Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[Goodnews]

Any recommendations on what japanese organizations/wrestlers to watch now?
Im just getting back into watching wrestling after a long hiatus.
Was a angle/rock/jericho/benoit stan as a kid

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Any recommendations on what japanese organizations/wrestlers to watch now?
Im just getting back into watching wrestling after a long hiatus.
Was a angle/rock/jericho/benoit stan as a kid

New Japan by a mile. The other organizations are in terrible shape right now.

 

[Jmare007]

5 years yesterday

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

Few Observer notes:

The fallout from the story last week is that, as expected, Nobuo Shiraishi is out of pro wrestling. It’s being publicly portrayed that the wrestlers has all decided against renewing their deals, which all ended on 6/30. They’ve formed a new company called All Japan Pro Wrestling and Motoko Baba, who handled much of the business of the original All Japan (1972-2002), her husband’s company, publicly gave her blessing to this new incarnation. Jun Akiyama, the company’s biggest public star, will be the face of the company as president, although Masa Fuchi and Kyohei Wada (famous referee) are going to be running the business end. They will run their schedule this month as planned and then start the new promotion on 7/12 in Osaka, with the first major show set for 8/30 in Nagoya. All of the wrestlers currently under contract will move to the new promotion, along with bringing back Tamon Honda, Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue and Kentaro Shiga as freelancers.

To show how bad things are, the 6/15 show at Korakuen Hall with the Akiyama vs. Takao Omori match for the vacant Triple Crown title has only sold 400 tickets.

Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr. defending the GHC jr. tag titles against Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Kotoge has been added to the major show on 7/5 at the Ariake Colosseum outside of Tokyo.

The advance for the 7/5 show is not doing well, which doesn’t surprise me, as with no great hook, NOAH doesn’t have anything to run a 12,000-seat arena.

Taichi was suspended for two months as well as fined 30 percent of his salary for two months upon his return for risque photos and texts regarding a relationship with a woman other than his wife hitting the Internet. He’ll only be missing the next tour because the August tour is G-1 and he wouldn’t have been in G-1 to begin with.

A fifth iPPV show over a 30 day period, Kizuna Road, was announced for 6/29.

Daichi Hashimoto, 21, has signed with the IGF and will debut on the 7/13 show in Fukuoka against Kazuyuki Fujita. Hashimoto is the son of Shinya Hashimoto, and talked about how his father idolized Antonio Inoki as part of the reason for his decision. The significance of the match is that Fujita was originally the protégé of Hashimoto. Since IGF only runs a few shows a year, he’d be available to work for other groups. When Hashimoto started, there were people who felt that he could be the future of pro wrestling because he had something really likeable about him. For that reason, a lot of people had hoped he would join New Japan, and fans in social media were destroying him for the decision to go to IGF.

Kenta Kobashi ran the first show of his new Fortune Dream promotion on 6/8 at Korakuen Hall, drawing a nearly packed house of 1,500 fans. The idea of the promotion is to use veterans from different promotions to showcase younger talent that a lot of mainstream fans may not have seen because they work smaller promotions. He used wrestlers from Real Japan Pro Wrestling, Sendai girls, S-Ovation, K-Dojo, Union, Wrestling New Classic, Toryumon, All Japan, Big Japan, Zero-One and Michinoku Pro Wrestling. There was also an in-ring interview with Kobashi and Riki Choshu both answering fan questions. The main event had Kohei Sato (Zero-One) & Yuji Hino (K-Dojo) go first to a 30:00 draw with Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan) & Kento Miyahara (All Japan). Fans asked for five more minutes, which they did, still without a finish. Kobashi didn’t announce a date of a return show.

Jun Akiyama of All Japan had been holding the DDT promotion’s Iron Man title, which would be like the old WWE comedy hardcore title. He’s won it and lost it, but they seemingly got it off him for good on the 5/29 show in Tokyo when he lost to Akihiro via pin after being distracted by being kissed on the lips by Danshoku Dino

Noah trying to run a 12000 seat arena The AJPW fukkery 400 fans for a triple crown match

 

[FRIED MASON]

Noah and AJPW

 

[JohnB]

AJPW still has a solid roster even with the mutoh split so ill think it'll get better just with new management/booker obviously but noah is dead smh

 

[StarClout]

I been wanting to get back into Japanese wrestling after being away from it since like 07-08

I've read in here that New Japan is the promotion to watch as the other promotions are in bad shape.

