NJPW (2017): HOTTEST PRO-WRESTLING PROMOTION IN THE WORLD TODAY

My break from writing continues, with this, a review of the only wrestling company that I still watch today, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and the latest match in their New Japan Cup 2017 tournament.

A couple of things to explain first, before I jump into the one match that I’ll be looking at. Firstly, my break from writing is a break from producing original stories, and the break ends in about one week’s time. I’ve just spent three months writing, ‘Red Pill tales from the Alt-Right: Volume Two’ and after releasing it (on Amazon Kindle and paperback) I’m taking a breather, looking at a couple of things, reading a couple of things, and letting my mind recharge it’s creative juices. The reviews that pop up on this blog over the next five days are the equivalent of me doing my daily exercises before getting back onto the racetrack again. Writing is hard work, harder than Jack Kerouac made it out to be, for sure, and you have to keep on writing, even when you are ‘taking a break.’

I have always been a huge pro wrestling fan. It began for me with the NWA (Magnum TA and the Rock n Roll Express were my favourites). I hated the Hulkamania years, loved the ECW thing, was bemused by the Attitude Era, and here I am in 2017 looking around to see what is left. WCW imploded, TNA sucks, ROH is mostly blokes in trunks who are not very good, and the modern day WWE is very corporate, very disingenuous (tours Saudi Arabia, promotes feminism) and insists on trying to manipulate it’s audience rather than giving them what they actually want. So, what does a wrestling fan do? Simple, he goes to Japan, where there’s usually something interesting going on (I loved the Misawa/Kobashi years) crosses his fingers, and hopes for the best.

That’s what I did, and man, was I ever rewarded. In the good old days I used to get my puroresu (Japanese pro-wrestling) from tape-traders, but some clever chap invented this Internet thing, and now I get a quicker fix on live Internet streaming. I can watch NJPW when it happens, immediately, in HD, with occasional English commentary (that was never a thing in the past) and it costs less than a tenner a month (about £8.50). Man, technology might be spying on us all, and looking at us in our pants, but it has its pluses as well.

NJPW is on fire at the moment by the way. They have some awesome talent, and still do the ‘strong-style’ thing that they always did in the past, with main-events that go long, are hard hitting, super-heated and super awesome. The match that I will be reviewing here is not one of those matches. If you want to see one of those matches go onto New Japan World, pay your eight quid, and watch the Kenny Omega versus Kazuchika Okada match from Wrestle Kingdom 11 at the Tokyo Dome, and you’ll see what I mean. Dave Meltzer gave that match six stars out of five, and after you watch it, you’ll have to agree with him. I’d give the match six stars as well, it was bloody awesome, easy six stars, and six stars wasn’t even a thing before.

Shibata versus Juice

The match that I’ll ‘review’ here is a small show match, a match where I pretty much knew who was going to win before it began. It’s a match in the ‘New Japan Cup’ an elimination style tournament, where the winner gets to challenge for the belt of his choosing. This match was released on 16th March 2017 on New Japan World, as a 15-minute video, and it looks like it is being held in a small school gymnasium. There were two big shows last weekend, and there will be another two big shows this weekend as well, so this match, although part of the tournament, is a gift to people like myself who go onto New Japan World daily, just to see if there are any new videos. Call it an appetiser, because that’s pretty much what it is.

So, what was the appetiser like? Let’s get into it. The match is between Juice Robinson (young, up and comer, ex-WWE, Gaijin/American trying to impress, doing pretty well recently) and Katsuyori Shibata (super-stiff, super-serious, makes everything look legit, in his prime, bad ass). The match starts off with old-school English/World-of-Sport mat based wrestling, feeling each other out, escaping from holds, before Shibata throws a couple of stiff kicks, things start to get heated, and here we go. Juice gets hot, tries to counter stiff with stiffer, and here come the face boots, slaps, suplexes coming back from Shibata. It’s a fight now, the crowd get louder as the wrestlers get hotter, stiffer. Juice is shouting/swearing, this is it, the Japanese strong style, tough guy wrestling that I LOVE.

