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Kropotkin's Beard

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Everything posted by Kropotkin's Beard

  1. Been watching the Jumbo Memorial show from last month & really loved both the Atsuki Bros vs Shingo & T-Hawk & the main event with Suzuki, Akiyama & Kento vs Lee, Doering & Omori. Obviously Lee & Kento are great together, Akiyama & Omori have great chemistry, it's just a lot of fun. A little sad that Samurai showed about 1 minute of Ryo Inoue vs Minoru Tanaka but that's just me
  2. I just watched the Stardom Flashing show. Syuri vs Risa Sera absolutely ruled.
  3. D Block is pretty brutal but then any Block with Yujiro is getting that reaction from me. El P being included feels weird too, was that even hinted at? I get why Fale is in but he really doesn't even try at this point. Which, can't blame him but doesn't make me want to watch him. And as someone who doesn't watch Strong I gotta say that having Finlay in there is weird. He feels like such an after thought & any momentum he may have gotten after some surprising performances in 2021 NJ Cup are long forgotten by now. There's plenty to like of course but it does feel a bit flat. I was hoping a little more non-BC US talent to be used, without touching on top AEW guys. Oh well. I'll inevitably love the latest Ospreay vs Takagi match
  4. Fire Festival blocks are out A Block Takuya Sugawara Tsugutaka Sato Junya Matsunaga Chris Vice Shu Asakawa Daisuke Sekimoto B Block Masato Tanaka Takafumi Hide Kubota Satsuki Nagao Fuminori Abe Yoshiki Inamura I am deeply excited for Abe vs Inamura, Abe vs Nagao, & Inamura vs Tanaka in particular. Starts on July 1st
  5. I'd like to see a show at KBS Hall in Kyoto, which is the venue with a big stained glass window opposite the hardcam. It's a very unique look. Also wish I could have seen a show at Hakata Starlanes in Fukuoka, which could be a really hot fun crowd but sadly that got knocked down. Obviously Korakuen Hall is a must too.
  6. I can't comment on the quality of WWE booking from personal experience, but certainly the people I talk to the consensus is that it's really bad (though there's probably a bit of group think there where people reinforce each others views & suddenly people are saying Cody vs Seth HIAC is mediocre so...), where as New Japan it's just dull. I got halfway through the BOSJ tournament & just fell off, I only just finally found it in me to watch night 7 this morning. And it's not like it's bad, it's just time is limited & I am way more excited to catch other promotions, it's honestly the same thing I've had with AEW the last couple months: the matches are amazing at times but I just don't feel that excitement to watch that I do when an All Japan or GLEAT show is coming on. I'd say that New Japan is still a better in-ring product than Dragongate but once you throw in booking & everything, god DG feels so fresh & NJPW has just stagnated so hard over COVID. They've elevated so many young guys, obviously the units are almost all completely different from pre-pandemic (Natural Vibes are back but are barely the same unit now that Genki & Susumu are gone, & then you have Gold Class, HIGH-END, Z-Brats, D'courage, people like Kota Minoura, Dragon Dia, Yuki Yoshioka, Kaito Ishida, Shun Skywalker, SB KENTo, Jacky Funky Kamei, U-T, Strong Machine J, are getting pushed up the card), it's just exciting to watch. It doesn't help that House of Torture is probably the worst thing in wrestling right now, at least among groups I follow. Okada has had a great year & is somehow under the radar for WOTY at the half-way point despite being Kazuchika Okada, but the builds to his matches have rarely been satisfying. Whereas All Japan...right now the booking is kind of a mess. I don't really know what factions still exist, or why people who just had a blood feud (Honda & Ashino) are now tagging together, short of "Voodoo Murders returned & we turned Suwama heel & we can only have 1 heel group so bye bye Total Eclipse", which is a really crappy thing. But that said, before the VM return & the current transition period, things had really gotten solid. They'd done good work to rebuild Ashino & seem to be continuing that. Now, he only needed rebuilt because of bad booking in the first place but better late than never. And despite all that I'm still much more excited for All Japan. Part of it is definitely that shows are just snappier, which goes a long way. Somehow that extra 30 minutes between a 2 hours 30 show & a 3 hour show feel like a big deal. Hell, I'm more excited for NOAH & their booking is what could charitably be described as dogshit driven by Muto & his disciples at the expense of talent who didn't appear in IGF when that was failing to draw. Yes, I'm looking at Fujita squashing Kinya Okada in 3 minutes or whatever. I do think there's not necessarily any promotion in Japan that is booked as close to as well as peak 2010s New Japan was, although DG have been great & I think GLEAT put together extremely watchable shows, even if they are overly willing to job their contracted wrestlers to outside talent which seems very dangerous in the medium-to-long term. Honestly, Gedo probably needs an extended break, but I'm not sure there's anyone obvious able to step into those shoes.
