Looking for something great to watch this week in the wacky world of wrestling? Here are a few suggestions from yours truly
Sign up to New Japan World and watch Invasion Attack and Dontaku
After a while of not watching NJPW, I decided to catch up after The “It Girl” Melanie Price gave me the impetus on the old Twitter machine. I can’t thank her enough, because these two shows are top stuff!
I’ve had an NJPW World subscription since January and it’s well worth the money. Sometimes the videos over buffer somewhat, but I often find that if you stick the videos on Low Quality it takes care of this and picture quality is just fine.
There is the annoying habit New Japan has of dubbing out most of their music. It’s not exactly the dubbed themes that bother me as much as the fact that they play them over the existing sound meaning that it drowns out the crowd. Here’s an idea New Japan, if you know a show is going online, why not have the wrestlers come out to the generic in house music in the arena to get around this issue?
I mean, it’s not like WWE Network where they have to dub over shows from the past by other companies. It’s your show and you’re running it now. If you can’t be bothered to spring the yen required to lease Jushin Liger’s theme, then don’t have him come out to in the arena. Play his generic in house theme and keep the actual Liger theme for House Shows.
This is a small gripe overall though. The wrestling in New Japan is quite sensational at times, and Invasion Attack from the 5th April 2015 is no exception. Highlights included a crazy Junior Heavyweight spot-fest between The Young Bucks and Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero and former WWE/NXT stalwart Trent Berretta) as well as a scintillating main event between AJ Styles and Kota Ibushi.
AJ Styles in particular was excellent on the show, living up in every way to his “Phenomenal” nickname. AJ is one of those rare cases of a wrestler who seems to just keep getting better as time goes on. His heel mannerisms and crowd work are better now than they were even 2 years ago. He was brilliant back then and he’s somehow conspired to be even better today.
Ibushi is one of the wrestling world’s premier high flyers, and this match had no shortage of crazy high-spots. However, the match did also have a solid psychological foundation, with AJ being a heel and Ibushi fighting from underneath. I don’t tend to do star ratings anymore these days, but this match would be ****+ on most people’s watches. How much more it is than that depends on the individual. Still, the match was excellent and well worth signing up to NJPW World for.
I’ve not yet finished Dontaku, but I’ve seen most of the card and it’s another good one. Kenny Omega continues his streak as one of the most outrageously entertaining people in wrestling in his match with Alex Shelley. Some solid character work from both guys in this and some great near falls at the end.
Karl Anderson’s infatuation with former WWE Diva Maria led to some of the best moments of the show. Anderson and Doc (Formerly CM Punk SES Member, Luke) Gallows and Amber took on ROH’s Mike Bennett, Matt Taven and Maria in a 6 person tag match.
The big story coming in to this match was Anderson being smitten with Maria and it distracting him from getting the job done, as evidenced by Bennett and Taven defeating Anderson and Gallows on more than one occasion leading to the bout. Anderson was just brilliant in this. It was the little touches I liked. Andersons nickname is “The Machine Gun” so when he’s announced he mimes firing a machine gun while bullets play over the sound system.
On this occasion, he was so distracted thinking about Maria that he forget to do the machine gun mime, which is lovely little nuance that I really enjoyed. The match followed in a similar vein, with Anderson frequently getting distracted and Gallows chastising him. A really great Sports Entertainment™ Style match, which would probably work as a good bridge for people unfamiliar with New Japan who were thinking of crossing over from traditional western wrestling.
New Japan have placed quite a few American wrestlers in notable roles in the show (Anderson, Styles, Omega, Shelley etc) which I think is to help entice non-Japanese viewers to watch the shows a bit more, by giving them someone who they can understand and follow. On paper, this would appear to be a smart move, and we’ll see if it helps more people to make the transition over.
Both Invasion Attack and Dontaku are available now at njpwworld.com
You can subscribe for 999 yen a month. I suggest anyone who is looking for a regular alternative to WWE to check it out, even if it’s for just a month or two
Not a WWE Network subscriber? Sign up this month for free!
