Rick Reviews Japan — page 2

Howdy!

ZSJ! ZSJ! ZSJ!

Gotta give credit where due, this year’s New Japan Cup was the best in years. Tons of fresh, good matches, the right winner, the entire House of Torture and Bullet Club eliminated before the quarterfinals….

It certainly slapped…..hard than Will Smith at the Oscars!

*Sigh* Okay, I knew it was a lame joke. I apologize…..like Will Smith did to Chris Rock the day after the Oscars!

*Crickets*

Oh, boy. I, uh….I’m not very funny. But I DO like me some fake fightin’, so let’s talk about that!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

ZSJ for the win this weekend. 

No, he’s probably not GOING to win it. Gun to my head, Okada wins the Cup and names Ibushi as his next challenger. It’s not what I would do, but I think there’s a good chance that’s what GEDO will do. 

Also, Tanahashi is teaming with the GoD, so pretty much nothing in New Japan makes sense any more. 

Time to go back to where NJPW makes the most sense these days – ‘Murica and New Japan Strong!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

(Ahem. So, this was supposed to post on FRIDAY before this week’s Strong aired, but it didn’t and due to work being completely insane, I didn’t follow up to see that I screwed it up. Anyway, it’s late and I’ll have the next one up at the usual time, many apologies to the 5 or so of you who read this.)

Howdy!

Give Hiromu Takahashi the IWGP World title, you cowards.

If you’ve been watching the New Japan Cup, you know I’m right.

That’s it, that’s the intro this week. 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Okay, be honest with me here, everyone. If you watched the Naito/GEDO match from the New Japan Cup the other night, well, first off – sorry that you did that. 

But second, and as I said, be honest – when Naito was yanking on GEDO’s beard, did anyone else pretend that GEDO’s screams were a shoot and he was in agonizing pain over having both helped create and push the House of Torture? 

‘Cause I sure did. 

Now that I think about it, wishing someone physical pain just because of the way they booked a wrestling angle is probably a desperate sign that I need therapy. But I can push that desire for violence down and write about wrestling instead! Just as good!

Anyway, speaking of violence, this week vengeance shall be had as BAD DUDE TITO and JONAH seek to even the score with the pretty boys of FinJuice in our main event as we kick off the Rivals tour tonight! 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Man, that Okada/Desperado match is still dominating my mind. I thought for a really brief moment that Okada was going to tap to the Stretch Muffler. They made me BELIEVE THAT. Absolutely outstanding first round match in the New Japan Cup that y’all should check out post-haste. 

Which you can watch with the rest of us if you’re up for some late nights! Or early mornings, whatever. Join us in the daily threads on the BOD for some live puro all through the month of March.

But this recap here is for some fine grappling on the North American side of the pond as we finish up the New Beginning tour! Tonight, ‘Filthy’ Tom Lawlor will defend the Strong title against NXT legend Taylor Rust! 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Tonight, the New Beginning Tour continues with another installment of the US of Jay challenge, as Jay White will face a mystery opponent in the main event and beat the hell out of said opponent as though it’s Scott Keith himself!

Man, I can’t wait until I win my Bladie. Assuming Scott doesn’t yank my posting privileges. 

Eh, who am I kidding? He doesn’t read this anyway. 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Tonight, the New Beginning tour continues as we’ve got BAD DUDE TITO in our main event, teaming with JONAH to make victims out of FinJuice! 

In light of the horrific words written about one Jay White from our esteemed blogmaster (Scott’s opinion on this matter is, dare I say it, the NXT 2.0 of opinions), I feel the need to assure you that none of that scurrilous nonsense will be contained herein.

In fact, I’m making an announcement right here and now: I want to win next year’s Doomies. And not in the ‘other writers’ category, because we all know that Tommy Hall is winning that; no, no. I want to defeat the slanderous Scott Keith, and when I do, I shall rechristen them the ‘Bladies’. 

