Puroresu News/Views: The only thing that makes sense is money laundering.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > Puroresu News/Views: The only thing that makes sense is money laundering.

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

forkboy84 posted:

HE WAS CLEARLY VERY OVER UNTIL THE BOOKERS DECIDED TO HAVE HIM LOSE REPEATEDLY TO MUTOH HOLY gently caress THIS IS WWE LEVEL poo poo

Kaito needs out of this lovely company. Someone give All Japan enough money to sign him.

He's going to New Japan, forkboy

# ¿ Jun 29, 2023 22:23

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 09:45

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Everyone in the audience will get a chance to pin the former GHC champ.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2023 20:56

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I watched a Kento match and it was pretty good but are his only big moves the jumping knee and the arm trapped bridging suplex? That's cool and all, but I guess I expected more the way he was hyped up. I like AJPWs juniors though.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2023 22:41

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

That's cool. I only saw the one match after all. Good call on the Okada comparison.

E. I'm gonna watch his match with Nakajima from July.

apophenium fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Sep 11, 2023

# ¿ Sep 11, 2023 00:20

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Who's Gonna Top is already going but I think I'm gonna hold off and catch it tomorrow. Mainly wanna see Takeshita vs. MAO and Saki Akai vs. Chris Brookes. Hope it's fun for y'all catching it live!

# ¿ Sep 24, 2023 03:20

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Huh, wonder what he's gonna do. I like his smile and I liked his match with Kento. Best of luck to him.

Does his departure raise or lower the average NOAH wrestler's age?

# ¿ Sep 26, 2023 04:14

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

forkboy84 posted:

I was down on the guy in the lovely bear suit on the AJPW tour until night 5, when in the post match promo he gifted Dan & Suwama jars of honey and they ate them together

Hitting people with a fish should be a DQ. AJPW refs are slacking

# ¿ Nov 7, 2023 03:59

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I'm finally going to watch good old(er) matches and I had a quick Q. If I go through and watch the Cagematch "Career Highlights" of, say, Kenta Kobashi, would that be a good strategy? It seems a lot easier to find specific matches on YouTube or wherever than full shows. I kind of want to go somewhat chronologically. I'd be looking at Kobashi, Muto, Kawada, Misawa, Liger, Nagata, Hashimoto, Sasaki, Shiozaki, and Akiyama (and any others you may suggest).

# ¿ Nov 21, 2023 02:51

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I'm adding Mochizuki, KENTA, and Kojima. I actually watched Kojima in a match with Hiroyoshi Tenzan versus Steve Williams and George Hines just this morning!

# ¿ Nov 21, 2023 03:32

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I watched three matches:

Genichiro Tenryu & Samson Fuyuki v. Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask II
Jumbo Tsuruta, The Great Kabuki, & Masanobu Fuchi v. Mitsuhara Misawa, Akira Taue, & Kenta Kobashi
Jumbo Tsuruta v. Mitsuhara Misawa

What a fascinating trilogy of matches! The first one I mainly watched to see Tenryu and Misawa before he unmasked. The 6-man had excellent psychology and of course the elbow strike that changed the course of puroresu history. Kobashi eats a lot of poo poo here, taking a whipping by the vets. But the youngins actually get the win!

And the singles match was stellar. I love watching this era with the huge, loud crowds, the wrestlers running through swathes of fans, it has such a different energy to anything going today. The crowd gets behind Misawa and he picks up the surprise win (interestingly, it looked like Tsuruta had to help Misawa flip over for the reversal, what a worker). I only know the vague outline of the ramifications of this shock finish, but it does feel like a massive swing. I love that Giant Baba was on commentary. Really cool of him to take a gamble on Misawa.

I also read the Observer from the week Misawa died, and man, that story is just so tragic.

But, I've whet my appetite for 90s puro so I'll keep on trucking with Misawa for a bit. There's another trilogy of matches culminating in the Misawa v. Tsuruta rematch from September of 1990.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2023 17:55

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I don't think I'm an interesting enough writer to make a whole rear end thread about watching 90s and early 2000s puro but drat I'm loving the stuff I've watched. I love when Jumbo raises his arm and the crowd shouts and I also love Akira Taue's sumo chops. The crowds from this era are just insane and elevate everything like crazy. They go nuts when Misawa elbows someone it rules. Thanks all for the encouragement. I was so easy to get wrapped up in watching all the latest poo poo but I've really developed a taste for the older stuff now.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2023 22:07

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Suplex Liberace posted:

i remember when i had a thread about that...

Yeah it was good!

