Any WWE fans in the audience? (Part 1)

Also, you can find Stranglemania with a quick search - looks like the whole thing is on a well known video hosting site.

It’s Wrestle Kingdom time again! Like last year, it’s going to be a two-night event again, airing live on NJPWWorld - night one is 2 AM Eastern/11 PM Pacific on Sunday night, Night Two at 3 AM Eastern/midnight Pacific on Monday night, with live English commentary.

Here’s the card:

Night One

  • IWGP Heavyweight/Intercontinental Championships: Tetsuya Naito © vs. Kota Ibushi
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Great-O-Khan
  • KENTA vs. Satoshi Kojima, winner gets the right to challenge Jon Moxley for the IWGP US Championship at a future date
  • IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. © vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa
  • Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Phantasmo
  • New Japan Rumble, final four get to enter the King of Pro Wrestling championship match on Night Two

Night Two

  • IWGP Heavyweight/Intercontinental Championships: the winner of Naito/Ibushi © vs. Jay White
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori © vs. the winner of Takahashi/Phantasmo
  • EVIL vs. Sanada
  • NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi © vs. Jeff Cobb
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru © vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato
  • KOPW Championship: The four winners of the New Japan Rumble (Stipulation TBA)

Since Japan has done a much better job of managing covid than we have, there’s going to be a live audience of 50% capacity (about 20,000) for both nights. There are some newcomers on the undercard this year that I’m not yet familiar with, but it sounds like a good show, and I have a feeling this is gonna be Kota’s year.

Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom is getting underway, so I’d better tap out my thoughts on Night 1 before it goes live;

  • Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale, Bushi, and Toru Yano won the New Japan Rumble to advance to the KOPW match. (KOPW is a new title which is defended exclusively in stipulation matches picked by the competitors and voted on by the audience.) Owens started at #1 and Yano managed to become one of the winners without ever entering the ring. Tiger Mask made a brief appearance, and Toa Henare came off looking like an absolute beast.

  • As a covid safety precaution, the audience (who were all masked and sitting six feet apart) were not allowed to cheer, shout, or chant, so the only crowd noise was in the form of applause. It was kind of surreal but also made it feel special, especially in the quiet moments when you could hear the wrestlers’ shouts echoing through the silence. You’d never be able to get that kind of self-discipline out of American fans, and that’s why we don’t get to have live wrestling this year.

  • The special guest host for the show was Noritake Kinashi, a comedian/musician I’ve heard described as the Japanese Weird Al Yankovic. He appeared as “Don Kinashi” in a Don King costume with a fine suit, gray puffed-up hairdo, and lots of bling, and sang this year’s theme song, which is an absolute banger even though I have absolutely no idea what he’s saying in it. Retired Japanese legend Riki Choshu and his infant grandson joined him in the ring to wish everyone a happy new year.

  • Hiromu Takahashi beat El Phantasmo for a shot at the Jr. Heavyweight title on Night 2. Good match and Phantasmo is great as a cocky, better-than-you kind of heel. There was a ref bump in this match, and I really don’t like seeing NJPW do those, as part of their appeal to me has always been that they present wrestling as serious business and the kind of casual rulebreaking you see in American promotions just doesn’t happen.

  • G.O.D. beat Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. to become seven-time tag team champions. Tama Tonga has a new clean-shaven look that makes him look like a young Rock, and he even does a decent enough People’s Eyebrow. This one ended on another ref bump/distraction finish, but was otherwise a good match. ZSJ has always been a little guy, but he’s put on some muscle this year and worked a much more aggressive style than usual. The highlight of the match was a unique tower-of-doom move where Taichi powerbombed ZSJ off the top rope while he superplexed Tonga, which ZSJ, in his typical foul-mouthed fashion, called for by shouting “Fuck it, it’s the fuckin’ Tokyo Dome!” Tonga ultimately got the win off a Diamond Cutter.

  • KENTA beat Satoshi Kojima, who’s celebrating the 30th anniversary of his in-ring debut, to retain the interim US championship. Jon Moxley (who’s been unable to defend since last year as he can’t travel to Japan without quarantining for two weeks and it would disrupt his AEW schedule) appeared in a pre-taped promo from the LA Dojo before the match, saying he doesn’t care who wins because he can beat either of them. Whenever KENTA vs. Moxley finally happens, it oughta be a great match, and I really hope it shows Vince how much he wasted their talents.

