#IWGP US Championship

[homiebeez07]

OMGGGG KENNY WON SHDJDKKSIS

[fernsjjf]

'The Cleaner' Kenny Omega, Will Take On 'The Aerial Assassin' Will Ospreay, For The IWGP US Heavyweight Championship, At The Forbidden Door. Can't Wait For Round 2.

[orangebapecamoprint]

[opinionatedwrestlingfan]

... Kenny Omega hits a kamigoye on a basically dead Osprey, followed by a One Winged Angel... And he's the IWGP US Heavyweight champion once again. Holy FUCK. WOW.

[eldesperadont]

@ AEW GIRLIES (gn) who are interested in NJPW lore

with All In coming up, I need fans that only know Kota as Kennys insane boyfriend and Jay as the silly Bullet Club bastard to know about their history with each other (and Kenny/Hangman) which spans 5 years at this point, even more if you count in Jays time as a trainee in njpw (2015/16), so he like.. watched and learned from them all – anyways lets go with the rambling recap

Starting with Jays first title win and how it came to that: early 2018, Kenny was in the midst of a power struggle in Bullet Club, his relationship with Cody was getting more strenuous by the day and the non Elite BC members were getting tired of their BS.

Kenny, trying to legitimise his position as a leader, thought recruiting new promising talent to his side would help, so he offered a young Switchblade Jay White “the opportunity of a lifetime”.

Jay accepted, only to attack him right after, and with that nothing could stop the threads holding Kennys BC together from rapidly unravelling.

Kenny would lose his US Heavyweight Championship to White soon after, and in the aftermath of the match even more. Hangman, finally taking a step out of his friend's shadow, got all up in Jays space, snatched the belt and obviously implied a challenge, but Kenny wouldnt have any of that. He pushed Adam aside and gave Jay his price back. (to the surprise of the crowd who expected Kenny to be more bitter apparently lol)

Enter Cody. Opportunistic and sinister as he was at the time he immediately stoked the flames, snapping at Kenny why he wouldnt let Hangman have that moment.

They seem to talk it out but whoops, Cody attacks Kenny after all, Adam helping him.

They are about to lay him out as Ibushi runs to Kennys aid, finally giving us the reunion people have been waiting for years.

In the following months a lot happens, Adam gets his match with Jay (and is read to filth by him - it’s essential to watch that promo, here) but doesnt succeed, the Golden Lovers and Young Bucks have an emotional feud, Cody continues being a menace with Hangman at his side, Kenny finally wins the IWGP Heavyweight belt, the Golden Elite was formed, Cody is a sad lil bitch now, they were all kinda friends again, oh and Bullet Club split fr*.

[*On one side you had Kenny and his friends, on the other BC originals Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga plus his younger brothers and technically their dad? Things were kinda messy but thats technically the BC that stayed in Japan and made Jay White their leader. The last real appearance of the Elite as BC was at the inaugural All In, their indie PPV.]

Alright end of 2018/beginning of 2019 - Kenny loses his IWGP belt at Wrestle Kingdom (njpws wrestlemania) and quietly leaves NJPW with the Bucks, Cody and Hangman, starting AEW (things behind the scenes didnt work out as expected and nooj didn’t wanna cooperate with them at first)

So yeah. Ibushi. He was all alone again, but in the summer of 2019 finally manages what he was so close to in the previous year: winning the G1 tournament.

He faced Jay White in the finals, who at that point firmly held Kennys position as Bullet Club leader and is the top gaijin of the company.

Both him and Ibushi were together with Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito the top of NJPW. And all four would be involved in the main events of the following Wrestle Kingdom. Jay and Okada as titleholders, Naito and Ibushi as challengers.

Well neither Jay or Kota came out victorious on the first WK night, but the following day, in a match for third place, Jay defeated Ibushi, making the latter the biggest loser of the event,,

Covid caused quite a mess in the following months - their next singles meeting wouldn't be till late 2020, during that years G1, where Jay gets another win over the Golden Star

but is unable to reach the finals, in contrast to Ibushi, who wins the whole tournament for a second time.

Jay doesn't wait and immediately brings up Kotas loss to him, demanding a match for the WK contract he's just won.

Alright bada bing bada boom Ibushi-

LOSES??

Yeah to the shock of everyone Jay actually managed to put himself in the main event for the following WK, thinking he'll face double champ Naito to dethrone him .. but Naito still wanted to face the G1 winner so Kota got his title shot regardless lol

so yeah we got Ibushi vs Naito on night one, and whoever wins that on day two against Jay

In complete contrast to the previous WK Ibushi would not only be victorious on the first night, but also finally beat Jay for good, becoming the undisputed double champ, and God. (their words not mine)

Which absolutely broke White, giving us a glimpse at whats really going on in the "Switchblade". He's so obsessed with success, finally wanting HIS moment, his era, and despite everything he's sacrificed it doesn't seem to happen..

(pls watch the whole promo, its an insane performance)

He'd show up for one last "contractually obligated" match, battered and bruised, taking the pin in a multiman tag match between Bullet Club and Chaos, before leaving everyone in the dark for month about whats next for him.

He'd stick with NJPW for two more years, returning even more unhinged than he already was.

Kota would go on with his reign as double champ, till NJPW unified the titles to create the IWGP World Championship (a highly unpopular move with the fans), which he's the inaugural champion for.

Jay would try his best in the New Japan Cup in hopes of getting another shot at Ibushi, but fall short in the quarterfinals - new focus new goal, he goes for the NEVER Openweight title, and becomes the first ever NJPW "Quadruple Crown" champ, having already held the IWGP US, Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championship at that point.

Ibushi, now with the IWGP World Championship, has his first proper defense with the new singles belt .. and loses to 2021 NJ Cup winner Will Ospreay, cutting his reign shorter than anyone expected.

His bad luck doesnt end there tho, despite making it to the G1 finals for the fourth time in a row, he breaks his arm in said match and is unable to continue. He'll not appear in a NJPW ring again. Mistreatment by staff which caused serious trouble in his private life has him decide against re-signing with the company.

Jay in the meantime would shake things up overseas, defending his NEVER title, debut in IMPACT, be on weird terms with the Elite, lose the NEVER title, debut in AEW, oh and not return to Japan. For a full year, missing out on key events, which had even his BC mates start asking questions.

After some rearranging within the club (kicking out old and recruiting new members) he’d finally return to Japan in the summer of 2022, swiftly dethroning IWGP World champ Okada, Jays last title reign in NJPW (youve might seen his first defence, at Forbidden door against Hangman, Cole and Okada).

