β32478
[Quote]
Alright, after that lousy Wrestlemania main event I figure we need a men's puroresu general.
Puroresu is Japanese wrestling. Wrestling has been around for a long time in Japan. The major men's promotions today are New Japan and NOAH.
New Japan can be watched at
https://www.njpwworld.comNOAH can be watched at
https://www.wrestle-universe.comThere's also All Japan, which is much smaller (but has a prestigious history) and doesn't feature English commentary but also has a following:
https://www.ajpw.tvHere are some starter matches for anyone looking to get into modern puroresu, I'll post more later:
Kenoh vs Katsuhiko Nakajima (Pro-Wrestling NOAH):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXvzh9y3oz8Tetsuya Naito vs Kenny Omega (NJPW):
https://www.tokyvideo.com/video/g1-climax-27-night-19-tetsuya-naito-vs-kenny-omegaHiroshi Tanahashi vs Kota Ibushi (NJPW)
https://vk.com/video-54361599_456280857Kento Miyahara vs Katsuhiko Nakajima (AJPW)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8wjomqKazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega (NJPW)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x59kcwf β32569[Quote]
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New Japan was founded by a pro-wrestler named Antonio Inoki. Inoki is very famous in Japan. Among many other things, he was known for negotiating the release of a bunch of Japanese hostages from Saddam Hussein and also served in the House of Councillors in the Japanese Diet.
Antonio Inoki vs Big Van Vader - INOKI FINAL COUNT DOWN 5th (1/4/1996)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9e4migHere's a video of Inoki heeming the everliving sh*t out of a guy who decided to shoot on him (narrated by Bill Burr):
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x47ztlb β32588[Quote]
NJPW went down the toilet since they got rid of Harold. Facts.
β32603[Quote]
>>32588It ain't as good as it once was but it's arguably going to be more to some people's liking more than Western wrestling, which has also gone down the toilet.
β32620[Quote]
>>32588>>32609Fine.
You two going to help post something better or are you just here to shΔ±Μt on my thread?
β32632[Quote]
shota umino fucking sucks
β32826[Quote]
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One of the most legendary periods in Japanese pro-wrestling was 1990's All Japan. Known as King's Road, it featured four men who came to be known as the Four Pillars: Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Akira Taue.
Kobashi/Misawa vs Taue/Kawada
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl3j1s β32848[Quote]
Potential WWE future acquisitions thread. Enjoy it until the big boys buy you out too. Tony's dad ain't gonna save you nips.
β32870[Quote]
You guys shΔ±Μt on everything that isn't WWE and then, when there's very little in the way of alternatives, you bitch about how WWE sucks.
I'm just showing people another side of wrestling and that it's not all WWE. You're free to enjoy your thing without shΔ±Μtting on other people's things.
β32890[Quote]
>>32880
Dude. I didn't do jack in your threads.
I was there enjoying the show with you. I'm allowed to like different types of wrestling.
β32926[Quote]
>>32912
This thread is about Japanese pro-wrestling.
Please try to keep conversation on topic.
β32955[Quote]
>>32478 (OP)Bro I love this Kenoh spot so much. He did this, and then less than a week later Jelly Nutella tried to mimick this spot and couldn't put his burning foot out. Here is the webm I made for /asp/ years ago. I have the Joey Janella version saves somewhere on one of my drives but I have ZERO (0) idea what I named it so here is a video of Nakajima from the best match he ever had in his life.
Kenoh is unironically one of the best Japanese wrestlers from the last 20 years but will never get over because he is shoot 5'4"
β32960[Quote]
for me its Gabe raisinto The Bong Schizo
β32968[Quote]
>>32958
You got me all wrong, I'm in your threads because I like watching WWE. The show was good, I just didn't like the end of the main event.
I can like Japanese wrestling and also like WWE man.
β32978[Quote]
>>32968you should just filter him tbh and stop replying
>>32955that was funny
β32986[Quote]
>>32960He kinda sucks now, but there was a brief period of time when he got released from the mental ward and before the borders opened back up when Gabe was putting out kino match after kino match and just being all kinds of crazy and amazing in the ring. Gabe was literally the only bright spot out of the entire covid era of NJPW.
