Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[MightyHealthy]

Saki better pray she's not in the ring at the same time as MiSu


ps: Brookes probably the only gaijin that took advantage of the pandemic. Dude went from a deathmatch nobody in Big Japan to getting bookings in a whole bunch of promotions and being champion.

Brookes saw the writing on the wall for the UK scene, REALLY put work in Japan, and parlayed that in a support role...as a wrestler, commentator, and promoter...and as a face, heel, and in comedy matches.

Hell of a year for ANY wrestler.

Honorable mention to Jeff Cobb, who unquestionably redeemed himself this G1, and primed himself as an enforcer that can and will eclipse his captain.

 

[The Rainmaker]

Okada: the early years

Paying his dues at some shythole arena in Mexico, in front of 6 paying fans, a quinceañera party and probably a donkey.

 

[PlayerNinety_Nine]

Okada: the early years

Paying his dues at some shythole arena in Mexico, in front of 6 paying fans, a quinceañera party and probably a donkey.

Considering who he is now, Okada wrestling with a microwave and a 2/3 empty bottle of hot sauce in his line of sight is

 

[The Rainmaker]

Speaking of wrestling in empty places, a Misawa story from Drew McIntyre's book. His crew was larger than the audience.

 

[Monsanto]

Flipping through the Japanese channels and caught the tag match of Yoshi-Toshi and Hirooki Goto vs Evil and Yujiro.



Full of hijinks and quite good. Haven't watched a full wrestling match in over a decade, going to see if I can watch more.

 

[The Rainmaker]

 

[PlayerNinety_Nine]

The wait is over, the real is back

Danielson going to AEW was a sign to the nine realms that we are ready for a higher form of war

 

[The Rainmaker]

This Hiromu/YOH match had more reversals and false finishes than a Okada epic.

Good to see YOH isn't going to be the Janetty of Roppongi3K after all.

 

[THE 101]

Here are the full cards for the first two nights of Wrestle Kingdom 16:

January 4:

• IWGP World Heavyweight title: Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight title: El Desperado vs.Hiromu Takahashi
• IWGP Tag Team titles: Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi) vs. CHAOS (Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI)
• NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii vs. EVIL
• Katsuyori Shibata vs. X
• Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, and BUSHI vs. Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan, and Will Ospreay
• Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi, and Rocky Romero vs. KENTA, Taiji Ishimori, and El Phantasmo
• YOH vs. SHO
• Kickoff: New Japan Ranbo battle royal. The top four finalists will move to a four-way the next night to determine the KOPW 2022 trophy winner.

January 5:

• IWGP World Heavyweight title: Either Shingo Takagi or Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay
• IWGP United States title: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA
• Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb
• SANADA vs. Great-O-Khan
• NEVER Openweight Six-Man tag titles: Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, and YOH vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, and SHO
• Four-way match for the KOPW 2022 trophy
• Stardom match: Mayu Iwatani and Starlight Kid vs. Tam Nakano and Saya Kamitani
• IWGP Junior Tag Team titles: Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask vs. Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi and Rocky Romero
• A kickoff match will be announced at 4 pm local time.

Man these cards are kinda struggle

The main events should be lit and ShiGOATa return is major but the rest of these matches

No White-o or Suzuki

Ibushi still out

From strong style to struggle style

 

[MenacingMonk]

A lot of those matches coulda just made a solid 1 day card. Why are they still doing 2 days?

 

[Jmare007]

Depend on foreigners after 2 years of a pandemic and book only 1 show with another promotion from your own country, brehs.


Could Shibata wrestle Sakuraba? MiSu? Can Jay White return?

 

[The Rainmaker]

White free WK Hope he goes to WWE and that way I won't have to watch him ever again.

Are they going to include the Stardom match in the main card this year?

 

[Bryan Danielson]

Let’s push for Shibata vs @Bryan Danielson

Let’s go out into the social aether and make it happen brehs

 

[krackdagawd]

Ibushi broken, Omega broken what have I done to the playfighting gods to forsake me

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

Ibushi broken, Omega broken what have I done to the playfighting gods to forsake me

We failed Inoki breh. The price to pay for our bloodlust of Strong Style.