Kropotkin's Beard

Sad as Omori & Kodama were a fun team

Samoa Joe from when he came in until his first loss about 18 months later was on the whole well booked. And then after he lost to Angle he slowly dissolved into just another TNA guy, which was a hell of a choice. That's the first example that comes to mind

Barely able to walk Keiji Mutoh, GHC Heavyweight Champion, ending Go Shiozaki's all-timer title run. And then having him beat Kaito Kiyomiya. Honestly wish Giant Gonzalez beat Taker clean at Mania IX purely so the streak never became a thing. But then I'm a Taker hater. Just thought the streak as it went on got so uninteresting, the only time I actually cared was once it was ended. At least that was funny.

Country bumpkins. Instead of country music they listen to The Wurzels and instead of moonshine they make and drink cider (the alcoholic kind).

I do always enjoy seeing who looks the most ridiculous in these pre-G1 press conferences. It's probably Ospreay, wearing that coat in a Japanese summer, but Filthy Tom Lawlor is giving him a run for his money. SANADA not even trying this year.

Yeah, Cyrus the Destroyer, a Georgia indy guy which is the extent of what I know. He squashed Black Menso-re today in his All Japan debut. I have feelings about the main event of today's show but I'll hold off posting them as I realise most people on here are in the US timezones so are unlikely to be able to see it live.

On their current Korakuen show All Japan announced the opening round of this year's Royal Road Tournament, starting next month! Kento vs Suwama Yuma Aoyagi vs Naoya Nomura!!! Atsuki Aoyagi vs Takuya Nomura Cyrus vs Shuji Ishikawa Jake Lee vs Ren Ayabe Dan Tamura vs Shotaro Ashino Ryuki Honda vs Takao Omori Yoshitatsu vs Yuji Nagata Really hyped for the 2 Aoyagi vs Nomura matches although surprised that Hokuto Omori didn't make the field.

I'm really glad Inamura is in, Masa & Yoshiki should've been the team the whole time. Do worry that it telegraphs who is winning though.

https://vk.com/video-4499945_456248980?t=53m19s On the 1st July Michinoku Pro ran one of their Korakuen Hall shows & SamuraiTV were there to record it. This one was headed by a Junior Title Match between MUSASHI & the returning Fujita "Jr" Hayato. This was his first match in 3 & a half years, and second in 5 years. First he ruptured a knee ligament and then he was found to have a tumour in his spine. But finally he's been cleared to return to action. The match manages to be both scarily violent and pretty moving, and is one of the best matches I've seen this year

I have a similar relationship with Mania 9, most shows I saw rented from the video store, but I had 2 that I owned, Royal Rumble '91 & Mania 9. And when that is all you have available then you're going to watch them to death. DiBiase & Virgil vs Dusty & Dustin, Rockers vs Orient Express, Michaels vs Tatanka, Steiner vs Headshrinkers, Yoko vs Bret & Taker vs Gonzalez are just burnt into my memory. It's impossible for me to not love those shows. To a 9 year old who didn't actually know what chloroform was it was still badass seeing Taker come back from being passed out. What can I say? If all you have to eat is slop then you'll develop a taste for it.

I gotta be honest, that's wild to me. Kaito really grew into the role when he was GHC HW champion way back in 2019 and the only reason he comes across as a geek now is that his booking in the Cyberfight era has been, to put it kindly, total dogshit. If they actually got behind him again & he wasn't a sacrificial lamb to Mutoh & friends he'd be back there sharpish. Takeshita is great but I'm not taking him over Shiozaki or Miyahara if I'm drafting a wrestling promotion today.

Not the biggest BJW watcher in the world, mainly because I sub to so many other services that it is hard to justify adding BJW Core to the list. But of the stuff I do check out here's the guys who I'd say are worth keeping an eye on. Dean mentioned Fuminori Abe but let me second that, Abe is fantastic. So is his regular Tag partner Takuya Nomura (he was a standout in this year's great AJPW Champion Carnival), similar violently stiff guys. Daichi Hashimoto is Shinya's son & he's really found himself in the last couple of years, he was a little bland but he's a real force now who is almost always worth watching. I'd also say that watch for Kosuke Sato, he's still at young boy status but he's a really good prospect. And yes, for some reason Google translate keeps liking to insist Kodaka is Kitaka, and Kodaka & Miyamoto do still often Tag together. Miyamoto had a really good Scaffold deathmatch with Drew Parker earlier this year, I think on the 5/5 Yokohama BJW show. As far as the deathmatch scene, Big Japan really has stagnated. It's all guys who were around a decade ago. Yuki Ishikawa is really the only younger DM guy worth keeping an eye out on. All their other younger talent like Ueki, Sakuda, Parker ends up in Freedoms. As for why? These people are proper mad, they love doing deathmatches for some inscrutable reason. I remember an interview with Suzu Suzuki where she talked about wanting to be able to show off scars from doing deathmatches while wearing her wedding gown one day. And this is a girl (19 year old) who not only has the talent to be at the top of any joshi group she wanted to, she has the look too. But she really enjoys doing deathmatches. Takes all sorts!