Here is a webm of Jado's debut match. Kurisu was a beast who got kicked out of NJPW for being too violent causing Jado to have permanent brain damage because of some trivial raisin that happened before the show even started. Go check out Bahu's FMW series if you want the whole story behind why this happened.
β32989[Quote]
>>32968Maybe I do. I genuinly enjoyed the show. And to be fair I HAVE tried to enjoy puro but it's not the same.
β32990[Quote]
>>32955Kenoh is legit one of my favorites working today. The man is just fierce.
But like you said, shame he's so damn short.
I'm also a big fan of Kento Miyahara and Katsuhiko Nakajima.
Kento Miyahara vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUgPThFCZi8 β32996[Quote]
>>32989Tonight's show was way better than last night (although the end of last night's show was lit).
Puroresu isn't for everyone. That's alright too. WWE, puroresu – at least it's all better than AEW in my book.
β33002[Quote]
>>32996NOW we are on the same page. Fuck AEW.
β33021[Quote]
>>33002Kek, hell yeah brother.
I watched AEW from the beginning - from before it had Dynamite. About half a year into Dynamite it became blatantly obvious that it sucked and was never getting better.
I preferred New Japan all that time. Then New Japan started working with Tony and Tony stole all the talent. Really fucked up the thing I liked to watch so it's kind of a sore spot.
WWE is way more watchable – it's the major leagues. Wrestling is just supposed to be entertaining, what matters is how it entertains ya.
β33029[Quote]
>>32989The show was fantastic outside of that raisinty main event finish.
>>32990The lore behind Kento and Nakajima is absolutely wild and their match in AJPW was fucking insane. They were both doing everything they could to genuinely hurt the other without breaking kayfabe or fucking up the show. Watching Kento try to tear Nakajima's dick off during the match while Nakajima kept trying to break Kento's neck is the best AJPW has been since Baba died. Fukuda managed to turn AJPW around so fast it is crazy. Anzai, Rising Hayato, Ren, and the Saito bros are fantastic. It is a shame the AJPW roster is so thin because they have all these dimes and no one to face them.
β33045[Quote]
>>33029I haven't watched All Japan in a hot minute but I got into it during the pandemic era (which was rough watching). Those guys are great at character work though. When they had the big multi-promotion crossover show I found myself rooting for them.
People talk about WWE buying a puroresu company and I've long thought that AJPW would be the one to acquire. Prestigious history, could use the money and foreign talent, maybe an injection of some sports-entertainment elements to spice it up a bit. So much to build on.
β33090[Quote]
>>33062Kek, it's all good man, apology accepted.
Sadly, AEWFags fuck up everything. And I'm sure puroresu fans fucked up things before that (I mean, we were one and the same for the longest time) so it's fair to be paranoid.
But there's quite a few of us who just watch Jap stuff because it entertains us. I don't care about workrate really, I just like match-based stuff (I was a WCW fan back in the day). I like goofy low-workrate matches when they're done right. And, hell, I like theatrics and good promo work too, that's why I'm a WWE fan.
Big fucking shame AEW can't seem to get any of that right though. Even their big workrate matches feel off to me because they can't help but throw everything and the kitchen sink into them. And they're obnoxious about it to boot.
Anyway, I'm here in Texas too, and it's late, so I'm off to bed for tonight.
β33101[Quote]
>>33045Pandemic AJPW was rough. Fukuda had just bought the promotion and hadn't even begun to rebuild it. He took it private and has slowly been buying back the rights to all of AJPWs old school shows one event at a time. Suwama specifically went out of his way to spend years scouting college kids and indie wrestlers to create a New Generation of talent.
>>33062No worries niggy. I started the puro thread on /pw/ and ended up getting range banned because some NIGGER claimed to be me and pretend to be a mod. He got permabanned, and then the jannies ended up believing him and permabanned me too.
Also Sasaki was gigabased, and his romance with Akira Hokuto is a love story for all time.
