The Puroresu (Japanese Wrestling) thread

RollieFingers

The joshi representation in AEW was good but if anyone wants to see great joshi they need to check out STARDOM today at the Budokan.

A brilliant card from pretty much top to bottom on a historic show, Giulia and Tam went to war in the main event and you also get a rare appearance from one of the legit GOAT's Chigusa Nagayo. Highly recommended.

Agent Coulson

NJPW have dropped the idea of hiring Scrull for now due to the backlash it created when it got out he was at Strong tapings.

LineOfBeauty

Apparently Stardom out drew NJPW in Budokan Hall. Despy is a nice wrestler but headlining with him was crazy.

What they're gonna put on the cards of the Yokohama Dome and Tokyo Dome shows is anyone's guess. I've no ideas what big matches they have in reserve that don't cannibalise their Wrestle Kingdom lineups.

RollieFingers

Glad to see Doi back at Korakuen today for Glorious Gate.

I really liked Dragon Kid/SBK, nothing amazing in-ring but excellent character work from Kento. The cage match being a tag team match is interesting.

I'd love to see it but I can't see Ishida beating Skywalker this weekend, I think the most likely title switch is in the Twin Gate match. Looking forward to HYO/Okuda for the Brave Gate, the colours and new logo for High End look good too.

NITRO95

RollieFingers wrote: »

Glad to see Doi back at Korakuen today for Glorious Gate.

I really liked Dragon Kid/SBK, nothing amazing in-ring but excellent character work from Kento. The cage match being a tag team match is interesting.

I'd love to see it but I can't see Ishida beating Skywalker this weekend, I think the most likely title switch is in the Twin Gate match. Looking forward to HYO/Okuda for the Brave Gate, the colours and new logo for High End look good too.

Agreed I don't think Skywalker is dropping the belt to Ishida but it should still be a quality match. Probably going to get a Skywalker Eita rematch at Dead or Alive for the title.

I love the white and gold colours for High End. Can't wait to see who ends up aligning with them. I still don't fully trust Natural Vibes, there's just something really scuzzy about them even if I do love Susumu's half arsed dancing

RollieFingers

Okada should really take some time off to heal up the back after today. Good match, glad that Shingo won, I'd like to see him win the cup. KENTA/Suzuki should be a cracker!

RollieFingers

Champion Gate weekend was good, no surprise really that Yoshida and Mochizuki won the Twin Gate. I really liked the Dream Gate match, Ishida was great and Shun's new gear looked sweet. I can get behind Kazma being the next challenger, he has been excellent lately.

LineOfBeauty

Just finished the 2nd night of Champion Gate. So some takes.

Shun Skywalker is the best top champion of any company around right now. I don't care what anyone says, bell to bell he's great. His matches since his return against Eita have felt like big time events, they have that big match aura.

Kaito Ishida in that long sleeved black t shirt before the match nearly had me in tears, he's so beautiful. The larger take here is that both guys look like stars, the gear, the presentation, the new Ishida music. They came across as major league.

Kaito Ishida is so much more than just a kickboy and this match confirmed it. Watching him here, nobody can tell me he's not a star. Right now he's the 2nd in the heel group in Dragon Gate, but I think his future could be as the top face in the company. He had the best feud in pro wrestling last year opposite Okuda, the kid (he's still so young) has no ceiling.

This match was magnificent. I'm going ****1/2 but with a real crowd reacting to all of it, I think this could even have been *****. Great, great pro wrestling.

LineOfBeauty

Yo dude, you gonna watch the NOAH show on Sunday with Muto/Kiyomiya?

Plus Goto/Shingo, KENTA/Suzuki, Nagata/Sanada and Ospreay/ZSJ this weekend too!

RollieFingers

I think I'll go with New Japan, Muto and Kaito doesn't do much for me. The NJC has been decent enough so far, thought Ishii/SANADA was really good. Cobb/EVIL was too but went way too long and would have preferred O'Khan to advance over Yano.

