{"id":10891,"date":"2019-01-06T13:23:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T18:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=10891"},"modified":"2019-01-07T00:34:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T05:34:37","slug":"my-week-in-wrestling-week-ending-6th-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/06\/my-week-in-wrestling-week-ending-6th-january\/","title":{"rendered":"My Week in Wrestling (week ending 6th January)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

@twf87<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week was dominated by wrestling\nin Tokyo, which for me took the form of watching Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling\u2019s\nKorakuen Hall show and Wrestle Kingdom, both on January 4th. TJPW kicked off\nthe afternoon with a good show that had a great run of three big matches –\nReika Saiki vs Meiko Satomura, Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki vs Riho and Shoko\nNakajima, and Maki Itoh vs Miyu Yamashita. For me the tag team title match\nedged out the main event since it had the added emotional element of former\npartners Yuka Sakazaki and Shoko Nakajima facing each other, and the reactions\nof all members in the match after Sakazaki pinned Nakajima showed what it meant\nto the women involved. The whole show was good though, blending the fun of DDT\nin a USA dance match with the more serious styles of the upper card matches.\nSpecial mention has to go to the Up Up Girls who opened the show in a tag match\nagainst a team led by the returning Marika Kobashi. They have progressed a huge\namount since their debut last year and look set to have a big 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrestle Kingdom 13 was an interesting\nshow, lower in match quality than previous Wrestle Kingdoms, but big in terms\nof results. All the titles on this show changed hands, and there was certainly\na feeling of a changing of the guard in some of these results. We already know\nthat Cody, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page have signed to AEW, and with other\nstars potentially joining them or going to WWE, 2019 looks set to be a very\ndifferent year for NJPW. Hiroshi Tanahashi winning the main event gave this\nevent a better emotional climax than Naito\u2019s defeat in 2018, and this will\nlikely be remembered longer than the in ring action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also made my first trip to see a Rev\nPro show this weekend, in order to see Yuu and Shigehiro Irie make their Rev\nPro debuts. The show featured the first round of the Queen of the Ring\ntournament, and Yuu impressed in a victory over current Rev Pro women\u2019s\nchampion Zoe Lucas. Chris Ridgeway also looked fantastic in his match, and it\nwas interesting to see the progress of O-Karn on his excursion from New Japan.\nI\u2019m still not a huge fan of the gimmick, but Oka looks much more comfortable\nwith it now than he did when he first debuted. It was my first trip to The\nCockpit as well, which seems like a great venue for live wrestling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

