#iwgp jr heavyweight tag team championship

[orangebapecamoprint]

[kywithavoice]

they haven't done a 4 way junior tag title match for wrestle kingdom in two years so i like that they're changing it up for january

[imvgeswrestling]

》》》

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 in Tokyo Dome Review (Jan 4th, 2024)

New Japan Rambo **

IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship - Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. TJP & Francesco Akira ***1/4

NJPW World TV Championship - Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ****

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura ***1/2

Shota Umino & Kaito Kiyomiya vs. EVIL & Ren Narita ***1/4

NEVER Openweight Championship - Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Tama Tonga ****1/2

IWGP Tag Team & STRONG Openweight Tag Championship Double Title Match - Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. El Phantasmo & Hikuleo ***3/4+

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. El Desperado ****1/4

Inaugural IWGP Global Championship Match - Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay ****1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson *****

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - SANADA (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito ****1/4

Photos.

This show ruled. Full disclosure, I've fallen behind with NJPW in the last couple of years, and only really get to fully see the major shows, so going in this looked like a solid little card on paper, so my expectations weren't exactly sky high. However, the New Japan crew knocked it out of the park with an excellent, Show of the Year contender. Things started as they always do: The annual "cram everyone humanly possible onto the card" Rambo. We all know what to expect here, and this was better than a lot of previous offerings, but the surprise appearance of Fujita "Jr" Hayato in this years really raised it up for me, as I'm always super pleased to see him back in the ring after all he's been through. Takashi Iizuka turning up was also a nice surprise (absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that), and it was a kick to be transported back to 2013 with him mercilessly going after poor Shimpei Nogami on commentary. The ending though was very deja vu, as I could have sworn some incredibly similar variant of this was the outcome last year. The final four of Great-O-Khan, Taiji Ishimori, YOH and Toru Yano advanced to face off for the KOPW Title tomorrow.

The main show started in style with the prerequisite Jr Tag Title Match, which featured TJP debuting his new demon gimmick, The Aswang, because he was locked in a casket when last we saw him, you see. My English feed froze at the opening bell on the Aswang mask for ages, and by the time I'd gotten back onto the Japanese feed, I'd missed like three minutes of this, there were brawls all over ringside, The Aswang was wearing a dog collar, and Moloney was bleeding. The final 5 or so minutes I did see were pretty damn good though, so that's what my rating is based on. TJP got this win for him and Akira after he blew the dreaded Dokukiri into Drilla's face, then Catch 22 hit the double knees to regain the titles at 9:38. Next up, President Tanahashi put an end to the 365 day TV Title reign of ZSJ in an excellent 8:53 sprint. These guys always have excellent matches together, and this was no exception. They worked a fast-paced thriller, which boiled down to them hitting a sequence of cradle reversals, before Tana counter a Zack Victory Roll into one of his own, and won the belt to a big pop. President Ace thanked everyone for coming in the post match, and wished us all a Happy New Year. Godly.

Career rivals Tsuji and Uemura had their first non-Young Lion outing on a major show next. This was a very good little match, I've always been high on both guys since they were rookies, and I firmly believe they have incredibly bright futures in New Japan, and are destined to be focal points in the years to come. Even though I do wish they'd do more with Yota. The guy came in super hot, with a ton of hype, and now he's kinda just floundering in the mid-card. And more mid-carders is most certainly not something this company needs! They always have really good matches, so add this one to that list, which ended at just under 11 minutes, when Uemura got the much needed win with his beautiful Deadbolt suplex. Fellow future superstar Shota Umino drove into Tokyo Dome on a motorbike to start his and partner, NOAH "Ace" Kiyomiya's tag match against HoT goons EVIL and Ren Narita next. This was going along really nicely, the three young guys all looked great, and the crowd were very much into, until the standard shenanigans started, which lead to a fairly abrupt finish, which saw Narita deck Umino with a steel plated push-up bar, then score the pin with his Double Cross finish at the 7 minute mark.

The fifth bout saw company MVP Shingo defend the NEVER Title against Tama Tonga in a hard-hitting war, which was by far the best match on the show up to this point. The near 30K in attendance were going crazy for this as they hit all their big spots, massive Lariats and Gun Stun counters. After Takagi scored a great near fall with Made in Japan, Tama went to the Bullet Club well, hitting a Gun Stun, Bloody Sunday AND a Styles Clash, before putting Shingo away with the DSD at 13:46 to claim his 4th NEVER Championship. Excellent stuff here, though seemingly Tama announced afterwards that he's finishing up with the company at the end of the month, so him winning is an... interesting decision. The double Tag Title match followed, which was a rematch of the Tag League Final between Bishamon and GoD. This was another great match, a fun sprint which saw the STRONG Champions win both sets of belts after ELP hit Goto with CRIII, and Hikuleo came off the top with a massive, but very unattractive, Big Splash to win the belts in 9:47. Just before this match, Nic Nemeth (the former Dolph Ziggler) and his brother Ryan turned up to sit at ringside. I think we all know there's some kind of angle coming here.

Speaking of career rivals, Hiromu and Despy faced off for the Jr. Heavy Title in the next bout. We've seen many versions of this match in recent history, and they're pretty much always excellent, so this fit that mould no doubt. Things started hot as Despy hit Hiromu with a Tope con Giro as he made his entrance, and they worked 100 mph from there. The challenger worked over the champions leg to set up the Numero Dos, but it wasn't to be. The finish saw Desperado escape the Hiromu Roll, then hit a Jay Driller, kept a hold and nailed Takahashi with a second Pinche Loco to win the strap at the 14:21 mark to end another great outing. We crowned an inaugural IWGP Global champion next, as Ospreay, Moxley and Finlay had a wild Triple Threat Match. This started with Mox and Ospreay agreeing to work together for the first 5 minutes in order to take out Finlay, then turn their attention on each other, before BC War Dogs Alex Coughlin and Gabe Kidd ran in. The babyfaces rallied a comeback though, which saw Ospreay put the invaders through tables with a Swanton Bomb to the outside, and Moxley took a post bump and gigged himself. Which I'm sure will shock many. The finishing stretch was insanely hot as Mox kicked at one from a Hidden Blade, but was put down with Stormbreaker, only for Finlay to hit Ospreay with his new Overkill finish, which is essentially a Brainbuster into a Go 2 Sleep, to become the inaugural Global champion in 22:17. In the post match, Finlay got into a shoving match and pull-apart with Nic Nemeth at ringside, which culminated in Nemeth chasing him to the back. So that looks to be Finlay's first title programme. Finlay going over was 100% the right call, with Ospreay leaving as a full-timer, they need to start making some top guys, and he's a good place to start.

Semi final time, and a true dream match next as Okada faced Danielson in a match I'd spent a good decade fantasy booking. After their slightly disappointing first encounter at Forbidden Door in June, due in no small part by Dragon legit breaking his arm during it, they came out with a lot to prove. And they certainly didn't disappoint this time as they had a superb wrestling encounter based around aggression and emotion. As anyone who's been watching Danielson since the ROH days can attest, when Bryan has a grudge with someone (Morishima, Nigel), he goes all out with the intensity, and it usually produces classics. The pacing, the limb-work, the storytelling, the drama... everything about this was essentially perfect. After Okada broke Danielson's arm in their previous match, Dragon obsessively set out to do the same here. And it lead to his downfall. The American Dragon was coming into this one with a fractured orbital bone, so Okada worked over that for a while too. Okada kicked out of a Busaiku Knee, Danielson locked on the same arm submission he tapped Okada out with at Forbidden Door, but The Rainmaker made the ropes. Dragon then stomped his f'n head in and locked in the LeBell Lock, only for Okada to hit a Rainmaker, but he was in too much pain from his devastated right arm, and couldn't make the cover. Danielson hit a big head kick and another Busaiku Knee, but rather than go for the cover, he elected to do the "Yes!" gimmick in the corner, and try another knee, but Okada hit an Emerald Flowsion, a Landslide, then another Rainmaker to fall on top of Dragon, and score the surprise win at the 23:24 (which it felt half of, by the way). This was a masterpiece, and I was legitimately shocked when the three count came. I could have watched this for an hour, it left me very much wanting a rubber match, and this is easily the best match of 2024 so far. They bowed to each other and shook hands in the post match.

The Keiji Muto fan club imploded in the main event as former LIJ stablemates Naito and SANADA (who was even dressed like Muto circa 1995), battled for the World Title. This was an excellent match, one that I didn't have a massive amount of interested in going into this show, but they had a really great clash. It's worth mentioning that something happened to SANADA here, I don't know if it was the biceps injury he's been dealing with since G1, or if he seperated his shoulder or something, but he was in noticeable discomfort through this, and it let to some wonky botches near the finish. They tried multiple times to do a Destino counter, but they couldn't pull it off. SANADA hit Dead Fall for the double down, then an Asai DDT, but Naito escaped a second Dead Fall attempt, and went for Valentia, but SANADA countered into an O'Connor Roll for a super close near fall. A Shining Wizard followed, but Naito turned another Dead Fall attempt into one of his own, finally hit Valentia, then finished the champion off with Destino to win his first World title at 25:42. It's worth pointing out that they clashed heads on the way down on the Destino, and Naito got busted open pretty bad over his eye. With Naito having finally won again in the main event of Tokyo Dome, he was about to Finish His Story, when EVIL and Dick Togo, of all people, ran-in in an attempt to ruin things like KENTA did in 2020. However, they hadn't bargained on SANADA, who nailed his former tag partner with a Shining Wizard, and Naito sent Dick packing with a low dropkick. SANADA then let Naito finish the story a decade in the making, and do his "De-Ja-Pon!!!" roll call to end the show and send everyone home happy. Whilst I applaud NJPW for giving SANADA a go, or just giving ANYONE NEW a shot at the top of the card (it's been very Groundhog Day for a long time up there, and this is something I've been encouraging since NAito at WK8!), I don't think it payed off liked they'd hoped. SANADA is a very good worker, and amazing athlete, but he's just missing something that would make him that major star. Which is obviously something Naito has in abundance, so I'm very pleased he got his big win here, as it was pretty much last chance saloon.

This was a tremendous card, not quite as good as last year's, I don't think, but still great, great stuff and well worth checking out. Especially the Okada/Danielson match!

