The Puroresu (Japanese Wrestling) thread

Cherry_Cola

4 years ago today and I didn't realize what I would witness. It was my 4th month living in Japan and I was just getting into the swing of things in terms of following NJPW proper as I'd always kept an eye on the big events but wasn't too invested until I started going to all the live shows they held.

I usually went to at least one show a week and became friendly with a lot of the Young Lions, namely Oka, Kitamura and Kawato who were asking where I was from as I stood out a mile from the crowd. Oka got me to my pod at this event and I was lucky there were only two others in it, I'm 6'1 and this was super uncomfortable trying to sit for a few hours in, should have bought one of those cushions they sell at the merch stand

This is a pic I took of the main event, the best I've seen live. I still have the program from the event also which I must get framed.

RollieFingers

LOB did you catch DG over the weekend? The show was good, not great, but still, I tried to stomach Mania for a bit but I just can't, the Strowman doing it for stupid bit killed me.

The opener was great, nice to see Lee get the win, and the mask match was really good I thought, good showing for Diamante in his first major singles match. The main was a bit of a mess though, but still good to have Doi back. I don't think DG has quite hit the standards of last year yet, hopefully King of Gate kicks things into a higher gear.

The lineup is good, I really like the C Block of Ishida, Kikuta, Shun, Okuda, YAMATO and U-T in particular. SBK/Dragon Kid and Shun/YAMATO to kick off the tournament should be tasty.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

LOB did you catch DG over the weekend? The show was good, not great, but still, I tried to stomach Mania for a bit but I just can't, the Strowman doing it for stupid bit killed me.

The opener was great, nice to see Lee get the win, and the mask match was really good I thought, good showing for Diamante in his first major singles match. The main was a bit of a mess though, but still good to have Doi back. I don't think DG has quite hit the standards of last year yet, hopefully King of Gate kicks things into a higher gear.

The lineup is good, I really like the C Block of Ishida, Kikuta, Shun, Okuda, YAMATO and U-T in particular. SBK/Dragon Kid and Shun/YAMATO to kick off the tournament should be tasty.

Not seen it yet! I've been held up at a terrible time cos I've got that DG show, half the Stardom Yokohama show and 2 AJPW Champions Carnival shows to watch. This week is always the absolute worst/best.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

LOB did you catch DG over the weekend? The show was good, not great, but still, I tried to stomach Mania for a bit but I just can't, the Strowman doing it for stupid bit killed me.

The opener was great, nice to see Lee get the win, and the mask match was really good I thought, good showing for Diamante in his first major singles match. The main was a bit of a mess though, but still good to have Doi back. I don't think DG has quite hit the standards of last year yet, hopefully King of Gate kicks things into a higher gear.

The lineup is good, I really like the C Block of Ishida, Kikuta, Shun, Okuda, YAMATO and U-T in particular. SBK/Dragon Kid and Shun/YAMATO to kick off the tournament should be tasty.

Finished it! Ye it was a fun show, nothing must see. Honestly I thought the lack of one of those great Masquerade trios matches hurt it on a match quality basis. Kikuta being out and the main event being nixed was just pure bad luck for all.

I can't believe Shimizu is only 28. Really hoping now with the Bokutimo gimmick gone, we get serious Shimizu again. Diamanté is really good, really thought he'd be the next Dream Gate challenger after Kikuta. Opening tag was probably the best match, main event was pure story to set up Dead or Alive but great to have Doi back.

Big few weeks ahead, Dead or Alive and then at the end of the month King of Gate. The blocks are stacked, lineups look great and I'm excited. Coming out of Dead or Alive maybe it'll be easier to predict because right now I have no read on who is winning it.

LineOfBeauty

OK so I'm watching Champion Carnival Night 1 now but I had to stop it to say Shinjiro Otani just had a 4 star banger with Aoyagi. No grading on a curve, no sympathy, 48 year old Otani and Aoyagi just had a straight up hard hitting banger. The work rate, and I'm only 3 matches into it, in this tournament looks like it is at a couple of levels higher at least than last year.