Due to being away for so long do I need to catch up heavily with videos or can I simply jump in and get caught up to speed with assistance from the brehs in here?

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced both blocks for the upcoming G1 Climax tournament, which kicks off next month. The tournament is a series of matches that take place over 12 shows beginning July 21, with the #1 wrestler from each block facing off at the Seibu Dome event on August 10th. There will also be a special singles match between the #2 wrestlers from each block.

Also announced for the finals show are five Ring of Honor stars – Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish, Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis.

Jeff Jarrett will also be at the show. It was recently announced that his promotion, Global Force Wrestling, had signed an agreement with New Japan, and he will likely be there scouting talent.

A BLOCK
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Satoshi Kojima
Yuji Nagata
Kota Ibushi
Katsuyori Shibata
Shinsuke Nakamura
Tomohiro Ishii
Shelton “X” Benjamin
Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Doc Gallows
Bad Luck Fale

B BLOCK
Togi Makabe
Hirooki Goto
Tetsuya Naito
Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Kazuchika Okada
Toru Yano
Minoru Suzuki
Lance Archer
AJ Styles
Yujiro Takahashi
Karl Anderson

If you want to check out the full tournament brackets with each individual match scheduled,check out Puroresu Spirit's blog.

Definitely pumped for O'Reilly and Fish in New Japan. Anyone they go against can be a show stealer.

Who yall got for the Climax? Im going to go with Shibata on this one.

 

[FRIED MASON]

Goto, Shibata or Ishii...

I'll go for Ishii.

 

[Miracle Violence]

Full schedule:

Monday, July 21
Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Shelton X Benjamin vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata (A Block)
Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki (B Block)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahasi (B Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi (A Block)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Katsuyori Shibata (A Block)
AJ Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada (B Block)


Wednesday, July 23
Aomori Prefectural Budokan

Satoshi Kojima vs. Tomohiro Ishii (A Block)
Shelton X Benjamin vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi (B Block)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Lance Archer (B Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Kota Ibushi (A Block)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. (A Block)
Toru Yano vs. AJ Styles (B Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Kazuchika Okada (B Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)


Friday, July 25
Yamagata City General Sports Center

Kota Ibusih vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)
Lance Archer vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yujiro Takahashi (B Block)
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shelton X Benjamin (A Block)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Toru Yano (B Block)
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. (A Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. Minoru Suzuki (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima (A Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Kazuchika Okada (B Block)


Saturday, July 26
Akita Prefectural Gymnasium

Satoshi Kojima vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Shelton X Benjamin vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr (A Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Minoru Suzuki (B Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. Toru Yano (B Block)
Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (A Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Lance Archer (B Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (A Block)
Tetsuya Naito vs. AJ Styles (B Block)
Kazuchika Okada vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata (A Block)


Monday, July 28
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Lance Archer (B Block)
Satoshi Kojima vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. (A Block)
Minoru Suzuki vs. Yujiro Takahashi (B Block)
Toru Yano vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. AJ Styles (B Block)
Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (A Block)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada (B Block)


Thursday, July 31
Shizuoka Act City Hamamatsu

Doc Gallows vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. (A Block)
Satoshi Kojima vs. Katsuyori Shibata (A Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Minoru Suzuki vs. Lance Archer (B Block)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Shelton X Benjamin (A Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. AJ Styles (B Block)
Kazuchika Okada vs. Toru Yano (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (A Block)


Friday, August 1
Korakuen Hall

Satoshi Kojima vs. Shelton X Benjamin (A Block)
Toru Yano vs. Lance Archer (B Block)
Yujiro Takahashi vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hirooki Goto (B Block)
Kota Ibushi vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Tetsuya Naito (B Block)
Minoru Suzuki vs. AJ Styles (B Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Katsuyori Shibata (A Block)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Tomohiro Ishii (A Block)