He’d hold the title till early 2023 and in good old switchblade fashion be this 👌 close to realising his errors, only to blame everyone else and lose his mind over it, getting involved in a “loser leaves Japan” match against Hikuleo (who had turned his back on Jay) and afterwards, cause that somehow wasnt enough, a “loser leaves NJPW” match against Eddie Kingston. And thats how we got Jay White in AEW, mf is in exile and acts like nothing ever happened lmao

Ibushi, whos last match had been in October 2021, would finally return to the ring in March 2023, at Josh Barnetts 9th Bloodsport event, and make his AEW debut at Blood and Guts, reuniting with Kenny, the Bucks and Hangman as the Golden Elite :)

So yeah both Kota and Jay had quite different paths (that crossed a lot) towards AEW, and as someone who's been watching them for so long now I'm absolutely giddy to see them face one another again - if youd have told me a year ago that I'd get to see Kota and Jay in the same ring again, cause of KENNY of all things, I'd have imploded on the spot (positive)

📷 picture credit: NJPW World, one pic from Jays Instagram, one impact thumbnail and one aew thumbnail

‼️ feel free to ask about anything / correct me on info or spelling mistakes, english is not my mother tongue and im disabled so sometimes i mess things up

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 in Tokyo Dome Review (Jan 4th, 2024)

New Japan Rambo **

IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship - Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. TJP & Francesco Akira ***1/4

NJPW World TV Championship - Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ****

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura ***1/2

Shota Umino & Kaito Kiyomiya vs. EVIL & Ren Narita ***1/4

NEVER Openweight Championship - Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Tama Tonga ****1/2

IWGP Tag Team & STRONG Openweight Tag Championship Double Title Match - Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. El Phantasmo & Hikuleo ***3/4+

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. El Desperado ****1/4

Inaugural IWGP Global Championship Match - Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay ****1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson *****

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - SANADA (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito ****1/4

Photos.

This show ruled. Full disclosure, I've fallen behind with NJPW in the last couple of years, and only really get to fully see the major shows, so going in this looked like a solid little card on paper, so my expectations weren't exactly sky high. However, the New Japan crew knocked it out of the park with an excellent, Show of the Year contender. Things started as they always do: The annual "cram everyone humanly possible onto the card" Rambo. We all know what to expect here, and this was better than a lot of previous offerings, but the surprise appearance of Fujita "Jr" Hayato in this years really raised it up for me, as I'm always super pleased to see him back in the ring after all he's been through. Takashi Iizuka turning up was also a nice surprise (absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that), and it was a kick to be transported back to 2013 with him mercilessly going after poor Shimpei Nogami on commentary. The ending though was very deja vu, as I could have sworn some incredibly similar variant of this was the outcome last year. The final four of Great-O-Khan, Taiji Ishimori, YOH and Toru Yano advanced to face off for the KOPW Title tomorrow.

The main show started in style with the prerequisite Jr Tag Title Match, which featured TJP debuting his new demon gimmick, The Aswang, because he was locked in a casket when last we saw him, you see. My English feed froze at the opening bell on the Aswang mask for ages, and by the time I'd gotten back onto the Japanese feed, I'd missed like three minutes of this, there were brawls all over ringside, The Aswang was wearing a dog collar, and Moloney was bleeding. The final 5 or so minutes I did see were pretty damn good though, so that's what my rating is based on. TJP got this win for him and Akira after he blew the dreaded Dokukiri into Drilla's face, then Catch 22 hit the double knees to regain the titles at 9:38. Next up, President Tanahashi put an end to the 365 day TV Title reign of ZSJ in an excellent 8:53 sprint. These guys always have excellent matches together, and this was no exception. They worked a fast-paced thriller, which boiled down to them hitting a sequence of cradle reversals, before Tana counter a Zack Victory Roll into one of his own, and won the belt to a big pop. President Ace thanked everyone for coming in the post match, and wished us all a Happy New Year. Godly.

Career rivals Tsuji and Uemura had their first non-Young Lion outing on a major show next. This was a very good little match, I've always been high on both guys since they were rookies, and I firmly believe they have incredibly bright futures in New Japan, and are destined to be focal points in the years to come. Even though I do wish they'd do more with Yota. The guy came in super hot, with a ton of hype, and now he's kinda just floundering in the mid-card. And more mid-carders is most certainly not something this company needs! They always have really good matches, so add this one to that list, which ended at just under 11 minutes, when Uemura got the much needed win with his beautiful Deadbolt suplex. Fellow future superstar Shota Umino drove into Tokyo Dome on a motorbike to start his and partner, NOAH "Ace" Kiyomiya's tag match against HoT goons EVIL and Ren Narita next. This was going along really nicely, the three young guys all looked great, and the crowd were very much into, until the standard shenanigans started, which lead to a fairly abrupt finish, which saw Narita deck Umino with a steel plated push-up bar, then score the pin with his Double Cross finish at the 7 minute mark.

The fifth bout saw company MVP Shingo defend the NEVER Title against Tama Tonga in a hard-hitting war, which was by far the best match on the show up to this point. The near 30K in attendance were going crazy for this as they hit all their big spots, massive Lariats and Gun Stun counters. After Takagi scored a great near fall with Made in Japan, Tama went to the Bullet Club well, hitting a Gun Stun, Bloody Sunday AND a Styles Clash, before putting Shingo away with the DSD at 13:46 to claim his 4th NEVER Championship. Excellent stuff here, though seemingly Tama announced afterwards that he's finishing up with the company at the end of the month, so him winning is an... interesting decision. The double Tag Title match followed, which was a rematch of the Tag League Final between Bishamon and GoD. This was another great match, a fun sprint which saw the STRONG Champions win both sets of belts after ELP hit Goto with CRIII, and Hikuleo came off the top with a massive, but very unattractive, Big Splash to win the belts in 9:47. Just before this match, Nic Nemeth (the former Dolph Ziggler) and his brother Ryan turned up to sit at ringside. I think we all know there's some kind of angle coming here.

Speaking of career rivals, Hiromu and Despy faced off for the Jr. Heavy Title in the next bout. We've seen many versions of this match in recent history, and they're pretty much always excellent, so this fit that mould no doubt. Things started hot as Despy hit Hiromu with a Tope con Giro as he made his entrance, and they worked 100 mph from there. The challenger worked over the champions leg to set up the Numero Dos, but it wasn't to be. The finish saw Desperado escape the Hiromu Roll, then hit a Jay Driller, kept a hold and nailed Takahashi with a second Pinche Loco to win the strap at the 14:21 mark to end another great outing. We crowned an inaugural IWGP Global champion next, as Ospreay, Moxley and Finlay had a wild Triple Threat Match. This started with Mox and Ospreay agreeing to work together for the first 5 minutes in order to take out Finlay, then turn their attention on each other, before BC War Dogs Alex Coughlin and Gabe Kidd ran in. The babyfaces rallied a comeback though, which saw Ospreay put the invaders through tables with a Swanton Bomb to the outside, and Moxley took a post bump and gigged himself. Which I'm sure will shock many. The finishing stretch was insanely hot as Mox kicked at one from a Hidden Blade, but was put down with Stormbreaker, only for Finlay to hit Ospreay with his new Overkill finish, which is essentially a Brainbuster into a Go 2 Sleep, to become the inaugural Global champion in 22:17. In the post match, Finlay got into a shoving match and pull-apart with Nic Nemeth at ringside, which culminated in Nemeth chasing him to the back. So that looks to be Finlay's first title programme. Finlay going over was 100% the right call, with Ospreay leaving as a full-timer, they need to start making some top guys, and he's a good place to start.