So yes, WWE are doing another in a seemingly endless string of “free months” on The Network for new subscribers. Sitting on the fence and not sure whether to sign up? Well get yourself a free month and find out. Now’s as good a time as ever.
My recent regular watch has been WCW Nitro’s from the spring/summer of 1996. This has mainly been brought about by both Scott Keith reviewing them on his blog (www.rspwfaq.net ) as well as Bryan, Vinny and Craig reviewing them on their weekly podcast over at www.f4wonline.com
I started off around March time and have just finished watching Bash at the Beach 96. It’s funny watching the company evolve and change around this time. When I first started tuning in the company was still being built around Hulk Hogan as the hero babyface taking on recycled 80’s monsters, with Randy Savage as his loyal sidekick.
Then, sometime around April, Hogan skips town to make movies or some such, and the company becomes all about a Randy Savage and Ric Flair blood feud for a while. The shows improve exponentially at this point, as Ric Flair cuts many a wild promo while openly spending the Macho Man’s alimony (While it also being suggested that he’s nailing Savage’s ex-wife Elizabeth during this. Her footing the bill for Flair’s mad escapades is just so funny for some reason and great heel shtick). Savage goes promptly nuts and awesomeness ensues.
Add to that the interesting layered storyline between Lex Luger and Sting, wherein Luger was a heel but babyface Sting was still his friend and thusly getting dragged into all sorts of situations that he didn’t want to be dragged into, and it really wasn’t surprising why Nitro was doing so well at this point in time.
The show really was captivating, even if lots of points on it didn’t make sense and storylines seemed to change on a whim. If you get a chance, I’d recommend watching one of the Raw’s from that time period to compare and contrast the two. Nitro seems fresh and edgy while Raw feels stale and by the numbers.
And then on the 29th May 1996, Scott Hall appears for the first time and everything goes nuclear. This is another instance where some storylines are modified and others are downright changed completely to accommodate the “invasion” of Hall and later Kevin Nash.
Though it is somewhat jarring to see so many things get chucked out with the bath water to accommodate the arrival of The Outsiders, Lex Luger is just a full-fledged babyface all of a sudden without much explanation for instance, the fact remains that the storyline of two wrestlers invading and causing havoc makes compulsive viewing.
Kevin Nash in particular as a snarky big guy is brilliant. On the go home show for Bash at the Beach, he and Hall purchase tickets for the show and sit on the front row. When security guards come over to inspect them, Nash yells mockingly “We came to see the big boys!”
An angle on an earlier show sees The Outsiders crash a tag title match with baseball bats, so ARMED POLICE come out to stop them! It’s amazing seeing WCW, a company not usually renowned for getting new people over, do such a masterful job of making these two men look like such a gigantic threat to the company. They had nothing but baseball bats and WCW were so freaked out that they required policemen with guns to counter them. Just incredible stuff!
I can’t recommend these shows strongly enough. Well worth your time considering they’re free for a month if you’re a brand new subscriber.
I also highly recommend you read Keith’s rants as well. They make a great companion piece to the actual shows. Scott’s irrational love for a certain JTTS makes for great reading to boot.
Head to www.wwe.com/network to sign up
Head to www.rspwfaq.net to read Scott Keith’s musings
And head to www.f4wonline.com to listen to the Bryan and Vinny Show, along with other shows. Sign up and you can get even MORE content, along with both the Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Weekly Newsletters
Here’s hoping I’ve made money for someone today. Hey, if I like something I try to spread the word. The world of a wrestling fan would be worse off without these things to populate it
One final plug. Grand Pro Wrestling returns to the Rose Club Hindley this Friday. Visit www.grandprowrestling.co.uk for further information
In addition, Future Shock Wrestling returns to Prestwich this Saturday, when Jack Gallagher takes on Zack Gibson. For more information, visit www.futureshockwrestling.co.uk for further information
And that, to quote Carl Clinch, is AAAAAALLLLLLLLLL the plugs
Watch some wrestling this week, there’s plenty on offer!
Peace Out
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