Voices of Wrestling

Can't say I'm too enamoured with the booking decision. Nothing to do with Naito being thwarted yet again, all to do with the fact I think Jay White is over-pushed. I don't think he's terrible, just think that New Japan are trying way too hard to convince us that he is a big-show main event calibre w...

Re: the juniors in G1 - Devitt entered both the 2010 and 2013 G1s as junior heavyweight champion. He had winning records both years. He was 4-3 in 2010 and 5-4 in 2013. Both of those tournaments featured a lot of parity booking so he actually came pretty close to winning the block both years. It's ...

I think you're over-estimating both SANADA and Will Ospreay, Murcatto. Will isn't going on a major streak in his first heavyweight series. He's gonna be there more for great matches than a run at the top. And both Okada and Tanahashi will drop one or two matches to have drawing rematches following ...

The Tag Title match was a slog as expected. I like G.O.D.'s theme song, but once they hit the ring they are the most boring pushed act in the company. During commentary on the mediocre tag title match, Kevin Kelly made the point that despite being five time tag champions, G.O.D should get more resp...

Both incidents have soured me on him as a person, and I'm not of the mentality to cheer on a babyface that I don't care for, regardless of how people rave about his matches. Him saying he needs to grow up and be better is all well and good, but actions rather than declarations will be what changes ...

Joe and Rich going to bat for Will Ospreay's personal character is amusing. The dude's definitely a moron. And I don't know about minor transgressions. There was that Pollyanna thing that happened with one of his mates. His shit attitude with Sadie Gibbs. You can like him in the ring all you want, ...

Five Star Plus for Shingo vs Ospreay. Lived up to the astronomically high expectations.

Great show overall as well, the marquee matches all delivered.

Some other possibilities: Jeff Cobb- Recent NEVER Openweight Champion Colt Cabana- Worked the New Japan Cup Lance Archer- Worked the New Japan Cup Davey Boy Smith Jr.- Worked the New Japan Cup Of the two KES workers, I think Archer has a better shot of making his way back into the G-1, he had a well...

We are now deep into the Inokiism era, lets see what this Tokyo Dome Show can bring us.... 4th January 2003- NJPW Wrestling World 2003 (Tokyo Dome)-Part 1 Osamu Nishimura vs Tatsumi Fujinami Osamu Nishimura: Made progress during 2002 in his third successive G-1 climax by reaching the semi-Finals. T...

Today's show mostly felt like a house show stop to me. The matches weren't bad or anything, but it didn't feel like anyone except for the guys in the main event were really putting in full effort. This is perhaps understandable since the wrestlers are in the early middle of a grueling tour and perf...

It was interesting that today's show, from the same city but a different building than yesterday's show, had a much more responsive crowd than yesterday's despite today's show being a much weaker card on paper. Going to have to correct you there, same prefecture different cities. First show was in ...

So I see DOUKI is already getting shat on by quite a few people. Whilst I don't think he's been great and he does not look like a good long term fit for New Japan, I don't think he's been horrendous either. He's been brought in as a hired gun for Suzukigun Taichi's stooge, so your enjoyment of his m...

It was a fun match I guess, but why the fuck is Ospreay, with wins in less time over Ibushi, Fale, and Archer in the past five months, going 25+ with pin-eater Rocky Romero? From a non kayfabe perspective: Ospreay is one of the most generous pushed wrestlers, when it comes to making his opponents l...

To follow up on what Frank said in regards to Flip Gordon, I'm in the same boat. He's not someone I have an immense dislike for, he's just someone I'm pretty much indifferent on. I felt in last year's BOSJ he showed enough not to look out of place in New Japan but not enough to completely win every ...

So here we are with the remainder of the 2002 matches available to see on New Japan World. It's a real shame that representation of this era, is so sparse. From the volume of content available, you certainly get a sense that New Japan are invariably prouder of their history from the 80's and 90's. M...