I posted this in the Puro thread but NicoNico are currently (as in right this moment) streaming a ZERO1 Fire Festival show from earlier today for free on their website here. Now, if you've followed indy wrestling in Japan you've come across NicoNico & probably grumble about it, so you'll know I cannot guarantee this will still be available after the "as-live" feed ends. It started about half an hour ago & the 4 tournament matches are still to come but hopefully the whole thing is still available freely tomorrow because it's nice for people to get a chance to be reminded ZERO1 still exists. Also this has probably the tournament match I'm most excited for, Fuminori Abe vs Masato Tanak.

Worth noting that I am currently watching a ZERO1 show from earlier today (that is being shown on NicoNico for free: https://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv337641855) & the crowd are shouting & cheering & it's lovely. Astroman, Shoki Kitamura & Tsugutaka Sato vs Satsuki Nagao, Takafumi & Takumi Baba is hotter than Wrestle Kingdom.

Do you really expect guys who do deathmatches to be able to spell Fluorescent? Let's not forget that last year one of these guys got a finger cut off at an IWA Deep South show (& while I have no intention of ever watching it, I did read a review that suggested not only was the bit planned but the camera managed to miss it...), not exactly dealing with Rhodes Scholars

I can understand why someone would feel that way, and often deathmatches are every bit of what, for example, Jim Cornette decides them as, fat guys with very little talent bashing each other with chairs or lighttubes for an audience of degenerates. But someone like Jun Kasai or Rina Yamashita or Suzu Suzuki or Masashi Takeda are great wrestlers who do deathmatches. Because they enjoy doing them. There's this thing where it sometimes feels like at least ⅓ of joshi wrestlers when asked who their favourite wrestler is come back with Jun Kasai or even Abdullah Kobayashi. End of the day, it feels a bit like complaining about a promotion such as PWG running cards where every match tries to steal the show and how that detracts from the main event. Ultimately if it draws enough to be self-sufficient then that's wrestling. I don't really think the existence of Freedoms really impacts on a non-deathmatch fan, it's a niche within a niche, it's like thinking it's dumb that noise music exists but it's not like you're going to run into Merzbow or Nurse With Wound on the radio or in a night club. Gross & cheap? I dunno, can't be that cheap getting all those boxes of lighttubes!

Yeah, I thought it was great. He was really thoughtful on both life and wrestling & you could tell his heart just melted when he talked about his kid. Very sweet. Made me want to pick up his book.

Was absolutely thrilled for him. And he apparently wants to face Kenoh down the line, who of course is from Michinoku Pro originally. The show should be available to watch as it's due to air on Samurai TV on the 10th. Usually only get a couple of Michinoku Pro shows outside of the dojo stuff that airs on their Youtube, & obviously it's not what it used to be but it's still always fun to check in when I get the chance.

Very unfortunate. Especially as I thought she was pretty good in the recent match with Ibuki Hoshi in the title tournament.

There is a quite surprising amount of wrestling on archive.org, & not just old stuff. Like this week's episode of AEW Dynamite. I've no idea when this trend start, or why nobody has noticed considering this isn't some moderately shady site in China or Russia but hey, it's there.