LineOfBeauty

Zeus/Miyahara was excellent too. An easy ****

And we're off, really good start to the Champion Carnival and I'm already 2 shows behind.

beakerjoe

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Zeus/Miyahara was excellent too. An easy ****

And we're off, really good start to the Champion Carnival and I'm already 2 shows behind.

Im about a year behind.... haven't watched anything from Japan since WK last year. I just cant find the time. well besides the odd big match.

LineOfBeauty

beakerjoe wrote: »

Im about a year behind.... haven't watched anything from Japan since WK last year. I just cant find the time. well besides the odd big match.

Haha don't feel too bad about being behind on All Japan. The Carnival so far has been really fun but big picture it's not a well booked promotion.

And, while NJPW keeps banging out great matches, the direction they've been going for a year now has been bizarre.

Stardom has increased in popularity recently and is worth a watch.

NOAH was great with Shiozaki on top but Muto as GHC Champion does absolutely nothing for me. The undercard booking is weird too.

Dragon Gate is great though. To me, it's the gold standard of modern wrestling right now.

beakerjoe

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Haha don't feel too bad about being behind on All Japan. The Carnival so far has been really fun but big picture it's not a well booked promotion.

And, while NJPW keeps banging out great matches, the direction they've been going for a year now has been bizarre.

Stardom has increased in popularity recently and is worth a watch.

NOAH was great with Shiozaki on top but Muto as GHC Champion does absolutely nothing for me. The undercard booking is weird too.

Dragon Gate is great though. To me, it's the gold standard of modern wrestling right now.

My issue is I like pro wrestling, clearly, but being habitual WWE fan (why? god knows) and with AEW, NJPW misses out as I have kids......plus in my free time love to watch movies and the occasional xbox game. Not enough mins in the day to watch DG and Stardom.

LineOfBeauty

beakerjoe wrote: »

My issue is I like pro wrestling, clearly, but being habitual WWE fan (why? god knows) and with AEW, NJPW misses out as I have kids......plus in my free time love to watch movies and the occasional xbox game. Not enough mins in the day to watch DG and Stardom.

Hahaha OK tbf you have a very valid excuse there! And honestly at the end of the day there's more things to life than just pro wrestling. I'd try to get in a bit of TV too and the odd film. But when things get back to normal and I have less free time to myself I'll have to cut back a bit on everything.

These days I only watch the big NJPW shows whereas only a couple of years ago I'd watch every Road To show, but I suppose because Dragon Gate is top of my pile, I see everything from them including the single cam no commentary shows. Once the Carnival ends and the title match is over I'll check out of All Japan again until something interests me and NOAH I watch the big shows for. Stardom I'm very hit or miss, RollieFingers is a far more avid fan of that than me.

RollieFingers

If you're getting on any of the Puro trains at the minute hop on Dragon Gate BeakerJoe, as LOB said it's the best around right now. We need more PW Boardsies watching DG

I love STARDOM too, and as we're in Cinderella tournament season it's a good time to sample the product. King of Gate also kicking off in DG shortly.

Something very off about New Japan for me at the moment. It's all a bit stale, even though Ospreay is the champ as head of a new stable. But the general company just doesn't feel fresh to me, only so many undercard multi man CHAOS/Bullet Club matches one can stomach.

RollieFingers

https://twitter.com/openvoicegate/status/1385199893363499009

That is some card LOB, Dead or Alive should be a cracker. I think the cage match ultimately leads to SBK losing his hair. Yoshino is confirmed to wrestle on Saturday too, will be great to see him back!

They also renamed Taketo Kamei as Funky Jacky Kamei :pac:

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

https://twitter.com/openvoicegate/status/1385199893363499009

That is some card LOB, Dead or Alive should be a cracker. I think the cage match ultimately leads to SBK losing his hair. Yoshino is confirmed to wrestle on Saturday too, will be great to see him back!

They also renamed Taketo Kamei as Funky Jacky Kamei :pac:

Man that card is great, adding Skywalker/Kikuta gives it a lot more juice I think.

