they'll sell you on ordering the PPVs. With New Japan it's more complicated, because they put lots of shows up every week, and they can't possibly expect you to watch all of them, and some of them are glorified house shows where nothing happens.

With New Japan you mainly want to watch the big shows--what WWE would call PLEs. These are included with your subscription to NJPW World, and are available with English commentary. These are the shows where most of the championships are defended, and we get the major beats in the storylines. The last big show was Wrestling Dontaku on May 3-4. The next big show is Dominion on June 9. After that comes the G1 Climax tournament, but I'd need a whole other post to explain that. There will probably be some other, smaller shows worth checking out this summer, but like I said, the idea is to let them talk you into wanting to see those shows.

In addition to the shows included in your NJPW World subscription, they also run shows you have to pay extra to see. These are literal pay-per-views, so they'll be marked as "PPV" with the price listed on the site. For now, don't worry about ordering those PPV shows. Watch the shows that come with your subscription, and let them try to convince you to spend the extra $22.99 a pop. If they do their job right, you'll figure out which ones are worth your money and time.

This post is getting pretty long so I'll stop here. There's a lot more to learn about New Japan and how they do things, but I think the important thing is to get the most out of the first month of your NJPW World subscription. Watch some Wrestle Kingdom shows, definitely check out Dominion on June 9, and feel free to ask questions.

question for aew (and njpw if you're there!) enjoyers!

i went and got a subscription to njpw world and like a blind fool i thought it'd be just like the wwe network and i could quickly find exactly what i want to watch from the comfort of the home browser page but unfortunately life is not so simple. i can find a thing if i search for it by name but truly trying to break in from the front page is just confusion and i also don't know what's going at the moment and who most people outside the most famous like 3 people are, so im a bit adrift.

i also discovered that this subscription includes access to all dynamite and collision episodes (no ppvs outside the crossovers with njpw and they're, well, ppv) from 2022 onwards. my question for enjoyers of both promotions is simple.

what do i watch?!

im not going in totally blind esp not with aew, but as far as storylines and time frames and when's a good place to drop in from 2022 onwards (except the better than you bay bay storyline that crossed my path a few times), im completely in the dark. there's too much to just start from their earliest one and work my way to now.. and with njpw it's even worse cause im not even entirely sure how their shows are even structured outside of the PPVs?

so yeah if anyone has any pointers, whether it's for particualrly good matches, particularly memorable stories, or (for njpw) how to just start from where they're currently at and keep up with it, i'd be very grateful! i guess aew ppvs i'll have to find some other way (i can find some recent ones as far back as revolution 2024 on watchwrestlingup but other than that i think i need a whole different subscription and also to pay for every ppv. in yen. which i would rather not do if at all possible)

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

This is a poll blog that asks the question…could your favorite fictional character be a pro wrestler? Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!