Mike Reviews Japan — page 3

Hello You!

NOAH returned to the Nippon Budokan on Friday, site of some of their bigger shows from back in the company’s heyday. I’ve got quite a bit on my plate at the moment so I can’t do a full on review for it, but I have watched it and I wanted to give some thoughts on it in the form of a Mini Review as some posters expressed an interest.

I’ll be doing this more in a highlight form, where I don’t go in-depth on the matches and instead just give some thoughts on each match and some general opinions without going into deeper detail. If I get a chance down the line I might give this one a proper full review. I picked the show up on FITE for £19.99 (Not sure of what the price will be outside the UK) and it features English commentary from Stuart Fulton and Mark Pickering, who did their usual good job. They’re a low-key good commentary team and I’m glad FITE has been sticking with them. Thankfully they didn’t try the experiment of pairing them up with Muhammed Yone this time, which led to the commentary flowing much better.

I really like the English graphics for the wrestlers too, as it helps someone slightly less familiar with the NOAH product, such as me, to know who everyone is. They do set the names out surname first though, as is the way it’s done over in Japan, so bare that in mind if you watch the show as it takes a second for your mind to adjust.

Anyway, let’s see how the show was!

Hello You!

Last week we had a really fun Main Event with a lousy finish (Yup, sounds like All Japan from the mid-80’s alright) and ended the show with a tease for The Road Warriors, so we can look forward to seeing them sometime, likely in March.

This week we’ve got a rare singles match between Tiger Mask II and Kuniaki Kobayashi, as well as more of the Choshu Vs Tenryu feud, so let’s waste no further time and watch some chuffing wrestling!

As always, I need to send a big shout out over to Roy Lucier on YouTube for uploading this stuff. Give him and one of his many channels some likes!

Hello You!

Time for some more All Japan from 1985!

Last week, Genichiro Tenryu had to sit out a six man tag involving Riki Choshu due to an injury, which led to Choshu heading out of the ring following his victory in a quest to cause some bother. Tenryu is back for this week’s Main Event though, so I’m sure we’re going to enjoy ourselves one heck of a fight as a result!

As usual, thanks to Roy Lucier over on YouTube for uploading this great stuff.

Let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

Hello You!

Back with some more All Japan TV from 1985, once again courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube. Give Roy some likes and some subs you filthy animals!

The feud between Genichiro Tenryu and Riki Choshu has been all kinds of fun in the past couple of weeks, although all the non-finishes in their matches has started to get a tad tiresome. Still, I’m pumped whenever I get a chance to see them go at it, so the booking is doing its job I guess.

Hello You!

Back with some more All Japan TV from 1985, once again courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube.

Last week the Main Event between Riki Choshu’s crew and the All Japan guys ended in a wild pull apart brawl, so let’s see if that gets followed up during this week’s show.

Hello You!

Back with some more All Japan TV from 1985, once again courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube.

Last week, we had some heated conflict between Riki Choshu and Genichiro Tenryu, and wouldn’t you know it they’re butting heads again this week in 6 man tag team action!

I certainly know I’m pumped for that, so let’s quit this jibber-jabbering and watch some chuffing wrestling!!

Hello You!

Let’s try these for a while and see if people enjoy them

Big thanks to Roy Lucier over on the YouTube machine for uploading these. Head over and give him some likes if you haven’t already!

I’ve seen some decent chunks of AJPW from the 90’s due to my love of Misawa, Kobashi, Akiyama and Taue (Kawada is a great worker, but I never had the same emotional connection to him as I do the other four) but 80’s All Japan is something I haven’t spent much time watching. To me, All Japan really started with Misawa beating Jumbo in 1990, with everything before that being a mysterious avenue that I haven’t ventured down.

With Hardcore TV now in the bag, I decided to travel back to the mid-80’s to see what was going on in All Japan Pro Wrestling. Lets’ watch some chuffing wrestling!

Hello You!

I enjoyed the last NOAH show on FITE TV and the Main Event from this one was getting a lot of hype, so let’s give the show a looksee!

I haven’t been a regular watcher of the product for going on 10+ years, but I’m sure the NOAH fans we have on here will be able to pick up on anything I miss. Thankfully there will be some English commentary, so they should be able to update me on the relevant story points.