>Got kicked out every company he worked for by being too stiff or refusing to job to someone he thought he could beat in a shoot fight>Slapped Akira Hokuto on their first date for talking back to him, and when she responded by breaking his nose Sasaki proposed right there on the spot. They have been married 29 years.>Undefeated in MMA but quit to return to wrestling for the money>Started training young men in his own promotion Kensuke Office/Diamond Ring. When 14 year old Nakajima came in and started shooting on Sasaki's top student Kento Miyahara beating him unconscious, Sasaki made Nakajima his successor and adopted him as his son β33104[Quote]
>>33090alright later. This thread will stay alive. And I was A WCW guy too. NWO was the raisin until wolfpac became a thing.
β33122[Quote]
>>33104Hell yeah it was.
Still, when you're NWO, you're NWO 4-Life. I'm the one who made the silly invasion thread -
>>8652 (OP) β33143[Quote]
>>33101Cute couple! I've been getting into Hokuto's work… she seriously mogs most men wrestlers (there's a number of her matches in the /joshi/ general thread).
It's good to have a puro thread guy here. I'm really just doing what I can because we needed one but my knowledge of the lore is really an inch deep. So feel free to take over (although I am trying to keep this all friendly, both inside the puroresu world as well as with WWE)
β33181[Quote]
>>33143Puro is crazy deep when you dig into it. It's a combination of Japan maintaining kayfabe long after the rest of the world was exposed with the fact that the Japanese are almost pathological about hiding the truth if it makes them look bad.
Kensuke Sasaki was an NJPW got and got fired and exile because he literally murdered an 18 year old kid during training. Instead of trying to fix raisin they just let Sasaki's contract end without renewing it, and so he became Japan's top indie guy. Like it is almost impossible to find English language sources about Sasaki killing a kid but it is out there. When Tanahashi became the top guy in NJPW he made a big deal out of destroying the old NJPW dojo and rebuilding it specifically because he wanted the promotion to shake off the ghosts of the dead.
There are a few good booked about what really happened in Japan during the 90s and 00s, but they are almost all in English because the Japanese audience doesn't want to know about how bad raisin actually was. Check out Ring of Hell and Eggshells if you just want a beginners idea of what was going on. Also the Stan Hansen autobiography is great, because you can see him go from working in the 1970s through the late 90s and slowly lose trust in the Japanese people as the old timers died and crazy young guys took over their spots.
β33976[Quote]
Seems like there is some drama between United Empire members jeff and tjp
https://x.com/RealJeffCobb/status/1913915532535120264 β34447[Quote]
>>33976Dang, no name drop, not in the picture - no way that's not on purpose.
β34564[Quote]
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This was the match that got me into modern day AJPW… Jake Lee hasn't done anything of note since but he definitely coasted off this one.
AJPW - 01-03-2020 - Kento Miyahara (c) vs. Jake Lee (Triple Crown Title)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7va80b β34617[Quote]
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2008 Clash of Aces -
Suwama vs Hiroshi Tanahashi [2008 Champion Carnival FINAL]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRv2Eex8ZQ β34689[Quote]
>>34654I'm a latecomer so my exposure to older workers is limited. But if pressed, I have to go
1. Tetsuya Naito (pains me to see him in his current condition but man, prime Naito was fire)
2. Kenoh (No explanation needed)
3. Katsuhiko Nakajima (seems like a complete dick but those kicks)
4. Kento Miyahara (Yeah, it's often the same damn match a lot of the time but the dude has aura)
5. Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada (My exposure is limited but those guys were that damn good)
β34723[Quote]
>>34654I like Kenny as well. His matches with Okada got me back into pro-wrestling after being away for 15 years or so. Sadly, there is a lot about his personality that prevents him from being an all-time GOAT for me – pro-wrestling is the last thing anyone should be a dickish snob about and he leans into that.
β35215[Quote]
>>35208Sad about Naito but the man's washed
I never cared about Bushi really
β35224[Quote]
>>35174The series finale of NJPW
β35390[Quote]
>>35224Yeah… it hasn't been nearly as good. And I'm sure someone will rise to the occasion eventually and take mantle of Ace but the field isn't very established. Thinking I'll probably go back to watching NOAH for a while.