Semi final time, and a true dream match next as Okada faced Danielson in a match I'd spent a good decade fantasy booking. After their slightly disappointing first encounter at Forbidden Door in June, due in no small part by Dragon legit breaking his arm during it, they came out with a lot to prove. And they certainly didn't disappoint this time as they had a superb wrestling encounter based around aggression and emotion. As anyone who's been watching Danielson since the ROH days can attest, when Bryan has a grudge with someone (Morishima, Nigel), he goes all out with the intensity, and it usually produces classics. The pacing, the limb-work, the storytelling, the drama... everything about this was essentially perfect. After Okada broke Danielson's arm in their previous match, Dragon obsessively set out to do the same here. And it lead to his downfall. The American Dragon was coming into this one with a fractured orbital bone, so Okada worked over that for a while too. Okada kicked out of a Busaiku Knee, Danielson locked on the same arm submission he tapped Okada out with at Forbidden Door, but The Rainmaker made the ropes. Dragon then stomped his f'n head in and locked in the LeBell Lock, only for Okada to hit a Rainmaker, but he was in too much pain from his devastated right arm, and couldn't make the cover. Danielson hit a big head kick and another Busaiku Knee, but rather than go for the cover, he elected to do the "Yes!" gimmick in the corner, and try another knee, but Okada hit an Emerald Flowsion, a Landslide, then another Rainmaker to fall on top of Dragon, and score the surprise win at the 23:24 (which it felt half of, by the way). This was a masterpiece, and I was legitimately shocked when the three count came. I could have watched this for an hour, it left me very much wanting a rubber match, and this is easily the best match of 2024 so far. They bowed to each other and shook hands in the post match.

The Keiji Muto fan club imploded in the main event as former LIJ stablemates Naito and SANADA (who was even dressed like Muto circa 1995), battled for the World Title. This was an excellent match, one that I didn't have a massive amount of interested in going into this show, but they had a really great clash. It's worth mentioning that something happened to SANADA here, I don't know if it was the biceps injury he's been dealing with since G1, or if he seperated his shoulder or something, but he was in noticeable discomfort through this, and it let to some wonky botches near the finish. They tried multiple times to do a Destino counter, but they couldn't pull it off. SANADA hit Dead Fall for the double down, then an Asai DDT, but Naito escaped a second Dead Fall attempt, and went for Valentia, but SANADA countered into an O'Connor Roll for a super close near fall. A Shining Wizard followed, but Naito turned another Dead Fall attempt into one of his own, finally hit Valentia, then finished the champion off with Destino to win his first World title at 25:42. It's worth pointing out that they clashed heads on the way down on the Destino, and Naito got busted open pretty bad over his eye. With Naito having finally won again in the main event of Tokyo Dome, he was about to Finish His Story, when EVIL and Dick Togo, of all people, ran-in in an attempt to ruin things like KENTA did in 2020. However, they hadn't bargained on SANADA, who nailed his former tag partner with a Shining Wizard, and Naito sent Dick packing with a low dropkick. SANADA then let Naito finish the story a decade in the making, and do his "De-Ja-Pon!!!" roll call to end the show and send everyone home happy. Whilst I applaud NJPW for giving SANADA a go, or just giving ANYONE NEW a shot at the top of the card (it's been very Groundhog Day for a long time up there, and this is something I've been encouraging since NAito at WK8!), I don't think it payed off liked they'd hoped. SANADA is a very good worker, and amazing athlete, but he's just missing something that would make him that major star. Which is obviously something Naito has in abundance, so I'm very pleased he got his big win here, as it was pretty much last chance saloon.

This was a tremendous card, not quite as good as last year's, I don't think, but still great, great stuff and well worth checking out. Especially the Okada/Danielson match!

NDT

[fagcrisis]

my friend ellis @jonny-dykeville wants to get into njpw, and i thought id write her a little summary of whats been going on lately! im posting it here in case its useful for anyone who wants to get into nooj but finds it a little too confusing (understandable) or has stopped watching in the last couple years and now wants to get back into it

this will include a list of matches at the end from 2023 that i think were good and/or are important to storylines! this is accurate to the day im writing it which is 2023/05/15

LINKS TO BE UPDATED

The landscape of New Japan Pro Wrestling has changed enormously in the past couple of months. For example if you told someone a year ago that Kazuchika Okada would hold a non singles belt, theyd laugh in your face.

So how did we get here?

google doc version

Your current champions

Sanada beat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Sakura Genesis, and has since defended it against Hiromu Takahashi, the current junior heavyweight champion. 

Hiromu won the belt at Wrestle Kingdom in a four-way match against Master Wato, El Desperado, and former champion Taiji Ishimori.

The IWGP women’s title was created last year and won by Kairi at Historic X-over. She lost the belt to Mercedes Moné, who was champion until Mayu Iwatani dethroned her recently.

Aussie Open hold the tag titles after defeating Bishamon, and they’ve gone on to win the Strong openweight tag team championships from the Motor City Machine Guns.

David Finlay is the NEVER openweight champion, bringing the belt back in to Bullet Club after Tama Tonga defeated Karl Anderson for it at Wrestle Kingdom.

Intergalactic Jetsetters (Kushida And Kevin Knight) finally ended the reign of Catch 2/2 (Tjp And Francesco Akira) as junior heavyweight tag team champions during the road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, thank god.

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii are the NEVER openweight six man champions winning the titles from Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki And Ren Narita). If you think that sentence is insane, don’t worry I’ll explain whats happening.

Zack Sabre Jr became the inaugural NJPW World TV champion, winning the tournament at Wrestle Kingdom by defeating Ren Narita, and he’s had some incredible defenses since (you might’ve seen him on ROH).

the KOPW trophy graduated to a belt after El Phantasmo broke it, and Taichi is the current provisional champion having defeated Shingo Takagi for it. 

Kenta lost the strong openweight championship to Hikuleo in the first defense of the belt in Japan, after winning it from Fred Rosser (with Juice interference).

at the time of writing this the Strong women’s title does exist but the tournament to decide its first owner has yet to be held (Resurgence may 21st).

Karl Anderson will pay for his crimes

Those who have been following me since november last year know that Suzuki-gun, a heel faction in NJPW led by Minoru Suzuki, has come to an end. I was inconsolable. There are multiple reasons for this happening, but the main one is Karl Anderson.

