Wrestling Chatter

Hi guys, So I first wrote this post almost 5 months ago and because of a certain worldwide pandemic, I couldn't really do anything with it after New Japan cancelled all of their events.  However, I'm over the moon after NJPW announced that they were going to start putting on shows again and returning with the New Japan Cup next week. What's even more exciting is that they've changed it up a bit and sort of combined the New Japan Cup with the BOSJ giving us a mix of matches between Jrs and Heavyweights. Normally, you might see the odd Jr, but this is a distinct split between the divisions. Because of the times we're in, the brackets also have a distinct lack of Gaijins due to travel restrictions but the bracket is still amazing and all I've had to do is make some adjustments to matches.   So, with all that said and done, here' s a look at the New Japan Cup first-round matches. Like last year, because the field is so huge, I'm going to look at ...

Hi guys, Around a month ago, I had a look at the teams announced for the Power Struggle Super Jr Tag League. This tour all came to an end on Sunday in Osaka and, even though for some reason the tag final was not the main or semi or even semi semi main event of the final date, the entire tour was a great showcase of the calibre of Jr talent not only within NJPW but also CMLL.  So, here are my top 5 matches in the Power Struggle Jr Tag League, but in no specific order because they were all so amazing - Enjoy! Roppongi 3k v Mega Coaches When the line up for the Super Jr Tag League was announced, this was the match that I was most looking forward too in so many ways. With Sho and Yoh going up against their mentor Rocky Romero and fellow coach Taguchi, there was a lot of conflicted fans watching (including myself). From the very start, you knew it was going to be a great match because everyone was already laughing after Sho and Yoh spotted a stain on Taguchi's pants. Howe...

Hi guys, Another month, another New Japan tournament which is always exciting. This time, we've got Power Struggle aka the Jr Tag League which is my favourite of the two tag league's because #JrPride. Over the past few months, we've seen the Jr tag division thin out slightly, but that doesn't stop the talent from being out of this world. As always, the league is bringing together some of the best Jr tag teams from NJPW, ROH and CMLL. As always, I'm here with a preview of the upcoming tour and specifically looking at all the teams involved this year. TJP and Clark Connors After teasing his appearance for the Jr tag league, it's nice to see TJP back in NJPW and the Jr heavyweight division. I know there's always grumblings, but TJP is home. For any of you who don't know, he was part of the original LA Dojo under Inoki with the likes of Rocky Romero and Bryan Danielson. You're putting the old with the new as he teams with LA Dojo Captain Cla...

Hi guys, With the largest Best of Super Jr line up ever on the cards and all of the events being broadcast live and with English subtitles, May is going to be a damn good month of wrestling. Obviously, as the line up is so big, I'm going to split this preview into two and this post will focus on the participants in Block A! Dragon Lee As the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion, Dragon Lee has probably the biggest target on his back. Even though everyone is gunning to pick up as many wins as possible, the main win they will all want is against Lee because it guarantees a title shot in the future. However, Lee stands in good stead against his competitors because of his perfect combination of speed and agility in the ring. Even though he's one of the youngest competitors in the field, with the title around his waste, he's already one step above all his opponents. Within this block alone, I am looking forward to another match between him and Taiji Ishmori and his fellow CMLL w...

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, It's been about two months since I first started watching New Japan Pro Wrestling and I can most definitely say that I'm hooked (I mean I'm even going to see them when they come to the UK in July). So, the Best of Super Junior 25 has been the first NJPW tournament that I have been able to watch pretty much live (or a few hours later because of time differences) and I've been surprised at how invested I stayed from the start to the end.  There were a lot of superstars that I already knew pretty well before the tournament like Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, Flip Gordon, Takahashi, Kushida and Taiji Ishimori. There were some I knew by name like Sho and Yoh and some I had no idea about like Chris Sabin, ACH, Taguchi and the rest of the participants. But, as well as putting hell-a-good matches, the tournament had some great storylines and kept me invested even in the house shows that were shown on NJPW World and some of the tag matches before the proper tour...