{"id":11063,"date":"2019-01-27T14:44:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T19:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=11063"},"modified":"2019-01-27T14:44:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T19:44:36","slug":"my-week-in-wrestling-week-ending-27th-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/27\/my-week-in-wrestling-week-ending-27th-january\/","title":{"rendered":"My Week in Wrestling (week ending 27th January)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

A major piece of news this week has been the New Japan shows\nin the USA – three New Beginning shows were announced for LA, South Carolina,\nand Tennessee, but with a week to go no cards had been announced. This lasted\nuntil Thursday, when the cards were revealed, and the immediate talking point\nwas the lack of Japanese wrestlers on the cards. Indeed, Great O-Karn, aka\nTomoyuki Oka, was the only Japanese wrestler announced for the shows. The\nonline backlash was immediate, which New Japan responded to with a statement\nsaying that they hadn\u2019t been able to obtain visas for Japanese talent due to\nthe US government shutdown. They didn\u2019t reveal who would have been on the shows\nif they had been able to get a visa, but suffice to say that some of Tomohiroo\nIshii, Yuji Nagata, Roppongi 3K, or other talent that haven\u2019t been booked for\nthe Japanese New Beginning cards would probably have been sent over. As it\nstands, the cards are more like ROH shows than NJPW shows, although they do\nfeature a number of LA Dojo talent. I\u2019m not going to any of the shows, so I\ndon\u2019t have a vested interest in the cards, but I can understand why people are\nupset. On the other hand, buying tickets for a show before the card is\nannounced is always a risk. I imagine this will make people a lot less willing\nto buy NJPW tickets blind, which honestly might be good if it makes the office\nrethink their expansion strategy. The MSG show is already sold out, so that\u2019s a\nchance for NJPW to rebuild some of the good will that they lost this time round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of actual wrestling watched this week, I mostly did\nsome catching up on shows that I hadn\u2019t seen. Shotaro Ashino vs T-Hawk from the\nWrestle-1 show on January 5th was an excellent match – I very rarely watch\nWrestle-1, but go out of your way to find this match if you like hard hitting\nJapanese technical wrestling with a ton of heat behind it. Stardom\u2019s January\n14th 8th Anniversary show was a good watch, with a decent undercard and some\nreally good title matches. Utami Hayashishita defeated Viper to win the SWA\ntitle and the Eve International title, which proved to be quite controversial\nonline, while Momo Watanabe defeated Tam Nakano to retain her Wonder of Stardom\ntitle, and Kagetsu defeated Jungle Kyona to keep the World of Stardom title. The\nMomo-Tam match and the Kagetsu-Kyona match were particularly good, and the\nending of the World title match led into Kagetsu challenging her fellow\nOedo-Tai stablemate Hazuki to a title match in Osaka (which hadn\u2019t taken place\nat the time of writing). I fully expect that match to potentially be the best\nStardom match of 2019 so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This week I watched NXT UK. Pete Dunne came face to face\nwith Walter and next week, we look forward to his in-ring debut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m curious to see what the ‘Worlds Collide’ tournament will\nlook like at Royal Rumble axxess. Superstars from NXT, NXT UK and 205 Live will\nbe competing and that’s as much as I know. If anyone on the ground in Phoenix\ncan send us some pictures, that would be amazing. This time of year makes me so\nnostalgic and I watched last years Mens Rumble. I miss Philly, I miss my 113\ncrew and I love how much my news feed is full of wonderful memories from our\ntime there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s fab to look back at previous Rumble matches and the\ntwists and turns that come with them. Check out the Top 10 Rumble returns on\nYou Tube and relive those moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I haven’t got loads to say about this weekend, I’d\nencourage those reading to go back and read our Rumble Predictions article that\nwas published earlier this week. I keep changing my mind on how this event is\ngoing to pan out but one thing I do know, is that I love this time of year as a\nfan of WWE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

My week in wrestling started with RAW as always. It was a\npretty good episode. Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre was excellent and Balor looked\nstrong despite receiving a F5 at the hands of Brock Lesnar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up, Smackdown Live. An average episode really but\nMysterio and Andrade put up a brilliant match and created numerous gif-able\nmoments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

