Wrestling Chatter

Hi guys, I think I've already made it clear how excited I am for this year's Best of Super Jr tournament. However, in the midst of my excitement, I forgot all about the fact that it was a combined tour with World Tag League, probably because we didn't hear any announcements about the line-up - until now! Just like the BoSJ, this tournament is going to in a single block format and is full of some of your favourite tag teams in Japan. Without further ado, here is my preview of the 2020 World Tag League! FinJuice (Juice Robinson and David Finlay) Will New Japan fans be treated to another round of Happy Beers from last year's World Tag League winners? Well, I'm just happy to see them both teaming together again in Japan. David Finlay and Juice Robinson are the epitome of what a babyface is and just radiate this positive energy despite all the obstacles in front of them. Since they started teaming together, they've both had a career rejuvenation with their best frien...

Hi guys, So, I'm back from London after the NJPW Royal Quest show and what a weekend it was. If you follow me on my social media (and why wouldn't you?) then you'll probably have seen what a whirlwind I had. Because the show hasn't aired yet, I won't review the show as a whole but just tell you my highlights and the atmosphere. Also, because of everything that happened, I'm going to divide the post between the two days - just a note, this will be more of an experience post but please enjoy and of course, I will write about the show just not in so much detail! Friday 30th August Arriving in London, I was just excited to get out of Manchester and enjoy a weekend about me to forget my worries. It was amazing being back in Stratford where I spent most of my uni days and it felt like coming home in a way. Anyway, checking into the hotel, I was taken off guard when I walked into the foyer and saw Rocky Romero and Robbie Eagles sat in the foyer. I was s...

Hi guys, About 6 months ago, I delved into the NJPW Faction system and basically ranked them all in order of my personal feelings toward them but things change. Looking back at that post ( https://wrestling-chatter.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-japan-factions-rated.html ), I put Bullet Club at number 3 and maybe I was being a bit too generous because the faction was basically falling apart which all culminated in a split within the faction which I wasn't a fan of. Fast forward to February 2019 and the BC OG's are the sole Bullet Club faction with the Jay White, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale, Taiji Ishmori, Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Jado, Gedo and Robbie Eagles. The Bullet Club have now moved straight to the top of my favourite factions and I thought I'd look at the past few months and how they've gone from being hierarchical faction with the 'main cast' to the most dominant faction again! This is especially relevant after the New Beginning Osak...

Hi guys, We've finally come to the end of The New Beginning Tour where we ended the crazy tour in Osaka with a special singles match and two huge title matches for both the IWGP Jr Heavyweight and IWGP Heavyweight title. If anyone missed my last post reviewing the Sapporo leg of the tour, you can see it here  https://wrestling-chatter.blogspot.com/2019/02/njpw-new-beginning-sapporo-review.html . The second leg of the New Beginning Tour paved the way for The New Beginning in Osaka on 11th February which included Taguchi challenging Taiji Ishimori for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight title (which was made even more exciting after Taguchi submitted Ishimori to win the NEVER openweight 6-man tag belts) and Jay White challenging Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight belt (which I booked the day off specifically for). In this leg of the tour, there was only one show that was streamed on the Road to Osaka but it was a show with a jam packed card from start to end. Show one on Satur...

Hi guys, So it's been more than a month since Wrestle Kingdom and time has seemed to fly by with Fantastica Mania and now the New Beginning's tour (obviously with the Road to shows as well). There's been a lot of matches on this tour that have been being built up since New Year's Dash and my mouth was watering just thinking about them like Taiji Ishimori v Taguchi for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight title and of course Switcblade Jay White challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight title against the champ Hiroshi Tanahashi. But, because the tour's been so big and so many things have happened, I'm going to have a look solely at the New Beginning Sapporo leg of the tour and then look at the Osaka leg in the next post. So, I hope you enjoy my look at The New Beginning tour from the 'Road To' tour to the main shows in Sapporo. The New Beginning (Sapporo) The Road to New Beginnings Tour, which led up to The New Beginning in Sapporo on the 2nd and 3rd of February...

Hi guys, It's been a crazy few weeks of this years NJPW G1 Climax and it's been so exciting for me because it's the first time watching this tournament when it happens! So, in the lead up to the final two block days and the final on the 12 Aug at Budokan Hall, here's my review of the last few weeks, including some of the highlights, the storytelling and what I expect from the last few days of matches! Even though I'll probably do another post with my top 5 matches of the ENTIRE G1, this tournament really has had some amazing matches in the first few weeks! We've had the pure beauty of matches like Okada v Naito, Ibushi v Ishii, Ishii v Kenny and Jay White v Tanahashi, which were all just pure brutal wrestling that made me want to hide behind my pillow. There's been matches that have surprised me at how invested I got into them like Sanada v Ibushi and Ibushi v Juice Robinson. I don't think there's been one match where I've been bored o...

Hi guys, Coming off the hype I had last Sunday after the NJPW/ Rev Pro Strong Style Evolved Show, we had the G1 Special on Saturday (or Sunday for me). The card was announced before the show and it was stacked from the first to last match, from the title to non-title match - I mean they spoil us every single time! I mean it was probably one of the best wrestling shows I've ever watched from the start to the beginning, I mean there were some AMAZING matches but none of them disappointed me - the standard was just so high. From the get go, even the matches that didn't have a title on the line were amazing and I didn't have one match that I wasn't on the edge of my seat for. Starting with a 10 man tag between Chaos and Bullet Club was amazing because, even though the match was short, it did everything it needed to and showed off the guys to the best of their ability. We saw the athleticism of Roppongi 3k, the talent of the Tongans (still bitter and those of you w...