Wrestling Chatter

Hi guys, For me, New Japan Pro Wrestling has to be one, if not, the best company in the world for giving us amazing wrestling content. With the introduction of their streaming site NJPW World, more worldwide shows and English commentary (from the AMAZING Kevin Kelly) on most of their shows, it’s becoming a massive rival for other massive companies. But, when I started watching it a while back, the whole format was really confusing because it was so different from what I was used too. So, in the lead up to Wrestle Kingdom (which is the biggest show/s of the NJ calendar year), here’s a beginner’s guide to New Japan Pro Wrestling (Shin Nihon Puroresu) for anyone who wants to watch NJPW but has no idea where to start. History New Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in 1972 by wrestling legend Antonio Inoki after he left the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance promotion. Inoki put himself as the star of the company and drew on the experiences of foreign wrestlers (Gaijin’s) like the Bri...

Hi guys, Welcome to another preview post from Wrestling Chatter aka Sonal aka yours truly... When EVIL betrayed Los Ingobernables de Japon and decided to join Bullet Club, a big question being thrown around was what was going to happen to the NEVER 6-man titles. EVIL said he didn't care about defending them and even Shingo Takagi had no idea. Earlier this week, New Japan announced an 8-team tournament for the NEVER 6-Man Openweight Tag Championship to deal with that! The tournament will take place at Korakuen Hall over three days and here is my preview of the first round matches and my predictions!  6th August Okada/ Yano/ SHO (CHAOS) v Yujiro/ Gedo/ Jado What I like about this first-round matchup is that there is some storyline consistency. After Okada and Yujiro's single match at Sengoku Lord, the Tokyo Pimp has made it clear that their feud is far from over and this is a nice continuation. There is also the fact that Jado and Gedo were OG Chaos members before they betrayed t...

Hi guys, Sorry for being so quiet recently, it's been a crazy few weeks and sometimes a girl needs a bit of a break to watch a lot of wrestling without writing about it. However, I'm back with another New Japan tour review and, after the huge Osaka-Jo Hall New Beginning in Osaka tour, I thought it was a great way to end an amazing tour. This tour ran alongside the US part of the tour, but it was these shows broadcasted on New Japan World. Going into the 'Road to' shows, we had some amazing matches. Obviously, going into the tour, we were aware of a few of the big matches to look forward to at the end of the tour including Jay White v SANADA, Jon Moxley v Minoru Suzuki for the US title, Roppongi 3k v El Desperado and Kanemaru for the Jr tag titles, Hiromu Takahashi v Ryu Lee for the IWGP Jr title and last but not least Naito v Kenta for the IWGP Heavyweight and IC title. These matches gave us some crazy teams from Jon Moxley teaming with the likes of Roppongi ...

Hi guys, Last time I left you, I was a bit too excited about everything that happened at Wrestle Kingdom 14. I took a few weeks to compose myself and luckily I didn't have to wait too long for my New Japan fix with as the yearly CMLL shows Fantastica Mania came around. For a lot of people, they see it as a filler tour or something that they don't really bother watching. I agree in the fact that it normally has no impact on any upcoming storylines. However, I always tell people to watch it.  Out of all the tours in New Japan, this is the most fun and colourful bringing everything special about CMLL to Japan from the wrestlers, bright colours and the horns. It's not only a chance to see your favourite New Japan wrestlers let their hair down a bit, but also see what CMLL has to offer with their wrestlers who are so diverse! Unfortunately, it all came to an end on Monday but, if you didn't get a chance to watch it, here are five reasons why this year's F...

Hi guys, This weekend has been huge because it was the biggest weekend in the New Japan calendar: Wrestle Kingdom 14! This year was even bigger and better because it spanned over 2 amazing nights meaning even more amazing matches and chances for the wrestlers to shine, not to mention Jyushin Thunder Liger's retirement matches. So, after watching a cumulative 14 hours of wrestling over three days and not sleeping, here are my top 5 matches from the weekend. With even more matches to choose from, it seemed near impossible to pick so here's a round of applause for me for actually doing it! Tetsuya Naito v Kazuchika Okada - Night 2 With all that was on the line with this match, is it any surprise that it was so amazing and quite possibly the match of the entire weekend! It was THE match everyone had been waiting for and it was the match that was going to make history by crowning the first ever IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental champion. In traditional Red Shoes...