Paid Members waters44 Posted February 13 Author Paid Members Posted February 13 I try to watch the Cagematch highest rated match of this day in history, and this one is one of the best matches I’ve seen. Aja Kong vs KAORU from GAEA on 13th February 2000. An incredibly violent and exciting brawl of a match. Teeth go flying! I’d easily go full five banger on it I think GAEA was one of the only promotions on TWC that I didn’t record, what a fool! Quote
Paid Members JLM Posted February 17 Paid Members Posted February 17 (edited) Just watched the that match above, absolutely bonkers. Aka Kong in typically terrifying form but I was blown away by Kaoru. LOVED the opening, told me everything I needed to know and grabbed me by the balls from the first second of action. I’m waiting for Kong to bat away the handshake, or to accept it and then drill her with a short arm clothesline etc. but no. Our underdog is here with a gameplan. Fighting dirty, fighting desperate and has no regard for her safety, Kong’s safety or any semblance of sportsmanship. It also sets a pace and intensity level that doesn’t drop for the entire twenty minutes. My second favourite spot was Kong on the top with Kauro down, only for Kaoru to spring up and heave Kong from the top rope onto the mat. That spot you often see there will be a big tease as the babyface fights for a powerbomb or a German etc. but here again it was Kaoru just doing everything possible to stay in it and hurt Kong as much as possible. Ugly and scrappy in the best possible way. Third was the Kong counter to an attempted running frankensteiner. Again it’s a classic David vs Goliath spot. I’m waiting for Aja to catch her and splat down with a powerbomb, instead she lifts her up and over, Kaoru doing the Chris Hamrick bump except she goes over the top rope. Actually swore out loud at that. Incredible spot. The shot of Kaoru running Kong along one entire side of the building to smack her into a wall was absolutely tremendous as well. I know the screaming during Joshi matches can be polarising but I found it particularly effective here, Kaoru expressing raw determination, Kong letting out ungodly and uncharacteristically vulnerable screams during the amazing middle section of arm annihilation. Then Kong returning to her more confident roaring towards the end. It all felt entirely warranted and the crowd matched their energy for the duration. All of the plunder and table stuff was brilliant, no plodding dead time, one great moment where one of them spent too long faffing with a table and was immediately punished for it. I want to see more of that in all hardcore matches. I mentioned before that in Hangman vs Mox Texas Death one of my favourite things was Shafir doing plunder admin because it eliminated so much of the momentum killing down time you often get in these things. This had none of that. They were trying to kill each other at every turn, every weapon shot seemed to be an opportunistic spur of the moment type thing and they gave each other no respite. A war from start to finish. I should probably not be happy about all the head shots and an actual smashed out tooth but it’s too late for me to tell them off for it now. What a banger, also @waters44please feel free to share more Cagematch sicko matches of the day. Edited February 17 by JLM Quote
SoloJones Posted February 18 Posted February 18 13 hours ago, JLM said: Just watched the that match above, absolutely bonkers. Aka Kong in typically terrifying form but I was blown away by Kaoru. Kaoru was one of my favourite discoveries from watching The Wrestling Channel back in the day, bumps like a maniac and is an incredible brawler. I've probably seen that Aja match years ago, but will definitely have a look later. Quote
Paid Members waters44 Posted February 18 Author Paid Members Posted February 18 (edited) Absolutely fantastic write up @JLM , superb stuff! You have managed to sum up my thoughts exactly. Quote Third was the Kong counter to an attempted running frankensteiner. Again it’s a classic David vs Goliath spot. I’m waiting for Aja to catch her and splat down with a powerbomb, instead she lifts her up and over, Kaoru doing the Chris Hamrick bump except she goes over the top rope. Actually swore out loud at that. Incredible spot. I am so glad you mentioned this spot as it was the highlight of the whole thing for me. After watching thousands of hours of wrestling its rare to gasp out loud during a match but that moment was one of them. Thank you again for the review, it's made me want to watch the match again to be honest! Edited February 18 by waters44 Quote