KENTA/Suzuki though, sign me up. Dragon Gate tomorrow too, YAMATO, DK & Okuda vs Ishida, SBK & KAI is tasty.

RollieFingers

Ospreay/ZSJ was so good, loved it, one of the matches of the year for me so far. Also loved no fcuks KENTA before the match with the newspaper Good weekend for New Japan!

LineOfBeauty

NJPW had a great weekend. If you avoid EVIL, Yano, Owens and watch the other stuff then this is a great tournament. I thought Ospreay/ZSJ ****3/4. Ospreay looked like one of the best wrestlers in the world and every inch an NJPW headliner and I thought it was the best ZSJ performance I've seen in NJPW.

Meanwhile in NOAH, Muto retaining against the young hope Kiyomiya in a 30+ minute match was what you'd expect from that description. Not good. Headlock City for the first half, Kiyomiya wrestling down to Muto's level. **

RollieFingers

Yeh think I'll give NOAH a miss, doesn't sound like it was the best. Sucks about Go Shiozaki though, looks like he's going to be out for about six months after having shoulder surgery.

LineOfBeauty

Apparently Kiyomiya picked up a concussion in the main event just to add to the disastrousness of it.

NJ Cup today again deliverered though not to the level of the weekend shows.

YH/Finlay ***1/2.

White/Tana ***3/4.

White was superb tonight though pre and post match and that next round match with Finlay should be a banger.

RollieFingers

Tana always brings out the best in Jay, really good stuff, I liked that it went under twenty minutes too.

Has to be Switchblade for the cup surely? A Shingo/White final would be sweet!

LineOfBeauty

Man I really have enjoyed this NC Cup. It feels deadly serious, the screwy finishes have been cut back big style. The matches are delivering, the characters come across so much more effectively in this kind of environment than they do in the heel heat promotion it's been for the last year.

Finlay/White was real good. White worked the match like he did against Tana, believing that Finlay is not on his level. After Gedo was taken out they had a nice closing stretch and I absolutely adored the finish with Finlay hitting the Prima Nocta, only for White to land on his other shoulder, perfectly set up for the Shiranui. It wasn't a fluke finish, it was clean, but I loved that the element of luck for White to fall right into place for that huge upset was there. Gorgeous pro wrestling and cool to see Finlay get a big win over his career rival. Hopefully this gets us closer to White's transition into a face. **** (throwing basically half a star extra on this for the finish)

Ospreay/Sanada rocked. Loved the match layout. Ospreay, clearly feeling he had to work quick and get Sanada on the back foot because of his broken nose basically took the entire first 5 minutes of the match, until Sanada grabbed at the nose and that levelled it. One dumb Paradise Lock spot aside, this was excellent. Sanada, when put in there with a master worker (and Ospreay is that) often delivers. The spots all looked clean (another danger of a Sanada match is that they can look messy) but Ospreay is having a great year. Nobody is talking about it very much (which maybe says more to how hot NJPW is in the west atm) but he's had a banger with Okada at WK, a couple of really good matches with Kojima and Tenzan and now a stellar NJ Cup run which he could very well win. I said it after the ZSJ match and I'll say it again, he looks every inch an NJPW headline act. ****1/4

RollieFingers

Caught up on the last few days today, agreed about Ospreay/SANADA, was great. I'm surprised Finlay beat White and I wanted Jay to win but the match was good.

Ospreay and Finlay was really good too, the other semi stunk out the joint for me but at least had the result. If Ospreay vs Shingo is as good as their previous encounters it could be match of the year stuff. I'd love to see Shingo win!

RollieFingers

The match was so good, the 450 to the outside through the table and the pop-up Poison 'Rana both looked class and the finish was great.

The post match angle is getting quite the mixed reaction across socials I dunno, I was just laughing at the non-reaction to it in the arena!

