Mike Reviews Japan — page 2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Seeing as Wrestling Dontaku normally takes place in May, I decided to head onto New Japan World to see what matches they had uploaded from past Dontaku events. They actually had two matches with special English commentary, so I decided to review them plus one additional match as well. We’ll be looking at one match from 1993, one from 1994 and finally one from 1995.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I’ve got this issue of New Japan TV on a compilation DVD I got years ago (It also features some All Japan, including Misawa Vs Hansen from 1992). Seeing as it’s a nice breezy watch I decided to review it this week. We’ll either have some more classic New Japan or some NOAH next week I think depending on what strikes my fancy.

This episode of the show has three matches from Wrestling Dontaku at the Fukuoka Dome from 1993, which was the first time New Japan had run there. The show in question featured a big match between Hulk Hogan and The Great Muta, which I think is available on New Japan World.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

More from the near nine hour YouTube video compilation of Kenta Kobashi’s epic GHC Heavyweight Title run from 2003-05.

Today we close things out with Kobashi’s final three defences, as he takes on Mike “The Gladiator” Awesome, Minoru Suzuki and Takeshi Rikio. Let’s hope that Kobashi goes out in style!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

More from the near nine hour YouTube video compilation of Kenta Kobashi’s epic GHC Heavyweight Title run from 2003-05.

This week we’ve got Kobashi wrestling Jun Akiyama, Akira Taue and Akitoshi Saito.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Let’s pick these up again.

Part 1

Part 2

For those not acquainted, there’s a nine hour plus video up on YouTube that covers all of Kenta Kobashi’s near two year GHC Heavyweight Title reign. A while back I decided to review every match on the collection, with us closing out Part Two with Kobashi successfully defending the Title against Yoshinari Ogawa.

This week Kobashi will defend against Takuma Sano, Takeshi Rikio and Yoshihiro Takayama. Let’s see how many stars he can accrue along the way!

Well Hello There!

I’ve been meaning to sit down and watch this one for a while. Back in 1996, New Japan decided they would combine a bunch of Junior Heavyweight Title’s into one big Super Title called the “J-Crown”.

That would come later in the year in a big tournament, but in the meantime they held this show to essentially set the stage by having the main players in the eventual J-Crown tournament compete on a big show in an effort to get all the belts established and get the fans suitably jazzed at the prospect of seeing them unified.

This is an eight match show with seven of the bouts being singles matches for the various Titles, with one additional tag team match featuring Lance Storm. I’ve been trying to get my grubby mitts on this show for years, so I’m glad I get to finally watch it.

Konnichiwa!

Back with the second part of the NOAH double header from 26/27 June, with Great Muta getting dragged out of the mothballs being the selling point for this one. The 26/06/2021 show had a fantastic Cage match Main Event that made the show a thumbs up all by itself, but this show might be a bit more of a difficult sell.

I actually don’t mind Muta matches, but you 100% need a hot crowd in order to make them work and this show will have zero fans because they’ve taped it at the NOAH TV Studio, so there’s no way for Keiji Muto to really hide here and I’m not sure his in-ring in the Muta gimmick by itself will be good enough to make the match work, but I’ll be happy to proven wrong.

Konnichiwa!

NOAH did a double header of shows on the 26^th and 27^th of June, with night one having a Lucha de Apuestas Cage Match and night two having Great Muta getting dug out of the mothballs. It seems like quite a desperate ploy on their part, but what the heck maybe the shows will be good?

I’ll try and have the Muta show up tomorrow, but for today it’s time for some Cage War!

Konnichiwa!

It’s time to close out this New Japan review, as we watch the final three matches from the Nexess VI show at the Tokyo Dome from May 2005.

This week we’ve got Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Jushin Liger, Masahiro Chono and Mistuharu Misawa all involved in some matches, so hopefully we get a good mixture of match quality and star power.

The event has been pretty so-so thus far, and hasn’t really felt “Dome Worthy”, so I’m hoping we at least get a strong closing stretch at the very least.

Konnichiwa!

Back with another NOAH review, because YOU demanded it! (Well, a few people did at least)

Mistuharu Misawa formed NOAH in 2000 after taking the majority of the All Japan Pro Wrestling roster and setting up a brand new company. In an absolute tragedy he passed away during a match in June 2009, so this is an event to honour his memory by the company he founded.

I’m a big Misawa fan, even to the point that I reached maximum nerd level in my younger days by being able to recreate spots of his move for move on the Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 video game. One of my fondest memories from attending a wrestling show was seeing him wrestle at the Coventry Sky Dome in 2008.

