#new japan pro wrestling spoilers

[kayfabe-is-king]

El Desperado comes out wearing El Phantasmo’s merchandise.

Me:

[justagirlandhersims]

Oh I cannot wait for this matchup!

[kayfabe-is-king]

The Era of Zack Sabre Jr. has begun!

Highlights of Zack Sabre Jr. vs Tetsuya Naito NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 2024

[heelrollins]

G1 Climax 33 Winner: Tetsuya Naito

[livelaughlariat]

Some examples of excellent New Japan camera work in an (of course) excellent match.

[knifepervert]

7th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion: Sanada

[justagirlandhersims]

The Mighty Don’t Kneel.

reasonjp: The mad lad went and bloody did it!

[gifsbysimplysonia]

Me after finally finishing Season 2 of Good Omens

[hugcollector]

"Just when you think you've got it back, your mojo is coming back... you feel the people, and you feel the fighting spirit. And then... you let... the people down. You let the only family that you have down by telling them that you're okay when you're not!"

"Cause I'm... I'm not okay... I'm not okay... I'm not okay."

El Phantasmo's Backstage Comments - NJPW G1 CLIMAX 34 7/28/24

[kywithavoice]

i hope any BULLET CLUB team win the league this year

[garag344]

JUST FINISHED DONTAKU. IM DISHEVELED. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE TOUR.

[kayfabe-is-king]

So fucking happy he’s back and going to the Tokyo Dome!!!!

[kywithavoice]

ATTENTION TO DETAIL. 🤘🏾

When Sanada joined War Dogs I was shocked at first but then I thought about how obsessed he is with dogs, so maybe a dog-themed faction is perfect for him actually.

But it also reminded me of back when Sanada first interviewed to apply to join J5G, and I can't stop laughing about it.

On the resume form, for his hobby Sanada just wrote "dogs".

When asked for clarification, he said that he wants to become a dog.

Taichi asked him follow-up questions like, when you become a dog, will you need a collar? (Sanada answered no, he won't need a collar or leash, he'll be a free dog.) And, after you become a dog, will you still want to work as our company dog? (Sanada said yes but I guess that didn't work out?)

Anyway, congrats to Sanda for finally achieving his dream.

[eldesperadont]

hello and welcome to the start of my rough Despe/Hiromu recap essay! I'll go over their history in relation to one another. A big reason for this recap is to explain my fascination with the 10+ year long history of these characters, and why I, a queer person, is so drawn to it — this post will include links, spoilers and cover the first 9 years of their careers. If you have corrections or additional infos pls DM me!!

egg, (2010-2012)

Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado started their pro wrestling training around the same time in NJPWs dojo – both passing NJPW's entry exam in 2009 and training for roughly a year till they officially debuted in 2010.

Desperado in March under his real name, Mikami Kyōsuke, and Hiromu later in August. And here we already have some key moments:

Takahashi's professional debut was a singles match against Mikami. (its on YouTube btw)

Despe's first ever singles victory was defeating Hiromu in said debut match.

Mikami is older and ahead of Takahashi, going on to have an impressive winning record over Hiromu, who only managed to get a sole victory over Despe during their time together as students. (two if you count in a dark match)

Hiromu genuinely struggled a lot as a Young Lion (dojo trainee), having been close to giving up on wrestling if it weren’t for main roster wrestler Tetsuya Naito, who took him under his wing.

So yeah starting off Despe had the upper hand.

This part of their career is the hardest to research given that 1.) the language barrier was way higher a decade ago, 2.) there straight up is barely any footage. So instead, I want to explain the emotional importance of the NJPW dojo background:

The time as Young Lions in NJPW is kayfabe canon. These guys are rivals but also teammates, live and train together, fight with/and each other, cheer each other on in their bouts with the seniors, carry each other to the back when they once again got beaten – these guys are close, they have to, it's them against the world.

And that is the case for pretty much all the homegrown NJPW talent. This system provides feuds with an emotional core; why would someone who was that close be so cruel to each other now? What turns brothers, best friends, partners into enemies? So much room for juicy rivalries with a real weight behind it, after all we watched these guys grow and learn, saw their highs and lows.

Also on a less serious note it's simply amusing to watch old stuff and see two guys that will be bitter rivals, who’s matches will get praise and awards - tag together in mostly fruitless efforts, stumble behind the curtain together and be so clueless about all the greatness they’ll achieve one day thanks to each others hard work.

