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 recent series covering every Tokyo Dome main event (not just NJPW and not just 1/4!) in order, which wrapped up for now with a pair of very diverging Shinya Hashimoto main events from 1995: his battle with Kensuke Sasaki for NJPW’s annual 1/4 show, and his infamous disaster with Masahiro Chono on the Weekly Pro Wrestling Bridge of Dreams interpromotioal show. We’ll pick this series back up later in the year, but you can listen to 14 episodes right now!
-Our newest 1 Match series covering matches submitted by Omakase patrons, which kicked off this past week with two incredibly different matches: a BattlArts match from November 2000 between Yuki Ishikawa and Kazunari Murakami that might be among the best sub-10 minute matches in wrestling history, and a cinematic match from DDT in 2020 featuring Konosuke Takeshita battling Yoshihiko. Tough to get more different than that! Up next: AJ Styles vs. Kota Ibushi from NJPW Invasion Attack 2015!
-All of our 2020 tournament coverage: the G1 Climax, World Tag League & BOSJ from NJPW, Champion Carnival from AJPW, N-1 Victory from NOAH, the King of DDT & D-Ou GP from DDT, and the Princess Cup from Tokyo Joshi!
-Upcoming tournament coverage in March & April: the New Japan Cup and AJPW Champion Carnival!
-Many previous Patreon-exclusive full episodes with Alan4L, Rich Kraetsch, Todd Martin, Chris Samsa, Sean Sedor, Nate from Everything Elite, Robin Reid from VOW Quiz Night, Garrett Kidney from Wednesday War Games, Mike Spears from Everything Elite/Open the Voice Gate 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!
-Anime Omakase, our series exclusively on the world of anime!
-And much more!

It’s time for another 5 Matches episode on the Omakase Patreon, as we cover matches from four different decades in Japanese wrestling! If you haven’t listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, each episode John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the Patreon, letting the patrons choose our fifth and final match to discuss. It’s a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

John is joined by first time guest WH Park (@whpark9) from Post Wrestling. They start off by discussing WH’s recent return back to Canada from Japan, memories of various Japanese wrestling venues, whether or not it was a good idea to attend shows during the pandemic and a whole lot more. They then get into their match picks for the episode, which are:

1. Stan Hansen & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsurata & Yoshiaki Yatsu, AJPW 12/6/89 (Youtube)
2. Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong, AJW 11/20/94 (Youtube)
3. Tiger Emperor (Kotaro Suzuki) vs. Ricky Marvin, NOAH 4/2/05 (Youtube)
4. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Suwama & Shuji Kondo, AJPW 11/24/08 (Youtube)
5. Arisa Hoshiki vs. Tam Nakano, STARDOM 6/16/19 (STARDOM World)

Topics that come up along the way include: the Real World Tag League tournament in 1989, some of the reasons why Stan Hansen always decided to stay in Japan (and the kind of hilarious ways his short AWA & WCW runs ended), the Tenryu & Hansen team in general and how great they were during their all-too-brief run, Yoshiaki Yatsu takes an ass kicking, Manami Toyota bumps all over, Aja Kong’s jumping piledrivers, wrestling moves that should never be attempted again, DVDVR comp tapes, the strangeness of doing a mask vs. hair match when you’ve only had four matches under the gimmick total, Kotaro Suzuki’s booking in NOAH in general, Ricky Marvin rules, NJPW units outliving their usefulness, somehow the VOODOO MURDERS still exist too, Shuji Kondo also rules, Arisa Hoshiki’s second retirement was very sad, Tam Nakano as Toshiaki Kawada, and a whole lot more.

Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/47261074

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Super J-Cast Discord
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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 every time.