Pro-Wrestling On My Mind

My heart briefly soared and then dropped back down with a dull thud at the end of the J4G vs. War Dogs match at the New Japan Cup final. When commentary started to get excited about a run-in to aid J4G, my mind immediately went "DOUKI?!" even though I knew it wasn't really realistic. Turns out it was members of Hontai, which makes sense after Tanahashi's post-match overture on 3/17. Tana offered the handshake of alliance/peace after chasing off the War Dogs and it seems like J4G are now a part of Hontai.  I can only assume this means Taka sold his backlog of J4G shirts. Tag Team Partner and I were talking about Tanahashi's initial offer to J4G and he wondered if New Japan is in line for a major stable reset. With Bullet Club fracturing, Hontai getting kind of bloated now that it officially includes Chaos and J4G, and even hints (at least in English commentary) of issues in United Empire regarding leadership, it seems like a possibility. Even LIJ has had a change, ...

I am highly partial to cutesy merch, even more so if the merch becomes some level of ridiculous in its cutesiness. Thus, when I saw the NJPW 2025 desk calendar for sale at the Tokon shop last year, I had to buy it.  These ‘lil guys really make me want a pro-wrestling version of “Animal Crossing.” Calendars, unfortunately, have to be designed and laid out in advance before they go on sale and, in the time between when this calendar was conceived and released to the public, a few... changes occurred. Take, for example, the page for May: Awkward... and they even put them in May because 5. “The best laid plans of wrestlers and creative...”, or something to that effect. All is not lost though, thanks to my super amazing image editing skills. In what took me a whole 10 minutes, I fixed the calendar to make a J4G version (but didn’t switch the month as United Empire already has April and they don’t need to be brought into this feud).  And, just for the heck of it, I made a pro-Sanaya...

Yeah! Some DOUKI news! Per NJPW's official website , DOUKI has a new diary post you can access via their premium smartphone site. Unfortunately, I can only put so much of my budget towards pro-wrestling, so the announcement of the uploading of the diary entry is the most I can see. However, I follow DOUKI on Instagram and he's been quiet there ever since the injury at Wrestle Kingdom, so I was wondering if/when we were going to hear from him again, or if he would just stay silent until making his return. Glad to see he is willing/able to make some content to share. Hope he's experiencing a smooth recovery and we see him again soon (at least in time for BOSJ!).  

  Aren't they precious? <3

“Never do that again Cole, there’s people listening.” - Wade Barrett during the Women’s Royal Rumble The above quote made me laugh and inspired today's post.  The quality of commentary can have such a major impact on pro-wrestling. It’s not necessary for enjoyment, as attending a live event makes clear, but it can greatly enhance or detract from the experience when watching on TV or streaming. Good commentary can elevate an average match to good and great to legendary. Conversely, bad commentary belittles, if not ruins, a match; it can distract from talent and even harm careers. There have been many times over the years where poor commentary has made me reach for (or want to reach for in instances when it was not me in control of the remote) the mute button. Every time Jerry Lawler so much as mentioned women during the Attitude Era filled me with disgust and my brain tried to transform his voice to sound like a teacher from the “Peanuts” cartoons. Michael Cole’s tenure at attemptin...

I was scrolling through Instagram while trying to fully wake up this morning and saw that someone posted about a Kosei Fujita pyonsuke coming soon. Of course I needed more info immediately, so I went to the Tokon Shop site and... oh hell yes! Writing on a touchscreen with your finger is not easy... LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They are all so cute! My family is getting bigger soon! The family. Yes, I might have a problem, but it's safer than drugs, though not necessarily cheaper P.S. Do yourself a favor and go look at ZSJ's series of pics with his pyonsuke. A beautiful tale of a man going from "WTF is this thing?" to "This is my son and if anything bad happens to him I will kill everyone in this room and myself."

Another trip down memory lane today. Back to a BOSJ 30 show at Korakuen Hall. I'm pretty sure it was after this show that I started searching the internet to see if there was any info on Douki's hair care routine because damn is it soooooooo pretty up close. And yeah, I do miss the pipe. Notice baby Young Lion Boltin Oleg in the background. They grow up so fast. I wanna touch it so bad... and maybe pull it, just a little (ya know, if he's cool with that sort of thing)...

Been thinking lately about why I like the wrestlers I do. One great thing about New Japan is that I can say I’m a fan of pretty much everyone on the roster. But, as we all know, there is a difference between being a fan and being a stan. In a match with two wrestlers I like, I light my penlights for the one I stan more than the other. But what makes me stan someone? Having given some thought to this topic, I think it boils down to the following four points: 1) Ability/Style Wrestlers can do so many amazing moves, but I definitely have a style preference. When I was a child, I was deep in the trenches of the Monday Night Wars. One of the things that initially kept me tuned in to WCW was the cruiserweight division. The speed, power, and athleticism that comes with being in the lighter weight class has always fascinated me more than the heavyweight division. I’ve been to more New Japan Best of the Super Junior shows than any other type for that very reason. As I once told a friend who ask...

New year, new me.  Not really.  I'm still me, but I wanted to try something different.  I like to write and I like pro-wrestling; I tend to have a lot of thoughts about pro-wrestling too, even when I probably should not be thinking about pro-wrestling (not the worst intrusive thoughts to have, but I digress). So this year my goal is to write about pro-wrestling and all the random thoughts I have about it. Some posts will be really short (I can only go on gushing for so many words about how amazing someone's hair looks), and some will go on and on (I love a good rant, though I will try to practice editing myself). Mostly I will be talking about New Japan Pro-Wrestling, my favorite company, and other Japanese promotions as I'm in Tokyo and it's what I interact with the most. I grew up with American pro-wrestling though (I'm a veteran of the Monday Night Wars), and so many promotions outside Japan are linked to those here, others will inevitably pop up from time to tim...