Sunday, August 3
Bodymaker Colosseum

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr (A Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Toru Yano (B Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Shelton X Benjamin (A Block)
Satoshi Kojima vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito (B Block)
Lance Archer vs. AJ Styles (B Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Minoru Suzuki (B Block)
Kota Ibushi vs. Katsuyori Shibata (A Block)
Kazuchika Okada vs. Yujiro Takahashi (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (A Block)


Monday, August 4
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium

Kota Ibushi vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr (A Block)
Lance Archer vs. Yujiro Takahashi (B Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (A Block)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki (B Block)
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Satoshi Kojima vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (A Block)
AJ Styles vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shelton X Benjamin (A Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. Kazuchika Okada (B Block)


Wednesday, August 6
Takamatsu Gymnasium

Satoshi Kojima vs. Kota Ibushi (A Block)
Davey Boy Smith Jr vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tetsuya Naito (B Block)
Minoru Suzuki vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Togi Makabe vs. Toru Yano (B Block)
AJ Styles vs. Yujiro Takahashi (B Block)
Kazuchika Okada vs. Lance Archer (B Block)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata (A Block)
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata (A Block)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)


Friday, August 8
Yokohama Cultural Gynmasium

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. (A Block)
Yuji Nagata vs. Tomohiro Ishii (A Block)
Kota Ibushi vs. Shelton X Benjamin (A Block)
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Doc Gallows (A Block)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bad Luck Fale (A Block)
Togi Makabe vs. AJ Styles (B Block)
Hirooki Goto vs. Lance Archer (B Block)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Karl Anderson (B Block)
Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki (B Block)
Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi (B Block)


Sunday, August 10
Seibu Dome

#1 A Block vs. #1 B Block
#2 A Block vs. #2 B Block

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

I been wanting to get back into Japanese wrestling after being away from it since like 07-08

I've read in here that New Japan is the promotion to watch as the other promotions are in bad shape.

Due to being away for so long do I need to catch up heavily with videos or can I simply jump in and get caught up to speed with assistance from the brehs in here?

I'd say just jump in, the big shows/matches are in the thread after a couple of days and all the big news, and observer tidbits, are posted too. There's not a lot in the way of angles although NJPW are running with Bullet Club right now which is a group of US wrestlers that have nearly all the belts. It's a good time to get into it with the G1 coming up, that will get covered here.

There should big a couple of lists of must see matches here too, but if you want to check a couple I would say watch Ishii/Shibata 8-4-13, Ishii/Tanahashi 8-2-13 and probably the Tanahashi/Okada matches. In fact any Ishii match from the past couple of years is probably good, they'll be around the thread somewhere. Ishii is a little like Bryan, he was a cult guy who always had great matches and the company had to push him. Just throw up a post if you have any questions about feuds or whatever, someone will help you out, good people up in here

Anyway here's Ibushi/Ricochet from Dominion

 

[23Barrettcity]

Anyone saw that devitt bane entrance too bad he can't do those things in WWE

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Ive been holding this in but, why did they give Bad Luck Fale the IC Title? Obviously Nakamura is going to the Main Event to most likely beat AJ for the title but why not Tama Tonga?

 

[TrueEpic08]

Ive been holding this in but, why did they give Bad Luck Fale the IC Title? Obviously Nakamura is going to the Main Event to most likely beat AJ for the title but why not Tama Tonga?

Because Fale is a huge foreigner and Tama Tonga isn't.

Seriously, when was the last time Tama Tonga actually won a singles match? (Note: I like Tama a hell of a lot more than I like Fale.)

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Because Fale is a huge foreigner and Tama Tonga isn't.

Seriously, when was the last time Tama Tonga actually won a singles match? (Note: I like Tama a hell of a lot more than I like Fale.)

Thats my point though. Tama actually aint bad but I dont get the Fale push. Sure he has height but thats it. The best thing hes done is carry Devitt into the arena.

I think Fale should have teamed with Doc if they really wanted to and give Machine Gun his well earned singles run