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Because why not eh?

I was a big NOAH fan in the 00’s and hoovered up any stuff from the company that I could, even going to see the company live on three occasions when they toured over in the UK at different points.

The death of Mitsuharu Misawa and the retirement of Kenta Kobashi played their part in my interest for the product waning and I haven’t watched a NOAH show for a very long time. However, there was a thread up on the Blog noting that this show was going up on FITE with English commentary, so I decided to throw some coins NOAH’s way for old time’s sake seeing as the card looked like it would be fun.

It’s been so long since I watched the product that I’m going into this one totally blind, but Lawrence Talbot has kindly allowed me to post his previews from the live thread on the Blog. Head over and give him a like for putting the work in for us.

If I enjoy this I might even try and stay up to date with the product going forward. Anyway, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

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I had a dig around in my tape collection recently and found this DVD that a friend burnt off for me probably 15 years ago now. I actually haven’t ever properly sat down to watch this, so I decided to do so now seeing as New Japan was really hot around this period and I thought there would be some good matches to enjoy.

I’ve decided to class this as a “mini review” because I am not going to go into lots of detail and instead just give a brief overview of the tape. I will include match ratings if I feel they are relevant, but aside from that this is going to be a more relaxed review that you can hopefully blow through relatively easily whilst enjoying a nice biscuit and a brew.

This tape contains two volumes of match selections from New Japan’s post G1 tour in the autumn of 97. It means we get to see some less fancy venues where they’ve taped stuff with a roaming cam only, which is a nice change of pace. Reminds me a bit of the fan cam tapes I’d get of ECW events, except the video quality is much better.

If reading about Japanese Wrestling is your thing then I highly suggest checking out Rick’s archives, as he is the Blog’s main reviewer of modern Japanese stuff and he’s darn good at his job!

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I was originally going to have a bash at reviewing the 1995 King of the Deathmatch this week, but I’ve seen that one quite a few times whilst I’ve never seen this show, so I decided to go with something new. If you fancy watching along, you can do so by clicking HERE.

For those not au fait, IWA Japan was a Japanese Deathmatch promotion that was founded by Víctor Quiñones and ran by Tatsukuni Asano. Essentially it was created to replace the recently defunct W*ING promotion. They spent the 90’s being one of the main rivals to FMW, the premier Japanese Deathmatch company of the time, and brought in the likes of Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, Tarzan Goto and Tiger Jeet Singh to juice up the roster.

The “Kawasaki Dream” show from the summer of 1995 featured an 8 man Deathmatch Tournament, eventually won by Cactus Jack, and had given the company some considerable attention both at home and internationally, with this tape being the follow up.

The tape features a selection matches from two shows that were held at the end of 1995 , one in October and the other in December. The December show is based around crowing new NWA Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, with Terry Funk taking part as well as Cactus, Terry Gordy and The Headhunters.

It’s not like I’m a gigantic fan of Japanese Deathmatch Wrestling, but it’s nice to have a change of pace now and then from the usual brand of Puroresu, and I’m a big Mick Foley fan so it’s always interesting to go back and watch stuff from the mid-90’s where he was still working the indies and pretty much destroying himself almost purely for the love of the sport.

So without further ado, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

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Well, we’ve had one heck of a tournament with lots of great matches and now it’s time to tie things off with a nice bow, with A Block Winner Kota Ibushi taking on B Block Winner SANADA.

Let’s find out who will be taking home the bacon!

You can read Rick’s review of the Final Night of B Block by clicking right HERE

Rick should also be doing a review of this particular show as well, so keep a look out for that!

Hello You!

Here we are, it’s time for the Final Night of A Block, with Jay White, Kazuchika Okada and Kota Ibushi all having a chance to win it (Although there may be an outside way for Will Ospreay to still manage it somehow, which will probably happen now just to make me look dumb. I could take this bit out of course, but I’ll leave it in, just for the craic)

My pick is Kota Ibushi, but I’ve enjoyed Okada’s run so much that I’ve decided I’d like him to win the Block. So expect a Jay White victory then!

Rick’s been doing a sterling job with the B Block and you can read his review of Night Eight by clicking right HERE

Hello You!