Young Lions my beloved <3

oceans apart, (2012-2016)

As is custom with most Young Lions both went on excursion: Mikami graduating first, in 2012, and working in Mexico for a year as "Namajague" - Hiromu leaving Japan the year Desperado debuts on the New Japan main roster, in 2014, touring in Mexico and the US as "Kamaitachi" till August 2016.

Both worked in CMLL as heels, as is custom for foreign trainees, starting as masked wrestlers, loosing them in a stipulation match, and also getting their hair shaved at some point.

Here you have unmasked Namajague, who went on to rock a half facepaint look and had half of his hair bleached (in 2014, a trendsetter)

and here you got a young unmasked Kamaitachi (yes he was in a team with Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian in RoH)

These are the years Mikami and Hiromu don’t interact in canon, but in an 2020 interview Desperado confessed that he kept an eye on Takahashi during the latter's excursion, cause of his success in Middle/North America and spectacular matches with Dragon Lee.

Love confessions, (May - June 2018)

Their rivalry was fully rekindled in the “Best of the Super Juniors 25” tournament, so let’s set the scene:

Takahashi’s successful: having won the most important championship for their weight division in his first year on the main roster. He’s beloved by fans and critics and a valuable member of his mentor's faction, Los Ingobernables de Japon.

El Desperado is struggling: unsuccessfully having fought for singles titles several times in the last couple of years. His only championship victories so far having been in the tag division, after joining Suzuki-gun, a shady group that tolerates him, but not without hurdles. The masked man debuted in 2013 as a cheerful honourable guy, but by now he was just a bitter, sinister bastard.

They will have their first singles meeting in 6 years, and their first on the main roster.

They are winking and nodding towards the fact that Desperado already has several wins over the younger guy, but do not address who Despy really is - officially Mikami Kyōsuke hasn’t wrestled in New Japan ever since he left for Mexico.

Leading up to the BOSJ Hiromu made a booklet in which he describes all of his possible opponents, Desperado's page is kept blank at first, but later Takahashi adds “I know who you are, and I hate you.”

Despy wants to impress Hiromu. He was one half of the IWGP Jr. Tag champs at that point and took both belts with him to the ring - he's also wearing a special mask, that is mostly white, a colour Japanese wrestlers tend to only wear on special occasions/in big matches.

A lot has changed since they last fought 1 on 1 - except one thing: Hiromu cannot beat Desperado.

Both didn’t shy away from using dirty tricks, but in the end Despy has the upper hand once more. As his opponent lays defeated in the ring the masked menace has this to say:

(postmatch promo) (the match)

Hiromu will go on to win the tournament and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight belt from Will Ospreay at the 2018 Dominion show, but the loss to his fellow former Young Lion means that the latter has the right to challenge him, and so he does, in this now infamous promo.

please watch the whole thing: link

(funfact, this happened the same night Kenny won the IWGP Heavyweight Title with Ibushi in his corner, the gays were EATING that day, in pride month no less)

Leading up to their confrontation Hiromu would post a video on his twitter playing the 'love me/not' flower game, landing on "he loves me" - which promptly makes him eat the flower in frustration

On the day of their match, June 18 2018, he brings Desperado a present:

A bouquet in a guitar case, a cruel call back to Desperados main roster debut back in early 2014: after Kota Ibushi won the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight belt at Wrestle Kingdom 8 a masked stranger approached the ring with a guitar case, revealing it to carry a bouquet of black roses for the freshly crowned champ (who was a lil confused by the whole situation)

It was the start of Despes unsuccessful run as a face and partnership with Ibushi (which you can read as the first man he tried to pursue).

The masked lad wasn't that fond of Hiromu bringing back old memories.

Their match is an all out war, both using underhanded tactics to keep the other one down, including Hiromu unmasking Despy, who shockingly doesn’t care at all - which is a huge deal, I'm going to quote Japanese NJPW commentator Milano here because he said it best:

“To a masked wrestler that’s your identity. It’s everything. But Desperado has it ripped off and then just puts it on like he was fixing his necktie. He was saying that this very essence of himself wasn’t as important as Hiromu or the belt." (translation by Chris Charlton)

But in the end Hiromu is victorious, finally ending his losing streak. After the match he has some interesting things to say:

(postmatch promo) (the match)

Life’s a b*tch. (mid 2018 - late 2019)

Hiromu's next title defence is in August 2018 in the USA against Dragon Lee, a match I still haven't been able to watch and probably never will. Due to a messed up move from his opponent, Hiromu lands hard on his neck, breaking it in the process. He somehow managed to finish the match but collapsed backstage, immediately being rushed to a hospital.