NDT

[fagcrisis]

my friend ellis @jonny-dykeville wants to get into njpw, and i thought id write her a little summary of whats been going on lately! im posting it here in case its useful for anyone who wants to get into nooj but finds it a little too confusing (understandable) or has stopped watching in the last couple years and now wants to get back into it

this will include a list of matches at the end from 2023 that i think were good and/or are important to storylines! this is accurate to the day im writing it which is 2023/05/15

LINKS TO BE UPDATED

The landscape of New Japan Pro Wrestling has changed enormously in the past couple of months. For example if you told someone a year ago that Kazuchika Okada would hold a non singles belt, theyd laugh in your face.

So how did we get here?

google doc version

Your current champions

Sanada beat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Sakura Genesis, and has since defended it against Hiromu Takahashi, the current junior heavyweight champion. 

Hiromu won the belt at Wrestle Kingdom in a four-way match against Master Wato, El Desperado, and former champion Taiji Ishimori.

The IWGP women’s title was created last year and won by Kairi at Historic X-over. She lost the belt to Mercedes Moné, who was champion until Mayu Iwatani dethroned her recently.

Aussie Open hold the tag titles after defeating Bishamon, and they’ve gone on to win the Strong openweight tag team championships from the Motor City Machine Guns.

David Finlay is the NEVER openweight champion, bringing the belt back in to Bullet Club after Tama Tonga defeated Karl Anderson for it at Wrestle Kingdom.

Intergalactic Jetsetters (Kushida And Kevin Knight) finally ended the reign of Catch 2/2 (Tjp And Francesco Akira) as junior heavyweight tag team champions during the road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, thank god.

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii are the NEVER openweight six man champions winning the titles from Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki And Ren Narita). If you think that sentence is insane, don’t worry I’ll explain whats happening.

Zack Sabre Jr became the inaugural NJPW World TV champion, winning the tournament at Wrestle Kingdom by defeating Ren Narita, and he’s had some incredible defenses since (you might’ve seen him on ROH).

the KOPW trophy graduated to a belt after El Phantasmo broke it, and Taichi is the current provisional champion having defeated Shingo Takagi for it. 

Kenta lost the strong openweight championship to Hikuleo in the first defense of the belt in Japan, after winning it from Fred Rosser (with Juice interference).

at the time of writing this the Strong women’s title does exist but the tournament to decide its first owner has yet to be held (Resurgence may 21st).

Karl Anderson will pay for his crimes

Those who have been following me since november last year know that Suzuki-gun, a heel faction in NJPW led by Minoru Suzuki, has come to an end. I was inconsolable. There are multiple reasons for this happening, but the main one is Karl Anderson.

While Anderson is a member of Bullet Club, and in fall of last year was still the NEVER openweight champion, he is contracted to WWE and was on a handshake deal with NJPW, essentially promising he’ll appear at shows they book him for. There was a scheduling conflict with one of WWE’s saudi shows, and Anderson essentially ghosted the company not appearing for his title defense against Hikuelo, which meant I had to watch Yujiro Takahashi wrestle. anyway this all meant that New Japan lost faith in their freelancers, and because the majority of Suzuki-gun were on handshake deals, this meant the faction had to go. Their last match was on december 23rd (njpwworld) (bilibili link) and it was very emotional and beautiful, and I was incredibly sad.

Shota came back!

Shota Umino, who you may know as the protege of Jon Moxley, returned from excursion in the fall of last year. Young lions (NJPW trainees) are sent abroad to foreign promotions by the company to train and gather experience in different environments to Japan. Shota was in Britain for a time and he returned, challenging Will Ospreay for the US title he still held at the time. He lost but with this high profile title shot he joined the ranks of the young stars NJPWhas much faith vested in. 

This also includes Ren Narita, who you may not know because he was never adopted by a mean american man. he was trained by Katsuyori Shibata, earning the nickname Son of Strong Style and wearing similar gear to Shibata as well. The company seems to be trying to set him up to be Shibata’s successor, and he wrestles a similarly, clean technical style.

A recent addition to their ranks is Yota Tsuji, whose return I will explain later.

The IWGP women’s title

Women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and NJPW are both owned by Bushiroad. Because of this last year there was a crossover between the two promotions, which saw the first mixed tag matches in an NJPW ring. Great show, you should watch it. (njpwworld link) (bilibili link)

For this event, the IWGP women’s championship was created and won by Kairi. Now I have some thoughts about how Stardom is already full of accomplished talented women, and putting a women’s match on the card once in a blue moon isn’t a win for women in wrestling and you should maybe try watching Stardom instead (guide on how to do that). But I digress. Regardless of whether or not this is pandering, every match for the belt was undoubtedly incredible and I will be linking them all in the rec section.

A brief Wrestle Kingdom aside

You fucking know what happened at Wrestle Kingdom I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. Kenny Omega returned and defeated Will Ospreay for the US title, and Okada won his beloved IWGP belt back from Jay White, starting him down the path of leaving NJPW.

What you might not know is what happened at Wrestle Kingdom Night 2, which confusingly was held some weeks later. Wrestle Kingdom traditionally is a show between NOAH and NJPW, so Night 2 saw the two promotions pitch their most popular wrestlers against each other. Okada was set to fight Kaito Kiyomiya in a tag team match, but he thought this challenge beneath him and attempted to murder Kiyomiya ruling the match a no contest.

Later in february, at Keiji Muto’s retirement show, Okada did have to face off Kiyomiya in a singles bout, despite his protests that he is not some cheap whore (his words not mine). That entire show is incredibly good but not extremely relevant to NJPW storylines, as crossover events usually are not. (njpwworld) (unoffical link)

After Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan holds New Year’s Dash and the New Beginning shows where they set up new storylines that will likely last the whole year. Jay White challenges Hikuleo to a loser leaves Japan match, because he blames him and his brothers (Guerillas of Destiny) for Bullet Club weakening and his loss at Wrestle Kingdom. He promptly loses this match. Bummer. 

El Desperado refuses to accept that Suzuki-gun is over and joins Minoru Suzuki in defending Ren Narita from House of Torture’s dastardly attack, leading to the formation of their trios team; Strong Style. They then go on to defeat House of Torture for the NEVER openweight six man tag team titles. Now this is crazy but we dont have time to dwell on it because the other remnants of Suzuki-gun are also making moves that are considerably more insane.

Its time for: faction madness

There are a lot of factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling. like a lot. Every storyline is heavily driven by who is in what faction and where their allegiences lie. This might be confusing to you if you only watch AEW, a promotion where factions matter less than what Tony adds to commentary.

TMDK

Naturally ex-Suzuki-gun member and best technical wrestler in the known universe Zack Sabre Jr couldn’t simply remain in Hontai, the main body of New Japan where factionless members of the roster belong. Luckily he was a free agent for all of five seconds before his old australian buddies snatched him and his fresh tv championship up. TMDK, known as an australian faction despite a solid half not being from Australia, has suffered some losses in the past year. Jonah, their strongest member, a man who defeated even Kazuchika Okada, left Japan for WWE. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls, founding members of the faction and a tag team under the same name, have failed to succeed in winning Tag League in fall of last year. Safe to say, they needed a win. Zack has teamed with them during his time in NOAH, so it was only logical that he would return to his old friends. They even recruited a young lion, Kosei Fujita, who became the first young lion in a faction if you don’t count Hikuleo which was a slightly different situation. TMDK also includes Bad Dude Tito (or Big Teets) over in the States.

The addition of Zack really reinvigorated the faction. Shane and Mikey challenged and failed to defeat Aussie Open for the tag titles, and Robbie Eagles left Chaos for more australian pastures, joining the faction when he challenged Hiromu Takahashi for his championship. Robbie also lost but TMDK didn’t let these setbacks stop them from cutting the weirdest promos after every match and staunchly insisting Fujita (who they’ve nicknamed Big Fooj) will be the first young lion to win a championship.

United Empire

Will Ospreay is no longer the IWGP US heavyweight champion. After losing to Kenny Omega he threw a hissy fit and declared that he would give professional wrestling one more year. He also entered the New Japan Cup, a tournament for the right to challenge for the IWGP championship. Unfortunately in a match against his friend and stablemate Mark Davis (of Aussie Open and ass size fame) he injured his shoulder which put him out of action until about last week. He won the 1pw world title though, so he’s fine.

Other than that, the faction has been doing fairly well for themselves. After a titanic struggle against Bishamon, Aussie Open won the tag titles and have gone on to defend them against TMDK and somehow, Best Friends on AEW television. They also won the Strong tag titles, and Kyle Fletcher managed to botch a moonsault in both matches. You’ve definitely seen them even if you don’t watch NJPW, their schedule is insane and they have a banger of a match practically on a weekly average. 

Also tag champions in the faction were Catch 2/2, who held the junior titles until fairly recently. They’ve had great defenses against YOH and his new tag partner, Lio Rush (more on that in a second) and Douki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. What you need to know about Catch 2/2 is that TJP is a PragerU weirdo and Akira is good albeit italian.

UE also includes Jeff Cobb, who you might’ve seen challenging for Kenny Omega’s US title on Dynamite. He is incredible I don’t have anything else to say. He also kind of thinks flat earthers have a point. He’s really good though.

Also in the faction are Aaron Henare, men’s rights weirdo who challenged and lost to Shingo Takagi for the KOPW belt and Great O Khan who is somehow the Revpro champion. He is notable for having a nice bow in his hair and screeching. The most recent recruit to the faction is Dan Moloney, who unfortunately is fairly unknown to me. He joined the faction as a junior heavyweight and subsequently entered the Best of Super Juniors Tournament, which I will explain later.

Chaos

I’ve previously described Chaos as Hontai 2.0, because that’s really what it is. Lead by Kazuchika Okada, Chaos was the original heel faction in NJPW, founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. Nowadays it is a loose collection of allegiances that confusingly includes the entire Best Friends faction in AEW. Yes, that includes Trent’s mum Sue. Since becoming faces, Chaos members regularly team with Hontai because it all doesn’t really matter. 

Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at Battle in the Valley, and then asked him to tag together. They named themselves the Dream Team, and I only briefly pondered how well it ended the last time Tana teamed with a younger star. Anyways I’m sure this will go fine. They challenged Okada’s fellow Chaos members Bishamon for their tag titles they still held at that time, and sadly lost that match. They defeated the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita, and then once again failed to obtain gold in a 3-way match against the Motor City Machine Guns and Aussie Open (who won). After Okada lost his belt, they recruited Tomohiro Ishii, who doesn’t like Tanahashi and doesn’t want to team with him because he isn’t in Chaos. Despite this, they managed to defeat Strong Style for the NEVER openweight six man championships.