Also just got around yesterday's show and my big takeaway is that skin head Ben K was giving me serious Batista vibes!

LineOfBeauty

That NJPW Road to Dontaku show with Sanada/Henare and Naito/Great O'Khan did nothing for me. The undercard feels dry and there's absolutely no reason that those two main events needed to go as long as they did. 23 minutes for Henare/Sanada? Why? Outside of being carried by quite literally some of the greatest pro wrestlers ever, there's no reason any Sanada match needs to surpass 20 minutes. This could have been a nice, tight 15 minute match. It's 23 minutes for the sake of going 20+. ***

Naito/O'Khan was better, but still far from great. 27 minutes. That used to be even a bit long for a Wrestle Kingdom main event, but here we are on the road to Dontaku with Naito going 27 minutes with a pro wrestler who, in my opinion absolutely has potential in certain ways, is not ready to go that long in a big main event match. This dragged, it wasn't one of those matches that felt like it went an hour but it felt every second of the 27 minutes it got. There was good stuff in this, and the crowd seemed to be into it (from what anyone can tell for a clap crowd) but the story does nothing for me and the match did not do enough to win me over. ***1/4

I know. In the (good) old days these two matches probably would've been slotted somewhere on the Dontaku shows (maybe 4th and 3rd from the top) and the time for each match would've been deducted significantly and probably for the betterment of the matches. But this is a time where NJPW are pumping out shows to overcome losses in revenue due to Covid, they're stretching their cards as thin as they'll go and trying to give the live fans satisfactory main event matches, which apparently means making these matches 8-12 minutes longer than they have any right to be. It's not for me.

RollieFingers

Man I've fallen so far off New Japan I don't know if they'll get me back. Just can't muster any enthusiasm for it.

RollieFingers

Just caught the 24th show from DG, bald Ben is a good look!

So good to have Yoshino back, him, Doi and YAMATO all looked great in the main. They had to cancel a good few dates coming up due to the state of emergency but luckily Dead or Alive is not affected.

RollieFingers

New Japan might have got me back with that main event, incredible stuff from Shingo and Ospreay, easy match of the year contender.

LineOfBeauty

The show from today and yesterday I just could not do. Tanga Loa in singles, a 39 minute NEVER Title match. It's just not for me.

But, the main event from today, Shingo/Ospreay for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title? Sign me up. It went near 43 minutes. But it's 2 of the 3 best pro wrestlers on the planet (Kenny Omega being the other), it's two wrestlers who belong on a top 20 best pro wrestlers ever list. I can't even describe how good this was. Seriously I can't. There were so many cool spots, so many plays on previous spots that they've done in other matches with each other that they built on. It was ridiculously stiff. The selling, storytelling and drama were perfect, the grueling time and violence of the match making both men basically zombified versions of themselves by the end. Perfect pro wrestling. Dave Meltzer will certainly break the scale for it, I know VOW did a tweet saying O/U on him going 6.25. My set scale stops at ***** and this was that, it's one of the best pro wrestling matches you will see and it is the best professional wrestling match thus far this year. I don't know if it can or will be beaten. It's the match of the year, go above and beyond to watch it. *****

RollieFingers

What you think of Dead or Alive LOB? I enjoyed it, the cage match was the usual DG madness. All signs pointed to SBK losing his hair so the result wasn't too surprising. Dragon Kid is so good, he has to be one of the most under-rated ever, love him. Kento's new gear looked class.

The Dream Gate was weird, feel bad for Shun and Kikuta. I thought it was a work at first. Hopefully the injury isn't too bad.

Delighted to see Ishida and Sakamoto win the Twin Gate. Mochi and Yoshida were enjoyable, but that R.E.D team is a pair of killers.

I liked Okuda/U-T, the finishing stretch was great, loved Okuda just keeping going for the sleeper. Mr. Danger Zone has been an excellent Brave Gate champion.

It was weird seeing Speed Muscle with R.E.D, suited them though! I actually thought Eita was going to turn. Nice to see the pop-up spear from Big Ben in the opener too. Didn't think the Triangle Gate was great, Estrella had a few rough spots, but it's good to have Dia back!