So you heard it here first, people – the 2022 Doomies are mine in the name of Jay White. Breathe with the switchblade!

What the hell was I talking about before? Of course! Wrestling! On the wrestling blog!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Tonight we kick off the New Beginning tour here on NJPW Strong! Clark Connors takes on TJP in our main event! 

Uh…..yay! Right?

Sigh. So long as he doesn’t TALK, I can live with some TJP.

Before I watch, I should really read Scott’s Dynamite review, see what the (Big) Bossman of the blog thinks about Jay White’s debu-

He said WHAT?!? He said WHAT about Jay White? 

This is my worst intro ever. 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Hey. Hey, you. You, over there. Skipping past this post like you normally do because it’s about a show you don’t watch. You.

You wanna watch a really good wrestling show? Like, a really GOOD wrestling show? Also, do you want to buy some crack?

I kid, I kid. I don’t have any crack.

For sale.

But I do have a really good wrestling show to recap right here. So 1 out of 2 ain’t bad, right?

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

This recap contains zero mentions of Adam Cole or Hook; and god willing for this show, never will.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – what could we possibly argue about in the comments section, then?

Well, I suggest using that section for effusive praise. Of me, in case that isn’t clear.

And Spaniels.

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

I promise that there will be copious amounts of cursing in this review.

Let’s watch some fucking wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Screw it, I miss Jay White. And I already watch this show every week anyway. 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Yeah, been a minute. I missed writing about wrestling, what can I say?

About a week ago, a match started making waves amongst the proudest of wrestling nerds, and it wasn’t just from the BoD Joshi crew.  

Filthy Tom Lawlor – “Watch Syuri Kondo vs Utami Hayashishita if you value your time”

Howdy!

I don’t really know how to begin this, so let’s go with the following – the first bit of this is a recap of the rest of the New Japan Cup, with my thoughts on the matches, etc.

The second, longer bit is about Will Ospreay, the show-closing angle of the Final, and another trip into my headspace. For some of you, it may behoove you to stop reading after the first bit.

Let’s do this thing.

Howdy!

Back for Round 2 of the New Japan Cup, as we’re going from 16 to 8 today; let’s not waste any time.

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

The New Japan Cup is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen!

Due to everything going on in my life right now, I haven’t been able to recap every show, so I decided it would be better to do them all in one article. We’ll run down the results so far, talk a bit about the brackets, and do some match reviews along the way. Cool? 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Been a minute.

I want to take a brief moment here and do two things. First, a very belated thank you for everyone who voted me 3rd in the Doomies. Actually means more than a bit that people seem to enjoy what I do, and it helps me keep doing it. I’ll catch Tommy someday, damnit.

Second, for those unaware (and I won’t bore anyone with the details yet again) my family, specifically my wife, has gone through quite a bit of tragedy over the last several weeks, hence my hiatus for a bit there. I genuinely appreciate everyone who reached out or listened, because I needed it. Despite the bickering and silliness, there’s really no other place on the ‘net that I would rather discuss wrestling than right here with all of you. It’s a good place, everyone, and y’all make it that way. 

With all that said, we’ve got a lot to get through, so let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

Time for our first true big one since Wrestle Kingdom, as tonight in our main event, Hiroshi Tanahashi challengers Shingo Takagi for the NEVER openweight title in what could end up a Match of the Year contender!

(Spoiler alert – it was.)

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

With the New Beginning show looming this weekend in Nagoya, I thought it would be fun to take a brief look at some matches from the Road to the New Beginning events. 

A brief explanation – the ‘road to’ shows are a series of shows that, 99% of the time, are various tag matches of different sizes and lengths, and are meant to highlight the feuds that will eventually be paid off on the main shows. As a result, a lot of the permutations of the matches are run several times, which makes reviewing the shows a little redundant. But there was some really fun stuff on these shows, so let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Howdy!

One down, one to go. Time for more Wrestle Kingdom from the Dome! Time for Night 2!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?