In the documentary RED HEADED REVIVAL Hiromu shared that he knew right away that something was wrong – he saw his life flash before his eyes and feared that this is the end of his career, but he decided against stopping the fight:

It took Hiromu over a year to fully recover.

That wasn't the only unfortunate incident though: in spring of 2019 Desperado broke his jaw in a deathmatch against his idol Jun Kasai. The timing couldn't have been worse: the highly anticipated BOSJ Tournament for that year being just about to start. Despe had to withdraw mere days before its opening.

Neither of them would make a return till late 2019. And their next actual confrontation wouldn’t be till 2020.

It was a sad time to be a fan of either - with Hiromu we didn't know till his return if he will even be able to wrestle again. And with Despy we had to witness fans being unnecessarily rude to him, ridiculing him about doing a deathmatch in the first place, eventho the injury could have occurred in any type of match. (if I remember correctly, Desperado even deleted his twitter due to the fan backlash)

BUT I'm gonna end this post on a good note:

1.) Despy's return marked the start of a new era for him:

He wasn't gonna apologise, he broke his jaw, so what? Shit happens. He wasn't going to pretend that the situation didn't happen either tho, hell - Despe returned in a shirt covered in blood spots, making direct references to the match he got injured in. (sth he talked about in this video) And his mask? Dons a fractured jawbone now, the cracks filled in with gold - reminiscent of kintsugi, a Japanese method for repairing broken ceramics with a special lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The philosophy behind the technique is to recognize the history of the object and to visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it.

2.) Hiromu wasn't giving up on his way of life either, making a spectacular return - the best was yet to come. Individually and together/against each other.

Stay tuned for the next part, that will absolutely also take me ages to finally put out, I'm apologising in advance,, anyways thx bye!! <3 👹🐱

[basil-the-scorned]

Before i do head off for writing, I forgot to say:

If you're seeing me tag a bunch of stuff with Basil's diving in, it's the main tag I'm gonna be using for New Japan Pro Wrestling because I'm literally diving into this side of wrestling half cocked and excited.

I've been recommended New Japan since I was in college, and it finally took me following mutuals who do amazing gifs to finally get on board!

That being said, for major spoilers I will be using the njpw tag and stuff

[celestial-thoughts]

june 5, 2023 - weekly women's pro wrestling news roundup: week of may 29-june 4, 2023

this week's news roundup includes:

News & results from last week's editions of Monday Night Raw, NXT, and Friday Night SmackDown.

News & results from last week's editions of AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage.

Other updates and news from last week.

Dave Meltzer's star ratings for women's matches during May 2023.

Things to look forward to in women's wrestling this week!

Summer wrestling preview: pay-per-views to look forward to in June, July, and August 2023.

spoilers below the cut for shows/events listed above!

Notable news & results from TV last week:

Monday Night Raw (5/29):

Trish Stratus cut a promo, claiming that she doesn't care what the fans think of her. She then introduced Zoey Stark, who thanked Trish. Becky Lynch came out and was attacked by both Trish and Zoey.

A couple of video packages aired on Raw. One featured recent NXT call-ups and former NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Katana Chance and Kayden Carter. The second featured Candice LeRae.

Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler defeated Bayley & Iyo Sky, Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville, and Raquel Rodriguez & Shotzi to become the new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. This win marks Ronda & Shayna's first tag team championship reign as a team. It's Shayna's third WWE women's tag team title reign (previously holding the championship twice with Nia Jax), tying the record most individual reigns. For Ronda, this is her first tag team title win in her wrestling career, and her fourth championship total. With this win, Ronda becomes the 8th woman in WWE to complete the triple crown, having previously held both the Raw and SmackDown Women's championships. match length-11:40.

NXT (5/30):

Gigi Dolin defeated Jacy Jayne in a weaponized steel cage match. Gigi pinned Jacy after putting her through a table. match length-12:34.

New NXT Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton came out to the ring to celebrate her victory. She announced that next week there would be a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the NXT Women's Championship. The celebration ended when Roxanne Perez, Lyra Valkyria, Thea Hail, and Fallon Henley attacked Tiffany and sent her fleeing out of the ring.

The mystery attacker was revealed to be Blair Davenport, who hit a Falcon Arrow on Dani Palmer before revealing herself to the crowd.