# ¿ Dec 1, 2023 02:54

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Is this referee I keep seeing in these 90s AJPW matches the same guy I see in current AJPW? White polo? Kyohei Wada? If so, that rules.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2023 21:34

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Looking at Steve "Doctor Death" Williams wrestle in the 1990 Real World Tag League is tripping me out. Dude's 30 years old and looks like he's creeping up on 50. And lmao his partner Terry Gordy is a year younger. What were they feeding these guys

# ¿ Dec 26, 2023 22:28

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I'm not really qualified, but here's what I did

MVP - Kento Miyahara
Joshi MVP - Giulia
Best Moment - Shinsuke Nakamura absorbing Great Muta's mist
Best Wrestler - Kento Miyahara
Best Jr. Heavyweight - Rising HAYATO
Best Tag Team - Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi
Match of the Year - Katsuhiko Nakajima v. Kento Miyahara 7/17
Show of the Year - Wrestle Kingdom 17 1/4
Best Promotion - AJPW
Most Improved - Jun & Rei Saito
Most Underrated - Kaito Kiyomiya
Rookie of the Year - Yuma Anzai
Best Foreigner - Will Ospreay

Excited to be more on top of AJPW, STARDOM, and others this year.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 04:34

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

(Bear in mind I haven't seen any match Bryan Danielson wrestled before 2022) Is Charlie Dempsey doing a young Bryan Danielson type gimmick?

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 05:09

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

SG Bamboo posted:

He wrestles like his father, William Regal

I haven't seen him wrestle either. :shobon:

I saw the maroon trunks and mat wrestling and my mind went to Bryan Danielson.

Pretty neat little match. The Anzai stuff with Nakajima was the most interesting part

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 05:18

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Kota Ibushi is not a smart man. And shame on NOAH for booking that match and running it anyways. Haven't seen it but I heard it was a poo poo show. No one comes out of this looking good.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 14:30

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

forkboy84 posted:

Oh my god guys, the old man explosion match on yesterday's All Japan show is exquisite, I need Dave Meltzer to watch this absolute mess.

Bout to watch it now. Really enjoyed the first three matches! Is this really the last show til Feb 8th? Need more AJPW in my life

# ¿ Jan 29, 2024 02:45

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Oh my god Great Kojika is EIGHTY-ONE?!

I guess they make up for a light Q1 by going wild with the Champion Carnival in April and May.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2024 03:06

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Not Nakajima getting sued for gimmick infringement :sigh:

# ¿ Feb 5, 2024 20:11

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

AJPW President has refused offers to sell the company

'He can't deny that he feels like he's wasting his time, but his passion for professional wrestling remains unchanged. He flatly refused numerous offers to acquire the group and continued to provide funding. He is determined to "protect All Japan Pro Wrestling." '

quote:

What is the correct answer? What should I do? Even in this foggy state, we have no choice but to repeat trial and error. If it fails, just fix it.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2024 21:12

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

forkboy84 posted:

Watching the NTV 70th Anniversary show. Great Korakuen crowd. Gotta say, the All Japan lads brought it more than the NOAH boys. Almost like AJPW put on a match with 5 hungry young wrestlers and the Best of the Best, and NOAH gave us one rookie and 5 guys older than Kento...

Not putting your best foot forward on a show that will end up on a major network in some form is some peak NOAH stupidity. Not that their match was bad, it was just mid. It was treated like a midcard house show match

I loving love the old style graphics of the names of the wrestlers in green, took me back to watching old tapes.

It was a really fun show with great presentation

# ¿ Feb 11, 2024 02:02

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

It really made things feel special. Love when all that history is treated with that kind of reverence

Though it does really highlight how different things are now in comparison. Like watching Misawa fight through a rabid crowd to get to the ring. I dunno if things will ever be like that again

# ¿ Feb 11, 2024 02:20

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

SG Bamboo posted:

The best AWG offer match to date and the crowd actually seemed to care a little, maybe the company forcing this partnership is doing some good

I'm catching up on the Excite series and the tag match from 2/20 was pretty good and got me excited to see more AWG

# ¿ Mar 9, 2024 03:53

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

That sucks, I watched the 2005 G1 Climax on a whim and it was fun watching Yoshie squash folks in his shiny pink singlet. RIP

# ¿ Mar 10, 2024 16:31

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I love the tradition of making rookies shave their heads. Lil wrestlebaby

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 15:51

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

All Japan on the rise... Ikemen Jiro is a draw brother

# ¿ Mar 23, 2024 17:32

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Oh hell yeah, AJPW.tv finally updated their player so you can do things like press spacebar to pause/resume and double-tap left and right arrows to rewind or fast-forward 10 seconds. We made it to the 21st century!!!