LineOfBeauty

Man I've just watched the NJ Cup Final. Keep in mind I just watched the putrid Fastlane last night.

I loved it. I loved the layered stories. I loved how both guys came out of it stronger than going in. We're talking about, genuinely, two of the best pro wrestlers of their era, I'd argue both are within the top 20 pro wrestlers ever. They did magic, pure magic. Different to their BOSJ final. Honestly I can't give enough platitudes to both wrestlers, they're both great, properly great. I think we can all see where I'm going with this. *****

Ospreay has 3 of my 4 favourite matches this year in pro wrestling. Ospreay /Ibushi has all the potential to be great.

This tournament has been fantastic, it's everything I want in my NJPW (EVIL aside), it's everything I want in my wrestling.

Joe Lanza called it ages ago but it's never been more clear, we're now in a new era of NJPW and the guys whose big arcs are just beginning.

And to cap it off, I really liked the post match too. The visual was great, it played into Will's story throughout the tournament. I'm all in on it.

RollieFingers

Man I really wanted Shingo to be victorious but winning the cup fits heel Ospreay for sure. Ageeed that the match was top class. I'm hoping this means we're getting Shingo as the G1 winner.

The United Empire looking strong now, rumours they have a new member from the existing roster lined up too.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

Man I really wanted Shingo to be victorious but winning the cup fits heel Ospreay for sure. Ageeed that the match was top class. I'm hoping this means we're getting Shingo as the G1 winner.

The United Empire looking strong now, rumours they have a new member from the existing roster lined up too.

That's exciting too. Ye loving the United Empire. And now I can get back onto Twitter and see some of the dirt worst takes about the post match angle.

Shingo looked great in defeat and the spots with Ibushi during the match were not placed in there for no reason, NJPW don't do that stuff unless there's gonna be some kind of payoff to it down the line.

RollieFingers

Did you catch the latest DG show man? Can't believe Stalker didn't win the Sanbo, one of the most esteemed winning streaks in wrestling is done.

Masquerade/R.E.D was as good as you'd expect and judging from the crowd and Twitter Kazma absolutely destroyed Shun on the mic. Really looking forward to Saturday now, would love to see Sakakmoto win it.

Not a good night for High End either, was surprised Punch finally got a win over Okuda!

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

Did you catch the latest DG show man? Can't believe Stalker didn't win the Sanbo, one of the most esteemed winning streaks in wrestling is done.

Masquerade/R.E.D was as good as you'd expect and judging from the crowd and Twitter Kazma absolutely destroyed Shun on the mic. Really looking forward to Saturday now, would love to see Sakakmoto win it.

Not a good night for High End either, was surprised Punch finally got a win over Okuda!

Hey mate, nah I haven't caught it! Can't believe they ended the Stalker Streak though.

Tbh I've gotten caught up with a mixture of classic PWG's (onto 2012), old WWF (97) and exhaustion from the NJ Cup. But I will absolutely catch the Saturday show with it being a big card. I think there's some NOAH and Stardom stuff I gotta catch up on too.

riffmongous

Is there anything out there similar to what Pancrase was like back back in the days of the Shamrocks and Funaki, but a bit more openly pro wrestling and with storylines outside of the ring?

LineOfBeauty

riffmongous wrote: »

Is there anything out there similar to what Pancrase was like back back in the days of the Shamrocks and Funaki, but a bit more openly pro wrestling and with storylines outside of the ring?

Hey mate, tbh in terms of things that regularly make tape the pickings are pretty slim. Most of the alternative promotions these days in Japan are death match (BJW, FREEDOMS) for the most part rather than shoot inspired. Maybe GLEAT but we'll see.

