This is a Patreon-exclusive full episode. Sign up to the Wrestling Omakase Patreon now for just $5 a month to get access to it, along with:
-Our recently concluded full tournament coverage of the NJPW G1 Climax, AJPW Champion Carnival & NOAH N-1 Victory!
-Our upcoming tournament coverage of the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors & World Tag League and the DDT D-ou!
-Many previous Patreon-exclusive full episodes with Alan4L, Rich Kraetsch, Todd Martin, Chris Samsa, Nate from Everything Elite, Robin Reid from VOW Quiz Night, Garrett Kidney from Wednesday War Games and more!
-Two different series covering two awesome NJPW rivalries: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii! Both have been completed, so follow along in chronological order as we discuss not just each match but also everything else all four guys were up to in New Japan at the time!
-Extra bonus episodes covering matches submitted by Omakase Patrons! Recently we talked an interpromotional match from the early days of WAR in 1992 and an amazing Texas Death match from DDT in 2015!
-Anime Omakase, our series exclusively on the world of anime!
-And much more!
With the G1 finally in the rearview we’re back here on the Omakase Patreon for our first 5 Matches episode in over a month! If you haven’t listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It’s a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!
John is joined by returning guest Mike Spears (@fujiiheya), co-host of VOW’s Dragon Gate podcast Open the Voice Gate and AEW podcast Everything Elite. John and Mike start out discussing their share degeneracy and their joy at Tomoyuki Oka being allowed to keep living his best life, among other topics. Once that’s out of the way we get into our match picks for this episode, and it’s uh, an eclectic bunch:
1. U-T vs. Super Shisa, DG 4/16/19
2. Yokosuka Jumper contra Yokosuka Jumper Elimination Match: Shin M2K (Masaaki Mochizuki, Kenichiro Arai, Dragon Kid, Raimu Mishima & Second Doi) vs. Do FIXER (Magnum TOKYO, Susumu Yokosuka, K-ness, Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito), Toryumon Japan 3/9/03 (DG Net)
3. ACH vs. Lee Moriarty, GCW 10/9/20
4. Taiji Ishimori, Shu Sato & Manabu Murakami vs. SUWA, Mini CIMA, SUWAcito & Small Dandy Fuji, Toryumon X 8/22/03 (DG Net)
5. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Milano Collection AT & Skayde, CHIKARA 2/26/06 (Google Drive)
Topics that come up along the way include (but are very much not limited to, as this was a REAL tangent-heavy show): the history of PRIME ZONE, Super Shisa’s spelling, a complete M2K history lesson, the ballad of Mishima, Magnum TOKYO was kind of a jerk, HOW DO YOU NOT BAN CROWD BRAWLING DURING A PANDEMIC, please someone explain why people like Danhausen, ACH and Lee have a great wrestling match that’s airing at 3 am for some reason, the complete disaster that was Toryumon X and why, what all these guys ended up going on to do in pro wrestling, SECRET BASE: What The Fuck, Milano comes to America, that time my friend Quinlan was the unofficial timekeeper on a northeast wrestling show in the middle of a New Jersey forest that drew like 20 people, and much, much more.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/wrestling-176-5-43088523
Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!
Super J-Cast Discord
VOW Network Discord
Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren’t sure what episode it took place on? Here’s a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we’ve discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated with every new episode.