E. I was wrong, you can not pause/resume with spacebar. What the gently caress.

apophenium fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Mar 28, 2024

# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 21:14

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I was hoping they were building to another match between him and Kento but oh well. Thought he had a lot of juice at the beginning doing the Toukon poo poo with the Inoki kicks and whatnot, holding the title hostage kinda, but it did start to peter out. So it goes! Excited for what the Champion Carnival will bring.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2024 00:01

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

That's good for Ayabe and good for AJPW, even if he's a bit gormless. I like him too, hell of a dropkick.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2024 13:55

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

I've started a big writeup on AJPW's upcoming Champion Carnival and its participants. Should I post it here or should we see if a whole new thread will bring more eyes to AJPW. I really like what they're doing and am excited about the tournament and want more people to give it a try

# ¿ Apr 9, 2024 15:17

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Ziggy Tzardust posted:

As someone who doesn’t watch much NOAH, how hyped should I be about seeing Seiki Yoshioka next week?

https://x.com/revprouk/status/1778365322984136961?s=46&t=_akPFYiqAqKbxYd3RPf4Jg

He's been doing matches in AJPW and is a decent worker. He does a really cool jumping axe kick.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2024 15:13

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 09:45

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

fez_machine posted:

The women wrestling in a padded room is ChocoPro/Gatoh Move (which is probably the place you'll see the most intergender) and I'll use it as an excuse to talk about Japanese women's wrestling, or Joshi, in general.

Basically, in the 40s and 50s Mildred Burke went on a massive run through various countries touring women's wrestling after having made it big in America. Although American wrestling promoters managed to kill serious women's wrestling in the States, in Japan it set off a mini-boom of enthusiasm for women's wrestling. It soften in the 60s and a lot of promotions died but in the 70s, one promotion All Japan Women's Wrestling (or AJW) managed to get a tv deal and packaged a tag team as both wrestlers and pop singers which lit the fuse for a successive series of increasingly larger booms focused on the promotion until the mid 90s. The late 80s team of the Crush Girls (another wrestling/pop idol combo) was bigger in popularity than Hulk Hogan. AJW's wrestling is and was some of the very best wrestling by men or women to ever exist.

AJW had very restrictive entrance requirements and rules for active wrestlers (most notably forced retirement at 26) which lead to a spate of competing promotions forming in the late 80s. These promotions started dying in the early 90s and AJW had a series of amazing inter-promotional shows culminating in the 10 hour long Big Egg Wrestling Universe in front of 32,000 fans. The Japanese economic crash and end of kayfabe hit all promotions in Japan, albeit with different effects, but AJW began to suffer the consequences of ill advised real estate ventures from its owners. They had also lost much of their female fan base that had lead to their late 80s success and a lot of their booking and locker room culture relied on there being a surplus of interested trainees willing to suffer the often brutal and humiliating effects of both. With declining profits and top stars reaching the forced retirement age, new promotions sprang up once again.

Neither AJW nor its major competitors (Gaea, Arison, or the first iteration of Neo Ladies Pro-Wrestling) would survive past 2005. The years of the first decade of the Millennium are known among fans as the Joshi Dark Ages. 2000 took down Neo. In 2002, AJW lost its tv deal. Gaea and Arison closed their doors in 2003. AJW finally folded in 2005.There were signs of survival and strength though especially at the end of the decade, the second iteration of Neo Ladies was going strong as Neo Women's Wrestling, there were promotions that had managed to cling on through the 90s and 00s like JWP and Oz Academy, and the creation of ultra-local promotions like Sendai Girls.

The true paradigm shift and revival came with a small training promotion called Ice Ribbon. Originally promoted as a spin off from Neo. Ice Ribbon focused on showcasing very young and green wrestlers, non traditional venues, and a pop idol aesthetic updated to the Akihabara 48 era. AEW wrestlers like Riho and Hikaru Shida came from here. Ice Ribbon proved to be economically successful with weekly shows to 70 people, it was only time before others decided to create more scaled up versions. From 2010 or so, apart from Neo and JWP folding in 2010 and 2015, there's an era of relative stability and growing interest in Joshi wrestling. And some ten to thirteen years later this stability leads to Stardom (founded 2010) becoming the number two promotion in Japan.

Here's where the current Joshi scene sorts between the athletic focused AJW inspired promotions and the more AKB48-style idol Ice Ribbon inspired promotions, while acknowledging that most have some measure of influence from both.

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.

Incredible write-up, cheers bud

# ¿ Apr 13, 2024 15:46

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > Puroresu News/Views: The only thing that makes sense is money laundering.