Bishamon I’ve covered sufficiently enough I think, they are the team of Hirooki Goto who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in professional wrestling and YOSHI-HASHI who used to be incredibly horrible and is less bad recently. They are fun and I like them.

YOH and SHO were a junior tag team in Chaos until SHO turned heel, joining Bullet Club. This left YOH in a sort of strange limbo, where he contemplated quitting wrestling and pursuing his more artistic ambitions (he is a musician and an artist). Rocky Romero, also a member of Chaos, got him and Lio Rush together to team for Junior Tag League, and they ended up winning the tournament! Although they failed to defeat catch 2/2 at Wrestle Kingdom, and Lio got injured, teaming with him seemed to bring YOH’s confidence back. He’s been wrestling slightly differently and with more self-assurence. The pair both separately challenged and lost to Hiromu Takahashi, two incredible matches that I will link below. Not even these losses brought YOH’s confidence down though, and he’s entered BOSJ alongside Lio although they are in different blocks.

Also members of Chaos are Rocky Romero, Best Friends (including Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Sue, and I think quite possibly Danhausen), Toru Yano who is kind of a funny little man, and Tomohiro Ishii.

Los Ingobernables de Japon

Led by Tetsuya Naito, the tweener group is more of a loose collection of talented individuals than your regular faction. LIJ has a policy of letting their members forge their own paths and create their own success, instead of letting them fall back on the power of the group. 

Maybe the only exception to this rule is Hiromu Takahashi, who owes a lot of his success to the faction as well as his mentor Tetsuya Naito. Hiromu is very talented and has a very unique style both in his wrestling and his fashion sense. Unbiased corner ahead I like him a lot. He holds junior wrestlers in very high regard and recently organized the All Star Junior festival to showcase junior heavyweights from all around japan (njpwworld ppv) (vk link). He has a plush cat named Daryl. Hiromu is kind of the ace of the junior division right now, he is on his fifth title reign and is trying to defend the belt 12 times to beat the current defense record of 11 held by Minoru Tanaka. Currently he is 4 defenses into this streak, having defeated YOH, Lio Rush, Robbie Eagles and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Despite being champion he entered BOSJ, a tournament he’s won four times, three times in a row. If he wins, he’ll get to hand pick his opponent at Dominion.

I have no clue what to say about Tetsuya Naito. To quote my friend Jay, “it’s naito. he is an indescribable force of non-functional knees and the driest hair you've ever seen. he takes ten years to remove his entrance gear. he is naito”. You fucking know who Tetsuya Naito is.

This year, the main thing he’s done is defeating his mentor Keiji Muto at his retirement show in Febuary (njpwworld link) (vk link). He has a very hands off approach towards leading his group, sort of letting everyone figure their things out, which is why he didn’t really seem worried about his match against his stablemate Sanada in the New Japan Cup. You can imagine his surprise when Sanada not only defeated him but then declared that he would be leaving the faction, but more on that later. He also recently had a singles match against DOUKI, which was incredible.

Also members of LIJ are Shingo Takagi, winner of KOPW 2022 and former KOPW 2023 provisional champion, and also living legend. He made his name in Dragon Gate, a different japanese promotion you should also watch (I’m not at all being held at gunpoint by people whose names start with J), Bushi and Titan, who are both junior heavyweight luchadors I don’t know as much about as I should. They’re really good and they are both in BOSJ this year.

Bullet Club

Do I even need to explain. Don’t worry I will. 

Jay White lost his loser leaves Japan match to Hikuleo, but there was hope. He promised Gedo he would go to America and wrestle on Strong and right his wrongs. So obviously he immediately lost a loser leaves New Japan match to Eddie Kingston, barring him from ever wrestling in a New Japan ring ever again. After weeks of radio silence, he showed up on Dynamite, forming Bullet Culb Gold (2 bullet 2 club) with Juice Robinson and you all know what happened after that.

It’s spring which means it’s Bullet Club infighting season. After Jay’s loss, his long time rival David Finlay waltzed into the ring all goth and angry, cutting a promo about how the japanese fans never appreciated him and he is an outsider wherever he goes. If this didn’t make it clear to you that he was the new leader, don’t worry it wasn’t clear to me or El Phantasmo either. 

ELP was friends with Jay White, and made the rest of the Club agree that they will let Jay ride off into the sunset. A peaceful transfer of power is however impossible in Bullet Club, which is kind of a Stanford prison experiment for closeted gay men. It started bothering Phantasmo, that everyone in his faction so readily accepted Finlay as the new leader, like they weren’t fully behind Jay only a week ago. And anyone who questions the leader has to go.

Then came a months long game of gay betrayal chicken. Every postmatch, Phantasmo would assure Finlay that they were doing it for the club, refuse to too sweet the new leader, and the two slapping eachother in place of a tag. Meanwhile the faces in Hontai were increasingly more accepting towards ELP, Shota Umino even gave him one of his bracelets. The tension came to a boil at Sakura Genesis, where in a tag team match against Guerillas of Destiny and Master Wato, Phantasmo refused to commit the clubs usual heel antics and was brutally kicked out in response. Despite his close friendship with Taiji Ishimori and Kenta, both men readily betrayed him for David Finlay.

Phantasmo returned as a face to beat Finlay up after he defeated Tama Tonga for the NEVER belt, and the two have a title match set at Dominion.

As I mentioned Kenta and Taiji Ishimori are both members of Bullet Club, and Finlay recently recruited Clark Connors to be the clubs newest junior. He entered BOSJ alongside Taiji. Gedo, the head booker of NJPW is also a member of BC but he mainly stands ominously in the background and in kayfabe doesn’t have a massive role in storylines.

HOUSE OF TORTURE

I have to explain what’s going on here. Bullet Club has sort of a subesction? Called House of Torture. They’re only really part of BC in name only, and merch sales. Their thing is gratuitous cheating, if one HoT member has a match, the rest of them aren’t far behind making every match a handicap. Their members are EVIL, the leader of the group and former LIJ member, Yujiro Takahashi the incredible slow motion man whose joints creak audibly with every move, Dick Togo and SHO, who joined after betraying YOH and turning heel. SHO is actually pretty good but the presence of HoT at every match really ruins. Everything. I try not thinking about them.

JUST 5 GUYS

NOW baby. The reason I’m even writing this. The worst faction name in the history of pro wrestling. This faction is made of four ex-Suzuki-gun members and Sanada. Originally called Just Four Guys when Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI announced they would be forming a faction at New Year’s Dash. Taka made some baseless claims about how they will defeat everyone and change the landscape of New Japan. He also came up with their new catchphrase “You already die”. Commentary and everyone else immediately dismissed them as a joke that will last maybe a couple of months. Oh how wrong we were.

Initially, the group did not have much success. Douki and Uncle Nobu lost to Catch 2/2 in their title match against them, Taka kept getting pinned and they failed to deliver on their promises to destroy everyone who stood in their way.

Taichi, as their only heavyweight, entered the New Japan Cup. His first match was against Sanada, a man he’s had some history with when he was still tagging with Zack Sabre Jr as Dangerous Tekkers. Sanada was a man not really renowned for anything, he hasn’t seen any singles success since joining LIJ by helping Tetsuya Naito cheat, except for a US title run cut short with no defenses due to an injury. He had blonde hair and the best or the worst move in pro wrestling history, depending on if you ask my friend Ryan or me. He never hits a moonsault. I don’t think Naito even knew who he was.

Safe to say, absolutely no one expected Sanada to defeat Taichi, much less his superior Naito. What we expected the least is for him to announce he is leaving LIJ for Just 4 Guys, which was now to be renamed JUST 5 GUYS. With dark hair, a clean shaven face and soon, new gear as well, Sanada really found his footing among this motley crew, the way he never managed in his seven years during LIJ. He went on to blaze through the competition in the Cup, winning it and subsequently defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP world heavyweight championship. Absolutely no one has expected this to happen, ever. Yet somehow, it is also one of the coolest things to happen, ever.

His former faction members in LIJ mostly seemed to just sort of accept he left, except for Hiromu. He said while he understood Sanada’s reasons for leaving, he felt betrayed. Hiromu challenged Sanada to a match for the heavyweight championship. No junior heavyweight has been able to defeat the heavyweight champion in the history of the company, although this match is not the first of its kind. 

When Sanada defeated Hiromu, the returning Yota Tsuji walked out into the ring and beat him up, held up the LIJ fist and carried Hiromu out of the ring. We don’t really know if this means he’ll be joining the faction, but it’s very likely, and the two have a match set at Dominion.

Obviously other stuff has happened but this is already 4000 words long and I still have things to explain to you. 

Whats happening right now

As I’m writing this, the 30th Best of the Super Juniors is just beginning. BOSJ is a round robin style tournament, just like the G1 where wrestlers are divided into two blocks and everyone fights everyone in their block. Usually, the winners of the two blocks face off against each other to win the tournament, but this year, the winner of each block faces off against the person who came second in the other block, and the winners of those matches are the finalists. The winner has the right to challenge for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship at Dominion.

This year’s participants are as follows.

I think this is absolutely the perfect time to get int New Japan. The junior division is full of incredibly talented wrestlers who focus more on fast paced high flying style matches and every one of them is easy to watch and very entertaining. The entire tour will be broadcast with full english coverage.

How do I watch all of this

New Japan conveniently has a streaming service called NJPW world, membership is 999 yen per month. Dont forget to toggle it to english in the upper left corner! Most shows have english commentary and in my opinion it is pretty good commentary. Even if you don’t want to pay for the site, it has a schedule page (upper right corner) which even displays multiple timezones, and links to the card for every upcoming show.

The site also has some free content, for example the backstage comments after every show. Backstage comments are essentially short interviews with the wrestlers directly after every match, which makes for very fun adrenaline fuelled nonsense. Search backstage comment on the site, or check the njpwworld youtube channel. The videos always have subtitles, but it takes the transcribers time, subs are usually out a day after shows air.

PIRACY 

In case you’d like to sail the high seas, you have a couple of options.

Watching show’s live I would recommend watchprowrestling.org for. They upload the shows and you can watch them live as well with a bit of delay.

If you’re looking for older stuff, you should try searching on bilibili (dont be intimidated by the language barrier, its quite easy to use) or this specific user on vk.com.