Cora Jade defeated Ivy Nile. Ava Raine attempted to attack Ivy, but got caught in a Dragon Sleeper. However, this distraction allowed Cora to hit a Rising Knee Strike into a Death Rider to win the match. match length-4:09.

AEW Dynamite (5/31):

TBS Champion Kris Statlander defeated Nyla Rose to retain the TBS Championship. After the match, Taya Valkyrie was shown watching the match backstage. match length-8:05.

Britt Baker & Adam Cole defeated Chris Jericho & Saraya. match length-13:13.

Friday Night SmackDown (6/2):

New Raw Women's Champion Asuka was a special guest on the Grayson Waller Effect. The segment was interrupted by Iyo Sky (who was once a member of the same stable as Asuka in Japan). They argued in the ring, before Bayley came out and said that a member of Damage CTRL would be winning Money in the Bank. Shotzi joined them in the ring, also stating that she would win the briefcase. Lacey Evans also joined them, followed by Zelina Vega. Asuka began to leave up the ramp, before being attacked by Bianca Belair, who began to brawl with Asuka.

Zelina Vega defeated Lacey Evans to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. Zelina will be appearing in her second Money in the Bank ladder match, previously competing at the 2021 event. match length-2:49.

AEW Rampage (6/2):

NJPW Strong Women's Champion Willow Nightingale defeated Emi Sakura to retain the Strong Women's Championship. match length-8:00.

Other news & updates from last week:

While this has yet to be confirmed, it has been rumored that WWE had originally planned for Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox to reunite, likely as a part of the Damage CTRL split currently playing out on TV. However, Dakota's injury has almost certainly changed those plans.

Alexa Bliss announced on Tuesday, May 30 that she and her husband Ryan Cabrera are expecting their first child together.

And in another piece of exciting news, WWE superstars Emma and Riddick Moss (fka Madcap Moss) announced their engagement.

PWInsider reported on Tuesday, May 30 that Trish Stratus will still be regularly appearing on Raw going forward.

A report from Fightful Select on Tuesday confirmed the rumor that Mercedes Mone was originally slated to win the NJPW Strong Women's Championship at NJPW Resurgence on Sunday, May 21. It was noted that Mercedes herself actually called for the end of the match as well as the change in finish, once she realized that something was physically wrong.

In the same report, Fightful Select stated that NJPW is under the impression that the injury Mercedes sustained was a severe sprain without a break. However, those close to Mercedes have expressed concern that there may be a break, and that there was too much swelling to know for sure. They're hoping to have a clearer idea of what the injury is once the swelling goes down.

Alexa Bliss said in a recent interview that WWE has extended her contract. However, it is unknown exactly when Alexa's contract will be up. She stated during an interview in November of 2020 that she still had another three to three and a half years left in her contract, which would have put her at least through the end of 2023. However, it is unknown when her deal will be up now that WWE has extended her contract.

On the June 1 episode of Impact Wrestling, Trinity (fka Naomi) defeated Savannah Evans. Following her victory, Trinity called out the reigning Impact Knockouts World Champion Deonna Purrazzo, and issued a challenge for the title. The match was made official for Impact Slammiversary on July 15, 2023.

New WWE Women's Tag Team champion Ronda Rousey spoke with the New York Post after she and Shayna Baszler won the vacant titles on the Monday, May 29 episode of Raw. Ronda said that she and Shayna want to be fighting champions, noting that the lack of competition is the biggest problem. She said that they need to get WWE to care and to invest in the women's tag team division.

In the same interview, Ronda also talked about how she and Shayna had been pushing for WWE to let them wrestle together for years, even before the Women's Tag Team Titles existed.

Newly crowned WWE Women's Tag Team champion Shayna Baszler spoke to Peter Rosenberg on the Cheap Heat podcast. Shayna talked about how she and her fellow tag team champion Ronda Rousey had both previously asked to work as a tag team, and after WWE had repeatedly delayed those requests, Ronda finally put her foot down. According to Shayna, Ronda told WWE that she wanted this tag team run with Shayna, because Shayna is the reason that she started wrestling.

In the same interview, Shayna also mentioned that it's cool that Ronda pushed to work with her as a friend, because it shows that Ronda isn't just out for herself, something that Shayna noted is rare in show business.

It's also worth mentioning that Fightful Select reported in late March 2023 that the original WrestleMania creative plans for Ronda Rousey changed significantly. The original plan for Rousey's second run as SmackDown Women's Champion would have seen her hold the title until WrestleMania, where she would have faced 2023 women's Royal Rumble winner Rhea Ripley. However, Ronda pushed for a tag team run with Shayna, choosing that path over defending a world title at WrestleMania.