This is up on FITE right now and has English commentary, so if you’re curious about the product and fancy giving it a try, there’s really no better time. It’s a step up from having to buy tapes either online or from Extreme Central UK in Manchester like I had to do back in the day that’s for sure!

Konnichiwa!

More from New Japan’s Tokyo Dome Show from May 2005!

Last week, Toru Yano and Togi Makabe took on Osamu Nishimura and Yutaka Yoshie in a bland opener, Minoru Suzuki massacred poor Alexander Otsuka in a fun Shoot-Style collision and we closed off with Hirooki Goto getting a heart-warming big win in a very good Junior Heavyweight tag team bout.

This week we cover matches 4 to 6, featuring the likes of Tiger Mask IV, Yuji Nagata and Keiji Muto in action, so if you like those guys then stay tuned!

Konnichiwa!

I’ve recently picked up some New Japan shows from their “dark period” in the 00’s, and this Tokyo Dome event was one of them, so I’ll be chopping it up and reviewing it over the next few weeks in my regular Wednesday slot here on the Blog of DOOM. I’ll probably separate it into three parts as the show has nine matches, but I’ll be flexible with that and amend it if and when I need to.

New Japan Pro Wrestling was pretty much on its arse from about 2002 to 2006 until Hiroshi Tanahashi won the top belt and rescued them from disintegration.  The issues were myriad, with Antonio Inoki’s scattershot stop-start booking being the biggest, along with a fascination of signing up guys from MMA and pushing them over all the regular roster members, whether they could actually work or not.

Even though this was a pretty miserable period for the company I’ve always been kind of fascinated by it, and because 2003ish was when I first really became aware of New Japan this era holds the slimmest slice of nostalgia for me as well. At the very least we should get a few good matches here if the line-up is anything to go by, so let’s watch the first three matches!

Konichiwa!

I’ve really gone off the boil with New Japan recently, ever since the shenanigans with Ibushi and the briefcase in all honesty, but NOAH has done a nice job of stepping in to scratch my Puro itch instead. This card intrigued me enough to slap down the cash to purchase it on FITE and, seeing as I’ve got a rare day off scheduled, I decided I’d sit down with a nice cuppa and maybe a cheeky biccie to watch the show.

If you’d like some info on the backstory then there’s an article below that you can click on which goes into detail on the three Title matches. I’ll also try and relay anything that the commentary team throws my way too.

Preview: Pro Wrestling NOAH Presents NOAH The Glory (04/29/21)

Anyway, enough chatter, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

Hello You!

Yup, it’s time for some more mid-80’s All Japan goodness courtesy of that there YouTube machine. Thanks as always to Roy Lucier for uploading this stuff!

Hello You!

More All Japan goodness courtesy of that fine uploader Roy Lucier over on that there YouTube!

I also recently reviewed WrestleMania III and you can read my thoughts on that historic event by clicking HERE (Spoiler, I liked it)

Hello You!

This week we’ve got some more action featuring the Road Warriors, as they take on Giant Baba, whilst Bruiser Brody is wrestling in the Main Event. What’s not to like?

Thanks to Roy Lucier over on that there YouTube for uploading these

Hello You!

The Road Warriors are in the Main Event this week after many weeks of hype, so I’m suitably jazzed!

Cheers to Roy Lucier as always for uploading this to his YouTube channel.

Hello You!

More from All Japan courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube.

Next week is due to be an extended special episode of the show due to the company having a big show in Tokyo that day, so this week would kind of be the go-home show in that case.

The Main Event this week is more of the Riki Choshu and his pals Vs All Japan storyline, with a certain chap known as Bruiser Brody returning for the second match.

So yeah, lots of interesting stuff this week, so let’s get our collective teeth into it!

Hello You!

More from the All Japan vaults, courtesy of Roy Lucier over on a little place called YouTube.

Last week we had a great tag match featuring Riki Choshu and Genichiro Tenryu that had an atrocious non-finish but was hot sauce up to that point, followed by a less than stellar Main Event that featured a rare clean finish when Giant Baba submitted Tiger Jeet Singh. However, both feuds are continuing and there’s also the small factor of BRUISER BRODY being on the show this week.

So yeah, that’s going to happen. How’s about we watch some chuffing wrestling?

Hello You!

Back again with some All Japan TV, courtesy of Roy Lucier over on the Tube of You.

Last week was the usual All Japan show from 1985, in that we got some good wrestling and some strong storyline advancement, but we also got some terrible finishes to go along with them.

This week we have a singles match between Giant Baba and Tiger Jeet Singh as the Main Event, which has potential to be absolutely horrible. Who knows though, maybe we’ll get lucky and the match might be watchable?

Let’s watch on and find out!