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Great-O-Khan, the leader of the new heel stable “The Empire” which consists of himself, Jeff Cobb, Will Ospreay, and Bea Priestly. Khan is an absolute monster heel who has “future heavyweight champion” written all over him, and has an intimidating ring entrance where he staggers down the ramp in Manchurian royal dress with a question mark on a piece of paper dangling in front of his face. I definitely want to see more of him in the future.

  • Kazuchika Okada beat Will Ospreay in a rematch of a bout from last year in which Ospreay betrayed CHAOS and formed the Empire with Khan. This was the best all-around wrestling match of the night IMO, with the story revolving around heel Ospreay trying to prove he’s better than Okada and Okada, with a new more tweener-ish persona, trying to embarrass him for stepping out of line. At one point, Ospreay hit Okada with his own Rainmaker finisher, and even hit a Styles clash and a tombstone on him. There was an extended sequence where Ospreay just barely broke out of “the Money Clip”, Okada’s new sleeper hold submission, before Okada finally got the win off a Rainmaker.

  • Kota Ibushi beat Tetsuya Naito to become the new Heavyweight/Intercontinental Double Champion. This match wasn’t quite as intense as Okada/Ospreay, but it also had a lot of good storytelling behind it with Kota having won the G1 last year, failing to beat Okada at last Wrestle Kingdom, and then winning the G1 again this last fall. Naito congratulated Kota and handed him the belts after the match. Jay White, who faces Kota on Night 2, came out to taunt him about how he’ll only be champ for one night, to which Kota responded in a promo where he declared that he’s now halfway to his ambition of “becoming God” and tomorrow he’ll cement his place when he beats White.

Good show, and well worth catching the replay if you care to pick up NJPWWorld (only 999 Yen per month!) I’ll post a recap of Night 2 sometime tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Goldberg is back in ZZZZZZZZ

I hope Drew kicks Goldberg’s ass, but let’s face it, they’re going to turn McIntyre heel; Goldberg will beat him at the Royal Rumble, lose at WrestleMania, and fuck off until January '22.

Lucha Underground might be dead, but Mil Muertes lives on - the character will be debuting in MLW this week.

I haven’t watched any MLW thus far, but this may just get me to check out this week’s show.

Holy shit, Darby Allin vs Brian Cage blew my socks off!

Cage is built like the Hulk and can do Lucha moves. On the first tie-up, he picked up Allin and threw him out of the ring onto a ringside table. Dobby (as Taz calls him) got sliced on the table shards and his face became a crimson mask. Allin went on to take more sick bumps, but he refused to be cowed by Cage’s massive advantages and kicked out on 1 frequently. He eventually won the match by outsmarting and outspeeding Cage. Darby may 170 lbs soaking wet, but he’s quicker than a minnow swimming out of a dipper.

The old school fans (well, middle school, the ones who grew up on WCW during the 90s) generally hate him, saying he has 1/3 the talent of Sting. My response was “Maybe, but to this generation of kids, he’s their Sting.”

Can’t say I’ll watch MLW, but the fact that LU isn’t keeping him from using the name and likeness is hopefully a good sign going forward.

And by that I mean I want to see Son of Havoc in AEW.

I watched MLW and give it an -eh-. Mil Muertes fits in better with the dark temple setting of LU. MLW’s environment looked like somebody’s basement. The wrestlers looked like they were afraid the ring would collapse if they stepped too hard.

I did like seeing the new generation of Von Erichs in action, but it wasn’t much action. They jobbed their belts to father and son team La Park. The Elder Park had a massive gut that would have hung down to his knees if not for his belt. They had a crooked referee and a double take place of the Elder Park during the match. It’s like they really wanted to be cutting edge but kept recycling old tired cliché angles in slow motion.

Maybe the Von Erichs are moving to better pastures.

Just when I thought it had gotten up to the point where I thought “OK AEW, you really and truly made it up to -1 for his dad dying,” they come up with an absolutely hilarious angle for him. It turns out at 9 years old, he’s a natural. I mean, there’s enough second generation wrestlers to choke a blue whale, but Brodie Jr. can already do promos, and has excellent timing.

Dark Order took on Chaos Project and Hybrid 2, and it was a fucking hoot! Luther got on the mike, told Brodie Jr “We don’t like children,” and BJ smacked him on the head with a kendo stick. The match was announced as -1’s Birthday celebration. After DO won, they brought -1 out front and center in front of them, and he told them “Idiots! My birthday was three days ago!” He then threw papers at them and smacked them all with the kendo stick. They all ran off like frightened chickens. I laughed so hard, my ass flew off and I had to find it and reattach it.

