Welcome to a new addition to the Pro Wrestling Journal website as we aim to give you an inside look into how the week in wrestling has gone for a number of the contributors to the site. Whilst many of us will have put up a review or an editorial across the course of seven days, we also may have found to indulge in our love of wrestling in myriad different ways that aren’t covered on the Journal. Alongside that, this aims to give us a chance to talk out a bit about what is interesting us, exciting us and frustrating us about the world of wrestling.
Without further ado, here is My Week in Wrestling!
NOTE: All additions to this article were written on Saturday 2nd June.
Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
Alongside the publishing of my new book – Tracking the Territories 1984: Volume Three (cheap plug) – I was able to get out into Brighton to watch the Riptide Rumble. Always a sucker for a Rumble contest myself, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Chuck Mambo eliminated Zack Gibson to win the aforementioned match, whilst the match of the night honours probably went to David Starr’s victory over Jack Sexsmith in a hard hitting encounter that Sexsmith wanted to help him get out of his current Brighton-based slump.
In terms of watching wrestling, work on Volume Four has already begun. Therefore, I’m entrenched in October 1984, which included an early title change in Mid-South as Adrian Street beat Terry Taylor for the Television Title…well, the medal. Street kissed Taylor and rolled him up, a move that was sold as one of the most heinous things that could ever happen in a wrestling ring according to Jim Ross and Joel Watts. An interesting snapshot of wrestling during that era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM47BY3cUkU&t=39s
Tokyo Wrestling Fan @twf87
There have been two big stories this week – New Japan’s 25th Best of the Super Juniors tournament and the news that Io Shirai is leaving Stardom seemingly with the aim of joining WWE.
This year’s BOSJ has the potential to be one of the best, and the juniors have been given more time for their matches and the opportunity to main event all the shows this year. Hiromu Takahashi has probably been the top performer for me so far this tournament, but SHO has really stood out in his first BOSJ. Currently Will Ospreay and Taiji Ishimori are level on eight points in A Block, and KUSHIDA, Hiromu, Marty Scurll, and Dragon Lee are all on six points in B Block.
Tokyo Sports broke the news at the beginning of this week that Io Shirai was planning to leave Stardom in June, which was confirmed at a press conference later by Stardom President Rossy Ogawa and Io. Io had expressed interest in joining WWE last year with her compatriot Kairi Sane, and had even been offered a deal by WWE, only for it to fall through due to a medical issue. The belief is that she will now sign with the WWE, and potentially be in this year’s Mae Young Classic. The news that Io is leaving has been met with mixed reactions from joshi wrestling fans, who are less worried about the future of Stardom than they were when the news broke last year and Stardom faced losing their top two names. However, it had brought to the fore the issue of WWE’s recent policy of relentlessly signing big indie names. This was particularly apparent in their recent UK expansion, where WWE have signed a lot of big name indie wrestlers in order to undercut the upcoming World of Sport programming on ITV. Whatever you think about the WWE, their roster is already bloated and adding more talent just for the sake of preventing competition cannot be good for the health of wrestling as a whole. I don’t have a great deal of optimism about how they will deal with Io, but at least she should have a decent NXT run.
Ciaran James@TheCiaranJames
My weekly piece will be focusing on the South West/Midlands/Wales wrestling scene, especially Pro Wrestling Chaos, Dragon Pro Wrestling, Attack Pro Wrestling and Kamikaze Pro, with the latest news and rumours.
Pro Wrestling Chaos: The Bristol based promotion are one week away from their fifth anniversary entitled CHAO5 taking place at Kings Oak Academy, Bristol. A Plethora of International wrestlers and UK talent have been scheduled to appear, with King of Chaos Big Grizzly defending against WALTER in the main event. The biggest news of the week (depending on opinion) was the announcement of WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who is booked to appear in July at Pro Wrestling Chaos Heir 2 The Throne. This was met with lots of excitement, I will hold my opinion until after the event.
Attack Pro Wrestling: Arguably the most talked about promotion in the South West, Attack continue to attract fans and talent from far and wide. Holding events in Bristol, Cardiff and Cheltenham the alternative wrestling promotion feature some of the biggest names in the world, most notable however was the recent turn to the dark side of the ultra-talented Eddie Dennis. The once beloved face has now joined forces with Elijah, LK Mezinger and Drew Parker and are collectively known as “Nothing to Prove”, although still inactive Eddie is cutting the promos of his career as he makes Attack Pro even more must see!
Dragon Pro Wrestling: Last year Dragon Pro stepped and became more than just an academy running shows, they moved their shows to a bigger venue in Newport (Wales) and started attracting bigger named talent. Their core however has remained their own home-grown talent, Danny Jones, Brendan White, Serra Loxton, Elijah and LK Mezinger all appear regularly and are featured prominently. This week they made the announcement of their next show to take place on July 8th, featuring Dragon Pro legend Mike Bird and current WWE superstar Flash Morgan Webster. Keep an eye on academy graduate Matt Horgan, he’s one for the future.
Kamikaze Pro: The Midlands based Kamikaze Pro are also on the eve of their fifth anniversary, which takes place on June 30th at the Irish Club, Birmingham. With some mouth-watering matches already announced, this is set to be an outstanding night of wrestling with Chris Ridgeway, Mike Bailey and Clint Margera all scheduled to appear. Their hottest feud of the moment is between current Kamikaze Pro Champion Kay Jutler and Hardcore specialist Clint Margera, with both also the current Kamikaze Pro Tag Team Champions sparks will! Gabriel Kidd and Sean Kustom are two other names to watch, both are British based and of the rise, with their rematch for the Relentless Title set to culminate at the fifth anniversary show, these two will be looking to impress. Definitely a promotion you need to check out!
Mark Worrall @hoohoowozza
My usual wrestling viewing each week is usually based around catching up on Wrestling shows having little time on some days it can be days before I catch up on shows! However my viewing week started by watching a podcast on the WWE Network, namely Bruce Pritchard’s show ‘Something else to wrestle with’. Ok, so I do not usually watch podcasts as I like to listen to them whilst at work, however the Vince Russo edition had me curious as I know that Bruce and Russo did not clearly see eye to eye so to catch some of the expressions on the face of Mr Pritchard was well worth the watch. I am someone who saw the whole of the attitude era, and if I am honest still enjoy going back to this day. Admittedly I am a Russo fan! Well, he is entertaining on his own podcast so getting a different view is well worth your time.
I also took the time as always to enjoy 205 Live this week which had the incredible cruiserweight championship match between Cedric Alexander and challenger Buddy Murphy. A MOTY contender? Stands a chance. This was a well built feud that culminated in an excellent match that makes this program stand alone from Raw and Smackdown, which I do not watch. A must see match.
I am still behind with NJPW BOSJ as it is hard to keep up with tournaments as real life and work get in the way! So maybe I am going to skip these and go straight to today’s block finals. I also took chance to watch an English recap show of the Tokyo Joshi Pro Korakuen show that happened on May 3rd. This is a great way to enjoy the fatest growing Joshi promotion in Japan and the English commentary is a great way to find out about the characters and storylines that are currently happening in the promotion.
As always, follow us at @KayfabeToday for the best coverage of wrestling in the business. Miss it, miss out.