While Anderson is a member of Bullet Club, and in fall of last year was still the NEVER openweight champion, he is contracted to WWE and was on a handshake deal with NJPW, essentially promising he’ll appear at shows they book him for. There was a scheduling conflict with one of WWE’s saudi shows, and Anderson essentially ghosted the company not appearing for his title defense against Hikuelo, which meant I had to watch Yujiro Takahashi wrestle. anyway this all meant that New Japan lost faith in their freelancers, and because the majority of Suzuki-gun were on handshake deals, this meant the faction had to go. Their last match was on december 23rd (njpwworld) (bilibili link) and it was very emotional and beautiful, and I was incredibly sad.

Shota came back!

Shota Umino, who you may know as the protege of Jon Moxley, returned from excursion in the fall of last year. Young lions (NJPW trainees) are sent abroad to foreign promotions by the company to train and gather experience in different environments to Japan. Shota was in Britain for a time and he returned, challenging Will Ospreay for the US title he still held at the time. He lost but with this high profile title shot he joined the ranks of the young stars NJPWhas much faith vested in. 

This also includes Ren Narita, who you may not know because he was never adopted by a mean american man. he was trained by Katsuyori Shibata, earning the nickname Son of Strong Style and wearing similar gear to Shibata as well. The company seems to be trying to set him up to be Shibata’s successor, and he wrestles a similarly, clean technical style.

A recent addition to their ranks is Yota Tsuji, whose return I will explain later.

The IWGP women’s title

Women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and NJPW are both owned by Bushiroad. Because of this last year there was a crossover between the two promotions, which saw the first mixed tag matches in an NJPW ring. Great show, you should watch it. (njpwworld link) (bilibili link)

For this event, the IWGP women’s championship was created and won by Kairi. Now I have some thoughts about how Stardom is already full of accomplished talented women, and putting a women’s match on the card once in a blue moon isn’t a win for women in wrestling and you should maybe try watching Stardom instead (guide on how to do that). But I digress. Regardless of whether or not this is pandering, every match for the belt was undoubtedly incredible and I will be linking them all in the rec section.

A brief Wrestle Kingdom aside

You fucking know what happened at Wrestle Kingdom I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. Kenny Omega returned and defeated Will Ospreay for the US title, and Okada won his beloved IWGP belt back from Jay White, starting him down the path of leaving NJPW.

What you might not know is what happened at Wrestle Kingdom Night 2, which confusingly was held some weeks later. Wrestle Kingdom traditionally is a show between NOAH and NJPW, so Night 2 saw the two promotions pitch their most popular wrestlers against each other. Okada was set to fight Kaito Kiyomiya in a tag team match, but he thought this challenge beneath him and attempted to murder Kiyomiya ruling the match a no contest.

Later in february, at Keiji Muto’s retirement show, Okada did have to face off Kiyomiya in a singles bout, despite his protests that he is not some cheap whore (his words not mine). That entire show is incredibly good but not extremely relevant to NJPW storylines, as crossover events usually are not. (njpwworld) (unoffical link)

After Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan holds New Year’s Dash and the New Beginning shows where they set up new storylines that will likely last the whole year. Jay White challenges Hikuleo to a loser leaves Japan match, because he blames him and his brothers (Guerillas of Destiny) for Bullet Club weakening and his loss at Wrestle Kingdom. He promptly loses this match. Bummer. 

El Desperado refuses to accept that Suzuki-gun is over and joins Minoru Suzuki in defending Ren Narita from House of Torture’s dastardly attack, leading to the formation of their trios team; Strong Style. They then go on to defeat House of Torture for the NEVER openweight six man tag team titles. Now this is crazy but we dont have time to dwell on it because the other remnants of Suzuki-gun are also making moves that are considerably more insane.

Its time for: faction madness

There are a lot of factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling. like a lot. Every storyline is heavily driven by who is in what faction and where their allegiences lie. This might be confusing to you if you only watch AEW, a promotion where factions matter less than what Tony adds to commentary.

TMDK

Naturally ex-Suzuki-gun member and best technical wrestler in the known universe Zack Sabre Jr couldn’t simply remain in Hontai, the main body of New Japan where factionless members of the roster belong. Luckily he was a free agent for all of five seconds before his old australian buddies snatched him and his fresh tv championship up. TMDK, known as an australian faction despite a solid half not being from Australia, has suffered some losses in the past year. Jonah, their strongest member, a man who defeated even Kazuchika Okada, left Japan for WWE. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls, founding members of the faction and a tag team under the same name, have failed to succeed in winning Tag League in fall of last year. Safe to say, they needed a win. Zack has teamed with them during his time in NOAH, so it was only logical that he would return to his old friends. They even recruited a young lion, Kosei Fujita, who became the first young lion in a faction if you don’t count Hikuleo which was a slightly different situation. TMDK also includes Bad Dude Tito (or Big Teets) over in the States.

The addition of Zack really reinvigorated the faction. Shane and Mikey challenged and failed to defeat Aussie Open for the tag titles, and Robbie Eagles left Chaos for more australian pastures, joining the faction when he challenged Hiromu Takahashi for his championship. Robbie also lost but TMDK didn’t let these setbacks stop them from cutting the weirdest promos after every match and staunchly insisting Fujita (who they’ve nicknamed Big Fooj) will be the first young lion to win a championship.

United Empire

Will Ospreay is no longer the IWGP US heavyweight champion. After losing to Kenny Omega he threw a hissy fit and declared that he would give professional wrestling one more year. He also entered the New Japan Cup, a tournament for the right to challenge for the IWGP championship. Unfortunately in a match against his friend and stablemate Mark Davis (of Aussie Open and ass size fame) he injured his shoulder which put him out of action until about last week. He won the 1pw world title though, so he’s fine.

Other than that, the faction has been doing fairly well for themselves. After a titanic struggle against Bishamon, Aussie Open won the tag titles and have gone on to defend them against TMDK and somehow, Best Friends on AEW television. They also won the Strong tag titles, and Kyle Fletcher managed to botch a moonsault in both matches. You’ve definitely seen them even if you don’t watch NJPW, their schedule is insane and they have a banger of a match practically on a weekly average. 

Also tag champions in the faction were Catch 2/2, who held the junior titles until fairly recently. They’ve had great defenses against YOH and his new tag partner, Lio Rush (more on that in a second) and Douki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. What you need to know about Catch 2/2 is that TJP is a PragerU weirdo and Akira is good albeit italian.

UE also includes Jeff Cobb, who you might’ve seen challenging for Kenny Omega’s US title on Dynamite. He is incredible I don’t have anything else to say. He also kind of thinks flat earthers have a point. He’s really good though.

Also in the faction are Aaron Henare, men’s rights weirdo who challenged and lost to Shingo Takagi for the KOPW belt and Great O Khan who is somehow the Revpro champion. He is notable for having a nice bow in his hair and screeching. The most recent recruit to the faction is Dan Moloney, who unfortunately is fairly unknown to me. He joined the faction as a junior heavyweight and subsequently entered the Best of Super Juniors Tournament, which I will explain later.