WWE has announced that NBC’s Peacock service will become the exclusive home of WWE Network in the U.S. starting on March 18. Fastlane will be the first pay-per-view on Peacock, on March 21.

Somehow they’re still going to have the replays of SmackDown, even though it’s a FOX show; I wonder how they swung that.

More details will be released as to how this will effect current subscribers, as we move closer to the launch. But hey, Peacock Plus is the same price as WWE Network, and it has plenty of non-WWE content. My mother will be happy.

I mean, it’ll either be 5 bucks cheaper for something I’ll never watch with commercials, or the same price for something I never watch without. I’m happy enough.

so does that mean there shutting wwe network as it is and moving everything to peacock or just the new stuff ? personally i just want the the pre wcw buy out stuff

I believe that the WWE network is going to continue in all those places that foreign heels come from, running the same as it does now, but your all-American babyfaces will now be able to get all that content through Peacock.

The latest AEW Dark has -1 on commentary for a couple of matches, and he’s actually nailing it. He’s like Damien from The Omen, the enfant terrible of wrestling. He even got to beat Brian Pillman Jr. with a kendo stick for no reason.

When I’m hooked up to IVs and living in a wheelchair, I’ll be watching him in the nursing home lobby and saying “Yep, I remember when that kid when he was 8” while the nurse brings me apple sauce.

WWE presented Superstar Spectacle on January 26 for the nation of India to celebrate Republic Day. Some nice up-and-coming WWE Indian talent was on display, and they also included former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and the Bollywood Boyz.

Nice opening video package talking about the 20-year-plus relationship that WWE has with the nation of India. They even had Bret Hart, as WWF Champion, talking about how overwhelmed he was by how much India loved the organization.

NXT Champion Finn Balor battles Guru Raaj in a non-title match. Raaj was once in a tractor accident that could have killed him at the age of four, and was once stampeded by a cow while riding his bicycle. He’s working hard to become a successful WWE Superstar so he can afford a house with air-conditioning for his parents in India, and it makes me think of how lucky I am. I live in a trailer, but even I have air conditioning.

Guru Raaj showed off a decent grasp of basic technical wrestling, and hit a couple of drop kicks, and did some good taekwondo moves, but he was hyped as a high-flyer, and he attempted only one high-risk move the entire match-- a top-rope cross-body that got a near-fall towards the end of the contest. Balor wins with the Coup De Grace and the 1916. Not a bad match; Raaj has good building blocks.

A theme of the night is that the Indian Superstars are doing this for their family.

Rey Mysterio and Ricochet team up with Dilsher Shanky and Giant Zanjeer, two massive individuals each standing seven feet tall or higher. They battle SmackDown Tag Team Champion Dolph Ziggler, King Corbin, Cesaro, and Shinsuke Nakamura. Some fun action in the beginning with Shanky and Zanjeer knocking around Ziggler, then Nakamura, then Corbin. Cesaro gets into the ring and is like, “Let me think about if I really wanna do this.” Rey and Ricochet mock Cesaro by going between the two big guys’ legs and doing the Rick Steiner “hoo-hoo-hoo!” pose.

When we get back from commercial, Cesaro has taken control over Rey Mysterio. Really, the only chance the heels have in this contest is to keep the experienced talent on the other side, in the ring. There’s not much any of those guys can do against the two behemoths.

The faces win after a flurry of offense from Dilsher Shanky, resulting in a tag to Mysterio, a 619, an assisted splash from the top rope, and a pin with Shanky’s foot on Mysterio’s back against Cesaro.

WWE does a segment about the Girl Up sports scholarship fund.

AJ Styles comes out for a match against three-time Indian national champion Jeet Rama, but after the commercial break, we get a segment with Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman.

Jeet Rama is fantastic; he’s like an Indian version of Kurt Angle, throwing AJ Styles around with suplexes. He escapes the Calf Crusher. It looks like he’s going to win, but Omos interferes by holding Styles to the top rope when Rama attempts a suplex, causing Rama to hit the canvas by himself. Phenomenal Forearm wins the match. And even though they cheated to win, Styles and Omos sincerely applaud Rama’s effort from the entrance ramp, and Rama salutes them. Match of the night so far.

The New Day and The Street Profits come out to introduce a troupe of native Indian dancers called Spinning Canvas. They’re very good.

The Great Khali, who is given a lot of credit for training and recruiting Indian WWE recruits, is given a minute or two to speak.

