NJPW New Beginning in Osaka

New Japan Pro-Wrestling
New Beginning in Osaka
11th February 2015
BODYMAKER Colosseum, Osaka

As Dinah Washington did not sing, and as Maria Grever did not actually write, what a diff'rence a month or so makes (just 912 little hours). In the early joustings of 2015, New Japan Pro-Wrestling could not have been arrested anywhere from Sendai to Saratoga. Look:

http://t.co/VSu3CxRNR4 - 2 NJPW novices gush about the awesomeness that was #njwk9 on this week's episode of @GNetworked
— Dustin (@DSpenceCantLose) January 7, 2015

Professional wrestling at its finest #WrestleKingdom9 #WK9 #njwk9 @njpwworld pic.twitter.com/JLvjJn5HX3
— Arthur Shimko (@artshimko) January 7, 2015

#njwk9 pic.twitter.com/0pVEKLOiTt
— DP1? (@WV_CAWS) January 7, 2015

NJPW Power Struggle

New Japan Pro Wrestling
Power Struggle
8th November 2014, BODYMAKER Colosseum, Osaka

The final real supercard of the year indicates much intrigue with Bullet Club touting a new member, the next stage in the Shibata revival story and a raft of title matches with some big hitters. Let's dive straight in.

featuring translations from Yottsume of puroresushop.com
and lots of images from the excellent Sports Navi

NJPW Road to Power Struggle: Day One

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Road to Power Struggle: Day One

25th October 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

Once again featuring translations by Yottsume! Be sure to check out his website as it's pretty much the only way you can get the proper New Japan merch with the Lion Mark.  

Don't worry, it's the 2010 design. No one needs to be fired.

It didn't take much or many changes for the complexion of NJPW to alter as we hurtle toward 2015. Kenny Omega signs. Katsuyori Shibata signs full-time. Kota Ibushi extends his deal and goes heavyweight. Jushin Liger indicates the winding down phase of his career. And new alliances are formalised to help Seikigun (New Japan Army) fight back against the menace of the three major factions: CHAOS, Suzuki-gun and Bullet Club.

NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2014

New Japan Pro-Wrestling

King of Pro-Wrestling 2014
13th October 2014, Ryōgoku Kokugikan, Tokyo

Some supercards require me to witter away for 500 words before getting to the first match, but this is King of Pro-Wrestling, cast in stone as a big deal and the last real throw of the dice ahead of the Dome Show on January 4th. Sumo Hall is sold out and a whole heap of titles and briefcases are up for grabs.

Main event: AJ Styles (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship

Furthermore I come armed with translations from Yottsume, the ingenious entrepreneur slash fansubber extraordinaire, meaning that there's actually some grounding to my drivel this time.

NJPW Destruction in Okayama

New Japan Pro Wrestling
Destruction in Okayama
23rd September 2014, Convex, Okayama

Okayama is just an hour and a quarter west of Kobe by the train that leaves Shinkobe station every fifteen minutes, which means if you really wanted to pull a live double-header for this PPV then it would be pretty easy. New Japan haven't run a big show here in the Bushiroad era, often granting the city smaller shows on the Tag League tour, giving this show the quality of a step into the unknown (unlike say, Osaka or Korakuen Hall).

On initial announcement my reaction was one of hesitation, feeling that there was more 'angle' than 'spectacle'. Drilling down deeper I must admit that all of the title matches and the contendership bouts offer something noteworthy. Match of the night seems genuinely up for grabs rather than nailed-on. As a critical word, I don't think that I can recall a main event where the result has been so completely expected ahead of time.

NJPW Destruction in Kobe

New Japan Pro Wrestling
Destruction in Kobe
21st September 2014, World Hall, Kobe.

Hello and welcome to the first New Japan Pro Wrestling supercard in the post #G124 universe of professional wrestling, a world of raised standards and KENTA not being called that anymore. It's a strange place but I think if we navigate it together then we'll have a good old time. Tonight is the first of two Destruction events, mirroring an experiment trialled in February with the New Beginning shows from Osaka and Hiroshima. Whilst those cards did a good house, it was harsh on the wallet for we PPV purchasers and there was a lot more filler to deal with. However, Tuesday's card from Okayama is not on Ustream or Japanese provider NicoNico, so many are touting this as the last stand of NJPW on internet pay-per-view for the time being.

NJPW Road to Destruction: Day 8

New Japan Pro Wrestling
Road to Destruction: Day Eight
15th September 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

Before we get into the meat of this review it would be remiss of this site to not mention this: between the televised show from the Korakuen on the 5th, NJPW have televised two events from the Destruction tour. Neither show had any particular bearing on storyline but are at least worthy of a recap.

NJPW Road to Destruction: Day 1

New Japan Pro Wrestling
Road to Destruction: Day One
5th September 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

As a fan of the game known interchangeably as 'football' and 'soccer' I must say that I value the end of season break. Just last year my particular team of choice had something of a rollercoaster ride of a year, resulting in a glum day in North-West London in the realisation that further success had been curtailed for that season. One six hour coach ride of complete gloom later I was home and I began to wind down.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Finals

G1 CLIMAX 24: FINALS
Seibu Dome, Saitama
10th August 2014

int. New Japan headquarters

GEDO: So we need to do something big to sell the tickets for the G1 Final, it's our chance to earn the second and third biggest draws for any wrestling show worldwide in 2014.
  
JADO: I'm on it. You go back to your bandana collection. Anyway, isn't Inoki-san doing a big show in North Korea? 