Chaos

I’ve previously described Chaos as Hontai 2.0, because that’s really what it is. Lead by Kazuchika Okada, Chaos was the original heel faction in NJPW, founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. Nowadays it is a loose collection of allegiances that confusingly includes the entire Best Friends faction in AEW. Yes, that includes Trent’s mum Sue. Since becoming faces, Chaos members regularly team with Hontai because it all doesn’t really matter. 

Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at Battle in the Valley, and then asked him to tag together. They named themselves the Dream Team, and I only briefly pondered how well it ended the last time Tana teamed with a younger star. Anyways I’m sure this will go fine. They challenged Okada’s fellow Chaos members Bishamon for their tag titles they still held at that time, and sadly lost that match. They defeated the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita, and then once again failed to obtain gold in a 3-way match against the Motor City Machine Guns and Aussie Open (who won). After Okada lost his belt, they recruited Tomohiro Ishii, who doesn’t like Tanahashi and doesn’t want to team with him because he isn’t in Chaos. Despite this, they managed to defeat Strong Style for the NEVER openweight six man championships.

Bishamon I’ve covered sufficiently enough I think, they are the team of Hirooki Goto who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in professional wrestling and YOSHI-HASHI who used to be incredibly horrible and is less bad recently. They are fun and I like them.

YOH and SHO were a junior tag team in Chaos until SHO turned heel, joining Bullet Club. This left YOH in a sort of strange limbo, where he contemplated quitting wrestling and pursuing his more artistic ambitions (he is a musician and an artist). Rocky Romero, also a member of Chaos, got him and Lio Rush together to team for Junior Tag League, and they ended up winning the tournament! Although they failed to defeat catch 2/2 at Wrestle Kingdom, and Lio got injured, teaming with him seemed to bring YOH’s confidence back. He’s been wrestling slightly differently and with more self-assurence. The pair both separately challenged and lost to Hiromu Takahashi, two incredible matches that I will link below. Not even these losses brought YOH’s confidence down though, and he’s entered BOSJ alongside Lio although they are in different blocks.

Also members of Chaos are Rocky Romero, Best Friends (including Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Sue, and I think quite possibly Danhausen), Toru Yano who is kind of a funny little man, and Tomohiro Ishii.

Los Ingobernables de Japon

Led by Tetsuya Naito, the tweener group is more of a loose collection of talented individuals than your regular faction. LIJ has a policy of letting their members forge their own paths and create their own success, instead of letting them fall back on the power of the group. 

Maybe the only exception to this rule is Hiromu Takahashi, who owes a lot of his success to the faction as well as his mentor Tetsuya Naito. Hiromu is very talented and has a very unique style both in his wrestling and his fashion sense. Unbiased corner ahead I like him a lot. He holds junior wrestlers in very high regard and recently organized the All Star Junior festival to showcase junior heavyweights from all around japan (njpwworld ppv) (vk link). He has a plush cat named Daryl. Hiromu is kind of the ace of the junior division right now, he is on his fifth title reign and is trying to defend the belt 12 times to beat the current defense record of 11 held by Minoru Tanaka. Currently he is 4 defenses into this streak, having defeated YOH, Lio Rush, Robbie Eagles and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Despite being champion he entered BOSJ, a tournament he’s won four times, three times in a row. If he wins, he’ll get to hand pick his opponent at Dominion.

I have no clue what to say about Tetsuya Naito. To quote my friend Jay, “it’s naito. he is an indescribable force of non-functional knees and the driest hair you've ever seen. he takes ten years to remove his entrance gear. he is naito”. You fucking know who Tetsuya Naito is.

This year, the main thing he’s done is defeating his mentor Keiji Muto at his retirement show in Febuary (njpwworld link) (vk link). He has a very hands off approach towards leading his group, sort of letting everyone figure their things out, which is why he didn’t really seem worried about his match against his stablemate Sanada in the New Japan Cup. You can imagine his surprise when Sanada not only defeated him but then declared that he would be leaving the faction, but more on that later. He also recently had a singles match against DOUKI, which was incredible.

Also members of LIJ are Shingo Takagi, winner of KOPW 2022 and former KOPW 2023 provisional champion, and also living legend. He made his name in Dragon Gate, a different japanese promotion you should also watch (I’m not at all being held at gunpoint by people whose names start with J), Bushi and Titan, who are both junior heavyweight luchadors I don’t know as much about as I should. They’re really good and they are both in BOSJ this year.

Bullet Club

Do I even need to explain. Don’t worry I will. 

Jay White lost his loser leaves Japan match to Hikuleo, but there was hope. He promised Gedo he would go to America and wrestle on Strong and right his wrongs. So obviously he immediately lost a loser leaves New Japan match to Eddie Kingston, barring him from ever wrestling in a New Japan ring ever again. After weeks of radio silence, he showed up on Dynamite, forming Bullet Culb Gold (2 bullet 2 club) with Juice Robinson and you all know what happened after that.

It’s spring which means it’s Bullet Club infighting season. After Jay’s loss, his long time rival David Finlay waltzed into the ring all goth and angry, cutting a promo about how the japanese fans never appreciated him and he is an outsider wherever he goes. If this didn’t make it clear to you that he was the new leader, don’t worry it wasn’t clear to me or El Phantasmo either. 

ELP was friends with Jay White, and made the rest of the Club agree that they will let Jay ride off into the sunset. A peaceful transfer of power is however impossible in Bullet Club, which is kind of a Stanford prison experiment for closeted gay men. It started bothering Phantasmo, that everyone in his faction so readily accepted Finlay as the new leader, like they weren’t fully behind Jay only a week ago. And anyone who questions the leader has to go.

Then came a months long game of gay betrayal chicken. Every postmatch, Phantasmo would assure Finlay that they were doing it for the club, refuse to too sweet the new leader, and the two slapping eachother in place of a tag. Meanwhile the faces in Hontai were increasingly more accepting towards ELP, Shota Umino even gave him one of his bracelets. The tension came to a boil at Sakura Genesis, where in a tag team match against Guerillas of Destiny and Master Wato, Phantasmo refused to commit the clubs usual heel antics and was brutally kicked out in response. Despite his close friendship with Taiji Ishimori and Kenta, both men readily betrayed him for David Finlay.

Phantasmo returned as a face to beat Finlay up after he defeated Tama Tonga for the NEVER belt, and the two have a title match set at Dominion.

As I mentioned Kenta and Taiji Ishimori are both members of Bullet Club, and Finlay recently recruited Clark Connors to be the clubs newest junior. He entered BOSJ alongside Taiji. Gedo, the head booker of NJPW is also a member of BC but he mainly stands ominously in the background and in kayfabe doesn’t have a massive role in storylines.