Paid Members JLM Posted March 2 Paid Members Posted March 2 (edited) NJPW New Beginning in USA 27/02/26 Some juicy matches on this card so had to cherry pick a few of them: New Japan Strong Openweight title: Oleg Boltin vs Tomohiro Ishii (c) This was exactly what I expected and exactly what I needed it to be. They beat the shit out of each other for 12 minutes and it was a great showcase for Boltin on his US debut. The guy is an absolute beast and was a joy to watch manhandling Ishii for most of this, throwing him all over the place with the greatest of ease. They did an almost comedically long chop exchange that I didn't love as much as the live crowd buuuut it did the serve the purpose of getting the challenger over as he ended up winning it, which is a rare achievement against Ishii. Happy to see the title change hands here; Oleg needs more exposure on these US shows as he's such an impressive talent with seemingly limitless potential. It also opens up loads of fresh matches for him due to the cross over with AEW on these shows. I'm just sad Powerhouse Hobbs is no longer on that list as that would have been a glorious meat battle. AEW National Championship: Ricochet (c) vs Taiji Ishimori Surprising that these two have never had a singles match before. Pretty good match this. I love the way Ricochet adds bits of shit-housing to his more crowd pleasing offense to ensure he doesn't get cheers. They did the classic rapid exchange into flip into pose bit early on in this except, instead of posing, Ricochet had a bit of a tantrum about Ishimori matching him move for move and tried to walk out of the match. Later after landing his picture perfect Fosbury flop to the outside, he immediately singles out some poor unassuming kid in the front row, landing on his feet from the move and walking straight over to this kid to get in his face without breaking stride. Good performance from Ishimori too, despite one slightly scary moment where he hit the top rope when going for a big tope to the outside. He recovered well but was close to having a Top Dolla moment. Other than that it was a good scrappy performance from him, not shying away from fighting as dirty as Ricochet and putting together some good hope spots towards the end based around working RIcochet's arm to set up the Bone Lock. The result was never in doubt but they still delivered a hot closing stretch and a solid match overall. New Japan TV Title: El Phantasmo (c) vs Konosuke Takeshita This is now the FIFTH singles match between these two. They haven't managed to have one as good as the first yet, but they generally have good chemistry together. This one had the slight twist of the 15 minute time limit as per the rules of the TV title. Fun match this, playing off the fact that they know each other so well and have developed a personal rivalry after all these encounters. EL-P had a a nice escape from the Blue Thunder Bomb, Takeshita busted out some of EL-P's own signature moves, all that good stuff. Really exciting final two minutes as the time limit drew near, ending with EL-P hitting Takeshita's finish on him as the bell sounded. The crowd was naturally disappointed with the time limit draw, so EL-P gets on the mic and demands five more minutes. I normally wouldn't love this for the TV title as the time limit is what sets it apart from the other titles buuuut these two have already had a time limit draw for it and it felt well earned in this rivalry. The champion asking for five more minutes to risk their title makes sense when it's against a rival/bogey opponent where a draw simply will not satisfy him. Frantic, panicked sprint after the restart and the restart DOES backfire on EL-P! So happy to see Takeshita win this. It's not a title befitting his status necessarily, but the 15 minute time limit format plays to his strengths so well, much as it did for Jeff Cobb. He is going to have some real bangers defending this thing and I look forward to them. IWGP Women's title; Syuri (c) vs Athena Syuri is both the IWGP women's and IWGP Strong women's champion. Athena asked for both titles to be on the line here. Syuri said she would if Athena put up the ROH Women's title. Athena, of course, said no. This was tremendous! It was the match I wanted to see the most on this card and it did not disappoint. They have better match in them and I could tell they were holding a little back for a rematch, but they had amazing chemistry and it was comfortably the best match of the four I'd watched so far. I really liked how the momentum shifted as it went on. Initially Athena is trying to match Syuri move for move in terms of speed and technique and she isn't quite keeping up. It's close but Syuri is on top. Syuri's early advantage is halted when Athena catches a cross body on the outside and flings Syuri into the guard rail out of desperation. This looked brutal and was a perfect way to illustrate than Athena's advantages in the match are power, aggression and willingness to fight dirty. Excellent spell of dominance for Athena after this, smashing Syuri to bits with brutal strikes and explosive offense as she does. So Syuri then falls back to her MMA training, striking back herself but mostly leaning on her submission and grappling skills. This turns the momentum back in her favour, so much so that the crowd is rooting for Athena by the end. Athena's selling as Syuri destroyed her arm was brilliant. She conveys the panic and pain of being in a submission so well and she's one of the best in the business at fighting for the ropes. It feels to real when she does it, contorting her body and using every part of it to desperately twist and stretch until she has the very tip of her boot touching a rope. It always looks so ugly and desperate and it never feels like the opponent is having to help her towards the ropes to let her escape. She also lets the injured arm hang and either avoids using it, sells the effects of