MATCHES TO WATCH

Title changes and defenses:

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Master Wato vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Zack Sabre Jr vs Ren Narita FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Shota Umino FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tom Lawlor FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Jeff Cobb FREE MATCH

Catch 2/2 vs YOH and Lio Rush (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Catch 2/2 vs Intergalactic Jetsetters (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:35:08)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Lio Rush (njpwworld) 

Hiromu Takahashi vs YOH (njpwworld) (unofficial link2:48:13)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Robbie Eagles (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld)

Kazuchika Okada vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Sanada vs Hiromu Takahashi (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Aussie Open vs Bishamon (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs TMDK (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs Motor City Machine Guns vs the Dream Team (Okada & Tanahashi) (njpwworld ppv)

Kairi vs Mayu Iwatani  (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Tam Nakano (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Mercedes Moné (unofficial link)

Mercedes Moné vs Kairi vs Hazuki (njpwworld)

Mercedes Moné vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs El Phantasmo (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs David Finlay (unofficial link)

Taichi vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:44:00)

Strong Style vs Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hikuelo vs Kenta (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Story matches

Tetsuya Naito vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Hikuleo (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Eddie Kingston (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:04:00)

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Kenta, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado) & Master Wato (njpwworld link)

just fun

Mark Davis vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Mark Davis vs EVIL (njpwworld)

Tetsuya Naito vs DOUKI (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:11:32)

El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld ppv)

Shota Umino vs Tetsuya Naito (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Speedball Mike Bailey FREE SHOW

Taichi vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld)

[blowflyfag]

Wrestling World presents Wrestling Maniacs: JUNE 1999

Sabu: THE SILENT KILLER! 

Alongside Terry Funk, Mick Foley, and maybe Sandman, Sabu is a hardcore wrestling legend. He has always been ECW’s most well-rounded performer, willing and able to make not only himself but any opponent look good.

By Chris Faust

[If you want to see hardcore wrestling, then Sabu is your man!]

EXTREME Championship Wrestling (ECW) has a variety of reputations. Some describe it as a slaughterhouse, a kind of Ultimate Fighting organization minus the sportsmanship.  Others are quick to note the technical, high-flying aspect to many ECW wrestlers’ styles. Unquestionably, ECW is violent, bloody, and bruising. But the acrobatic, high-impact, death-defying talents throughout the promotion are just as prevalent. One longtime ECW star has always performed with both of these objectives in mind. That man is Sabu, one of the most influential, mysterious, and entertaining wrestlers ever to compete in any federation.

Covered with scars from barbed wire death matches (his specialty during his early days), standing a modest 6-foot tall, and never weighing in over 225 pounds, Sabu looks like a man who has taken more punishment than he has handed out. He never speaks on camera, but communicates to the fans with his trademark index finger pointed into the air. He wrestles all the time and has a reputation for overbooking himself–some say for the money, but less cynical fans realize that very few men have surrendered themselves to the sport like Sabu.

Sabu’s wrestling style is better seen than described. He walks the line between fearlessness and complete psychosis. He is equally known for his vast arsenal of moonsaults, flips, and other top-rope maneuvers as he is for his various barbed wire, table, and chair stunts. He inflicts pain mercilessly, yet gracefully. At his ECW debut in 1993, he pinned Taz (then known as Tasmaniac) twice in one night, setting off a feud that still resurfaces periodically. His threshold for withstanding pain goes to an even greater extreme. Legend has it that once during a match against Chris Benoit, Sabu actually had his neck broken, yet still managed to finish the match.

[Sabu is one of the most downright brutal competitors ever to perform…and yes, those scars are real!]

The story behind Sabu’s rise in the American wrestling scene sounds like the stuff of legend as well. He was born in Bombay, India, the nephew of The Sheik. In 1984, after giving his nephew some training in mat technique, The Sheik announced that Sabu would compete against a mystery opponent in order to prove himself. The opponent was later revealed as The Sheik himself, but Sabu managed to pass his test one way or another. 

Sabu’s professional debut  came in 1985 when he defeated the Canadian Road Warrior. He then spent several years traveling the American independent circuit, making a name for himself as one of the most feared men in wrestling. He worked himself as much as possible, often wrestling six days a week, occasionally as much as three times in one day! In 1992 Uncle Sheik again helped further Sabu’s career, helping him make the jump to Japan’s FMW promotion. Sabu earned his first gold teamed with Horace Boulder (the same who now wrestles in WCW), when the two won the tag belts from Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto. At this point, Sabu’s growing reputation earned him a contract offer from the WWF, which he declined in favor of his interests in the Japanese scene, which included winning the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title.

Strangely enough, less than a year later, in October of 1993, Sabu made his ECW debut. Within less than a month, he had defeated Shane Douglas to become ECW World Champion. Weeks later, Sabu staked his belt against Terry Funk’s ECW Television title, defeating Funk and claiming both belts. Ironically, Sabu lost the World title to none other than Funk in December. Sabu held the TV title a bit longer, losing it to the Tasmaniac in March of 1994.

Taz and Sabu actually managed to reconcile their differences amiably, and formed a tag team. They won the belts in early 1995 from The Public Enemy, losing them a few weeks later to Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko. THe feud between the two reignited, culminating in a much-anticipated match between the two reignited, culminating in a much-anticipated match between the two at the first-ever ECW pay-per-view, “Barely Legal,” in early 1997. Sabu’s nose was broken early in the match, but this didn’t prevent the two from putting on the most grueling, strenuous match of the card. Taz, at that time managed by Bill Alfonso, won the match by choking Sabu unconscious. After the match, Taz extended a hand to a revived Sabu, but Alfonso ruined the moment by selling Taz out and instead offering his services to Sabu.

“Under new management, as the saying goes, Sabu once again claimed the ECW World title, again defeating Terry Funk. This time, in August of 1997, it was in a barbed wire match in Philadelphia, one of the most legendary matches in ECW history, so bloody and gruesome (even by ECW standards) that it has never aired on TV.The match ended with Sabu wrapping himself in barbed wire and using himself as a lethal weapon. He and Funk were so entangled in barbed wire that after the match they had to literally be pulled apart. Less than a week later, Sabu defended the belt in a three-way dance (against Shane Douglas and Terry Funk) at the second-ever ECW pay-per-view, “Hardcore Heaven.” The Sandman interfered, and Sabu was the first to be eliminated, with Douglas going on to pin Funk and win the title.

[Sabu is known for his vast arsenal of moonsaults, flips and other top-rope maneuvers!

Manager Bill Alfonso helped Sabu capture the ECW World title!]

More recently, Sabu has paired with Rob Van Dam to form one of the greatest tag teams ECW’s ranks have known. They defeated Chris Candido and Lance Storm for the tag team titles during the timer of 1998, before the ever-present tag threat of Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley won them in November at a Cleveland event. Since the loss, the two have regained the tag titles, and Sabu has set his sights on a third reign as ECW World Champion. His title shot was scheduled for January at ECW’s “Guilty as Charged” pay-per-view, a shot he earned by pinning current champion Shane Douglas in a non-title-six-man tag match at “November to Remember.” The two faced each other in Pittsburgh recently, where a bloodied Douglas retained his title when the match was declared a draw.

Some love him, some hate him, but no fan will deny Sabu’s influence on wrestling today. When he first hit the U.S. scene in the mid-’80s, promoters were more interested in cartoonish, buffoonish wrestlers like Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. A wrestler like Sabu was too real, too violent, and too dangerous for mainstream audiences. So he remained in the ugly underground scene before breaking into ECW.

[Sabu walks the line between fearlessness and psychosis…and proves it with every brutal ring outing!]

Unlike many wrestlers who simply imitate their own heroes’ maneuvers, Sabu originated many of the complex moonsaults and flips in his repertoire. He brought chairs, tables, and barbed wire into ECW, and he was the first to use the chair as a springboard (like Al Snow) instead of a weapon (which is not to say he doesn’t use it as a weapon too–I saw him give One Man Gang a top rope legdrop on the face while holding a chair under the leg in question!)

Many of ECW’s top stars have recently left the promotion in favor of the big two (Bigelow, Candido, Whipwreck, Sandman), with more rumored to be on their way out (Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer). Nevertheless, some tough competition remains for Sabu in ECW, in the form of Douglas and Masato Tanaka. Tanaka’s pain threshold approaches (if not equals) Sabu’s, as evidenced by the battle on the chairs with Balls Mahoney. Come to think of it, a tag team of Sabu and Tanaka could be unstoppable (in ECW or the WWF), should Van Dam decide to leave ECW.

[Unlike many wrestlers who simply imitate their hero’s maneuvers, Sabu originated many of the moonsaults and flips in his repertoire!]

Much like Kanyon, Jericho, and even Austin, Sabu is among the performers who always put on a good match, regardless of the occasion or opponent. By the time you read this, Sabu could very well have given Douglas a lesson in violence at “Guilty as Charged,” and won the ECW Championship for a third time. He deserves it, and if he doesn't win it, he should consider going after the WWF’s Intercontinental title. Alongside Funk, Mick Foley, and mauve Sandman, Sabu is a hardcore wrestling legend. He has always been ECW’s most well-rounded performer, willing and able to make not only himself but any opponent look good. All fans should point to the sky when they hear “Huka Blues” and Alfonso’s whistle going off, out of respect. Who knows which of the Sabu legends are true, whether Benoit really broke his neck, whether Alfonso really superglued him back together after the barbed wire match with Funk, but one thing is for sure, the fact that these legends even exist makes Sabu one of the most intriguing, mesmerizing, and downright brutal competitors ever to perform. And yes, those scars are real.

[blueonwrestling]

Also heres some star ratings from shows i've watched recently that I havent made any real post about because idk man im balls deep in OSRS atm.

IWGP Women's Championship Mayu Iwatani (c) v. Toni Storm Nagoya Golden Fight | STARDOM 3.75 stars

Miu Watanabe & Miyu Yamashita v. Meiko Satomura & Shoko Nakajima All Rise | TJPW 4 stars

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Tetsuya Naito (c) v. Zack Sabre Jr. King of Pro Wrestling | NJPW 4.25 stars

DPW Superbattle 19/10/24

Six Man Tag Team Match 1 Called Manders, BK Westbrook & Thomas Shire vs. Leon Slater & Lykos Gym (Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II) 3 stars

Tag Team Match Alex Windsor & Emi Sakura vs. Danni Bee & Hyan 3.25 stars

Singles Match KENTA vs. Kevin Blackwood 3.75 stars

DPW National Title #1 Contendership Match Mike Bailey vs. LaBron Kozone 4.25 stars

Battle Of The Best Final Match Shoko Nakajima vs. Dani Luna 4.25 stars

DPW National Title Match Masato Tanaka vs. Adam Priest 4 stars

Tag Team Match FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) 4.5 stars (AEW need to sign VIF NOW!)