LineOfBeauty

I enjoyed the show overall. In ring I don't think it was a particularly strong show in that I don't know if anything cracked 4 stars but it had 2 title changes and a really significant main event, so in respect of advancing stories it was a good show.

Estrella was off for sure in his match, but that's the risk you run when you've so many young guys in prominent spots. He's a talent, he'll have far better nights.

That Dream Gate match is cursed, I swear it. Absolutely horrible luck for Kikuta. Given the run Skywalker has been on during his reign I'd have bet the house on that match being a banger had the injury not happened. Loved Kikuta's robe and poise pre match too.

But, and not to beat a dead horse, what I'll remember this event for is SB Kento. No pro wrestler at 21 years old should have the poise, charisma and star aura that he does. They just shouldn't. The new look is magnificent. He bumps like a mad man. He works the crowd. His offence is that of a serious main event pro wrestler. He projects as not only a star, but as the star. Wrestling nicknames are dumb and hyperbolic by nature, but the kid is seriously a phenom and the show closer with him shaving his own head will be played for years to come in video packages. Goddam it's the most obvious thing in the world to say it but today's show proved again that he's a can't miss megastar for Dragon Gate.

And that's my monthly SB Kento sermon.

Roll on King of Gate.

RollieFingers

Preach it brother, now's the time to get on board the SBK hype train because it's about to leave the station. He is too good for 21 years of age, it's almost unimaginable for someone so young to effectively have back to back singles against two of the bigger stars in DG in YAMATO and DK on an important show.

Yeh Kikuta feels cursed, saw Jae on Twitter saying he seemed ok afterwards.

Roll on King of Gate indeed.

RollieFingers

Seems like the curse of Kikuta continues, his injury forces him out of Block C, replaced by H.Y.O. The kid has had no luck recently at all.

RollieFingers

The cards have been announced for King of Gate this weekend.

YAMATO/Okuda and DK/Kzy on Saturday along with Ishida/Shun and Doi/Minoura on Sunday are the highlights for me, really glad Kaito/Skywalker 2 is making tape.

There's also a lovely full 5 on 5 tag match between Masquerade and R.E.D and the Speed Star teams with Natural Vibes for his last appearance in Hakata. Looks like another great weekend of DG action coming up!

LineOfBeauty

Banging first day of King of Gate. The best matches being Ben K/Naruki Doi (***3/4), Susumu/Kzy (****), Yamato/Shun Skywalker (****1/4).

I honestly would have no issue with someone going ****1/2 on the main event. Yamato getting the first fall over Skywalker since his return from Mexico is significant. He's surely the favourite to win this tournament and challenge Shun at Kobe, a great main event it would be between the past and current face of Dragon Gate and the current and future face of Dragon Gate. Absolutely nothing bad on the show (surprisingly I thought the worst match was Diamanté/Kota Minoura, they just did not have chemistry) but as easy an empty arena watch as you'll find anywhere.

Also a huge step up in effort across the board from last year's tournament.

RollieFingers

Really good start to King of Gate, a very easy watch as you said, just a fun show.

The main was a cracker and yeh definitely significant. Big match Shun is so good. I think YAMATO is the favourite, but I wouldn't write KZY off either. I loved his match with Susumu, was match of the night for me.

Really liked Ben-K/Doi too, good to see Ishida get off to a winning start and the Pump-handle GTS from EITA looked sick, nice little match with him and Jason Lee.

Roll on today and tomorrow.

RollieFingers

What you think of the rest of the weekend LOB? Some more very good stuff, I really enjoyed Dragon Kid/KZY. Sucks that we miss out on Doi/Kota, Minoura gets the win by forfeit.

I liked the Vibes & Yoshino multi-man against R.E.D from today's show, I want one of them Speed Star scarfs! Yoshino also passed the Missile Dropkick Senton to U-T.

Lithium93_

Massive news out of NJPW today.

https://twitter.com/voiceswrestling/status/1395328847730651139?s=19

RollieFingers

It sucks, terrible news for New Japan.