My list is entirely coloured by the fact that I watch too much puro & don't end having the time to watch much of anything else. I've still got the WXW 16 Carat Gold tournament sitting unwatched, fully intending to get around to it. That said Wrestler of the Year - Kento Miyahara. Other wrestlers have had higher highs, but Kento has just been so consistent, be it in big Triple Crown matches, his tagging (usually with Yuma Aoyagi but also with other NEXTREAM guys), his Champion Carnival run. He's got his formula & I get not everyone digs it but for me it's just bangers almost every time out. Honourable mention nods to El Lindaman over in GLEAT (but also the Best of the Super Juniors) & Yuma Aoyagi. Match of the Year - Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Go Shiozaki - Pro Wrestling NOAH The New Year 2022, 1/1. I've been waiting all year for something to come & topple this but nope, main event of the 2nd show I watched this year just stands above everything else. Just a gloriously stiff matched between 2 guys with a lot of recent history, who should be pushing NOAH into the future but NOSAWA & the rest of the Muta clique would rather focus on older guys. Tag Team of the Year: . It's FTR, I wanted to vote for Astronauts, a Big Japan tag team of Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura, but they just haven't been in the big matches really. Although the BJW tag title match with Okami is fantastic. Card of the Year: NOAH The New Year 2022. It has my favourite match of the year, a great Kenoh vs Kaito Kiyomiya match, KENTA back in NOAH teaming with Sugiura & Sakuraba against Inaba, Kitamiya & Inamura, GHC HW Tag Title match & a very good Kongo vs Stinger tag match. Nothing was bad, show flew by. Honourable mention nod to Clockwork Gake No Fuchi 2022 by Gake No Fuchi Joshi, it's a DDT/Ice Ribbon off-shoot run by Miyako Matsumoto & featured 3 out of 4 great matches, with a mix of hardcore wrestling & weird comedy nonsense. Show was built around Prominence (a group who broke off from Ice Ribbon to do deathmatches) against Gake No Fuchi Pro, which just means Miyacoco & her friends, so you had MAO, Sanshiro Takagi & Shunma Katsumata from DDT & Chris Brookes. My words cannot do this show justice but I watched it live instead of Wrestle Kingdom Night 1 & stand by that choice. If you've got a Wrestle Universe account I highly recommend it. Assuming you have a taste for weird comedy nonsense. Promotion of the Year: New Japan. Kind of. It's weird, they have put on a lot of stuff I've loved but I'm still a bit unenthusiastic about them. But they have 5 matches in my top 25, no one else can match that. There's been some real dogshit too, I will never ever forget the Chase Owens vs Jado NJ Cup match for example, & everything House of Torture related fills me with an existential dread, but they've got DOUKI, Hiromu, Despy, Shingo, ZSJ, Ishii, even when I'm a bit down on them the big stuff delivers. That said, All Japan have had a really good year too, GLEAT shows are always worth watching, FREEDOMS continue to be the absolute kings of the deathmatch. Good year. Women's Wrestler of the Year: Tsukasa Fujimoto. This will change by the end of the year because she's gone on hiatus for a while which should let other people catch up, especially ASUKA. She had a **** match with Arisa Nakajima in her last appearance in SEAdLINNNG before the hiatus where they just went to war & attempted to murder each other. She's had fantastic tag team matches with a variety of opponents, both with Arisa Nakajima as Best Friends, with Tsukushi Haruka as Dropkickers & reuniting with Hikaru Shida as Muscle Venus. ASUKA (aka Veny, not the WWE one) has had a higher volume of great matches, but nothing she's been involved with has touched Fujimoto vs Nakajima. So she's second & I'd say that Stardom's Syuri would be #3, her matches with Giulia & Risa Sera are both must watches. Rookie of the Year: Takuma Fujiwara debuted for Dragongate in November, has already had a ****¼ match for the Open The Brave Gate Title against Dragon Dia in March, & has also had great singles matches with Jacky Funky Kamei & Diamante. He's already gone off to Mexico on excursion as of last month. Wrestles at a level you just don't expect from a guy 8 months into his career.

Freedoms uploaded the main event of their 18th June show in Yokohama, which saw Daisuke Masaoka, Jun Kasai, Takashi Sasaki & Tomoya Hirata vs the heel unit ERE & X. If you follow deathmatches you can tell who X is from the preview pic. Anyway, despite being 8 deathmatch dudes this is in a venue where they don't do deathmatches so it's just a good fun match, not a lighttube in sight.

Oh, & Masashi Takeda is wrestling on the 13th July Freedoms Jun Kasai Deathmatch Carnival 2022 Vol.1 show, which will be the first time since the beginning of January & the death of his wife. He took time off to be a father & I'm very happy he feels in a place where he can come back to what he loves, getting badly cut up.

I watched the ZERO1 Shinjiro Otani Aid show from the start of this month & despite being 4 hours long it's really good. I'd say at least half of the show is well worth going out of your way to watch. The opener, a BJW team of Fuminori Abe, Kosuke Sato & Yuki Ishikawa vs Astroman, Ren Ayabe & Yuko Miyamoto is really fun, Hide Kubota, Ryo Hoshino & Takuya Sugawara vs the 2AW team of Kengo Mashimo, Shu Asakawa & Tatsuya Hanami is really good, Aja Kong, NATSUMI & Yuna Manase vs ASUKA, Chihiro Hashimoto & Jaguar Yokota was great, and then the top 2 matches on the card, a Big Japan team of Daichi Hashimoto, Daisuke Sekimoto, Kazuki Hashimoto & Yasufumi Nakanoue vs the New Japan dads of Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata along with ZERO1's own Satsuki Nagao, who is just 2 years into his career is fantastic, & then the ZERO1 title match between Takashi Sugiura & Masato Tanaka is just really emotional as well as hard-hitting (you can tell Sugiura is still deeply messed up by accidentally hurting Otani) & probably slots into my top 10 matches of the year, it's even better than their clash on January 1st.

So Sato & Tamura are still Evolution, Kento & HAYATO are NEXTREAM, TE is still Doi, Arashi, Kodama & Omori? Because TAJIRI seems gone from them? Based on recent booking at least. I'm a bit sad that Yoshitatsu Kingdom are gone, Seigo, Akki, KAZMA & Ueki was an entertaining little mishmash of weird guys for an undercard group, but it's not a surprise. Their breakup/reformation feels like it hasn't even been touched upon in months. Really think the faction messing up isn't a huge deal but it is still super confused: why did TE lose both Jake & Ryuki Honda? Are the Aoyagi's & Jake now a group? None of it really felt like it happened on shows except Suwama turning on Ashino & Evolution. Like, there were hints of change in Total Eclipse but then they just seem to have forgotten to do the actual angles.