If I was recommending something to you it'd be NOAH. It's not Pancrase, though Funaki is a fairly regular roster member. But it's style is more serious and grounded than some of the wackiness you get in the lower levels of the card in NJPW. Plus they've got a load of old shoot guys on the roster too (Fujita, Sakuraba, Kashin ect.) and the matches are very much ground based and hard hitting. The top level stuff last year with Shiozaki on top was supreme, currently Muto holds the GHC Title which some like and some hate. I'd say give it a chance.

riffmongous

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Hey mate, tbh in terms of things that regularly make tape the pickings are pretty slim. Most of the alternative promotions these days in Japan are death match (BJW, FREEDOMS) for the most part rather than shoot inspired. Maybe GLEAT but we'll see.

If I was recommending something to you it'd be NOAH. It's not Pancrase, though Funaki is a fairly regular roster member. But it's style is more serious and grounded than some of the wackiness you get in the lower levels of the card in NJPW. Plus they've got a load of old shoot guys on the roster too (Fujita, Sakuraba, Kashin ect.) and the matches are very much ground based and hard hitting. The top level stuff last year with Shiozaki on top was supreme, currently Muto holds the GHC Title which some like and some hate. I'd say give it a chance.

Cool, I'll give NOAH a go. Start off with the old guys that I know and go from there

LineOfBeauty

riffmongous wrote: »

Cool, I'll give NOAH a go. Start off with the old guys that I know and go from there

Ye do! Fujita just had a match with KENOH for the National Title that might be right up your street. Funaki/KENOH from maybe a month back might be worth a watch for you too and I'd check out some of the big Shiozaki defences from last year particularly vs Sugiura (my match of the year), KENOH and Nakajima. Plus with the FITE TV deal it's more accessible now than ever and you should be able to find English commentary for some of those matches and shows.

LineOfBeauty

Today's Memorial Gate show from Dragon Gate was good, solid, an easy watch and I think over delivered.

Enjoyed Ben K/Hip Hop Kikuta. Huge singles win for Kikuta which made more sense with the show closing angle. Ben K loses nothing from it, they can heat him up anytime. ***1/4

High End/RED/Masquerade trios elimination Rumble style tag was great fun. Loved Yamato sprinting in and going at it with KAI and the SBK/Dragon Kid interactions. Dragon Gate always make sure those long term and previous feuds play into the matches, I love that stuff. ***1/2.

Twin Gate match was strong too. Arakan and Kanda brought it. Look at the average age of the guys in this match, it had no right to be this good. Mochizuki, for me, is a genuine HOF guy that deserves all the praise in the world and I'm a huge Arai mark. ***1/2

I'm the high man on the main event but I love Skywalker. I love his matches, I love the character, how he carries himself. If you're asking me for my top 10 wrestlers in the world, Skywalker is a lock for me. Sakamoto more than held up his end of the match. This was so different to Shun's other Dream Gate defences against the bigger man, he fought from underneath, and the final 3rd of this was fire. ****1/4.

On a show with, booking wise, weak challengers thus obvious winners, they did really well to overcome that with the matches they delivered. Shun running through RED with Kikuta as the next challenger is a cool story too.

RollieFingers

Yeh agreed man, a good solid show if not overly spectacular.

The main was great, loved it. I like Shun but I'm more of a Kazma man, I think he delivered today and helped to shake off the Mr WWE status nicely.

I wasn't expecting Kikuta to beat Ben and I definitely didn't think he'd be getting a Dream Key this early in his career. I'm all for it though, like you said Shun running through R.E.D is an enjoyable story.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

Yeh agreed man, a good solid show if not overly spectacular.

The main was great, loved it. I like Shun but I'm more of a Kazma man, I think he delivered today and helped to shake off the Mr WWE status nicely.

I wasn't expecting Kikuta to beat Ben and I definitely didn't think he'd be getting a Dream Key this early in his career. I'm all for it though, like you said Shun running through R.E.D is an enjoyable story.

Ye tbf Kazma really did deliver big today. I do think he gets a rough time of it, like he's really better than a lot of people think he is and he was really good here.

Man Kikuta/Shun is a really good B level defence.