DPW Worlds Title Match Calvin Tankman (c) vs. Jake Something 4.5 stars

AEW Continental Championship Kazuchika Okada (c) v. Kyle O'Reilly Battle of the Belts XII | AEW 4 stars

MLP Forged in Excellent Night 1 and 2

Singles Match Miyu Yamashita vs. Gisele Shaw 3.25 stars

Singles Match Mike Bailey vs. Konosuke Takeshita 4.75 stars

Singles Match El Phantasmo vs. Mike Bailey 4 stars

ROH Women's World Title Match Athena (c) vs. Gisele Shaw 4 stars

AEW International Title Match Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Josh Alexander 4.75 stars

WHAT ELSE HAS HAPPENED RECENTLY FUCK ME IM TRYING TO THINK I SHOULD HAVE WROTE IT DOWN FUCK!

fuck it thats all your getting enjoy.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax quarterfinals preview

The A and B block matches for this year's G1 Climax are complete, so now we move on to the knockout stage. This is basically a six-man elimination bracket, with the top three from each block. Tonight's show is headlined by A2 vs. A3 and B2 vs. B3. The winners of those matches will advance to the semifinals on August 17, where it'll be A1 vs. A2 or A3, and B1 vs. B2 or B3. The two semifinal winners will meet on August 18, to decide the winner of the tournament.

Shingo Takagi vs. Great-O-Khan - In A Block, Zack Sabre Jr. finished on top with a 7-2 record, followed by four men tied at 5-4. Of those four, Takagi won block matches against the other three, so he took second place. Khan's tiebreaker wins over Tetsuya Naito and EVIL put him in third. So now these two will compete for the right to wrestle Sabre in the semifinals. Khan's KOPW championship is not at stake here.

This is, by design, a rematch from earlier in the tournament--Takagi defeated Khan on July 23. Whoever wins here will also give us an A Block rematch in the semifinals--Sabre beat Khan on July 20, and Shingo beat Sabre on August 3. I wouldn't have set it up that way, but oh well. Presumably New Japan wants the finalists to get a chance to avenge a key loss or two.

I'm delighted Khan has made it this far, because I think he's capable of more than he's been doing for the past four years, and I like that this year's format allows someone from out of left field to get this close to the big dance. That said, I absolutely don't believe he's going to win the G1, or even make it to the final. So I guess it's possible he could win here and lose to Sabre, I don't think they'll take it that far. Takagi vs. Sabre will look better on the marquee than Khan vs. Sabre, so I think that's the match New Japan will deliver. Shingo wins.

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji - Over in B Block, David Finlay wound up in first place at 6-3. Takeshita and Tsuji were part of another multi-man tie at 5-4, with Takeshita officially in second place and Tsuji at third. Finlay will face the winner of this match on the 17th.

From an AEW fan's perspective, it's probably not a big shock that Takeshita has made it this far. But I'm a little surprised an outsider got out of the block--I kinda wonder if it's a last-minute change to work around Yuya Uemura's injury. New Japan likes bringing in guys from other promotions, but pushing them is another story. So I'm betting this match will be about Tsuji avenging his loss on July 20, before moving onward and upward.

Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson vs. David Finlay & Gedo - Sabre and Finlay are waiting to find out who their opponents will be on August 17. Jackson, an Australian freelancer, appears to be stepping in for Kosei Fujita, who was sidelined earlier in the tour. Seems like he'd be the one to take the pin, but maybe if they like him enough Gedo will do the job instead.

Shota Umino & El Phantasmo & Jado vs. EVIL & Ren Narita & Dick Togo - Pretty standard good guys vs. House of Torture tag match. Jado or Togo will likely lose the fall. I guess Evil's team wins.

Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI vs. HENARE & Callum Newman - All but the top three matches are basically filler, but this one feels especially like filler. I guess Bushi loses.

Gabe Kidd & Jake Lee vs. Jeff Cobb & Francesco Akira - Kidd has started talking up the idea of pursuing the IWGP heavyweight tag team title with Lee. Akira will probably lose the match to help advance that storyline.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano vs. SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi - Tana's team holds the NEVER trios championship, but the belts aren't on the line here. If Evil or Ren Narita were in this match, I'd think the heels might get a win to set up a title bout on the next tour, but as it is House of Torture's team feels too weak for anything but an easy squash for the babyfaces.

SANADA & Taichi & DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI & Tomoaki Honma & Katsuya Murashima - Kinda nice to see Just 5 Guys (well, four of them) together again, and Goto and Yoshi reunited. Other than that, not much to this. Murashima should lose.

[heartsoulrocknroll]

AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door 2022

The question I will continuously ask myself throughout this show: Where tf is Tetsuya Naito????????

Shota Umino, Wheeler Yuta, and Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki, Chris Jericho, and Sammy Guevara -- This was a fine opener. Umino essentially carries the match. Loved seeing him lock in the Walls on Jericho.

Jeff Cobb and Great O'Khan (c) vs. FTR vs. Roppongi Vice for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship -- This tag match rocked hard. FTR tag team action, effortless Jeff Cobb power, sneaky style Roppongi Vice. Cash fighting off Cobb and O'Khan on his own after Dax is taken to the back for medical attention. That hot tag when Dax finally comes back out, and my god, the crowd reaction. HELL YEAH FTR HITS BIG RIG FOR THE WIN!!! ROH AND IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG CHAMPS FTR!!!!!!!!!!

Pac vs. Miro vs. Malakai Black vs. Clark Connors for the Inaugural All Atlantic Championship -- This match was great. Loved the finishing sequence. I was freaking out when Miro had Game Over locked in on Pac. Thought that was it. Black with mist to Miro's face. Pac hits top rope 450 on Black to take him out, then locks in the Brutalizer on Miro for the win!!!! HELL YEAH, THIS SHOW WAS BOOKED JUST FOR ME.

Shingo Takagi, Darby Allin, and Sting vs. The Young Bucks and El Phantasmo -- Fine match. Nothing real serious to get excited about, other than Shingo being a rock star, as usual. Shingo rightfully gets the pinfall on ELP with Last of the Dragon.

Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm for the AEW Women's World Championship -- This match was fine. I have no other thoughts.

Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy for the IWGP United States Championship-- I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. Good balance of Orange Cassidy's nonsense (which I think Schiavone and Excalibur sold well) and serious wrestling. Orange Cassidy can go when given the chance. I never really thought Cassidy was going to win, but I still freaked out over the near-falls. He kicked out of the OsCutter, reversed the first attempt at Storm Breaker, and kicked out of the Hidden Blade!! Wtf?? Love to see it. Storm Breaker finally lands and puts him away. UE attacks Cassidy after the match and attempts to rip his pockets out of his jeans. To which JR brilliantly responds, "As if he can't buy more jeans!!!!!" I was almost in tears over that call, holy shit. AND THEN!!!!!!!!! SHIBATA COMES TO CASSIDY'S AID. HE LANDS A BEAUTIFUL CORNER DROPKICK TO OSPREAY AND I AM ON THE VERGE OF TEARS!!!!

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Claudio Castagnoli -- Now to the highlight of the show. I was so looking forward to ZSJ vs. Danielson, but my god, if this wasn't the best replacement for Danielson that I could have ever wanted. CLAUDIO!!!!!!!!! I have waited so long for him to escape from Vince's clutches, I could cry at the mere sight of him here in AEW. I loved this match so much. Claudio explodes out of the gate with uppercuts immediately, catching Zack off guard. It takes Zack several minutes to regain his composure and get in some offense, which I think was a good way to go here. The mix of Claudio's raw power and Zack's submission game was a beautiful thing to behold. Claudio counters Zack's armbar by deadlifting Zack and attempting to dump him out of the ring, but both guys go crashing to the outside. But Claudio holds on and deadlifts Zack back up, walks up the damn ring stairs carrying him, and dumps him back in the ring. Wtf??? Claudio ultimately wins via pinfall with a pop-up uppercut, followed by the Ricola Bomb. Bums me out a bit to see ZSJ take a loss, but Claudio obviously had to win in his debut match.

Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Adam Cole vs. Adam Page for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship-- This was fine. I don't think this needed to be a four-way match. I really don't think it even needed to be an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match. I hold that title in such high regard, it just sort of diminishes it for me, especially with Page having done nothing to earn a spot like this and Cole being a joke to me in general. Nice to see Okada anyway. Jay retains with a sneaky pinfall on Cole, which was the correct way for this to end.

Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the vacant Interim AEW World Championship -- This was a good, back and forth match, with both guys just beating the crap out of each other. However, the use of blood in AEW is getting out of control, and Moxley bleeding inexplicably in this match really took me out of it. It was obvious Moxley would win this, but that doesn't make him pinning Tanahashi any less annoying to me.

[nwaindustry]

- This July 13th, Debut of NWA USA will be airing. The entire episode is all or nothing with Eight Tag Team Tournament to be Crowning inaugural NWA United States Tag Team Championship. This One Day Tournament is honoring and tribute to Iron Sheik inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. This man gets the work done no matter what the circumstances are. So this Tournament is the perfect place to show our NWA Stars if they have the grit like the Legends. Here’s what we have scheduled.

Leading the opening show we have the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Zack Saber Jr! He has a few words to say.

- BrittBlade (Baker & Jay White) vs Rated RKO

- Brie Bella & Darby Allin vs Alexa Bliss & Noam Dar

- Liv Morgan & Ricochet vs The Rascalz (Davenport & Paxely

- Tyrus & Ospreay vs The Reapers (Tatum Paxley & Blair Davonport)

Promos are due Monday, July 10th must contain no more than five parts. You can post your promo on your story post, and feed posts! There will be no extension.

[pwrestlingxpress]

Key matches set for NOAH and NJPW big events.

After both "Wrestling Dontaku 2023" and "Majestic 2023" ended, key matches were announced for NOAH's "Sunny Voyage 2023 in Shinjuku Face "taking place on May 31st and NJPW's Dominion in Osaka-Jo Hall taking place on June 4th. And after NOAH's "Star Navigation 2023 Episode 4" ended, key matches were announced for "Green Journey 2023 in Nagoya" on June 17th.

Starting off with the official match card for "Sunny Voyage 2023 in Shinjuku FACE"

The event will be highlighted by the GHC Junior Tag Team Championship and an special singles match between Kenoh and Katsuhiko Nakajima that could have tag title implications should Kenoh retain his World Tag Team Title (with Manabu Soya) next week in Kobe.

