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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.
 
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Chinook
Apr 11, 2006

SHODAI

 I watch AEW weekly (pretty much dynamite only, sometimes collision, and the papes) with my son, and we pretty much love it. We’ve watched from the start and, although it has had its ups and downs, we’re enjoying it.

Prior to that I was into NJPW a little bit (probably why I started watching AEW honestly) but I was never a die hard fan.

I can’t stomach WWE although I watched WWF as a kid in the late 80s and early 90s and it worked for me then.

I am mystified by all of the different Japanese promotions, and wonder how I might dip my toe in.

All I’ve seen in the past is videos of Ibushi fighting a doll and also getting fireworks shot at him, as well as some women fighting in a tiny padded room. I’m okay with this level of variety, and don’t really require a traditional experience, which is probably why I am not attracted to NJPW right now. It seems like many of the people I enjoyed in that promotion are in AEW now anyway. A traditional setting is perfectly fine though, but it isn’t a requirement or anything.

I’m concerned about not speaking or reading any Japanese at all. Ideally there would be English subtitles in something, or at least for the more important shows. Or a timely blog with some explanations.

I don’t mind signing up for streaming services or whatever.

What might be a good fit for something to check out that might only require an hour or two a week?

This thread is long so I’m sure there are good answers to this already, so I apologize for that. :)

* # ¿ Apr 13, 2024 11:33
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# ¿ May 16, 2024 20:08
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Chinook
Apr 11, 2006

SHODAI

Jerusalem posted:

The absolute best value for money deal you can get for Japanese wrestling is Wrestle Universe which includes a number of promotions for 1298 YEN a month (incredible value) but primarily:

NOAH - The "serious" promotion, #2 behind New Japan in Japan, has its issues particularly around some baffling booking decisions at times but overall delivers very good quality and hard-hitting wrestling.
DDT - The "goofy" promotion that does a ton of comedy, but usually has far more serious matches at the top of the card with some truly excellent wrestlers. This is where you will have seen stuff like wrestling a blow-up doll.
TJPW - DDT's sister promotion, the second biggest women's wrestling promotion in Japan behind Stardom (which itself is arguably the 2nd biggest wrestling promotion in all of Japan) - does a mixture of comedy and serious, has some great characters, excellent wrestlers, and some of the best loving theme songs going.

NOAH's big shows regularly have English commentary. DDT will also often do English commentary, though their teams mix up and range from great (anytime Chris Brookes and Baliyan Akki get together is a treat) to serviceable to not very good. TJPW sometimes but not often does English commentary. Both DDT and TJPW will often get live English translations going on Twitter, though I don't recall the specific addresses sorry - the guy who used to do TJPW regularly, Mr. Haku, moved on to other things though he does do live commentary on some of Chris Brookes' "Baka-Gaijin" Shows that also air on Wrestle Kingdom.

Others can tell you more about the other promotions on the service, like Sendai Girls and Ganbare Pro, but the point is that WU is astonishingly good value for money.

There's also All Japan, which was THE promotion in the 1990s and still exists today albeit with entirely different owners and is far, far smaller than its heyday. However it gets regularly talked up for the quality of its matches, and you can get a membership account there for their streaming service for (I think) 900 yen a month.

Thank you. I appreciate the write-up. I imagine the promotions mentioned don't have weekly shows, but more like NJPW where it might be a series of house shows, and bigger shows sometimes?

I suppose a good bet would be to follow forkboy84's posts here and pick a promotion and just start watching something, huh...

Do any of those mentioned above have both men/women? Or even inter-gender matches? Just curious

* # ¿ Apr 13, 2024 12:08
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Chinook
Apr 11, 2006

SHODAI

Jerusalem posted:

forkboy's write-up just reminded me of a couple years back when DDT did one of their empty Tokyo Dome matches, and it was teams from NOAH, DDT and TJPW wrestling throughout the building for a cash prize. When it finally got down to the last two teams and they were going at it, a representative from Tokyo Dome came over to congratulate the GM on a wonderful show and then gave him the bill for hiring the venue. The GM didn't have the money to pay it so he gave the guy the cash prize and then ran away as the show went off the air while the wrestlers were still fighting for it :allears:

I must admit that everything I'm reading so far makes me think that perhaps DDT is the promotion for me. I will check out lots of stuff on Youtube to get a feel for each of the promotions mentioned, though.

* # ¿ Apr 13, 2024 13:26
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Chinook
Apr 11, 2006

SHODAI

forkboy84 posted:

God that was wonderful. The perfect ending to what was an extremely fun match.

Just to make it easier for you, here's a link to the most recent Dragongate show: https://vk.com/video-4499945_456252890

It's the semi-finals & finals of their tag tournament, though there's other good stuff on there too, setting up the main event of Dead or Alive for example. I just started the video at the beginning, because you get Jae & Ho Ho talking about the card & what's happened in the tournament & the ongoing stories, but if you just want to go right to the start of the show proper then skip to about 25 minutes in, give or take a few seconds.

Oh wow, that "vk" site kinda has everything, doesn't it?

I will watch it. Thank you for the suggestion!

I'm also watching these videos, which are pretty awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuhHTjjnbxs

* # ¿ Apr 13, 2024 14:25
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Chinook
Apr 11, 2006

SHODAI

 So I finished that that Dragongate show, the one with the G1-ish tag tournament finals. I referred to this playlist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A379y8nfXDg) quite a few times, and have a bit of an idea of who the main players are, at least at the moment. I wish I had more time, because I'd like to get back into NJPW a bit, maybe, and also check out DDT and Noah. But for now, I'll stick with this.

I liked it. I wish I could understand spoken Japanese better than I do. Aside from 'oi oi oi' and 'matte matte matte' I basically have no clue what they're saying. The English commentary obviously helps a lot. From what the announcer said, he won't be on commentary again until the show in May. So, all of these shows that are going up on dragongate.live are just tag-heavy house shows with no real story progress, then? I can basically ignore them?

If not, is there a decent place for English recaps?

* # ¿ Apr 15, 2024 02:15
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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.