205 Live was brilliant with an excellent main event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final show I watched before Royal Rumble weekend was\nNXT. Velveteen Dream returned to take on Bobby Fish and DIY were left standing\nover Aleister Black & Ricochet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, my week ended with an as always, brilliant NXT\nTakeOver. Everyone put on a terrific show especially Undisputed Era and War\nRaiders with my personal favourite match of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This was another interesting week for the sport of\nprofessional wrestling, with the build up toward TakeOver and Royal Rumble\nthere was movement on all shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last night I stayed up for NXT TakeOver, and as expected\nnearly all the matches delivered, the only disappointment was Shayna Baszler\nand Bianca BelAir. There were some choice comments on the pre-show surrounding\nBianca\u2019s TakeOver debut, and it was Sam Roberts who completely tore her down\nand said she wasn\u2019t worthy of appearing on TakeOver. It\u2019s difficult to know if\nRoberts comments were scripted for him, maybe WWE wanted some realism added to\nproceedings. It is the first time I\u2019ve seen on screen non wrestling personality\ncompletely put down a performer, was very strange indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Match of the night honours go to Johnny Gargano and\nRicochet, who together produced wrestling art. Now Ricochet was good, however\nit was Gargano who once more solidified his status as one of the best wrestler\nworking today, he was excellent here, every move and moment was timed to\nperfection, he out wrestled Ricochet and took the victory. We\u2019ve seen and heard\nthe praise for Kenny Omega, AJ Styles, Okada, Bryan and Seth Rollins who have\nbeen touted as the best wrestlers, but one has to stop and accept Johnny\nGargano\u2019s natural ability to have the best match time after time. \u2018Johnny\nWrestling\u2019 is without a doubt, one of the best wrestlers in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I attend Revolution Pro\u2019s debut in Bristol, as good as\nthe card was it was absolutely freezing, Aussie Open we\u2019re the highlight of the\nshow and worth admission. The venue, Motion @ Bristol was very unique, shame it\nwas like a freezer! Hopefully that teething issues can get sorted, and they can\nreturn on a warmer day lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next weekend I make the trip to Coventry to watch Kamikaze\nPro, thankfully this is a warmer venue and as always it will deliver. Kamikaze\nhave been improving that quality of their product year on year, once again they\nhave another stacked card full of international and homegrown talent. I urge\neveryone fan to check out the promotion live or on demand, easily one of the\nbest Indy companies in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The main thing for me this week was my trip up into London\nto watch wXw Road to 16 Carat Gold. It was my first time at the Dome and I\nliked it as a venue. It is small, but pretty easy to get around in as the show\nwasn\u2019t completely sold out. That, and I never had to queue too long for a beer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shigehiro Irie and Mark Davis qualified for the 16 Carat Gold\nTournament, who are the two I tipped before the show. Irie adds the Dream Match\nelement, whilst Davis is a legitimate danger for knocking out a big guy even if\nhe doesn\u2019t make his way through to the finals. I managed to get hit with a\nDunkzille high five and it really hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best match for me was the wild five way between Timothy\nThatcher, Ilja Dragunov, Chris Brookes, Lucky Kid and Bobby Gunns. It was\nabsolutely crazy with a bunch of guys who had had stellar 2018s and were\nlooking to build on that. I was firmly behind Gunns for victory so was happy\nwhen he managed to earn the submission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth mentioning that Thatcher is a man who could\neasily haunt my nightmares \u2013 really scary in real life and pretty much jacked\nto the gills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main event between David Starr and Absolute Andy could\nhave been an issue due to it being fairly clear that Andy would probably win.\nHowever, there were some unbelievably close counts that had even myself biting\non the finish. Gunns came out at the end of the show to seemingly make a\nchallenge for Andy\u2019s title, and I genuinely see Gunns being the guy with the\nbelt by the end of the 16 Carat Gold weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

@twf87 A major piece of news this week has been the New Japan shows in the USA – three New Beginning shows were announced for LA, South Carolina, and Tennessee, […]<\/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-11063","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-2Sr","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\/11063","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=11063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11064,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11063\/revisions\/11064"}],"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=11063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}