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...

One of my greatest assets (or greatest flaws depending on who you ask) is my willingness to try new foods. I do have my limits,* but I'll give pretty much anything a go as long as it seems edible. And sometimes even if it does not seem edible, if it arouses my curiosity enough.** Hence, when I went to the Tokon Shop this past weekend I decided to buy this: I'm also weak to things that come with free trading cards. I honestly did not have high hopes. I've only ever had protein bars in the States before, and none that impressed me much. The closest thing I have had to a protein bar in Japan is Calorie Mate, and that stuff was NASTY.*** However, I had previously tried the NJPW protein powder and it was ok, so I threw caution to the wind. Regret wrapped in a shiny package? The verdict? Edible. And the chocolate flavor was strong enough to satisfy my craving for sweets at the time. It was a little too hard, but I was drinking tea and that helped. The only bad thing was the packa...

  Aren't they precious? <3

Hiromu and Naito have a new towel for sale. Looking at them in the promo images, I was struck by a thought that I have had about these two before. You know the whole golden retriever/black cat personality thing? Naito is the golden retriever physically and Hiromu the cat, but, personality-wise, Hiromu is the golden retriever and Naito is the black cat. Maybe this only makes sense to me, but to me it makes perfect sense and these pictures really show it off. To the left is a cat-dog and to the right is a dog-cat.* Do you see it? Hiromu's a cat that's had waaaaay too much of the nip and has the ultra-zoomies while Naito is the older dog whose disdain for everything is always apparent. Watch "Fievel Goes West" or read "Pixie and Brutus" and I think you'll get it. Anyway, long story short, I love their friendship and I may be buying this towel. P.S. Is it me, or does Hiromu look like a fresh-faced tween in his picture? I need to do a post on NJPW boys aging...

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."

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...