Wrestling Chatter

Hi guys, If I thought that the world was going to shit and the fact that I've been an anxious mess, trust New Japan to make me feel slightly better about myself. Last week, NJPW announced the line-up for their G1 Climax 30 and it was something that just put a massive smile on my face. I was worried about what ti would look like because nobody knew about who was going to be allowed into Japan and restrictions on travel. Luckily, everything seems to be slightly back to normal and there are some huge names across the board. I've also done a quick video overview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx_SFxoBZYM&t=52s  so make sure to give that a watch too! So, here is a look at the participants in this years A Block!  Kota Ibushi After failing to capitalise on his G1 victory last year, you can bet that the Golden Star is going to try and go for two consecutive wins. I mean if anyone can do it, why shouldn't it be Kota Ibushi? It's been an odd year for Ibushi from his loss a...

Hi guys, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I can't believe it's already 2020 and 2019 seems like a distant memory... But, what a 2019 it has been? Never mind what a year it's been in professional wrestling. It seems as if I've been spending more of this year watching wrestling and writing about it than anything else. Because of this, it almost seems impossible for me to write about a year in wrestling because I wouldn't even know where to start. Even if I just looked at one promotion, for example my fave New Japan, there could be a post per month which is crazy. So, I thought that the best thing to do would be to look at all the promotions I watch and pick my MVP wrestlers of the year. I'm taking on board a lot of different things when making these choices including level of improvement, how much I've enjoyed watching them and obviously how well they've done in matches this year. However, I've given myself a near impossible task by only picking 5 and I ca...

Hi guys, For this week's post, I'm moving away from my usual wrestling posts with something I used to do on my music blog: an album review. But I'm not completely mad because there's a link to wrestling, I promise.  I've tweeted a lot about how much I love NJPW's Rocky Romero. He's got the charisma, talent and is both an amazing wrestler and commentator. However, he's also an amazing musician and has released a lot of EPs over the past few years and has today released his newest album perfectly named 'Sneaky Style.' With 11 tracks, I thought I'd have a look at the songs and maybe give you some reasons to go out and buy/ stream it! In the usual Rocky Romero style, the album starts of with the intro track Sneaky Style featuring the one and only Kevin Kelly. Its the perfect way to start the album with a nice slow and steady tempo with a nice mix of singing and rapping: 'I'm the King of Roppongi and the King of Sneaky Sty...

Hi guys, I'm back with another of my Wrestling Gem series and this time I'm looking at a promotion close to my heart in so many ways. A few months ago, I wrote an article about the truth behind the women's revolution in wrestling and I spoke to Emily and Dann Read from Pro Wrestling: EVE about it and they were so truthful about it. However, even though the article touched upon the revolution as a whole, I don't think it does justice to Pro Wrestling: EVE in general.  Pro Wrestling: EVE is a British independent women's wrestling promotion mainly based in The Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green and really, for me and so many others, a pioneer in not just British wrestling but women's wrestling as a whole. Founded by Emily and Dann Read, they created this company at a time where women's wrestling wasn't at the forefront of many people's minds, never mind the companies themselves. It was still fillers for many people and women weren't be...

Hi guys, Hasn't the world of professional wrestling been crazy over the last few days. A few months ago, I wrote an article about the resurgence of British wrestling ( http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/040778118-analysis-resurgence-british-wrestling ) but nowadays it seems as if I can't wake up without seeing a 'British wrestling is dead' tweet somewhere - crazy right? It's all stemmed from some rumours centring WWE UK and the sudden closure of Defiant Wrestling. In my opinion, the only thing that's dead is Tuesday Night Graps but that's being sorted now so it's fine with SCHADENFREUDE. I've voiced my concerns when the promotion started in terms of what it could do to the independent scene and we saw from the word go that WWE started monopolising on the industry in a pretty devious and toxic way. We've had so many wrestlers from BSS, Grizzled Young Vets, Viper and Kay Lee Ray being signed to exclusive contracts, Jim Smallman ...

Hi guys, In the crazy world of wrestling companies, there's always going to be a massive roster full of so many talented stars and nothing is more true for the likes of New Japan Pro Wrestling. With a roster full of such amazing wrestlers and hardly (if any) weak links within the company, it's unfortunately inevitable that wrestlers are either going to blend into the background, no matter how talented they are, or they're going to get overshadowed by other wrestlers. So, for this post, I'm going to look specifically at NJPW but there are so many promotions with underrated wrestlers that this could just be the start! 1. Rysuke Taguchi The leader of Taguchi Japan and the funky weapon himself, I don't think that anyone can say that Taguchi isn't crazy popular (with me particularly), however I don't think that people appreciate how amazing of an in-ring talent Taguchi is rather than just a bit of fun in the ring. Taguchi is probably one of the most accomp...

Hi guys, One part of the New Japan shows that I've really been loving since I started watching are the Young Lion matches we see on the tours and the whole concept of young lions in general. I've seen a lot of amazing guides to the Young Lion system and I won't be trying to copy it but I'm going to focus on the current young lions. Obviously I'll give you all a bit of a short introduction including a brief summary of young lions including alumni and their role in NJPW. However, most of the post is going to be me looking at the current Young Lions based in Japan which means that I'm not counting Hirai Kawato and Tomoyuki Oka who are both on excursion at the moment in Mexico! I am going to look at Teruaki Kanemitsu, Shota Umino, Ren Narita, Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura and Ayato Yoshida. The NJPW Dojo has been said to be one of the toughest experiences wrestlers have gone through, but I've not heard of anyone who hasn't come out the other side as ...

Hi guys, I've been watching wrestling for around 3 and a half years but it wasn't until the Cruiserweight Classic where I started to become more aware about different divisions in different companies. For wrestlers under a specific weight limit, Cruiserweights is the term used by most companies for wrestlers but in Japan they're known as Junior heavyweights. Each company also has a different weight classification but that doesn't mean you're restricted to being a Jr/ Cruiserweight if you're under this limit as seen by Kota Ibushi, Young Bucks, Finn Balor etc - you just can't be part of the division if you're over. So, if that's the basics then why am I writing this post? It all links to something Marty Scurll said in the Best of Super Junior Conference in May (cast your little minds back): "I'm dedicated to making this junior division the best in the world. I hate the idea that this Jr division is less than and the fact that peo...

Hi guys, It feels like it's only been a few days since I last wrote about Kenny and Kushida leaving NJPW (because it literally was a few days ago) and, as I promised, here's a look at the new wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) including who's been announced to be on the roster and what AEW is doing for the wrestling business! It's been a massive announcement for all of wrestling and even though it's bittersweet because we won't be seeing the guys on NJPW or ROH, I'm so excited to see what the future holds for a company created by amazing wrestlers. Signings The Elite (The Young Bucks, Cody, Brandi and Hangman Page) I mean it's probably a bit obvious but I'm putting them in the list anyway because they had an official contract signing and everything on Being the Elite! It was always obvious that The Bucks and Cody would sign but I was a bit surprised about Adam Page and it's also a bit of a shame because I was loving...