Women’s Tag Team Champion Charlotte Flair teams with Saheena Sandhu, who hails from Oakland, California and is a first-generation Indian-American. She used to spend her summers in a rural village in India with her grandparents. She’s a trained Muay Thai kickboxer, and a full-time nursing student making her WWE debut. She and one of her opponents in this match, Bayley, were trained by the same person.

They battle Bayley and Natalya. Saheena’s moveset is a little basic, but she does hit a nice butterfly suplex on Bayley. Saheena plays the babyface-in-peril for awhile. She gets put into the Sharpshooter by Natalya, but Charlotte breaks her out of it by hitting the Natural Selection on Natalya-- and then the rookie gets the three-count on Natalya. They’re calling it a huge upset, but really, Saheena took most of the damage and Charlotte hit most of the offense.

In the main event, WWE Champion Drew McIntyre teams with the team of Indus Sher to battle former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and The Bollywood Boyz. McIntyre’s team is accompanied by Hall of Famer Ric Flair, who comes out first.

But before that, we see a profile on Kavita Devi, the first female Indian WWE Superstar, who participated in the Mae Young tournament and was in the first-ever Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania.

Jinder Mahal comes out next, interrupting Ric Flair, and then Drew McIntyre comes out to interrupt Mahal. He acknowledges their time together as members of 3MB, and it makes me think again that WWE were fools to let Heath Slater get away.

Mahal is returning from a serious knee injury. He and McIntyre start off in the ring together, but Mahal immediately tags out to Samil Singh, who tags in Samir, who gets right up in Drew’s face and slaps him across it. He beats him from pillar to post for a few seconds before lifting him into the corner and tagging in Rinku. Rinku is the first-ever Indian-born professional baseball player to play for an American team, rising to Single-A (Michael Cole said AA; I trust Wikipedia more than Cole) in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization after winning a pitching contest on the 2008 reality TV show “The Million Dollar Arm”.

Saurav gets tagged in after a short time, and he battles Samil. Indus Sher has some fun beating on the cruiserweights for awhile, culminating in Drew throwing one of them onto the other one on the floor. Commercial.

The heels get Jinder Mahal in, and he works over Rinku. Mahal and The Bollywood Boyz take turns going after Rinku’s arm; he’s playing Ricky Morton today. Mahal takes a moment while in control of Rinku to punch Saurav and try unsuccessfully to knock him from the ring apron, which enables Rinku to hit Mahal with a suplex and make the hot tag to the WWE Champion.

McIntyre takes control of the match, but an attempt at a Claymore is countered with a knee. Samir and Saurav are tagged in, and Saurav cleans house of The Bollywood Boyz. McIntyre gets back in the ring and gets his Claymore in on Jinder after all. A double-team maneuver by Indus Sher puts The Bollywood Boyz away for the three-count.

A good show, worth watching at least for the Styles/Rama match. Styles made Rama look like a million bucks, but Rama didn’t need much help in that regard; he’s a serious talent. Also, the spectacle of those two enormous guys teaming with Rey and Ricochet is worth it, too.

I wasn’t going to watch it because I’ve stopped watching anything Vince McMahon has his hands on. I’m digging it so far. They made it more about India than WWE, and there were no stupid storylines to endure.

Those two giants were truly a spectacle, and I liked the way Ricochet and Rey Mysterio interacted with them. They could actually move and not plod around like Great Khali.

Any Royal Rumble predictions? Here’s mine:

Men’s Royal Rumble Match : I think Nakamura wins it and goes on to defeat Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at WrestleMania.

Women’s Royal Rumble Match : I think we see them give it to Bianca Belair.

Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens, Last Man Standing Match for the Universal Championship : Reigns gets the victory.

Drew McIntyre vs. Goldberg, WWE Championship Match : God, I wish I had confidence that they’ll do the right thing and let Drew win this, but I think this is another instance of Goldberg showing up, improperly winning the belt, and then losing it at WrestleMania. I hope I’m wrong, but my prediction is that Goldberg wins it, and with it, his first WWE Championship.

Asuka & Charlotte Flair vs. Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax, Women’s Tag Team Championship Match : Asuka and Charlotte retain.

Sasha Banks vs. Carmella, Smackdown Women’s Championship Match : Banks retains.

I think Charlotte wins the Women’s RR, and she and Asuka lose, setting up Charlotte beating my Asuka at WM. I don’t see Nakamura winning, but it will be either Bryan or Lashley, with Styles as a distant 3rd possibility.

Pre-show confirms one of my predictions.