Cheers to all who said kind words last time out. Had a chat with my mum today and her temperature is pretty much back to normal and she felt well enough to go in the garden for a bit, so here’s hoping she’s past the worst of it.

I’m still in isolation, but I’ve thankfully had no COVID-19 symptoms thus far, so hopefully I should be able to get out and about as soon as my 14 days are up.

Anyway, we’re into the final two nights of A Block now, with a number of workers tied on 10 points. You’d think something would have to give in this round, so let’s see what happens!

If you’d like to read Rick’s review of B Block Night Seven then you can do so by clicking right HERE

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More G1 action, and you can read Rick’s review of Night Six of B Block by clicking right HERE

It’s been an interesting week for me. As mentioned in the last A Block review, it was my birthday mid-week so I decided to spend it with my support bubble (If you live on your own in the UK then you’re allowed to visit one other household under the pandemic restrictions), of which my mum is a member.

However, my mum has since come down with COVID-19, which means I’m in isolation for 14 days. Thankfully I can do my entire day job from home and I’ve not shown any symptoms myself as of this writing, which hopefully stays the case. I’m missing my daily walk though, as it was how I got my exercise and cleared my head.

I’m worried about my mum though as she has asthma, which puts her in a high risk category, and I’ve been checking in on her regularly via phone. She’s still keeping to her bed but her temperature is going down at least. I’ve not been tested myself as the guidelines just say to isolate unless you get symptoms, and I’ve got a food delivery booked in for tomorrow, so I’m ready to hunker down. I’ve already had four days in isolation as I decided to play it safe the minute I was told she had symptoms, so just 10 left now and I’ll be released back into polite society.

So with that out of the way, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling so I can take my mind off it all.

Hello You!

Let’s get to another night of A Block action. We’re in the second half of the fixtures now, as A Block is really taking shape.

You can read Rick’s review of Night Five of B Block by clicking right HERE

If you’ve got the time, I’ve also written an article on Roman Reigns’ recent heel turn called “The Rejuvenation of Roman Reigns” over on the website Gaming Respawn. If you fancy a read you can do so by clicking right HERE

Hello You!

Make sure to check out Rick’s review of Night Four of B Block by clicking right HERE

It’s another day of G1, and I’ve been loving it thus far. By the time this gets uploaded I will be another year older. With Everton top of the table too. What a time to be alive!

I should point out that they’ve uploaded the Keiji Mutoh Vs Yuji Nagata G1 Final from 2001 up as a free video on NJPW World. If you’ve never seen it then I strongly suggest you do so, as it features some sublime technical wrestling and does an excellent job highlighting why Mutoh ended up winning wrestler of the year for 2001.

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

Hello You!

Rick’s been doing a fine job handling the New Japan shows on here so I had decided to focus on other things, but then Rick asked me to help out with G1 this year and I’ve been covering A Block (Which you can see read in my archives). I actually hand wrote this back when the show actually happened because I was intrigued by the stadium setting, but then decided not to post it. Seeing as I’ve dipped a toe back in the New Japan well, I decided to just stick this up as well. It’s over a month out of date, but hopefully no less interesting to read.

This was New Japan’s big event of the summer, featuring a rematch between Tetsuya Naito and EVIL for the IC and IWGP Titles. I’m all for them trying new guys and I’ve enjoyed EVIL’s work ever since he got that big win over Okada in the G1 a few years back, so I’m glad he got a shot and I was interested to see how this match went.

So without further ado, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

Hello You!

Time for Night Four of A Block!

You can read Rick’s review of Night Three by clicking HERE

It’s been a wacky week here in the UK music wise, where my fellow Everton supporters, in high spirits due to a good start to the season, decided to knock Miley Cyrus off the top of the iTunes charts by buying a number of Everton related songs, with “Spirit of the Blues”, a song from our hot period in the 80’s, being the one that started it all going. A really nice aspect of it all is that one of the writers of the song (Kenny Parry) was going through a rough period due to losing his wife in recent years, and the song getting in the charts has really made his week, which makes it a win however you want to slice it I think.

Hello You!

Let’s watch some more G1 Climax!

You can read Rick’s review of Night Two of B Block by clicking right HERE