  7. Holy crap I didn't know Lee vs Abe was a thing, I gotta see this. Really wish NicoNico was a better service
  8. I continue to foolishly believe that it will happen, contrary to all evidence
  9. That 5/5 BJW show was really good. I run hot & cold on that promotion quite often, they have some really talented wresters but the deathmatch side of things is deathly stale & chock full of guys like Abby Jr, Jaki Numazawa & Ryuji Ito who haven't aged as gracefully as Jun Kasai, meanwhile their younger guys like Ishikawa & before that Ueki & Sakuda (who have been on fire in Freedoms) just turn their wheels, it's super annoying. But the top of the card, the Jr Title match (Kosuke Sato is easily their standout younger guy), Tag match (Astronauts are my fave team in the world right now, Okami are also great in there own right), the obviously great Strong Title match & the Deathmatch Title match with Miyamoto against Parker. Parker leaving BJW to go freelance is such a blow for them. The fact he vacated the belt rather than dropping it to Ishikawa just...infuriating. But the scaffold match with Miyamoto & Parker really was excellent, Miyamoto is one of the few guys who consistently makes scaffold matches interesting.
  10. Youtube threw this at me this evening, DDT's Kazusada Higuchi vs GLEAT's Takanori Ito from 2016, in a think Ito's 4th or 5th match. Higuchi lays the chops in, Ito tries to respond but he is yet to become the kick ass shootstyle guy, though there are some hints. Mostly I'm weirded out by how crappy his look is, he looks like he should be tagging with GENTARO against the Brahman Bros in the opener of a Freedoms show with those shorts & that shirt
  11. The only one I can think of that has them beat would be The Bodyguard, formerly of All Japan & Zeus's tag partner. He was 40 when he debuted for Osaka Pro
  12. Oh yeah, definitely. ASUKA is one of those wrestlers I'll go out of my way to watch, be it in the hyper-cool mean girls of Las Fresa de Egoistas in SEAdLINNNG or wrestling MAO in DDT or turning up in GanPro, Zero1, Sendai Girls, Marvelous, she's probably 3rd behind Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto for best women's wrestler I've seen in the first half of the year.
  13. Now Yano isn't in every match it's a more interesting prospect
  14. card for the next Prominence show. Akane Fujita vs Kohei Sato, Chris Brookes & Risa Sera vs Toshiyuki Sakuda & Miyacoco, Hibiscus Mii & Yuki Miyazaki vs Natsumi Miyagi & Miss Mongol for the WAVE Tag Titles, Suzu Suzuki vs Violento Jack, & Orca Uto vs Super Hardcore Machine
  15. My top 3 matches are 10/4 Nomura vs Aoyagi, 29/4 Miyahara vs Aoyagi & the finals Others also worth catching 9/4 Irie vs Ishikawa, 11/4 Ashino vs T-Hawk, 13/4 Irie vs Lee, 13/4 Miyahara vs Nomura, 24/4 Irie vs Ashino There's obviously more good matches but those are the ones I have rated highest
  16. I believe he injured his knee on the 3rd May Freedoms show & is going to undergo surgery shortly. As far as I can make out from Google translate it could be an ACL injury
  17. I'd definitely have voted Syuri is this was about the calendar year of 2021, but I've been disappointed with her since the World of Stardom Title win. Even the ASUKA match I felt like ASUKA stood out more than Syuri, and I was super excited for that clash. So I went with Lindaman, he's just this captivating mix of in your face charisma and presence with a very exciting power-junior style (despite his small size). He's been a huge part of why GLEAT is a must watch company for me.