The company is stale and Ospreay felt fresh as champ. I'd be reluctant to go backwards to Tanahashi but it'll probably be Okada again. I don't think they should go straight to Shingo either, I'd like to see Jay win it. They should just have the G-1 for the vacant title really.

LineOfBeauty

I'm behind already on Dragon Gate. It's been a crazy week so I've not seen much of anything or had the chance to comment much on anything either.

Ospreay's injury is a blow. He's been the best thing about NJPW, with him out, Hiromu out too their plans have been thrown into the bin. It's been a snakebit year and a half for NJPW.

beakerjoe

If they got Andrade in and pushed him he could solve their problems.

RollieFingers

A solid if not spectacular weekend of King of Gate, understandable considering the circumstances. Jason Lee/KZY was so good, easily one of the matches of the tournament. Really liked Shun and Okuda too!

RollieFingers

The Ospreay situation is weird, there's a rumour going around now that he's not injured, won't be returning to Japan and is headed to NXT UK!? Which would obviously suck, but just doesn't seem true, surely if he was going to the E it would be to NXT proper? Hopefully not true and the rumour goes the same way as the Jay White talk did.

Clegg

Today is the 5th anniversary of Ospreay Vs Ricochet from Battle of the Super Juniors. For me it's one of the best Jr Heavyweight matches ever and perfected the high spot match structure that the Juniors had been building towards in years prior to that match.

It's interesting to see the differing fortunes that the participants have had since then. Ospreay stuck with NJPW and moved up in weight category, toned down his style, upped his psychology and developed into one of the best heavyweight wrestlers in the world. He was rewarded by winning the IWGP heavyweight championship. Ricochet, in contrast, went to WWE, had a decent run in NXT and has found himself floundering in jobber he'll for the last two years on Raw. He's not allowed to do a quarter of the stuff he's capable of. He needs to leave the company and re-establish himself elsewhere.

Lithium93_

RollieFingers wrote: »

The Ospreay situation is weird, there's a rumour going around now that he's not injured, won't be returning to Japan and is headed to NXT UK!? Which would obviously suck, but just doesn't seem true, surely if he was going to the E it would be to NXT proper? Hopefully not true and the rumour goes the same way as the Jay White talk did.

Well this tweet from him last night indicates something is definitely up... He could be serious, or it could be a case of, wait a second, are you just pulling our legs here. I'd be inclined to lean towards the former.

https://twitter.com/WillOspreay/status/1397653948199231490

The White Wolf

What's happening with Ospreay is quite disturbing. The way he's talking you wonder if this is it for his career.

RollieFingers

Yeh it is a strange one alright, he does seem legit injured. Would be grim if it's a career-ender, hopefully not, time will tell I guess.

The United Empire are still being strongly pushed so you'd think New Japan are hopeful he can return.

RollieFingers

Shingo vs Okada for the vacant IWGP world heavyweight championship announced for the rescheduled Dominion on June 7th.

The safe option of the Rainmaker seems likely. Shingo would be great though. An LIJ heel turn might be what New Japan need to freshen things up a bit too. Cobb/Ibushi also announced which should be good.

Xenji

I was hoping for a mini run for Suzuki, it would not of hurt either party for him to a transitional champion.

RollieFingers

https://twitter.com/DragonGateEN/status/1398923450459193346

Big shock, you love to see it LOB!

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

https://twitter.com/DragonGateEN/status/1398923450459193346

Big shock, you love to see it LOB!

Did not expect that! The young phenom can't be stopped. I've got so much to catch up on, nightmare! Any recommended shows or matches from King of Gate you wanna throw my way Rollie, I'm all ears!

RollieFingers

Man just off the top of my head but Eita/KZY and KZY/Lee were both great.

Trying to find time to catch the Misawa memorial show too, haven't heard much about it yet.

LineOfBeauty

Alright I fell behind but I'm back baby! Live show in Korakuen Hall now with English commentary, semi finals and finals, I'm up for it.

