• New Japan - Well, you know them. All their big Japan shows go up on NJPW World, it costs $9.99/month, they have English commentary for most their shows with Chris Charlton doing live translation, which I think is about the most approachable way of getting into Japanese wrestling, just as far as convenience, between the live English commentary & also they upload backstage promos with subtitles to Youtube if you want that. It's kind of inessential but often fun.
  
• NOAH - NOAH is another company that regularly has English commentary, although I generally don't think their commentary team is as good as NJPW or DG. Stewart Fulton is alright, but Mark Pickering is a dweeb & G-Man is incredibly annoying. NOAH is also...I think it'd be fair to say that it's currently a divisive promotion, there's some amazing talent on the roster, there's some right duffers too, & the booking is sometimes very strange, to the point of frustration. See anything they do with who should be their current great ace, Kaito Kiyomiya, who they spent a year jobbing him out to old men who were friends of Great Muta. The great advantage of NOAH is they are on Wrestle Universe, which is easily the best value for money wrestling streaming service as it also has DDT, TJPW, Ganbare Pro, as well as some ZERO1, Michinoku Pro & Sendai Girls shows. And the occasional indy show too, like last month there was a CMLL women's show in Japan they aired, there are some older Promienence shows, & the incredibly silly Miyako Matsumoto produce shows Gake No Fuchi Joshi Pro.
  
• Dragongate - DG have English commentary for their monthly Korakuen Hall shows & their bigger named shows (like most Japanese groups they do a touring schedule. So right now they have started The Gate of Passion Tour & that leads up to Dead Or Alive on May 5th, which is one of "the Big 5", DG's equivalent of Royal Rumble, Mania, Summerslam & Survivor Series you could say). So far in 2024 there were 3 English commentary shows in January, 1 in Feb, 3 in March & probably 1 in April looking at the schedule. There are other shows they stream (they usually do a loop of the same venues that get streamed from, & then the non-streamed house shows are often in the boonies) but they usually have no commentary or commentary from the wrestlers which is obviously in Japanese. Most of the big story development will happen on shows that have English commentary, & it also has to be said that Jae Church is excellent in his role, he really does knock it out of the park, before he started doing commentary for them he had a DG fan site for a long time, he's probably the single most knowledgeable DG fan who isn't native Japanese & his regular partner Ho Ho Lun is an endearing side kick who does quite well in the role of "I really didn't know much about this company before I started wrestling here". There's downsides, Dragongate Network is a little pricier at 1650 Yen a month (currently about $10.75). But I would add that I think they are maybe my top promotion so far this year.
  
• DDT - I mentioned DDT are on the same streaming service as NOAH, but they are very different promotions. NOAH is serious Japanese wrestling, the legacy of Giant Bana & Mitsuhara Misawa. DDT is a company that started as a tiny indy in 1997 & is now not an indie at all but run by a huge Japanese media company. But they've still managed to retain a lot of their weirdness that makes them unique. DDT is most famous for a couple of things: comedy & Kota Ibushi. If you've ever seen gifs of Minoru Suzuki fighting in a river with a robotic mummy? DDT. They have run multiple matches in the Tokyo Dome, except every time they do it it's without a crowd & usually features an assortment of wrestlers getting in the way of the match, like you're brawling in the seating & there's Aja Kong! And you bump into her so she gets mad and beats everyone up. It's not all comedy, they have a lot of great wrestlers, the most prominent past examples being Kota Ibushi & Konosuke Takeshita, but there's a whole host of guys who are really really good alongside the guys who are really funny. Some even manage to be both. DDT really leans into the variety show aspect of wrestling, on a recent show they had an intergender grappling match featuring a former MMA world champion, Shinya Aoki, there was another show that had a bloody deathmatch, one of their most famous & best matches ever was a lighttube match, where the gimmick was there was a single light in the ring and you had to try to make your opponent break it. It's an absolute masterclass in pro wrestling. They don't really have English commentary very much but there is a fantastic fansite called Dramatic DDT that has show reports that will summarise anything you can't understand.
  

forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 12:27 on Apr 13, 2024

• Stardom: Created by former AJW big wig Rossy Ogawa as Ice Ribbon but with a greater focus on aestheticism and work rate. Bought by Bushiroad (NJPW's owners) after a threatened WWE buy out, Rossy has now left acrimoniously to found his own promotion. They have their own streaming service, good translations and high production value.
  
• Ice Ribbon: A shadow of its former self. Currently in rebuilding mode after numerous splits, departures, and controversies. Aficionados say the product is still high quality. Do not expect to find much English language support but it exists.
  
• Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling: AJW on a more sustainable Ice Ribbon level. Founded and run by one half of the Crush gals. Expect hard hitting athleticism with a bit of goofiness. The work-rate is very high here.
  
• Oz Academy: An AJW heel faction turned promotion which runs infrequent shows. Great in ring but many find the emphasis on heel interference annoying.
  
• Sendai Girls: Ultra local promotion founded by Gaea star with amazing in ring performances. Now part of the Wrestle Universe conglomerate.
  
• Gatoh Move: Ice Ribbon founder Emi Sakura's promotion formed after an acrimonious split with Ice Ribbon. Very low budget, very goofy with often very creative in-ring work. Chocopro is it's pandemic off shoot focused on youtube and mat wrestling. Good support for its large English language following. Baka Gaijin and Friends is a quasi-spin off airing each month for free on youtube. Lots of intergender.
  
• Tokyo Joshi Pro:DDT's sister promotion founded and booked by Tetsuya Koda, the interim booker of Ice Ribbon after the Sakura split. Focuses on idol aesthetics, character and sports style development of talent. You're primarily watching green wrestlers ascending a very strict hierarchy based on seniority, drawing power and in-ring talent. Often very goofy and silly in the undercard but the title scene has real weight to it. On Wrestle Universe and supported by all the same English language services as DDT.
  
• Seadlinnng:Hard hitting work rate promotion formed after the Act Yasukawa incident. Runs once a month.
  
• Actwres girl'Z: Ultra idol promotion that sometimes says they aren't a wrestling promotion. Where Act Yasukawa ended up.
  
• Pro Wrestling Wave: A mix of good in ring with lots of comedy, a JWP successor company.
  
• YMZ: Essentially Gatoh Move after dark. More adult humor and wrestling. Not a lot of English support and you'll need it.
  
• Diana: AJW lineage. Look I don't know, I think the in ring product is good? I haven't heard much about them recently.
  

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