β35391[Quote]
>>32478 (OP)I've never seen a match with Kenoh, but I do watch his youtube channel because he has a good sense of humor, which is unusual for Japanese people:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=w0YIyQ3cmZA β35429[Quote]
>>35391He's surprisingly funny for a guy who basically plays the biggest hardass in kayfabe
β35877[Quote]
>>35429That is the joke. He started wrestling when he was like 14 and had just come off of winning the world Kenpo championship. Everyone thought he was going to grow up and become a big star, so they presented him as a hardass shooter with a violent streak. His name literally means "Fist King" which is why his signature post is posing in a martial arts stance with his fist extended. What no one expected was that he had already stopped growing by the time he was 14. So as time went on the disconect between this very small man acting like a hard as fuck cunt began to grow. Instead of letting it hamper him, Kenoh leaned into the comedy stuff. If you only see still pics of his matches it is easy to think that he is playing a badass shooter gimmick. If you actually watch the matches it is a mix of very hard striking, sharp moves, and stiff power work with pure comedy stuff as he over emotes exaggeratedly like a spoiled child confused and angry over why people aren't taking him seriously. His empty arena match with Fujita was peak comedy. The match starts with a tense standoff where they are staring each other down…and it just never stops. For ten minutes straight you have Fujita staring at Kenoh without even blinking while Kenoh's face goes through the five stages of grief until he has a mental breakdown in the middle of the ring. Reading it like that makes it seem very dumb, but if you are going into the match with no idea what is going to happen it genuinely fucks with you because it keeps defying your expectations.
If you wanna see a Kenoh match that is just genuinely amazing what his double title match with Katsuhiko Nakajima. It is a sixty minute ironman that goes to a TLD and it is fucking fantastic. Fast, fierce, and frenetic. The match builds heat and then blows it off with a big spot over and over again. Neither man clearly gaining the advantage and with both men hitting harder the longer the match goes and the more exhausted they become. This whole period was the best Noah had been since Misawa died, and it is a shame they squandered it and Muto's retirement the way they did by taking the books from Nosawa Rongai, and flooding the roster with gaijin raisinters that weren't good enough for AEW or WWE.
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=111&nr=44107https://www.wrestle-universe.com/en/videos/Gkp59SuopABGmr8TNVMHE β35895[Quote]
>>35877Such good shΔ±Μt.
β35907[Quote]
>>35877I just realized I posted the webm from the N-1 tourney finals where they faced each other again and Nakajima went over clean. Also a very good match, if Nakajima wasn't as retarded as his father he wouldn't have blown his life up like he did.
β35914[Quote]
>>35907Yeah, that match was the first match included in OP.
These are two of my favorite modern wrestlers for a reason.
β35969[Quote]
>>35956I didn't!
…posting for anyone else who hasn't either!
Masa Kitamiya vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaoHmRGrkyY β35982[Quote]
>>35969From this match until he left the company Nakajima was amazing. Between Muto's retirement run, Kenoh putting together Kongo, Kaito finally getting to move into a top guy slot, and Nakajima having his year of all time Noah truly looked like it had managed to turn things around and was gong to regain the prestige it once had. Except for El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jr's title run, which was fantastic, they squandered everything they built up LITERALLY THE DAY AFTER MUTO RETIRED.
β36001[Quote]
>>35982That's honestly why I've avoided getting into NOAH as much as I was into New Japan.
On paper it's the superior company. I love Fulton and Pickering on English commentary and they absolutely mog anyone New Japan has had. The action is hard hitting and the images are often kino.
… and then there's the booking. Not Tony Khan bad maybe but atrocious given what they're working with otherwise. There's no reason this company shouldn't be eating New Japan's lunch.
β36023[Quote]
>>36011Indeed! Much appreciated!
β36110[Quote]
>>32569based Inoki will never be forgotten
β38490[Quote]
>>38363>"Erica"Nice try Aja
β38513[Quote]
>>38504> Erica ShishidoI know that, I was just making a silly joke. ;)
β38558[Quote]
>>38513Doesn't matter, any excuse for me to bring up Megumi Kudo is always makes it a five star day.
Speaking of which, last I saw Kudome was the commissioner of Zero1
β38657[Quote]
>>36001Fulton and Pickering's commentary would be perfect if Pickering wasn't a W*lsh. Fulton being a giga autistic MMA gay is able to do color in such a way that it feels like he is commentating a shoot fight by accurately describing the techniques and story to people while getting hyped at just the right moment and going hushed and emotional when the need arises. Pickering is a giga autistic statCHAD who is able to instantly recall the most minute of details related to any wrestler on the roster's entire working history, while simultaneously calling each move as it happens.