using it, or throws strikes and tries to initiate offense that looks all unco-ordinated and sloppy because the limb isn't working as she needs it to. Excellent stuff throughout and, even though this was another match where the winner was not in doubt, I was still invested and they still fully had the crowd by the end of it. This was 18 minutes long and I'd have happily given them 5 or 6 more. The one criticism I've seen is that the finish seemed slightly abrupt as they were just getting into the highest gear. It worked for me though, as Athena was fighting with one arm and just sort of wildly swinging and that allowed Syuri to catch her. It made sense in the context of the match and it left us wanting more by design, as there is most definitely a rematch on the cards. After the match Athena refuses the handshake. Syuri responds by grabbing the ROH women's title from ringside and holding it above her head before very condescendingly handing it back. Athena looked visibly shaken by the loss. Great stuff all round, excited for round 2! IWGP Global Heavyweight title: Yota Tsuji (c) vs Andrade El Idolo Good move making this for Tsuji's less prestigious secondary title rather than the big one, as at least it allowed this main event to have some shred of doubt about the outcome. Still extremely unlikely that Tsuji would be losing on this show, but him losing the World Title to Andrade here was a less than zero possibility. Regardless, Tsuji on the most important run of his career, Andrade is in top form at the moment and this sounded like a delightful match on paper, so even a 99% predictable outcome isn't the end of the world. Tsuji is currently on his quest to singlehandedly restore New Japan to glory and, after defeating Takeshita, now intends to take down the rest of AEW one at a time. I like that the decision to only defend the secondary title here ties in with his focus on New Japan pride as well. If someone wants the IWGP World Title they need to come to Japan and take it from him. A lot of people saying this was the best match on the show but I preferred Athena vs Syuri. This was still excellent though, these are two perfectly matched opponents and they wrestled the match as such, going back and forth for the duration with nobody maintaining an advantage for more than a minute or two. Loads of spectacular sequences and counters with both guys having the same mix of power offense and high flying lucha antics,, brutal chops on both sides, Tsuji showing great defiance and determination any time he was briefly on the back foot. Red hot closing stretch as is the norm for Tsuji matches, some superb near falls, a great moment where Tsuji looked certain to land his Gene Blaster spear only for Andrade to spear Tsuji instead. Thoroughly entertaining for the full 28 minutes, despite neither guy holding the advantage it didn't feel like an exhibition or aimless spotfest either. It was definitely a fight and it was taking its toll, there was simply very little to choose between them so it remained back and forth until the end. Loved the finish with Tsuji using the Boston Crab to defeat an outsider for the second time to assert New Japan dominance. He also had a very good stab at an English promo after the match. Wasn't perfect but he got his point across and the American crowd loved it. The comment about not wanting New Japan to be "AEW's farm" is perhaps a bit too real though! Fun show that. Felt a bit more consequential than some of the other New Japan Strong/USA shows, particularly with two titles changing hands and multiple never-before-seen singles pairings. Main event and EL-P/Takeshita were both very enjoyable and Athena/Syuri was excellent. Edited March 2 by JLM Quote
The King Of Swing Posted April 11 Posted April 11 So at a press conference held by Unagi Sayaka, Hikari Noa just announced that's she is returning to wrestling. For those unfamiliar she is one of the original Up Up Girls in TJPW. The one who had a thing for hardcore/death matches. She suddenly left the business under a cloud ages ago. Rumored that she got into trouble for leakeding backstage info to a fan she got close to, but nothing was ever confirmed. Regardless though, I'm happy to see her back and hope it's not just a one off. She showed a lot of potential in TJPW Quote
Merzbow Posted April 20 Posted April 20 Pretty much gone totally under the radar for 'Mania week/end but NJPW had a show in Vegas headilined by an insane three way tag-team deathmatch: Masashi Takeda & Rina Yamashita vs. El Desperado & Jun Kasai vs. The H8 Club (Matt Tremont & Nick Gage) The rest of the card is wild too.. New Japan, Stardom, FREEDOMS, GCW and other freelancers all over the place. Worth a look, everything is good to great with ZSJ vs Fuminori Abe kicking it off with a banger. Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted April 21 Paid Members Posted April 21 The first indie tape I ever got was CZW UN F'N BELIEVABLE 2001 which featured Jun Kasai getting mangled by the H8 Club in a legendary brawl. Absolutely crazy that all these years later Kasai and Gage are still going at it. Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted April 21 Paid Members Posted April 21 That deathmatch is absolutely bonkers, too. My taste for deathmatches is the FMW variety, where they stall and tease the big spots to really play up the drama, whereas this is very much the modern US deathmatch style of just relentlessly hitting horrible weapon shot after horrible weapon shot until eventually they stop, but it's one of the better examples of that genre. I'm glad Merzbow explained that it was a three-way tag, because I assumed it was just two teams, and just had absolutely no idea who was teaming with who by the end of it. It honestly barely matters. Quote