GEDO: No, that stuff is 100% legit.

both look at camera

Promotion: DONE

So, in spite of them spacing it out and giving us more matches and indeed a separate event for the final match to headline, the G1 Climax 24 Final has rolled around really quickly. Critics all over the place are calling this the best edition of the tournament, the best tournament and the best thing that happened this year in wrestling. I cannot comment to that too heavily having not seen all the G1 Climaxes, all the tournaments nor all the things that have happened this year in wrestling. It is the best that I've seen though.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 11

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY ELEVEN
Bunka Gymnasium, Yokohama
8th August 2014

It's the last day of regular competition at this year's overwhelmingly successful G1 Climax and the names of the finalists are yet to be decided (shocking, I know!). Usually the finals take place right after the final Block matches, meaning that the final night has more people in contention than we have tonight. The downside of that is that more of these matches are 'meaningless', but the upside is that people know that the final is guaranteed to be star-studded and the last run on Seibu Dome tickets can commence.

Here are the brief permutations: in Block A, if Hiroshi Tanahashi wins, he wins the Block. If he loses, the winner of Bad Luck Fale and Shinsuke Nakamura wins. Should Tanahashi lose and Katsuyori Shibata win, Shibata would take the runners-up slot. In Block B, if Okada wins, he wins. If Styles wins and Okada loses, Styles wins. If both lose, Okada wins. Here, courtesy of the amazing @matsu_bomaYe is the potential finalist club having a break.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 6

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY SIX
Act City, Hamamatsu
July 31st 2014

Approximately halfway between Tokyo and Osaka lies Hamamatsu, birthplace of the founder of Honda, they of the frequently product-recalled cars. New Japan had a great house in this very city earlier in the year for an Anniversary tour house show notable for nothing more than a singles victory for Captain New Japan. Last year's G1 also got under way in Hamamatsu, headlined by Prince Devitt cheating his way to victory against then-champion Kazuchika Okada.

Minoru Suzuki hits the saka otoshi on Yujiro Takakashi (credit: Yahoo!)

A couple of rumours have been doing the rounds, possibly a work, on the health of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe. It'll be interesting to see how either bears up, especially Tanahashi given his headline match this evening against the very physically-demanding (but safe!) Tomohiro Ishii. This said, Tanahashi does get the following night off.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 5

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY FIVE
Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai
28th July 2014

Working their way south on Japan's main island in a gigantic NJPW-branded RV are 21 wrestlers all sat in a circle around Shelton X Benjamin wondering how the hell he got so kayfabe good. "What is your secret?", croaks Tomoaki Honma, flipping a casino chip between his knuckles. "Is it luck?" asks the luck anti-magnet Tetsuya Naito. "He'll never be as good as me!" scribbles Hiroshi Tanahashi into the manuscript of his new book. Benjamin gets off his orange crate, muttering something about it being no secret and sorry about your damn luck as he heads to get a Pot Noodle on the go.

Kazuchika Okada with Gedo after losing on Day 4 (credit: Yahoo!)

The last time New Japan passed through these parts was for Day 6 of the 2013 G1 Climax for a very solid night of wrestling (somewhat like Day 2 of this year's edition). Great crowds have greeted the company wherever they have roamed unlike last year's Day 5 disaster in Ishikawa. In addition, a day of rest between the excellent Day 4 and with two full days off until Day 6 offers hope of some matches stretching themselves that extra mile.

NJPW Kizuna Road (Day 3)

NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING 
KIZUNA ROAD: DAY 3
4th July 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo.

Six days ago we as one united earth family witnessed the passing of the torch in the NEVER division from the greatest wrestler of the last 12 months to one of the most annoying and ultimately insignificant. Many of us put dropping the tertiary title as a sign of a likely push for Tomohiro Ishii (which as time goes on I doubt and expect that the Stone Pitbull has risen as far up the card as can be allowed) but the pain still lingers inside.

NJPW Kizuna Road (Day 2)

Kizuna Road 

29^th June 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo.

Kizuna (絆) is a kanji word that roughly translates as 'bonds', 'friendship' or 'connections'. Much like the Portguese word 'saudade', the Dutch 'gezellig' and the German term 'heimat', there are certain words that have specific meanings that also have regional connotations that go beyond simple translation; they have deeper meanings that attempt to hint at the deeper condition of the people in the mother language. Kizuna can exist between people separated by oceans and by people who do not know each other, it is the spirit of the people as much as simple friendship or nationhood. It's an oddly profound choice for a wrestling promotion to go with, but it beats the shit out of Payback. 

"I bring you peace" ~ C.Montgomery Burns

NJPW Dominion 6.21

Dominion 6.21

21^st June 2014, BODYMAKER Colosseum, Osaka.

The midsummer spectacular of New Japan Pro Wrestling has historically been an explosive affair. Just twelve months ago, Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata continued their boiling bloodfeud in an encounter many take to be the finest of their tear-ups. A flowering boy-prince named Kazuchika Okada was still our champion, defeating To(u)gi Makabe before being challenged by Prince Devitt, who had just downed Hiroshi Tanahashi in the semi-main.

Conversely, this would be the first defeat Tanahashi would suffer at Dominion, having defeated Okada in 2012, Goto in 2011, Yano in 2010 (in a hair vs. hair match that sounds fucking LOL) and the man who shall forever be prefixed with 'veteran' Manabu Nakanishi in 2009 in a 30+ minute encounter are you INSANE?