HOUSE OF TORTURE

I have to explain what’s going on here. Bullet Club has sort of a subesction? Called House of Torture. They’re only really part of BC in name only, and merch sales. Their thing is gratuitous cheating, if one HoT member has a match, the rest of them aren’t far behind making every match a handicap. Their members are EVIL, the leader of the group and former LIJ member, Yujiro Takahashi the incredible slow motion man whose joints creak audibly with every move, Dick Togo and SHO, who joined after betraying YOH and turning heel. SHO is actually pretty good but the presence of HoT at every match really ruins. Everything. I try not thinking about them.

JUST 5 GUYS

NOW baby. The reason I’m even writing this. The worst faction name in the history of pro wrestling. This faction is made of four ex-Suzuki-gun members and Sanada. Originally called Just Four Guys when Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI announced they would be forming a faction at New Year’s Dash. Taka made some baseless claims about how they will defeat everyone and change the landscape of New Japan. He also came up with their new catchphrase “You already die”. Commentary and everyone else immediately dismissed them as a joke that will last maybe a couple of months. Oh how wrong we were.

Initially, the group did not have much success. Douki and Uncle Nobu lost to Catch 2/2 in their title match against them, Taka kept getting pinned and they failed to deliver on their promises to destroy everyone who stood in their way.

Taichi, as their only heavyweight, entered the New Japan Cup. His first match was against Sanada, a man he’s had some history with when he was still tagging with Zack Sabre Jr as Dangerous Tekkers. Sanada was a man not really renowned for anything, he hasn’t seen any singles success since joining LIJ by helping Tetsuya Naito cheat, except for a US title run cut short with no defenses due to an injury. He had blonde hair and the best or the worst move in pro wrestling history, depending on if you ask my friend Ryan or me. He never hits a moonsault. I don’t think Naito even knew who he was.

Safe to say, absolutely no one expected Sanada to defeat Taichi, much less his superior Naito. What we expected the least is for him to announce he is leaving LIJ for Just 4 Guys, which was now to be renamed JUST 5 GUYS. With dark hair, a clean shaven face and soon, new gear as well, Sanada really found his footing among this motley crew, the way he never managed in his seven years during LIJ. He went on to blaze through the competition in the Cup, winning it and subsequently defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP world heavyweight championship. Absolutely no one has expected this to happen, ever. Yet somehow, it is also one of the coolest things to happen, ever.

His former faction members in LIJ mostly seemed to just sort of accept he left, except for Hiromu. He said while he understood Sanada’s reasons for leaving, he felt betrayed. Hiromu challenged Sanada to a match for the heavyweight championship. No junior heavyweight has been able to defeat the heavyweight champion in the history of the company, although this match is not the first of its kind. 

When Sanada defeated Hiromu, the returning Yota Tsuji walked out into the ring and beat him up, held up the LIJ fist and carried Hiromu out of the ring. We don’t really know if this means he’ll be joining the faction, but it’s very likely, and the two have a match set at Dominion.

Obviously other stuff has happened but this is already 4000 words long and I still have things to explain to you. 

Whats happening right now

As I’m writing this, the 30th Best of the Super Juniors is just beginning. BOSJ is a round robin style tournament, just like the G1 where wrestlers are divided into two blocks and everyone fights everyone in their block. Usually, the winners of the two blocks face off against each other to win the tournament, but this year, the winner of each block faces off against the person who came second in the other block, and the winners of those matches are the finalists. The winner has the right to challenge for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship at Dominion.

This year’s participants are as follows.

I think this is absolutely the perfect time to get int New Japan. The junior division is full of incredibly talented wrestlers who focus more on fast paced high flying style matches and every one of them is easy to watch and very entertaining. The entire tour will be broadcast with full english coverage.

How do I watch all of this

New Japan conveniently has a streaming service called NJPW world, membership is 999 yen per month. Dont forget to toggle it to english in the upper left corner! Most shows have english commentary and in my opinion it is pretty good commentary. Even if you don’t want to pay for the site, it has a schedule page (upper right corner) which even displays multiple timezones, and links to the card for every upcoming show.

The site also has some free content, for example the backstage comments after every show. Backstage comments are essentially short interviews with the wrestlers directly after every match, which makes for very fun adrenaline fuelled nonsense. Search backstage comment on the site, or check the njpwworld youtube channel. The videos always have subtitles, but it takes the transcribers time, subs are usually out a day after shows air.

PIRACY 

In case you’d like to sail the high seas, you have a couple of options.

Watching show’s live I would recommend watchprowrestling.org for. They upload the shows and you can watch them live as well with a bit of delay.

If you’re looking for older stuff, you should try searching on bilibili (dont be intimidated by the language barrier, its quite easy to use) or this specific user on vk.com.

MATCHES TO WATCH

Title changes and defenses:

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Master Wato vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Zack Sabre Jr vs Ren Narita FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Shota Umino FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tom Lawlor FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Jeff Cobb FREE MATCH

Catch 2/2 vs YOH and Lio Rush (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Catch 2/2 vs Intergalactic Jetsetters (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:35:08)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Lio Rush (njpwworld) 

Hiromu Takahashi vs YOH (njpwworld) (unofficial link2:48:13)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Robbie Eagles (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld)

Kazuchika Okada vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Sanada vs Hiromu Takahashi (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Aussie Open vs Bishamon (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs TMDK (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs Motor City Machine Guns vs the Dream Team (Okada & Tanahashi) (njpwworld ppv)

Kairi vs Mayu Iwatani  (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Tam Nakano (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Mercedes Moné (unofficial link)

Mercedes Moné vs Kairi vs Hazuki (njpwworld)

Mercedes Moné vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs El Phantasmo (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs David Finlay (unofficial link)

Taichi vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:44:00)

Strong Style vs Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hikuelo vs Kenta (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Story matches

Tetsuya Naito vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Hikuleo (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Eddie Kingston (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:04:00)

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Kenta, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado) & Master Wato (njpwworld link)

just fun

Mark Davis vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Mark Davis vs EVIL (njpwworld)

Tetsuya Naito vs DOUKI (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:11:32)

El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld ppv)

Shota Umino vs Tetsuya Naito (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Speedball Mike Bailey FREE SHOW

Taichi vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld)

[oplishin]

shield championship timeline:

there's an interesting factoid going around: Wrestlemania 40 marked the first time since january 2020 (when Mox won the IWGP US title) that none of the members of the shield held a championship. so i decided to make a timeline!!

here's the link to a (somewhat) more readable version.

Red is for Seth, Blue is for Roman, Yellow is for Mox. All championships are included, whether they be the WWE title or *checks notes* the Mr Chainsaw Pro Wrestling World title.

some interesting factoids:

May 5 2014 (Dean Ambrose loses his US title) - March 29 2015 (Seth Rollins cashes in) is the longest stretch they have ever gone without holding a title

Jon Moxley and Tyler Black won the CZW and ROH championships on the same day (Feb 13 2010)

They also both held the Full Impact Pro Title within a year of each other.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax quarterfinals preview

The A and B block matches for this year's G1 Climax are complete, so now we move on to the knockout stage. This is basically a six-man elimination bracket, with the top three from each block. Tonight's show is headlined by A2 vs. A3 and B2 vs. B3. The winners of those matches will advance to the semifinals on August 17, where it'll be A1 vs. A2 or A3, and B1 vs. B2 or B3. The two semifinal winners will meet on August 18, to decide the winner of the tournament.

