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, ...

So Sanada debuted another homemade shirt in his losing effort against Yuya Uemura in the first round of this year's New Japan Cup.  That red font is giving major Disney vibes. Cold Skull better watch it or the Mouse might Skull End him in court. Can't Paradise Lock your way out of a copyright lawsuit. At this point I think we can safely assume what Sanada's favorite English swear word is. And speaking of Japanese pro-wrestlers who definitely have a favorite English swear word, Okada recently released a new shirt via Pro Wrestling Tees. Now, as I like to say to my students, It's quiz time! Who remembers the analogies section of the SAT? If you have no idea what I am talking about, congratulations on not having to go through high school in America or for taking the SAT in 2005 or after (and, if it's the latter, get the hell off my lawn you young whippersnapper). The analogies section gave you a pair of words that were somehow related and you had to pick a correspondin...

Looked at the NJPW website today for info on the Fantastica Mania show tomorrow and saw this: They released another one! And so soon after the last bunch! My wallet is weeping because I can only set aside so much money for merch every month. It's so precious though (as is Uemura. Looks-wise, he's definitely the baby of his Young Lion batch). The eyes and the smile! Uemura and Tsuji need to have a smile-off. On a side note, how are we feeling about the facial hair Dear Reader? My initial thought was "Nah" because it's rather sparse, but the more I look at it (and picture what it may become), the more I am starting to like it. It will be interesting to see how this develops.  

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

Isn’t the title a great word? Say it out loud to yourself and see if it doesn’t make you smile. I came across “chuckability” in a post on IG rating potential wizard animal familiars. FYI, the American Water Shrew gets a 3/3 stars on chuckability. Creatures getting tossed around makes me think of Jeff Cobb, as throwing full grown men around like they are rag dolls is one of his greatest talents. So now, I have a new dream. I want to interview Jeff Cobb. The entire interview will consist of me asking him to rate every member of the New Japan roster (and a few bonus wrestlers from other promotions) on their chuckability. The followup YouTube series will then feature Cobb putting his rankings to the test. Call me New Japan. I have so many amazing ideas. CHUCKABILITY! And as for who I think who has the best chuckability (because of course I thought of this as well. Not that I could chuck anyone on the NJPW roster,but it's still an amusing thought.), that's a tough call. By virtue of...

“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...

A second post today because I watched the Royal Rumble and was inspired.  We need a wrestling database akin to Letterboxd. I have my first category ready: Wrestlers who betrayed their friends because they felt they were being screwed over and/or held back and then made their own merch at home to mock their former friends. But only one of them looks like an extra in a Lady Gaga music video. Now I kinda want to see them as a tag team. And, let's be honest, having them become a tag team because of this makes more sense than a lot of other tag teams WWE has thrown together over the years.* *One of my pet conspiracy theories is that a lot of the seemingly random WWE teams we've seen over the years is the result of shenanigans at company parties, consisting of drunk people putting on blindfolds and throwing darts at a roster list taped to a wall.

My dream job is to work from home, being paid to read, play games, write, and sleep. Unfortunately society has yet to see what a major contribution this would be from me and I have not found someone willing to pay me for these valuable skills. Thus I am daily forced to leave the comfort of my bed to do a “real job”. Fortunately, I quite like my real job.* That job, if you were wondering dear reader, is teacher. English teacher, to be specific. One of the things I like about my job is that we are allowed, and encouraged, to show our personality when teaching. Liking pro-wrestling is a significant part of who I am, so mentions of it pop up during lessons from time to time. Take, for example, when I had to teach about the past tense. One unit addresses usage of the past tense in relation to changes in states of being (e.g. "In spring it was X, now it is Y.")  This was being taught in October and King of Pro-Wrestling happened during the lessons in the unit, so I used the results...

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 piece of fashion commentary gold from New Year Dash was TJP (again, put this man on red carpet commentary!) noting that the bottom of Sanada's shirt has been getting shorter and shorter since he joined the Bullet Club War Dogs. This kicked my curiosity into overdrive and, when that happens, there is only one solution: RESEARCH! Here's the results of rewatching multiple NJPW events dating back to Power Struggle - Super Junior Tag League 2024, terribly edited screencaps and all. Heel Turns and Hemlines: The Evolution of Fashion in Pro-Wrestling, a Case Study of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Sanada* So is TJP correct? Is Sanada's shirt getting shorter and shorter as time passes? If so, what does this mean? Let's look at the evidence. Exhibit 1 Power Struggle - Super Junior Tag League (11/4/2024): The sad day when Sanada betrayed Taichi, but what really matters is the fit. The shadows threw me off at first, but the red line marks where the hemline of Sanada's s...

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)...

Two posts today because I spent 9/10ths of yesterday sleeping and the remaining 1/10th doing nothing! I love when pro-wrestlers get cute and creative. Like the book on his opponents Hiromu makes for BOSJ every year. Fantastic stuff. I saw a picture on Instagram the other day of Yota Tsuji with an "A Gedo a Day" calendar that he made for David Finlay. Fabulous. I sent it to my Tag Team Partner and, in response, he sent me the following screenshot:  "Speaking of homemade merch..." My mind is showing me such a clear image of Sanada, sitting in his home on the floor with one of those short ironing boards before him, carefully ironing the letters and numbers onto this shirt, chuckling evilly to himself. Thinking "This will show Taichi and those other bastards." Can you hear the "Hehehe?" I can. I love it. That image is going to be popping in and out of my head all week. Also, thank you to the shirt for distracting me from those creepy-ass... sunglasse...