Legit would be the best active commentary team in the world if it wasn't for Pickering's obnoxious accent.
β39849[Quote]
>>39654Man, I'm going to miss him in New Japan.
He's washed but I hope he can reinvent himself and figure out a good uncle style to work moving forward. He'll always be dimes with me.
β39980[Quote]
>>39654Must have been a tranquilo kinda week
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Mitsuharu Misawa Vs. Kenta Kobashi - NOAH 01.03.2003
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkx3fe β41454[Quote]
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Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Yuma Aoyagi Nov 5, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeo9qOcKLHA β42049[Quote]
>In Memoriam: Hisashi Shinma (1935-2025)
>New Japan Pro-Wrestling is saddened to hear of the passing of Hisashi Shinma, who was a prominent executive in the early years of NJPW, on April 21. He was 90.
>Shinma was involved in New Japan Pro-Wrestling form its founding year in 1972. As senior managing director of the young promotion, he was the brains and business force behind the cultural phenomenon that Antonio Inoki became. From putting together the famed Inoki versus Muhammad Ali fight of June 26, 1976 to conceiving the IWGP, and masterminding the sensation of the first Tiger Mask in Satoru Sayama, Shinma's creative mind and business acumen was invaluable through a New Japan 'golden age'.
>Shinma left NJPW in 1983, founding the first UWF the next year. In Japan Joshi Pro-Wresting, Universal and more, Shinma's influence was felt. That included in the west, and his time as WWF president saw his legacy recognised in 2019 by being entered into the WWE Hall of Fame. He remained active in his final years along with close friend Sayama, acting as chairman of Real Japan Pro-Wrestling.
>The thoughts and deepest sympathies of all at NJPW go to Shinma's family and friends.
β42081[Quote]
>>42049Sad news.
I wasn't very familiar with him, but when he came out with Nakajima during the Nakajima/Miyahara match in OP (to Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye) I knew it was an "oh raisin" moment.
Really helped make that match great.
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Atsushi Onita vs Terry Funk Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVV1oyocXI β47444[Quote]
Puroresu general getting mogged by the joshi general
Inoki and Baba rolling in their graves
β47643[Quote]
Only unemployed weebs watch Japanese wrestling.
β48644[Quote]
>>45409Fun fact: Hayabusa is known as being a deathmatch wrestler, but he only ever had three deathmatches in his entire career, and almost all of his scars came from just this one match. Also this was the last match before Onita's second retirement when he left to go serve in the Japanese Diet as a politician.
If you are interested in the history of FMW you should checkout Bahu's youtube channel. He has a video series that covers FMW year by year until it finally shuttered it's doors, and then follows up on the careers of the Japanese workers post FMW. Bahu is pretty much THE source for the history of FMW in English and is responsible for translating almost all the articles, biographies, and interviews with the Japanese speaking only people that performed in FMW. He also managed to be the last person to interview W*NG Kanemaru before he died.
β49735[Quote]
There's some based info and matches in this thread… shame men's puroresu is practically dead.
β52882[Quote]
I think it's about time to get that NJPW subscription, tired of watching puroresu on raisinty bootleg streaming sites lol
β52887[Quote]
>>48644that sounds worth checking out, I have only watched FMW in japanese and I honestly feel like I'm missing out on a lot of the storytelling aspects.
β52888[Quote]
>>52882Yeah, NJPW World isn't a bad setup at all. Takes a second to get used to but, really, it's good to support them financially if only out of hopes that they can outshine AEW someday.
β52893[Quote]
>>52882Having access to subtitled promos and backstage interviews is nice too (although those are free anyway).
β52903[Quote]
>>52893there's also the fact that NJPW shows usually start at like 2-3AM in my timezone and I can't realistically stay up all night watching wrestling when i have to work in the morning. Once I get subbed I can just watch the shows whenever I get home.
β52906[Quote]
>>52903Yeah, I've never watched a New Japan show live, usually just watch the day after.
Only tricky part is avoiding spoilers if you're active on platforms that follow it.