This weekend the G1 Climax kicks off, and it’s an occasion that ranks right up there with Wrestle Kingdom as one of the best times of year. (I guess Christmas just edges into the top ten). It’s New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual round-robin tournament and is regarded as the most grueling tournament in wrestling. The month-long tournament involves two blocks […]
One of the disappointing things about watching old shows on the WWE Network is sometimes themes will be replaced due to licencing issues. The most grating examples of this are Chris Jericho and Diamond Dallas Page in WCW. Sometimes due to not wanting to licence, or being unable to, a promotion will create a new theme for a wrestler. And […]
This weekend New Japan Pro Wrestling are running two events in the MetLife Dome (formerly Seibu Dome) in Saitama. These are the first two events the company has ran in the building since the 2014 G1 Climax. Over the last two years when New Japan has ran Wrestle Kingdom events at the Tokyo Dome, the events have opened with an […]
A trip to Mexico can really change a person. Tetsuya Naito learnt how to be tranquilo. Akira Hokuto became a demon and young Yoshihiro Asai became a dragon. Asai was a New Japan trainee struggling to get anywhere due to his size. He relocated to Mexico, learnt the lucha libre style from Bruce Lee (or so the canon seems to […]
Apologies for the lack of a podcast, I’ve been a bit crook (it’s not the COVID) and unable to speak for an hour straight (though some may argue I lack the ability to do it well while healthy anyway…) but to make up for it, here’s a special extra edition of the Roadtrip Music series. Of course this is for […]
As of writing there is a lot of talk in the wrestling news about the potential for CM Punk to return to wrestling after a seven year hiatus. Ten years ago he delivered what is known as the ‘pipe bomb’ promo. A worked shoot in which he went after John Cena and Vince McMahon that led into the acclaimed WWE […]
This week we are remembering Bobby Eaton who unfortunately passed away on August 4 at the age of 62. Eaton is famous for being half of (alongside Dennis Condrey and later Stan Lane) one of the greatest tag teams of all time, The Midnight Express. Throw in Jim Cornette as manager and you’ve got a team that was the complete […]
Rock ‘n’ wrestling was the driving force behind Vince McMahon’s expansion (and world domination plans) of the World Wrestling Federation. However, he by no means had any exclusivity in the idea. Throughout the 80s around the territories wrestlers were embracing the idea of entrance music and quite often this was rock and roll. Some territories shot promotional videos of their […]
Sekai chi kawaii no wa? [Who is the cutest in the world?] Itoh-chan! Last week I wrote about the uniqueness of Rina Yamashita. This week we take a look at another extremely unique character in professional wrestling and somebody who just celebrated a birthday (July 22). Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s Maki Itoh. Itoh was an idol singer (a type of […]