Merzbow Posted April 21 Posted April 21 (edited) 6 hours ago, BomberPat said: it's one of the better examples of that genre That's that FREEDOMS style for you, they've taken deathmatches to the most extreme yet do them so much better than the US while obviously being inspired by them like BJW also were. Guys like Takeda, Sugiura, Violento Jack and of course Jun Kasai being genuinely great wrestlers on top of everything else helps, Takeda's an MMA guy so no idea how he ended up this way but he's the best. I don't know how El Desperado convinced New Japan to have him do these shows though, he's booking them himself with their blessing and on their service. If anyone gets the itch for more this three way match from last year might just be my favourite of any style in recent years.. far more well rounded that the Vegas one. I even used it as the backdrop for a gig I played. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9fvjj8 Edited April 21 by Merzbow Quote
The King Of Swing Posted April 21 Posted April 21 Rina Yamashita has been great fun in Stardom, as well. Can really go in the ring and is just cool as fuck. Fingers crossed that she enters this year's 5* GP. Potential for some absolute bangers in there. Also if Hikari Noa is sticking around, I'm hoping that Stardom also eventually make her an offer. She could really thrive there, imo. Immediately stick her with Mi Vida Loca. Sorted. Rina Yamashita, Maki Itoh and Hikari Noa, all wrestling in Stardom. Quote
ultimo the great Posted April 21 Posted April 21 7 hours ago, Merzbow said: Takeda's an MMA guy so no idea how he ended up this way but he's the best. He was a BJW fan growing up. before one of his Death Match title shots early on in his BJW career they showed a video of him as a schoolboy getting his BJW school bag signed by Abdullah Kobayashi. Since coming back from his semi-retirement he's been even crazier The 3 way tag match was good i still think the Kasai/Takeda/Desperado three way and Kasai/Desperado matches were better. Quote
The King Of Swing Posted May 26 Posted May 26 In another 2026 moment. Utami Hayashishita has just casually returned to Stardom to face off against former partner Saya Kamitani. For context. Utami was one of the half dozen wrestlers that jumped to Marigold, following Rossy Ogawa getting shit canned. So that's Utami, Giulia (who was never sticking around, tbf) and Mirai, all gone from Marigold. Though I think Mirai might have worked a recent show as a favour. With Mayu Iwatani out injured, Marigold's main event scene is in pretty rough shape. Quote
Infinity Land Posted May 27 Posted May 27 (edited) Surprised this hasn't been touched on yet. Might be worth it's own thread but there's bound to be people better versed on the topic to start one. There was recent news that WWE in Japan is finally going to Netflix in Japan this year. A few years ago they partnered with ABEMA the joint streaming venture from TV Asahi and CyberAgent (parent company of CyberFight that operate NOAH, DDT, TJPW). The loss of the WWE content may well have triggered what comes next. Bushiroad has sold NJPW to TV Asahi & CyberAgent. Bushiroad still stays in the wrestling game due to their ownership stake of Stardom. https://www.njpw1972.com/649902 Quote We hereby announce that our largest shareholder, Bushiroad Inc.,(“Bushiroad”) has concluded a share transfer agreement as of today with TV Asahi Corporation (“TV Asahi”) and CyberAgent, Inc.( “CyberAgent”) regarding Bushiroad’s shares in our company (the “Share Transfer”). As TV Asahi is already a shareholder of our company, this Share Transfer constitutes an additional acquisition of shares for them. Our company will become a consolidated subsidiary of TV Asahi once the necessary procedures have been completed. Currently, we have no plans to make any changes to our various business operations, including the events we organize, as a result of this Share Transfer. We would like to express our gratitude to Bushiroad, which has supported our business for many years as our largest shareholder, and we look forward to working together with TV Asahi and CyberAgent to further expand our business. Thank you very much for your continued support. For more details regarding the Share Transfer, please refer to the press release from Bushiroad . https://bushiroad.co.jp/en/news/information Edited May 27 by Infinity Land Quote
The King Of Swing Posted May 27 Posted May 27 First Utami returns to Stardom, and now this. Wild times. From what I can make out the sale won't effect things like njpwworld, so people hoping for New Japan to be added to wrestleuniverse, will probably be disappointed. Hasn't Stardom been out performing New Japan in recent years? Quote
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