Shingo Takagi vs. Great-O-Khan - In A Block, Zack Sabre Jr. finished on top with a 7-2 record, followed by four men tied at 5-4. Of those four, Takagi won block matches against the other three, so he took second place. Khan's tiebreaker wins over Tetsuya Naito and EVIL put him in third. So now these two will compete for the right to wrestle Sabre in the semifinals. Khan's KOPW championship is not at stake here.

This is, by design, a rematch from earlier in the tournament--Takagi defeated Khan on July 23. Whoever wins here will also give us an A Block rematch in the semifinals--Sabre beat Khan on July 20, and Shingo beat Sabre on August 3. I wouldn't have set it up that way, but oh well. Presumably New Japan wants the finalists to get a chance to avenge a key loss or two.

I'm delighted Khan has made it this far, because I think he's capable of more than he's been doing for the past four years, and I like that this year's format allows someone from out of left field to get this close to the big dance. That said, I absolutely don't believe he's going to win the G1, or even make it to the final. So I guess it's possible he could win here and lose to Sabre, I don't think they'll take it that far. Takagi vs. Sabre will look better on the marquee than Khan vs. Sabre, so I think that's the match New Japan will deliver. Shingo wins.

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji - Over in B Block, David Finlay wound up in first place at 6-3. Takeshita and Tsuji were part of another multi-man tie at 5-4, with Takeshita officially in second place and Tsuji at third. Finlay will face the winner of this match on the 17th.

From an AEW fan's perspective, it's probably not a big shock that Takeshita has made it this far. But I'm a little surprised an outsider got out of the block--I kinda wonder if it's a last-minute change to work around Yuya Uemura's injury. New Japan likes bringing in guys from other promotions, but pushing them is another story. So I'm betting this match will be about Tsuji avenging his loss on July 20, before moving onward and upward.

Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson vs. David Finlay & Gedo - Sabre and Finlay are waiting to find out who their opponents will be on August 17. Jackson, an Australian freelancer, appears to be stepping in for Kosei Fujita, who was sidelined earlier in the tour. Seems like he'd be the one to take the pin, but maybe if they like him enough Gedo will do the job instead.

Shota Umino & El Phantasmo & Jado vs. EVIL & Ren Narita & Dick Togo - Pretty standard good guys vs. House of Torture tag match. Jado or Togo will likely lose the fall. I guess Evil's team wins.

Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI vs. HENARE & Callum Newman - All but the top three matches are basically filler, but this one feels especially like filler. I guess Bushi loses.

Gabe Kidd & Jake Lee vs. Jeff Cobb & Francesco Akira - Kidd has started talking up the idea of pursuing the IWGP heavyweight tag team title with Lee. Akira will probably lose the match to help advance that storyline.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano vs. SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi - Tana's team holds the NEVER trios championship, but the belts aren't on the line here. If Evil or Ren Narita were in this match, I'd think the heels might get a win to set up a title bout on the next tour, but as it is House of Torture's team feels too weak for anything but an easy squash for the babyfaces.

SANADA & Taichi & DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI & Tomoaki Honma & Katsuya Murashima - Kinda nice to see Just 5 Guys (well, four of them) together again, and Goto and Yoshi reunited. Other than that, not much to this. Murashima should lose.

[inappropriateuseof]

Inappropriate use of the Iwgp world heavyweight championship belt

[homiebeez07]

YEAHHHH KENNY V OSPREAY

HIS HAIIIIRRRR, IT'S SO CLOSE OT BEING GREY AND BLACK KENNY JUST DO IT PLEASE😭😭

[fang-revives]

MiSu said puroresu built this house and continues to build it. Love him <3

[orangebapecamoprint]

IWGP US Heavyweight Championship is my favorite Belt

[debbiechanclub]

bestie…. i fear i need finlay match recommendations 😗

Bestie. I have loaded you up with 20 matches. I told you if you give me an inch where Finlay is concerned, I will take a mile.

Now, first things first. All but three of my recs are on NJPW World (and two are free to watch without an account). If you don't have an account, I'm more than willing to share my login with you in the name of spreading the gospel of Debbie Chan.

That being said, if you think you might want to sign up for an account, now is a GREAT time to do it because they're actually launching a brand new website this Thursday (11/9), complete with apps for Android and iOS, which they didn't previously have. It's only $9 USD/month, so I think it's well worth it. However, you won't be able to sign up until Friday, after the new site is live. Additionally, as part of the overhaul, they're upgrading a massive portion of the archive footage, and, unfortunately, nothing from prior to 2021 will be available to watch until they put it back up. (All my recs except for one on YouTube are from 2021 on.)

Again though, I will absolutely share my login with you (and you'd be able to log in right away and watch as mine is an existing account). Just let me know!

Okay, now that that's out of the way, onto the recs! And my apologies because this... is long.

FYI: I've listed these in chronological order, and they're best viewed in that order as it really helps to tell the story of how Finlay became who he is today :)

FinJuice vs. G.o.D (YouTube) - YouTube comes in clutch for a pre-2021 match! This is good viewing because 1) FinJuice was a well established and fairly successful tag team, and don't even get me started on all the messiness of Juice running around with Jay in Bullet Club Gold while Finlay is literally leading real Bullet Club now; and 2) Since overtaking Bullet Club in March, Finlay has almost exclusively feuded with G.o.D. (he finally put an end to it this past weekend at Power Struggle). And it's crazy seeing Finlay's evolution from then to now.

2021 New Japan Cup Quarter Final vs. Jay White (3/18 show) - This was a HUGE win for our boy because, going into this match, Finlay was on an 0-12 losing streak against Jay. And he and Jay will be forever intertwined because they came up in the NJPW dojo together and were roommates and best friends and everyone constantly compared Finlay to Jay (they still do now), and that created a MASSIVE chip on his shoulder that lead to him clocking Jay over the head and subsequently taking control of Bullet Club. So yeah. V. important match in the lore of Finlay.

2021 New Japan Cup Semi-Final vs. Will Ospreay (3/20 show) - I hope you're ready for a lot of Ospreay, because he and Finlay have history. Back in 2021, Ospreay defeated Finlay in the semi-final of the NJ Cup and then went on to win the tournament and the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. This plays into why Finlay is gunning for Ospreay now.

Resurgence 2021 vs. Jay White - This match was for the NEVER Openweight Title. Jay retained... but Finlay eventually went on to win that title after taking over Bullet Club, which also used to be Jay's.