@tvtimelimit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having spent two weeks away in Canada,\nmy actual ability to check out anything in terms of wrestling has been severely\nlimited. However, I am back now and here are some of my recent thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wXw had their 18th<\/sup>\nAnniversary show, but with the way it panned out, it isn\u2019t a show I\u2019ve felt a\ngreat desire to catch up on. The David Starr injury threw their plans into disarray,\nbut all the messing around with Nick Hein in the main event (Absolute Andy\nversus Lucky Kid) sounded plain awful, as did the decision to move the wXw Tag\nTeam Titles away from JayFK to put them on RISE 2.0 (Tarkan Aslan and Da Mack).\nHaving spent so long building up JayFK and really making their World Tag Team\nLeague victory such a big thing, to lose the gold so quickly is nothing short\nof anticlimactic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, the Road To Back to the\nRoots show was actually pretty good, so now that I am back and as soon as I\nclear the deck of work (real life getting in the way as always), I\u2019ll be giving\nmy thoughts. It helps that the main event saw Ilja Dragunov and David Starr\nteaming up as Unbeseigstarr, one half of one of my favourite matches in 2018 against\nRINGKAMPF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m one of the few \u2013 or so it seems \u2013\nwrestling fans who didn\u2019t watch Wrestle Kingdom. If I\u2019d have realised that it\nwas going to feel as swift as some fans suggested it was, I probably would have\nchecked it out, but by the time I\u2019d read the results and all about it, my\ncompulsion to watch it as a full show had dissipated. I\u2019ll check the top three\nor four matches though at some point this week. I\u2019m glad it felt quicker than\nusual; even New Japan can\u2019t avoid feeling like a slog during some of their\nlonger events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My New Year\u2019s Resolution? To catch\nmore modern wrestling where possible. Slave to the territories though I am,\ndipping in to some independent action in particular is what I will hopefully\ndo. This should be made sufficiently easier by me finishing the Tracking the\nTerritories series with Volume IV, due the end of January\/start of February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@WynterStorm24<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first week of 2019 is officially\nin the books and I have to say it\u2019s been pretty good. I didn\u2019t know Raw and\nSmackdown were taped this week as well, but I\u2019m glad since that means the wrestlers\ngot a chance to spend New Year\u2019s with their families. Seth Rollins almost\nmurdered Lio Rush with a brutal curb stomp on Monday night and AJ Styles\npunched his ticket to a rematch for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble.\nReally the only low point for WWE was the Mandy Rose and Naomi angle. It really\nneeds to end because it\u2019s not doing much for either wrestler. Also Corey Graves\nsays really creepy things about Rose; he needs to take his box of tissues and\ngo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mean Gene Okerlund died on Tuesday,\nwhich was super sad. He was truly an iconic voice in the industry and he will\nbe missed terribly. It\u2019s never a good time to lose someone and it\u2019s even worse\nwhen it\u2019s so early in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Elite Wrestling was announced. I\ndon\u2019t really remember when but it was all over Twitter and the logo has been\npopping up all over the place. There seems to be a lot of hate on both sides of\nthe fence. I\u2019m just hoping they sign some decent (and diverse) talent and have\ngood booking. The fame of The Elite can only carry the promotion so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some intimate photos and video of Toni\nStorm got leaked onto the internet. Some people even tagged her in it and the\nAussie has since deleted her social media. I feel for the poor woman; there was\nan appalling amount of victim blaming on Twitter. A few years ago Paige almost\nkilled herself over the leaks of her so hopefully Toni is able to take whatever\ntime she needs to move past this. Her wrestling future is so bright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrestle Kingdom 13 happened Friday\nmorning and I sure did wake up at 3am to watch it live. I didn\u2019t really live\ntweet like I usually do for shows but I followed along with everyone else on\nTwitter. Man, the world is a whole different place when you\u2019re up in the middle\nof the night watching Japanese wrestling. My favorite matches were Will Ospreay\nvs Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also got a chance to see my local\npromotion, Vanguard Championship Wrestling. It was a lot of fun, got to chat\nwith other regulars, there was a great title match for the main event, and the\nproceeds from the night went to the high school wrestling team. I\u2019ll be writing\na full review of it so keep on the lookout for it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@TheCiaranJames<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a month away I\u2019ve returned. It\nseems the grass of new ventures is not always green, unfortunately. Let\u2019s move\non.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a very interesting start to\n2019, AEW has been officially announced, Wrestle Kingdom has come and gone,\nplus closer to home Pro Wrestling Chaos and Kamikaze Pro have stacked shows on\nthe horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AEW will add to the continued\nexcitement of the professional wrestling business. The announcement of a new\npromotion, founded and most probably funded by Tony Khan is set to cause a\nwhirlwind. With a dedicated team including Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks, who\nall understand the business the future looks very intriguing. With little news\nyet on roster, shows and a potential tv deal, one can only assume what the\nfuture holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrestle Kingdom was as always\nimpressive, the vast array of styles and wrestling suits most fans. Although an\nimpressive show, the first two and a half hours felt rushed, as it NJ were\ntrying to get to the big stars so to speak. The main matches shone,\nNaito\/Jericho lived up to expectations, Jericho has been a revelation in Japan,\nhe is one of the best. Naito continues to be one of NJPW\u2019s biggest and most\ntalented wrestlers, he characters however baffles me, he\u2019s a tweener right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay White again proved himself against\nthe Rainmaker, Okada unarguably one of the best seems a couple steps behind\nright now. Booking or not, it seems the big loss to Omega last June hurt the\noverall aura of Okada. The main event was not one of Kenny Omega\u2019s best matches\nbut his performance was, he took the load in this match and took the loss. This\nwas the fairytale ending for Tanahashi, it is after all his 20th career anniversary\nand it was only fitting, but I wonder what a Tanahashi does for a progressive\ncompany like New Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first Indy show is the year is next\nSaturday with Pro Wrestling Chaos. The main event is Champion Dick Riley\ndefending against Big Grizz in a 3 Stages of Hell match. Chaos were hurt by the\nloss of some talent to WWE contrasts, but they have rebounded remarkably well.\nThe show also features the Chaos debut of Robbie X, one of the most underrated\nperformers on the UK scene, my preview of the event drops this Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m intending to get to more shows and\nmore promotions than ever in 2019, with four shows booked already for the next\nmonth I intend to be very busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

@twf87 This week was dominated by wrestling in Tokyo, which for me took the form of watching Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling\u2019s Korakuen Hall show and Wrestle Kingdom, both on January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-editorials","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-2PF","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/build-a-wrestling-ring.jpg?fit=600%2C324&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10892,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10891\/revisions\/10892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}