Now, we go to the key matches set for NJPW's "Dominion in Osaka-Jo Hall" which will take place on June 4th.

As of right now, 4 title matches will be taking place in Osaka.

Jeff Cobb vs. Zac Sabre Jr. for the NJPW World TV Championship

A 3-way for the IWGP Tag Team Championship involving Bishamon, HOT, and Aussie Open

El Phantasmo vs. David Finlay for the NEVER Openweight Championship

Yota Tsuji vs. SANADA for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

More matches for "Dominion" will be announced after "Best of the Super Junior 30" ends on May 28th. Also, AEW's Jon Moxley is scheduled to appear in Osaka-Jo. What kind of appearance though remains to be seen.

Lastly, key matches were announced for NOAH's "Green Journey 2023 in Nagoya" scheduled to take place on June 17th.

As of right now, 3 title matches are scheduled to take place:

Dante Leon vs. HAYATA for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship

Masa Kitamiya/Yoshiki Inamura vs. Saxon Huxley/Timothy Thatcher for the GHC Tag Team Championship

Takashi Sugiura vs. Jake Lee for the GHC Heayweight Championship

More matches will be announced after May 31st when "Sunny Voyage 2023 in Shinjuku Face" ends though there is the possibility of a match being added next Sunday in Kobe pending on the result of the AJPW World Tag Team Championship match.

Sunny Voyage 2023 in Shinjuku FACE comes May 31st at 6:30 PM Local Time/5:30 AM Eastern/2:30 AM Pacific on Wrestle Universe with no commentary (as of writing).

Dominion 2023 in Osaka-Jo Hall comes June 4th at 4:00 PM Local Time/3:00 AM Eastern/1:00 AM Pacific on NJPW World with English and Japanese Commentary

Green Journey 2023 in Nagoya comes June 17th at 5:00 PM Local Time/4:00 AM Eastern/1:00 AM Pacific on ABEMA with Japanese commentary and Wrestle Universe with English commentary

[mayhemproduces]

Taichi vs Jade Suzuki

From his days of singing to the ring as the fans pleaded with him to go home, to being the founding member of Just 5 Guys and universally beloved, Taichi was able to completely change his career for the better. But this renaissance couldn’t have happened without Zack Sabre Jr. As the Dangerous Trekkers, Taichi and ZSJ took the tag division by storm, putting on some of the best matches in the division and holding the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships on a number of occasions. Even though their allegiances shifted after the disbanding of Suzuki-Gun, that bond can not be shaken. Now Zack Sabre Jr has selected Taichi to test Jade Suzuki’s iron will, to push her to her limit. A champion like ZSJ couldn’t go around fighting plebs, now can he? It’s only the best of the best for Zack, and if Suzuki wants her name in that contention, she has to find a way to defeat Taichi, and prepare for the final war that would come next week.

But this isn’t going to be a walk in the park for Suzuki. She’s in for a fight.

As Suzuki turns around, pulling off her lengthy jacket, Taichi attacks her from behind! As elbows are thrown, the referee calls for the bell, Taichi bringing the fight to Suzuki! He brings her into the corner, smashing her head against the top turnbuckle, before throwing Suzuki out of the ring. Grabbing her by the wrist, Taichi flings her, and Suzuki hits the barricade HARD! He grabs her, doing it again, and then a third time, before Suzuki finally falls to her knees, grimacing from the pain. Her spine arches as she writhes on the venue floor. Meanwhile, Taichi digs beneath the ring, and pulls out a steel chair. He uses the edge of it to drive it into her stomach, doubling Suzuki over, before bringing the chair down across the back! Taichi lifts her up, and drives her spine first into the ring post! An onslaught from the Holy Emperor tears apart Suzuki’s back, and Taichi throws her back into the ring, getting a lateral press!

1 - Kickout!

A rather fast kickout by Suzuki there, but that cover was more to force her to expend energy and force her to twist the back to kick out than it was to try and score an actual victory. Short, unimpactful kicks land across the spine, before Taichi toes her in the side of the head, yelling down some trash talk in their shared language. Suzuki stands up, coming nose to nose with Taichi, before nailing him with a forearm. And Taichi asks for more! Another forearm, and another, Taichi asking for more, before he nails her with a spinning sole kick! Suzuki gets knocked back into the corner and Taichi charges. But Suzuki gets her boot up! Taichi gets knocked back, clutching his jaw, and Suzuki charges. She gozzles him lifts Taichi up, and plants him with a huge Chokeslam! Taichi gets flattened, but Suzuki drops to the mat as well, her back seizing up after lifting him up like that. Still, Suzuki is the first to rise, pulling Taichi up and battering him with forearms to the jaw, backing him up to the ropes. Suzuki goes for a whip, but Taichi reverses, sending her to the ropes. Suzuki bounces off, and knocks him down with a clothesline! Taichi gets floored, but Suzuki gets him right back up, whipping him into the corner. Suzuki charges, flattening him with a clothesline! She clinches him, tucking Taichi’s head into her chest as she peppers him with stiff knees to the chest, driving all the air out of his lungs, before planting him with an exploder suplex! Suzuki into the cover, hooking the far leg!

1… 2… Kickout!

Wrapping the right arm in a top wristlock, Taichi immediately rushes them into the corner, breaking the hold before it can do any damage. That’s the name of the game if Taichi wants to pull out the win tonight, in his MPW singles debut, a fact he undoubtedly learned from ZSJ himself. Now the ball is in Taichi’s court, and he charges Jade in the corner, but she moves! Taichi collides with the turnbuckles as Suzuki twists, catching him with a back elbow! She spins, catching him on the side of the head with an enzuigiri! It lands flush on the temple, as Taichi falls out of the ring, slipping through the ropes and hitting the floor. Utilizing the ring skirt to help him stand back up. Suzuki looks to follow him, but takes an extra second, laying on the apron, trying to give her back a much needed reprieve. She rolls to the floor and picks Taichi up, waving off the referee as he continues to count them out - when Taichi thrusts her into the steel guardrail! He slams her hard enough for the door to pop open, holy shit! Suzuki groans from the agony, but Taichi looks to add even more to it, going for another whip… but it’s reversed! Suzuki sends Taichi into the barricade! Now it’s his spine meeting the steel before Suzuki sends him over it with a boot right to the face! Suzuki pushes through the open door, swinging from its hinges, before scrapping her boot against his face before she lifts him up. Holding onto the wrist, Suzuki shoves him back just to pull him in, and plant him with the End of Days! Holy shit! Taichi goes face first onto the concrete, and he looks like he’s out cold! Suzuki isn’t in much better shape, as she lands right on her back as well, but she’s the first to get up. Mockingly clapping with the fans as they cheer for their Holy Emperor. 

Moving the action back inside the ring, Suzuki tries to follow up - but Taichi reverses! He scoops Jade up, planting her with a back suplex! Taichi shakes off the pins and needles as Suzuki clutches the back, spine arching off the mat. Wasting little time, Taichi lifts her up, but Suzuki comes back with three forearms, flush on the jaw. Taichi grunts before he throws a kick, but Suzuki catches it. She brings the elbow down across the knee before she runs the ropes, but Taichi scoops her up, planting her with a nasty tilt-a-whirl backbreaker! Truly living up to its name, Suzuki arches her back, cursing out from the pain, when Taichi rolls her over, locking her into a single leg Liontamer! His knee digs into the upper spine, digging just under the shoulder blades as he wrenches back on the legs, twisting Suzuki all up, and putting all pressure on the spine. Suzuki starts to crawl to the ropes, trying to force the break, when Taichi moves his foot, putting it on the back of her head to try and keep her in place. Suzuki fights it off and lunges for the ropes, grabbing onto the bottom cable, and Taichi releases his submission. He doesn’t let her get very far before picking her up, pulling Jade into the center of the ring, and Taichi starts setting up for the Taichi-style Last Ride. But Suzuki blocks it. Dropping to her knees and becoming deadweight, Taichi starts to hammer at the lower back, trying to soften her up for another attempt. But Suzuki doubles down. Taichi switches to Kawada kicks, slamming his leg into Suzuki’s head until she’s weakened enough for him to go for that Last Ride again - but Suzuki reverses! She slips behind, planting him with a German suplex! Planting Taichi on his shoulders, and now Taichi seeks reprieve in the corner. Suzuki tries to charge him, but Taichi moves out of the way, and nails her with an enzuigiri! Taichi raises his fist before he hits the ropes, going for the Axe Bomber - but Suzuki nails him with a thrust kick! Taichi’s out on his feet, but he’s still standing, so Suzuki runs the ropes. Trying to pick up steam, but Taichi moves! He runs the ropes, but instead of rebounding, he holds onto the ropes, and Suzuki’s dropkick attempt comes up empty, causing her to land right on her back! A veteran move by Taichi, and Suzuki pays the price! The momentum is in Taichi’s corner once again, and it’s time to up the ante. It’s time to get serious. Calling on the crowd, Taichi is feeling the moment. He reaches down…. And rips off his pants!

As the black and gold pants make their way into the hands of some lucky fan, Taichi raises his arms. Posting in the corner, Taichi crosses his arms over his chest, extending them to his sides, as he calls Suzuki up. Once she gets to her feet, Taichi charges, going for the superkick - but Suzuki scoops him up! BLACK HOLE SLAM! Suzuki plants Taichi, but she’s not done there! She picks him up for another move, but Taichi slips out the back and tries to plant her with another back suplex. Suzuki rains down elbows to the back of the neck, quieting that notion. She grabs him, but Taichi hits a standing switch, scoops Jade up, and plants her with a NASTY Dangerous Backdrop! Suzuki practically gets dumped on her neck! She sits up for a moment, a glazed look in her eyes before she slumps to the side. Taichi gets to his feet, stumbling as he does, as he calls for the Tensho Junjihou - but she ducks! Scooping Taichi up form behind, she plants him on his tailbone with a Full Nelson bomb, before turning him onto his stomach, and cinching in the Rings of Saturn! Squeezing the shoulders together, wrenching on the neck and arms as tightly as she can, and Taichi screams out from the pain! But he refuses to tap! He doesn’t want to go out like this, not yet, and tries to fight to his feet. Trying to carry Jade on his shoulders as he rises. But Jade lets go, pulling Taichi down into a backslide. She pushes him through, grabs the wrist, and decks him with a clothesline! She takes Taichi’s head off!

