@twf87
This week was dominated by wrestling in Tokyo, which for me took the form of watching Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s Korakuen Hall show and Wrestle Kingdom, both on January 4th. TJPW kicked off the afternoon with a good show that had a great run of three big matches – Reika Saiki vs Meiko Satomura, Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki vs Riho and Shoko Nakajima, and Maki Itoh vs Miyu Yamashita. For me the tag team title match edged out the main event since it had the added emotional element of former partners Yuka Sakazaki and Shoko Nakajima facing each other, and the reactions of all members in the match after Sakazaki pinned Nakajima showed what it meant to the women involved. The whole show was good though, blending the fun of DDT in a USA dance match with the more serious styles of the upper card matches. Special mention has to go to the Up Up Girls who opened the show in a tag match against a team led by the returning Marika Kobashi. They have progressed a huge amount since their debut last year and look set to have a big 2019.
Wrestle Kingdom 13 was an interesting show, lower in match quality than previous Wrestle Kingdoms, but big in terms of results. All the titles on this show changed hands, and there was certainly a feeling of a changing of the guard in some of these results. We already know that Cody, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page have signed to AEW, and with other stars potentially joining them or going to WWE, 2019 looks set to be a very different year for NJPW. Hiroshi Tanahashi winning the main event gave this event a better emotional climax than Naito’s defeat in 2018, and this will likely be remembered longer than the in ring action.
I also made my first trip to see a Rev Pro show this weekend, in order to see Yuu and Shigehiro Irie make their Rev Pro debuts. The show featured the first round of the Queen of the Ring tournament, and Yuu impressed in a victory over current Rev Pro women’s champion Zoe Lucas. Chris Ridgeway also looked fantastic in his match, and it was interesting to see the progress of O-Karn on his excursion from New Japan. I’m still not a huge fan of the gimmick, but Oka looks much more comfortable with it now than he did when he first debuted. It was my first trip to The Cockpit as well, which seems like a great venue for live wrestling.
Having spent two weeks away in Canada, my actual ability to check out anything in terms of wrestling has been severely limited. However, I am back now and here are some of my recent thoughts.
wXw had their 18th Anniversary show, but with the way it panned out, it isn’t a show I’ve felt a great desire to catch up on. The David Starr injury threw their plans into disarray, but all the messing around with Nick Hein in the main event (Absolute Andy versus Lucky Kid) sounded plain awful, as did the decision to move the wXw Tag Team Titles away from JayFK to put them on RISE 2.0 (Tarkan Aslan and Da Mack). Having spent so long building up JayFK and really making their World Tag Team League victory such a big thing, to lose the gold so quickly is nothing short of anticlimactic.
Apparently, the Road To Back to the Roots show was actually pretty good, so now that I am back and as soon as I clear the deck of work (real life getting in the way as always), I’ll be giving my thoughts. It helps that the main event saw Ilja Dragunov and David Starr teaming up as Unbeseigstarr, one half of one of my favourite matches in 2018 against RINGKAMPF.
I’m one of the few – or so it seems – wrestling fans who didn’t watch Wrestle Kingdom. If I’d have realised that it was going to feel as swift as some fans suggested it was, I probably would have checked it out, but by the time I’d read the results and all about it, my compulsion to watch it as a full show had dissipated. I’ll check the top three or four matches though at some point this week. I’m glad it felt quicker than usual; even New Japan can’t avoid feeling like a slog during some of their longer events.
My New Year’s Resolution? To catch more modern wrestling where possible. Slave to the territories though I am, dipping in to some independent action in particular is what I will hopefully do. This should be made sufficiently easier by me finishing the Tracking the Territories series with Volume IV, due the end of January/start of February.
@WynterStorm24
The first week of 2019 is officially in the books and I have to say it’s been pretty good. I didn’t know Raw and Smackdown were taped this week as well, but I’m glad since that means the wrestlers got a chance to spend New Year’s with their families. Seth Rollins almost murdered Lio Rush with a brutal curb stomp on Monday night and AJ Styles punched his ticket to a rematch for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. Really the only low point for WWE was the Mandy Rose and Naomi angle. It really needs to end because it’s not doing much for either wrestler. Also Corey Graves says really creepy things about Rose; he needs to take his box of tissues and go.
Mean Gene Okerlund died on Tuesday, which was super sad. He was truly an iconic voice in the industry and he will be missed terribly. It’s never a good time to lose someone and it’s even worse when it’s so early in the year.
All Elite Wrestling was announced. I don’t really remember when but it was all over Twitter and the logo has been popping up all over the place. There seems to be a lot of hate on both sides of the fence. I’m just hoping they sign some decent (and diverse) talent and have good booking. The fame of The Elite can only carry the promotion so far.
Some intimate photos and video of Toni Storm got leaked onto the internet. Some people even tagged her in it and the Aussie has since deleted her social media. I feel for the poor woman; there was an appalling amount of victim blaming on Twitter. A few years ago Paige almost killed herself over the leaks of her so hopefully Toni is able to take whatever time she needs to move past this. Her wrestling future is so bright.
Wrestle Kingdom 13 happened Friday morning and I sure did wake up at 3am to watch it live. I didn’t really live tweet like I usually do for shows but I followed along with everyone else on Twitter. Man, the world is a whole different place when you’re up in the middle of the night watching Japanese wrestling. My favorite matches were Will Ospreay vs Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi.
I also got a chance to see my local promotion, Vanguard Championship Wrestling. It was a lot of fun, got to chat with other regulars, there was a great title match for the main event, and the proceeds from the night went to the high school wrestling team. I’ll be writing a full review of it so keep on the lookout for it!
@TheCiaranJames
After a month away I’ve returned. It seems the grass of new ventures is not always green, unfortunately. Let’s move on.
It’s been a very interesting start to 2019, AEW has been officially announced, Wrestle Kingdom has come and gone, plus closer to home Pro Wrestling Chaos and Kamikaze Pro have stacked shows on the horizon.
AEW will add to the continued excitement of the professional wrestling business. The announcement of a new promotion, founded and most probably funded by Tony Khan is set to cause a whirlwind. With a dedicated team including Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks, who all understand the business the future looks very intriguing. With little news yet on roster, shows and a potential tv deal, one can only assume what the future holds.
Wrestle Kingdom was as always impressive, the vast array of styles and wrestling suits most fans. Although an impressive show, the first two and a half hours felt rushed, as it NJ were trying to get to the big stars so to speak. The main matches shone, Naito/Jericho lived up to expectations, Jericho has been a revelation in Japan, he is one of the best. Naito continues to be one of NJPW’s biggest and most talented wrestlers, he characters however baffles me, he’s a tweener right?
Jay White again proved himself against the Rainmaker, Okada unarguably one of the best seems a couple steps behind right now. Booking or not, it seems the big loss to Omega last June hurt the overall aura of Okada. The main event was not one of Kenny Omega’s best matches but his performance was, he took the load in this match and took the loss. This was the fairytale ending for Tanahashi, it is after all his 20th career anniversary and it was only fitting, but I wonder what a Tanahashi does for a progressive company like New Japan.
My first Indy show is the year is next Saturday with Pro Wrestling Chaos. The main event is Champion Dick Riley defending against Big Grizz in a 3 Stages of Hell match. Chaos were hurt by the loss of some talent to WWE contrasts, but they have rebounded remarkably well. The show also features the Chaos debut of Robbie X, one of the most underrated performers on the UK scene, my preview of the event drops this Wednesday.
I’m intending to get to more shows and more promotions than ever in 2019, with four shows booked already for the next month I intend to be very busy.
Until next week