RollieFingers

What did you think LOB? Happy for KZY, the main event was so good, some of the counters they pulled off looked nuts. Was really impressed by Minoura, he looked like he belonged at the top of the card, you'd forget how young he is. Huge win for him over YAMATO. SBK was robbed though! KZY/Shun for the Dream Gate should be a classic, I hope KZY wins the big one.

You have to love King Shimizu Kagetora should be a good fall post for High End too.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

What did you think LOB? Happy for KZY, the main event was so good, some of the counters they pulled off looked nuts. Was really impressed by Minoura, he looked like he belonged at the top of the card, you'd forget how young he is. Huge win for him over YAMATO. SBK was robbed though! KZY/Shun for the Dream Gate should be a classic, I hope KZY wins the big one.

You have to love King Shimizu Kagetora should be a good fall post for High End too.

Kagetora's bitchy promo was fantastic, great loss post.

And delighted for KZY, he gets his big Kobe main event. Given that Yamato defeated Shun in the opening round match I really was surprised when Kota Minoura knocked him off in the first semi final but it's clever booking, it keeps the slate clean (recently) between Yamato/KZY, the moment everyone will remember from Yamato in the tournament is him giving Shun his first loss since his return, it gives a little boost to Minoura too who had his best match yet in the finals of the King of Gate and going into Kobe you've got a strong main event between Shun Skywalker and KZY and a challenger waiting in the wings in Yamato.

Speaking of Minoura, I know Jae pointed it out on commentary yesterday but there is serious Yamato vibes coming off of him with the look and the suplex heavy offence like early day Yamato. Excellent main event, beautifully worked and so smooth, everything really did click in it. ****1/2

King Shimizu is great!! Loved the Bokutimo run but it was time for the next thing. Personally I love Natural Vibes, but I'm a mark for big dancing and singing numbers in my pro wrestling so that's to be expected.

It's a shame they rush through the semi finals cos I think they were both on the way to something really great if they'd just had maybe 5 or 6 more minutes each.

All in all though, hugely enjoyable show and now Kobe looks far more clear with a set main event for Night 1 and Kai/Yamato finally having their blowoff match.

Agent Coulson

Looking forward to Ibushi vs Cobb tomorrow.

RollieFingers

Yeh should be a good one alright, Okada/Shingo will be tasty too!

Did you see any of the CyberFight show LOB? Thought it was decent, all the title matches were fairly good, delighted that Marufuji took the championship off Mutoh.

Lithium93_

Shingo Takagi

is the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.

I honestly didn't see that coming, but enjoyed the surprise nonetheless.

Agent Coulson

I didn't see it coming either however it makes sense

with Okada's back being in bits he really should be taking a long time off to sort it out.

RollieFingers

Delighted for Shingo, he's been consistently the best thing in New Japan for a good while now along with Ospreay before he got injured, and just cool to see him come up from Dragongate to win the big one in New Japan. Think it's the right decision too, definitely freshens things up. Ibushi/Shingo should be great.

Decent Dominion overall, Cobb/Ibushi was good and I liked Despy/YOH too!

LineOfBeauty

Well there you have it, any doubts erased, any arguments to the contrary now undisputed nonsense and the last stick anyone had to beat Shingo Takagi's legacy with has been has been apprehended and being used against the previous holder, Shingo Takagi has won the biggest prize in Japanese pro wrestling and his status as one of the greatest pro wrestlers ever is secured. Of course, even had he lost anyone whose watched even a small portion of his career would've been convinced anyway, how could you not be? There's no wrestler that jumps off the screen more, no wrestler that projects absolute chaos more than Takagi. His NJPW run is the most high profile of his career and what a run it has been, banger after banger, MOTY contender after MOTY contender, but nobody expected this, to beat Okada at Osaka Jo Hall for the top belt was surely unthinkable for any fan after his debut as a Junior in LIJ. The match itself I have at ****3/4, and more importantly in any list of Top 10 pro wrestlers ever, if it does not include Shingo Takagi then I'm afraid you might need to check it again, he is undeniable.