Still controlling the wrist, she pulls him up for another - but Taichi pulls the ref in the floor! Suzuki floors the referee! It’s clear she doesn’t care about that very much, however, as she quickly grabs Taichi by the throat, planting him with a Chokeslam! She drops to a knee, holding the back, when - wait! Who the hell is that?!

A hooded figure slides into the ring, and kicks Jade’s head off her shoulders! They toss the hoodie off - IT’S ZACK SABRE JR! He throws the jacket off, revealing the TMDK shirt beneath, as Suzuki stumbles to her feet. Zack lifts her up, and PLANTS her with the Zack Driver! ZSJ nods to Taichi as he rolls out of the ring. The referee is coming to, as Taichi folds Suzuki up with the Gedo Clutch! Holy shit, Taichi’s gonna steal it here!

1… 2… KICKOUT!

Suzuki ESCAPES! Taichi stumbles to his feet, arms raised up, as he staggers towards the corner. Crossing the arms… Taichi goes for the superkick once again, but Jade catches it! She throws the leg down, and nails Taichi with an uppercut! He wobbles, but comes back with a forearm - and Suzuki goes down! Taichi grabs her by the waist, going for the Dangerous Backdrop once again, but Suzuki holds on. She slips behind him and gets a wristlock. She flips him out, but Taichi ducks the clothesline! She whips around - TENSHO JUNJIHOU!! Taichi just about superkicks Suzuki’s head off! But he’s not done! Suzuki’s still standing, and Taichi runs the ropes, flooring her with an AXE BOMBER! Taichi lifts her up, and finishes her off with the Black Mephisto! Holy shit! Taichi’s gonna steal it! Shoulders down!

1… 2… - KICKOUT!

The referee’s hand is inches away from the mat before Suzuki’s shoulder shoots off the mat, but Taichi can taste the win on the tip of his tongue. The crowd is feverishly behind him, Zack pounding the apron in support, as Taichi lets out a ferocious battle cry. Taichi lifts her up for another Black Mephisto, but Suzuki flips out the back! She lands on her feet, and wraps Taichi up in the Cobra Clutch! She’s got it wrapped tightly around his throat, trying to bring Taichi to the mat, but instead, Taichi flings her off. Suzuki holds the back as she gets to her feet, Taichi grabbing her, but Suzuki reverses, swinging behind him and locking in a Rear Naked Choke! When the first submission doesn’t work, she goes right back to another, and Taichi can’t just fling her off this time. With the arm rapidly cutting off oxygen, Taichi is fading, and he’s fading fast. He powers up, trying to reach the ropes, but Suzuki rolls them back to the middle of the ring. Taichi’s going limp. He lunges forward, a desperate plea for freedom, but he doesn’t get close enough. Suzuki is squeezing the fight out of him… his movements stop… and Taichi’s out! The ref calls for the bell, it’s over!

“Here is your winner, Jade Suzuki!”

[debbiechanclub]

hellooo. yesterday i finished the all star jr festival and here are my thoughts.

1 This was an amazing showcase of jr heavy weight talent (let's hope it help the njpw jr division)

2 Shun skywalker. i need to see more of him (and would love to see him work with Bushi again)

3 THE LADDER MACTH. It was an amazing fast paced bout. Was the cheese stake worthty? i hope so because all the wrestler involved gived their all. We can also see the GCW style of Blake Christian (i hope that Francesco can take the GCW title from him on september 1th)

4 one thing we know for sure is that the ABC would not turn on at least each other

(btw i still have to see impact X njpw show)

5 my favourite macth was for sure Mao & El desperado vs The east west express. it was the right combination between the younger generation and "older" generation. the thingh that hooked me the most it is the synergy of the two team not only inside of them but also between them.

which macht was your favourite? how was the experience of see it live?

too sweet

MEG

Hi, Meg! I'm glad you enjoyed the show! I want you to know I thought of you when Mike Bailey challenged Takahashi for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, because that's certainly something different! Although, I will say that someone else also challenged for it at the end of Multiverse United 2, but I won't spoil who as you said you haven't watched that show yet. (Putting the rest behind a cut because I'm sure my answer will get long.)

It was a great show to see live! Philadelphia/the 2300 Arena are among my favorite places on planet Earth, so going there to watch Nooj is always a treat. And I'm glad the show turned out because the tickets were overpriced in my opinion 😶 But overall absolutely worth it! It was great getting exposed to some people that truthfully I might never get to see live again, and I've found a few wrestlers who I definitely want to keep my eye on―but I'll go into that more on the podcast 😉

As for my favorite matches... hands-down both of Kevin Knight's matches (the first because, you know... Clark); the ladder match; the Lucky Dip tag match; and Mao and El Desperado vs. East West Express. I so want to know how they worked out to draw the "right" sticks in the Lucky Dip match, because you know that shit wasn't actually random 😂 Ace looked SO devastated to be on the opposite side of the ring from Bey, he had a legit thousand-yard stare going on.

As for the cheesesteaks, it was hilarious when they presented Douki with a whole fucking tray of them, and I don't think he even had a single bite of one. He has to watch his figure 😂 But Takahashi and Rocky sure went to town.

But even though he didn't win, I was SO impressed with Kevin Knight. And now that I think about it, I'm kind of surprised that Bailey won instead of him since Knight is NJPW and Bailey is Impact? But as it's been discussed, they NEED to expand the junior division, and I'm hoping this is a step in that direction. There are several people I wouldn't mind seeing added into the mix there (mainly Mao lol).

But yeah, I feel very lucky to have seen that show live, and I'll definitely get into the experience and my thoughts and opinions more on the podcast this week!

[melissahausen]

Predictions for forbidden door.

As always this is who I think will win not necessarily who I want to win.

Athena vs. Billie Starkz Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round match: Athena.

United Empire Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher, and TJP vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon Shingo Takagi, Bushi, and Hiromu Takahashi, Six-man tag team match: UE.

Stu Grayson with The Righteous Vincent and Dutch vs. El Phantasmo: ELP but I'm not 100% sure on this one.

Mogul Embassy, Swerve Strickland, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun (with Prince Nana vs. Roppongi Vice Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta and El Desperado

Six-man tag team match:

Probably mogul embassy but I want RV to win cause Trent 😍.

Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay Singles match for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship:

Listen ill never go against my gorgeous Canadian boy but cause its for the title I honestly think it's gonna be Will but I'm still gonna say Kenny cause they in Canada but I'll not be surprised if osprey wins.

Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada Singles match.

The dream match for a lot of people (not me soz) and I genuinely don't know which way they're gonna go, I'll say Bryan but its not a confident guess lol.

Sanada vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (with Hook), singles match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

Sanada cause they're clearly not gonna give Jack a title yet lol.

MJF vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Singles match for the AEW World Championship:

If it wasn't the title on the line I'd have said Tana but Max gonna win cause the title won't be given to a star that isn't AEW talent.

Le Suzuki Gods Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Minoru Suzuki vs. Sting, Darby Allin, and Tetsuya Naito Six-man tag team match:

STIIIIIIING,Darby and Naito.

Blackpool Combat Club ,Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, and Claudio Castagnoli , Konosuke Takeshita, and Shota Umino vs. The Elite Hangman Adam Page, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson, Eddie Kingston, and Tomohiro Ishii Ten-man tag team match

Now this match god this match , depending on where on the card it is a few things could happen.

Is Kenny gonna get involved?, is Will gonna get involved?, is Bryan gonna get involved?, Is Kenny's true love gonna FINALLY show up?

Now we all know Eddie is gonna turn on the elite cause its Eddie but is that gonna be because the elite lose? Honestly I've no idea I just know shenanigans are DEFINITELY gonna ensue.

But I'm going BCC again cause I don't think the elite are winning against them until London baby:)

CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima Men's Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round match: ughh he's gonna win this whole fuxking thing isn't he?

Orange Cassidy vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Daniel Garcia Four-way match for the AEW International Championship:

OC or Daniel honestly I'd love to see Danny with a belt.

Toni Storm vs. Willow Nightingale, Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship: Toni cause I assume the outcasts are gonna get involved and help her win. Also I'm so over the outcasts done with this whole gimmick it's just shite.

Adam Cole vs. Tom Lawlor Singles match: Cole cause they're pushing him to the moon right now.

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRETLE KINGDOM 17 in Tokyo Dome REVIEW (Jan 4th, 2023)

Ryohei Oiwa vs. Oleg Boltin  N/R

King Of Pro-Wrestling Title 2023 Right To Challenge New Japan Rambo

  **1/2

Antonio Inoki Tribute Match - Tatsumi Fujinami, Minoru Suzuki & Tiger Mask vs. Togi Makabe, Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima  **1/2

IWGP Jr. Tag Championship - TJP & Francesco Akira (c) vs. YOH & Lio Rush  ****

IWGP Women's Championship - KAIRI (c) vs. Tam Nakano  ***3/4

IWGP Tag Team Championship - FTR (c) vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI  ****1/4

NJPW World TV Championship Tournament Final - Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ren Narita  ****

NEVER Openweight Championship - Karl Anderson (c) vs. Tama Tonga  ***1/4

Keiji Muto NJPW FINAL MATCH - Muto, Tanahashi & Umino vs. Naito, SANADA & BUSHI  ***

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship 4-Way - Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. El Desperado vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Master Wato  ****

IWGP United States Championship - Will Ospreay (c) vs. Kenny Omega  *****

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada  ****1/4+

Photos.

Happy New Year one and all! Well, my first review on here in years is of the first New Japan show in years that actually felt like New Japan! This was a tremendous show that, despite its 6 hour runtime, was a breeze to watch. Pretty much every match was a sprint until the Double Main Event, and it was full of great to outstanding action. As well as being the first Wrestle Kingdom since 2020 to have actual cheering and a hot crowd. Which created quite the environment.