  18. What I remember is the vertigo problems Kenny talked about in a WOR interview with Dave. I think it was February this year if you want to hear him in his own words but I believe he was dropkicked by Okada & Okada's knee clipped Kenny when he landed and that started it. My memory is real bad though so I could have details wrong. 2017 G1 Block final? And then despite it all he went out the next night and had a match that's top 15 all-time on Cagematch against Naito, despite the vertigo. Kind of ridiculous to put it mildly as he definitely shouldn't have been wrestling if it was that bad
  19. There was cheering at the NOMADS' show last month. Ultimo Dragon told the fans to cheer during a match at the Dragongate Toryumon Reunion last week, & someone from DG then came out & said "no, don't". I'm still not even clear if this is a law thing or something the wrestling companies have taken on themselves. Because apparently folk are cheering at J-League soccer games & baseball games now.
  20. Naoya Nomura has returned to All Japan today, with his Ganbare Pro tag partner Mizuki Watase. On a show that wasn't even streamed live on AJPW.tv ? https://twitter.com/RoyalRoad72/status/1533807272849477633?s=20&t=UBtNcB67z_Z_fRJUHD0Nfw
  21. Always happy to answer any questions I can, or throw in some recommendations. I've really been enjoying FREEDOMS shows, something like this match between Kasai & Violento Jack from December 202q
  22. There's not really anyone who fills that Aja Kong niche in joshi right now, which probably explains why Kong is still getting plenty of work. Yoshiko in SEAdLINNNG was kind of like that (not tall, but a little bigger & mean & more than willing to bully you) a little but she's slimmed down because it was having a negative impact on her health apparently. There's rivalries between factions in Stardom, like between Donna Del Mondo & God's Eye after GE split from DDM, but it's no Gokuaku Domei. It's not a promotion if you're looking for blood-filled brawls.
  23. This is super tough narrowing it down. Kenoh - I was split between Katsuhiko Nakajima & his stable leader in Kongo, similar in style, vicious kicks galore. But Kenoh has that little something extra that makes me really compelling, namely he's a petulant little punk with a chip on his shoulder the size of Everest. It's very endearing. Jun Kasai - Death matches are a strange beast. They can be lazy walk & brawls or they can be utterly impossible to look away from, in that exciting way. And Kasai is the good kind of death match wrestler. It seems like 50% of the women's wrestlers in Japan idolise him, from comedy characters like Hyper Misao and idols like Hikari Noa to new death match stars like Suzu Suzuki. For good reason. Takuya Nomura - no nonsense when it comes to Nomura. He just wants to kick, slap & suplex you into the next life. He's a great tag worker as one half of Astronauts, he can be great in a 10 minute sprint or a longer BJW Strong World Heavyweight Title matches against the likes of Sekimoto, Okabayashi, Nakanoue. There's not a whole lot in current Big Japan worth watching, but Nomura is why I go out of my way to do so anyway. Shingo Takagi - he has that Dragongate thing where everything is so smooth & that's not for everyone. But Takagi just has it all, the presence, the match quality, the charisma, if I am fantasy drafting a wrestling roster He's top of my draft board
  24. Technically he's on his retirement tour, he hasn't actually retired yet, just left DG Dragongate also announced at today's Kobe show that La Estrella & Takuma Fujiwara are off to Mexico & Toryumon Casa for an extended period of time. Fujiwara debuted in November & is already off on excursion. La Estrella has about a year on him, IIRC he started in December 2020.
  25. Having now seen the Toryumon Reunion show, gotta say that for a guy in his first match Ryoto Mochizuki looks like DG have got another really good rookie on their hands. I don't know what is in the water over there in Kobe but its a real conveyer belt of younger wrestlers who impress from day 1.
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