Liv Morgan has officially confirmed that the injury she sustained during the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match on the May 12 episode of SmackDown is a torn shoulder. Wishing her all the best in her recovery.

News broke this morning (Monday, June 5) that I felt was too exciting to save until next week's news roundup: WWE have announced a multi-year partnership with Twitch! This will see the return of the official WWE Twitch channel and popular WWE Superstar channels, showcasing exclusive live content with a rotation of various hosts. Starting with tonight's Monday Night Raw (6/5), WWE will have a companion broadcast that will take you behind the scenes.

Dave Meltzer's star ratings for women's matches - May 2023

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Please note that Dave Meltzer doesn't always rate every match from each show. Meltzer did not give a rating for: Rhea Ripley vs. Natalya at Night of Champions, Jade Cargill vs Kris Statlander at Double or Nothing, the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship fatal four way on the May 29 episode of Raw, or Kris Statlander vs. Nyla Rose on the May 31 episode of AEW Dynamite.

WWE main roster women's match ratings:

Raw Women's Championship - Bianca Belair (c) vs. Iyo Sky: 4.25 stars (WWE Backlash, May 6, 2023)

SmackDown Women's Championship - Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Zelina Vega: 2 stars (WWE Backlash, May 6, 2023)

Trish Stratus vs. Becky Lynch: 3.25 stars (WWE Night of Champions, May 27, 2023)

Raw Women's Championship - Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka: 3.25 stars (WWE Night of Champions, May 27, 2023)

WWE NXT women's match ratings:

NXT Women's Championship tournament finals - Tiffany Stratton vs. Lyra Valkyria: 3.5 stars (NXT Battleground, May 28, 2023)

AEW women's match ratings:

AEW Women's World Championship - Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Toni Storm: 1.25 stars (AEW Double or Nothing, May 28, 2023)

TBS Championship - Jade Cargill (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie: 2.75 stars (AEW Double or Nothing, May 28, 2023)

Adam Cole & Britt Baker vs. Chris Jericho & Saraya: 3.75 stars (AEW Dynamite, May 31, 2023)

NJPW women's match ratings:

NJPW Strong Women's Championship tournament- Mercedes Mone vs. Stephanie Vaquer: 4 stars (NJPW Resurgence, May 21, 2023)

NJPW Strong Women's Championship tournament- Willow Nightingale vs. Momo Kogho: 4 stars (NJPW Resurgence, May 21, 2023)

NJPW Strong Women's Championship tournament finals- Mercedes Mone vs. Willow Nightingale: 3.5 stars (NJPW Resurgence, May 21, 2023)

Things to look forward to this week:

Tonight, June 5 on Monday Night Raw, it's the first Money in the Bank qualifiers for the Raw women's division. Zoey Stark and Natalya go one on one, with a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match on the line.

Also tonight on Raw, Becky Lynch takes on Sonya Deville in a Money in the Bank qualifying match.

On NXT tomorrow night, June 6, the superstars of the NXT women's division will compete in a battle royal to determine the number one contender to Tiffany Stratton's NXT Women's Championship.

This Friday, June 9 on SmackDown, more Money in the Bank qualifiers for the SmackDown women's division. "Michin" Mia Yim takes on Damage CTRL leader Bayley, with both women looking to claim a spot in the ladder match.

Also this Friday on SmackDown, Damage CTRL's Iyo Sky takes on Shotzi in another Money in the Bank qualifying match.

Summer wrestling preview:

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door - Sunday, June 25 @ 7 pm ET/4 pm PT

WWE Money in the Bank 2023 - Saturday, July 1 @ 3 pm ET/noon PT

Impact Slammiversary 2023 - Saturday, July 15 @ 8 pm ET/5 pm PT

Death Before Dishonor (Ring of Honor) - Friday, July 21 @ 7 pm

NXT: The Great American Bash - Sunday, July 30 @ 8 pm ET/5 pm PT

WWE SummerSlam 2023 - Saturday, August 5 @ 8 pm ET/5 pm PT

Impact x NJPW Multiverse United 2: For Whom The Bell Tolls - Sunday, August 20 (start time TBA)

AEW All In - Sunday, August 27 (start time TBA)

Please note: dates and times listed for these shows are as of Friday, June 2. As always, all information is subject to change.