G1 Climax 32 vs. Juice Robinson (7/26), Will Ospreay (8/2), and El Phantasmo (8/10) - Finlay returned to Japan for the first time in over a year for the G1 Climax 32, and he had a really strong showing. This was when I first started to get the brainrot for him. I really recommend watching all his matches from that tournament... but these three are the most important to Finlay's character because of his history with Juice and Will and what would come later with ELP and Bullet Club.

Burning Spirit 2022 vs. Will Ospreay (9/25 show) - This match was for the IWGP United States Championship, the very one and same that Ospreay currently holds and that Finlay destroyed with a giant mallet at Power Struggle this weekend. Ospreay retained back then. But I have a feeling (and sincerely fucking hope) that there's a new title in Finlay's future.

NJPW World TV Championship Tournament vs. ZSJ (YouTube) - After coming up short in the G1 Climax 32 and against Ospreay (again), Finlay still had a chance to win the newly created NJPW World TV Title; and then ZSJ eliminated him in the second round. I really think this loss was the straw that broke the camel's back and really set the stage for Finlay's frustration and his comeback as the leader of Bullet Club.

2023 New Japan Cup vs. Tomohiro Ishii (3/6 Anniversary Event, free to watch without an account!), Tama Tonga (3/19), and Sanada (3/21) - And we've reached Bullet Club Finlay! Finlay's match against Ishii was the first match of the tournament, and no one―absolutely no one―expected him to come out in Bullet Club gear with Gedo, of all people, in his corner. And not only that, but he handily disposed of Ishii. He made it all the way to the final where he lost against Sanada, but he sent a loud and clear message during the entire tournament that this was a new David Finlay (and I was a goner).

Capital Collision 2023 vs. AR Fox (YouTube) - I think you've seen this one? But including it because it's a good match and also the night Finlay recruited Clark Connors, the first member of what would become Bullet Club War Dogs (and I was there!).

Wrestling Dontaku 2023 vs. Tama Tonga (5/3 show) - Remember how I said that Finlay eventually won the NEVER Openweight Title after taking over Bullet Club? This was when he did it.

Dominion 6.4 in Osaka-Jo Hall vs. El Phantasmo - This. This is the match and night that ruined me forever. After kicking ELP out of Bullet Club (basically because he was and is close with Jay and didn't respect Finlay), Finlay defended the NEVER Openweight Title against him and proved that he could back up all the shit he was talking. But besides that, this was the night the War Dogs were formed. I highly recommend also checking out the end of the IWGP Junior Tag Title match just so you can see Drilla Moloney turn on United Empire and join Bullet Club. It quite honestly altered me forever.

G1 Climax 33 vs. Tama Tonga (7/26), Eddie Kingston (8/8), and Will Ospreay (8/10) - Did I mention that Finlay has spent most of this year feuding with Tama/G.o.D? They tried to kill each other in this year's G1, and it was fantastic. He and Eddie also tried to kill each other. But Ospreay beat him in the quarter-finals. Just more fuel for why he's going after Ospreay now.

12-Man Elimination Match: Bullet Club vs. G.o.D. and Intergalactic Jetsetters (10/1 show, free to watch without an account) - Because I would be remiss not to rec a match with all the War Dogs (and Chase is there, too). This is a fun one, if not a bit of a clusterfuck. (And shout-out to Kevin Knight, who I also adore.)

Destruction in Ryogoku 2023 vs. Tama Tonga (10/9 show) - This is the last of Finlay's singles matches against Tama, and unfortunately he lost the NEVER Openweight Title back to him (which I don't think anyone expected). But it's a good match and Finlay looked strong despite his loss. And now that I know he likely (hopefully?) has a new belt coming to him after the start of the year, I'm honestly okay that he lost. (Because Tama doesn't even have the title anymore, believe it or not).

So there are my Finlay match recs. I'm well aware this is overkill lmao, but I really am excited that you want to know more about him, and I want to do him justice. Because he really is my favorite guy, and he deserves to be recognized as his own wrestler and person not just in relation to Jay or Juice or anyone else.

But I won't blame you if you don't watch all of these, because I know I went insane 😂

[questintheskies]

Tam Nakano on wanting to face Mercedes Mone:

"I've been used as a foil by Moné before. I thought I'd become the champion and take on Mone."

Last January, Tam challenged for the IWGP Women's Championship at the New Japan Pro Wrestling Tokyo Dome show but was defeated in a short time. Former WWE wrestler Mone appeared in the ring after the match. Tam felt that her loss was used as a tool for Mone's appearance.

Tam Nakano on whether she aims to advance overseas by facing Willow Nightingale and Mercedes Mone:

"Rather than me going out into the world, I want to take STARDOM to the world. I want to make STARDOM the number one promotion in the world. So, what do I do to achieve that? I need to fight for myself and become the best in the world. STARDOM, with the world's number one wrestler, Tam Nakano, in it, is number one in the world. That's easy to understand, isn't it? I think that if anyone could be the gateway for people around the world to see STARDOM, it's me. Because I'm cute (laughs)."

Tam Nakano says some things need to change in order to spread STARDOM to the world:

"I wrestled in America in April, and it made me realize that pro-wrestling is watched by an enormous number of people and is widely loved. Of course, STARDOM's pro-wrestling is not to be outdone. But it also feels like the current situation is "too extreme." The difficulty of the moves, the precision of the development, the complex human relationships - these are appealing, but I think there are also aspects that are too intense and difficult to get into. In order for STARDOM's pro-wrestling to be the best in the world, I think the time has come for it to be refined one more level."

[eldesperadont]

of the 2015 gaijin Young Lions

Jay was the first to hold the IWGP US championship, Juice the one to finally dethrone him, and Finlay, after chasing it so long but never actually winning it, its destroyer.

David’s been haunted by that belt ever since Jay betrayed him after their match for it. He had to watch Juice, his tag partner and best friend succeed where he failed at, then not even get close to the singles title picture for years (sidelined with injury or only booked for tag matches), and then get betrayed by his partner who straight up steals the title. He’d defeat Juice and keep the title safe till he defeated its champ in a non title match, finally getting his chance and!… fail again. Yeah i’d feel like wanting to destroy the damn thing too.

So thats why i very much enjoy David now being the inaugural champ for its replacement :) kinda tragic that turning evil and getting rid of it was what it took for him to finally get a win over the US title, isnt it :)c

I also like that Finlay got the pin on Ospreay where he couldnt before – as he first broke into the singles division, with defeating Jay in the 2021 NJ Cup (single elimination tournament), he fell short to Will in the semi-final. In 2022s G1 tournament (round-robin situation) he got a win over Will, but in the resulting US title match fell short again. In the quarter finals for the following year’s G1 he’d again be eliminated by Ospreay. That dude’s been a thorn in his side.

oh and I also like that it gives Debbie pathetic heel points cause he had to become his worst self to finally get that win and the title whos predecessor is connected to both his former best friends :3 i hope he sits somewhere and is pissed about Jay and Juice having been right on turning evil