The pre-show section was fine, but nothing special really. It kicked off with a 3 minute exhibition match Young Lions Oiwa, and the debuting Olympian, Oleg Boltin. This was solid stuff, but much too brief to take anything away from, other than both guys looked really good. Oleg got a near fall with a big slam as the 3:00 time limit expired. Next up was the warm January 4th comfort blanket that is the New Japan Rambo. This was a fun but unspectacular battle royal, much like we’ve come to expect. There weren’t any surprises, and it came to an end at 30:37, when Shingo and SHO (who entered 1st) lastly eliminated El Phantasmo. The final four all “win” and go through to KOPW Title Decision Match at New Year’s Dash tomorrow. The other two winners were Toru Yano (to the surprise of no one), and Great-O-Khan (ditto). Then it was time for the Inoki Tribute Match, as 69 year old living legend Tatsumi Fujinami, who’s impossible good for his age, teamed with Minoru Suzuki and Tiger Mask IV, in a losing effort to historic NJ Dojo graduates, Makabe (who I haven’t seen wrestle in forever), and the still great duo of Kojima and Nagata. This was decent enough for what it was, though it did feature some dodgy looking old dude action, but it was a nice, feel-good nostalgia fest, and I’m not complaining that we got to see any of these guys on the show. Everyone came out in the patented Inoki red towel. The finish fell apart though as Tiger tried (and failed) to do a jumping victory roll on Makabe, time stood still for a minute, then Togi effectively just sat on him and got the win for his team in 9:10. Fujinami did the Inoki “Ichi, Ni, San, DAAAAAH!” catchphrase in the post match.

The main show kicked off in grand fashion as Catch 2/2 defended their IWGP Jr Tag Titles against YOH and Lio Rush in a great little opener. This kicked off a theme of this show, which is matches clocking in at 10 minutes or under, and generally being super fun sprints. This started off hot with YOH wiping the champs out with a topé as they made their entrance, but the champions retaliated by taking Rush out with an elevated facebuster on the ramp, which busted him open. Lots of hot back and forth action culminated in the challengers hitting TJP with the 3K, but Akira broke it up. From there, YOH went for the Direct Drive, but TJP turned it into a small package to reatin the belts at the 10:29 mark. KAIRI’s first defence of the IWGP Women’s Title was next, as she took on Tam Nakano in a really good little sprint. Let’s get the negative out of the way first; this only went around 6 minutes. But, it was a s good a 6 minute match as you’ll ever see! It was all-action, they exchanged strikes, Tam hit a big dive to the floor and scored a great near fall with the Violet Screwdriver. KAIRI came back with a near fall of her own after a Cutlas spinning back fast. She hit another Cutlas, followed by the Insane Elbow to retain her title. The post match is what will make the most news, however, as the former Sasha Banks, now going by Mercedes Moné made her way to the ring, sporting a bit of a different look. She also had some badass, The Chronic era vibe entrance music. After a staredown, she laid KAIRI out with... some move, declared herself the “CEO of the women’s divison”, then challenged her to a title match in San Jose in February. Moné very much came across as a star here.

More tag gold was on the line next, as Heavyweight champs FTR defended against Bishamon. This was an excellent match, and even only going 10:10, was a fast-paced hard-hitter, that managed to be better than I anticipated. Wheeler hit big dives to the floor, and the champions scored great near falls with a Power Plex and Spike Piledriver. After an exciting closing stretch, the challengers hit Shoto on Harwood, and YH scored the win and the titles for his team. I know there’s a lot of speculation about FTR’s future at the moment, but they’ve been nothing short of fantastic in the last year, and I personally feel there’s still a lot more for them to do in Japan. The inaugural NJPW World TV Champion was crowned next as a newly blonde ZSJ faced off against The Son Of Strong Style, Ren Narita in, you guessed it, another great sprint. These 15 minute time limit matches really are a ton of fun, and this was no different; a compelling combination of hard strikes and submission grappling. Zack worked over Narita’s arm throughout to prevent the Overhead Suplex, which payed off as during a grappling exchange he caught him in a Jujigatame, and Ren quickly tapped to give Sabre Jr. the title in 10:32. The post match saw Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls come out, who were ZSJ’s old mates in NOAH. They handed Zack a TMDK shirt, which he put on and appeared to declare himself the leader. It’s worth pointing out that during his entrance, Zack demanded that “dickhead” Rishi Sunak pay nurses fairly, and quite frankly I couldn’t agree more! But back to wrestling...

Tama Tonga rescued the NEVER title from Sports Entertainment oblivion in the next match, as he defeated WWE Superstar Karl Anderson in a fun match. To his credit, The Machine Gun put in some actual rare effort here, and Tama took some nasty bumps early, including a Bernard Driver on the ramp. The finish saw Tonga get near falls with a big splash and second rope Gun Stun, before scoring the win at 9:36 with another Gun Stun (which Anderson botched the bump for, but whatever). This benefitted from me having absolutely zero expectations going in, so I was pleasantly surprised here. Next was the final match in NJPW of one of the all-time greats, as the on-the-retirement-run Keiji Muto teamed with standout student Hiroshi Tanahashi, and potential “future ace” Shota Umino, to take on the LIJ Muto Fan Club of Naito, SANADA and BUSHI. From an in-ring perspective, this was likely the weakest match on the card, as nobody really did anything (except SANADA hitting the Moonsault on Muto in the early going to get a really close nearfall), but the crowd were super hot for Muto, and it helped the match greatly. This finishing stretch saw Tanahashi hit BUSHI with Sling Blade, the Natural Born Master followed up with a Shining Wizard, and Umino put the masked man away at 9:20 with the Death Rider. They all posed and left to Muto’s entrance theme in the post match. The IWGP Jr. Title was on the line next in a 4-way. This was something of a disappointment I feel, but still a great match. It was certainly all-action, but I don’t know, something just wasn’t clicking for me in this for a while. They all worked hard and hit the crazy multiman spots throughout, and Hiromu and Despy had a really great exchange later on. Things really picked up at the end, when Wato went on a tear, scoring numerous believable near falls with his Recietemente Crucifix Bomb, and had the 26,085 in the Dome believing he could pull off the miracle here. He scored another brilliant near fall when he hit a massive Everest German on Hiromu, but the miracle wasn’t to be as Takahashi escaped a Dragon Tiger Suplex, and hit Time Bomb II on Wato to regain his beloved Belt-San in 16:43. During this match it was announced that Naito and the LIJ guys got into a heated exchange backstage with Kenoh’s KONGO faction from NOAH, which is super interesting.

Things were kicked up a notch in the next match, and it finally felt like a classic Wrestle Kingdom show, as Will Ospreay defended his US Title against Kenny Omega in a dream match. This was just outstanding, and ended up being a completely different style to what I’d anticipated. This was a heated, super stiff, bloody war. Omega (complete with added Don Callis) returned to NJPW for the first time in 4 years, to take out the man who “took his spot”, and Ospreay, who came out as the Ariel Assassin of old, was there to beat the hell out of the guy who abandoned the company 4 years ago. This was a classic grudge match, and featured some insane action that was sometimes hard to watch. There were moments I actually feared someone was going to get seriously hurt, but thankfully that didn’t happen. Omega, who worked totally as the heel here, worked over Ospreay’s famously injured neck and back, including landing a double stomp off the apron onto Ospreay’s back whilst a table was draped over it, which culminated in him bleeding from the back. Ospreay fought back with stiff punches which caused omega’s right eye to swell shut, hitting a brainbuster on the upturned table, and then a big Skytwister Press to the floor. Kenny removed the corner pad, exposing the buckles, which both guys took bumps into. Things got crazy as Will went for a Spanish Fly, but Omega countered it into a top rope DDT onto the exposed buckle, which was insane, and Ospreay juiced heavily from the head. After teasing a countout, Kenny hit the Terminator Dive and a Cactus Jack Piledriver in the ring for a near fall. Omega began obliterating him with Snap Dragon’s and V-Triggers, before hitting a horrifying Croyt’s Wrath from the top. Ospreay hit a couple of stiff looking Hidden Blade’s to put Omega down, and scored a great near fall with a Springboard Oscutter. After a Styles Clash, Ospreay got another near fall with another Hidden Blade. However, Kenny escaped a Storm Breaker, hit a Tanahashi straigh jacket suplex, then followed that up with Kamigoye after a defiant Ospreay spat at him. Omega then hit the One Winged Angel to win the US Belt for a second time, and end this classic war at 34:38. Fantastic stuff, and I certainly hope there’s more to come here.

Then it was time for the second half of the Double Main Event. Rare is the day that I think to myself “Okada’s going to have a tough time following that”, but today was that day. Realistically, it was never going to happen, and as much as I love both White and Okada, the build to this match did nothing for me, and I’ve just seen enough of them. Regardless, this was still an excellent match, complete with all the intricate counters and big spots we’ve come to expect from an Okada main event. But I must admit it took a long time getting there. Okada, who was wearing Inoki inspired garb, broke out a huge senton atomico off the top to the floor on both Jay and Gedo, the big dropkick, and hit the sit-out Tombstone, followed by a Rainmaker, but Jay caught him in a Blade Runner, which is exactly how he beat Okada for the World Title at Dominion, but this time Okada kicked out to a big pop. This ultimately was White’s downfall, as the story was that he started to lose it after Okada kicked out of his finish. Jay tried a Rainmaker-inspired Blade Runner, however the challenger countered and hit a big Rainmaker, but the champion got a shoulder up at 2.99. After a dramatic forearm exchange, Okada connected with a ripcord Enzugiri, hit the champion with his own Blade Runner, then followed up with Tiger Flowsion, and a definitive Rainmaker to regain the World Championship at the 33:03 mark.

The post match saw an interesting moment where White at first refused to give up the belt, then they had a brief staredown, before Jay was dragged for the Dome despondent by Gedo. Shingo Takagi then came out, rightly pointing out that he never did a rematch after losing the belt a year ago, and threw his proverbial hat in the ring as Okada’s first challenger, which was accepted. And in an ultimately fitting move, a show that was dedicated to the late Antonio Inoki ended with the modern day Inoki victorious, and sending everyone home happy with the “Ichi, Ni, San, Daaaah!” catchphrase. All in all, this was easily the best Dome show since 2020, and it very much felt like a return to greatness for New Japan. A must watch.

NDT

[rodindies]

Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Togi Makabe vs Tatsumi Fujinami, Tiger Mask & Minoru Suzuki (Antonio Inoki Memorial Match)

Catch 2/2 vs CHAOS IWGP (Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship)

KAIRI vs Tam Nakano (IWGP Women’s Championship)

FTR vs Bishamon (IWGP Tag Team Championships)

Ren Narita vs Zack Sabre Jr.

Karl Anderson vs Tama Tonga (NEVER Openweight Championship)

Keiji Muto, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino vs Los Ingobernables De Japon

Taiji Ishimori vs Hiromu Takahashi vs El Desperado vs Master Wato (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship)

Will Ospreay vs Kenny Omega (IWGP United States Championship)

Jay White vs Kazuchika Okada (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)