What I love, what I’ve always loved about Japanese wrestling, is that the story of each match, at it’s core, is about who has the most ‘fighting-spirit.’ That means, who is the toughest? Who has the most heart? Who is the bravest? Can you keep on going, keep taking punishment, keep falling, keep getting back up, keep going until there is absolutely nothing left, yet somehow dig even deeper than you thought was possible and find that one single last drop of energy, use it up, survive, thrive, fight, roar and WIN?

Fighting-spirit.

I’m a runner, and that physical and mental sensation that you experience when you have nothing left, but have to keep on going, to fight through it, to conquer the miserable will to give-in and surrender, that is something that I can massively identify with. Okay, in life as well, which is pretty much the same thing, but running is more immediate, physical, whereas life just grounds you into the dirt with disappointment after disappointment, trying to get you to quit, but not really giving a sh** about you anyway. Running tells you that life sucks in a physical and mental way, and in running you can get through it, keep going, and win.

Japanese wrestling then, like running, gives you the chance to savour that sweet moment of victory that is probably not going to come with the crushing inevitability of real life, plus you don’t have to get all sweaty doing it. You get to live through the wrestlers, connect with the struggles on an emotional level, and will your favourites to keep on going, don’t give up, you can do it, you can win. When I watch a typical WWE match-up I don’t get that, and so I don’t care and don’t want to watch. NJPW is different. I get the struggle, the will to survive, and so they get my money.

Back to the match, Juice is hitting fire with fire, a somersault stunner from the top rope, a gut buster, a back-senton, screaming, passionate, he’s taking it to the Japanese bad ass. He goes for his finisher, but it’s countered with a knee in the back, Shibata stretches him with an octopus type hold, goes for the submission. Don’t tap Juice, use your fighting-spirit, dig deep gaijin. Juice hangs in, gets the ropes, then BAM, dropped on his head with a massive suplex. BUT…..Juice no-sells with a massive shout of ‘F*** YOU’ gets straight into Shibata’s face. Here it is. This is why I love Japanese wrestling. Fighting-spirit baby, pure heart, courage, determination, never give up, fighting-spirit.

Punches, Shibata gets Juice in a sleeper, he drops to his knees, is Juice done? It appears so, he slumps, and Shibata hits his ‘penalty kick’ finisher. 1-2-3 and the pin goes to the Japanese warrior who moves on in the tournament, leaving a battered Juice, but a Juice who can be happy that he gave his all to the very end.

Shibata will face the winner of the Sanada (young athletic heel with big hair) and Ishii (bulldog badass) match-up that takes place on Friday, 17th March. That semi-final match will take place on the final four New Japan Cup show this Sunday 19th March. I expect Ishii to win his match against Sanada on Friday, and a Shibata versus Ishii match this Sunday will be off the wall amazing, two kick-ass warriors who should blow the roof off of the building.

The other semi-final is Bad Luck Fale (lumbering monster) versus Evil (the evil Undertaker of NJPW), and should see a win for big Evil, so that means a final of either Ishii or Shibata versus Evil. People are talking about the New Japan Cup 2017 being used to create new stars, so could we be looking at an Evil win? Could we even have an upset with Sanada winning his match against Ishii, beating Shibata, and then having two young villains (who are both in the ‘Los Ingobernables de Japon’ faction) in the final with Evil versus Sanada? I don’t know, but it’s interesting, very interesting indeed. The leader of ‘Los Ingobernables de Japon’ is Tetsuya Naito, the IWGP Intercontinental Champion, so if one of his faction members (Evil or Sanada) wins the cup, and the championship match of their choosing, will they end up challenging their own leader?

Remember that this match (Shibata versus Juice) was just an appetiser, and as such, it was perfect, teasing my palette, and leaving me hungry for what is to come next. The match wasn’t supposed to be epic, the result was never really in doubt, and it wasn’t supposed to be four star plus. For what it was (** 3/4 star) it did an excellent job, made Shibata look like the solid star that he is, and Juice look like a youngster with plenty of fighting-spirit, and thus potential for the future.

If you, like me, grew up with pro-wrestling, love wrestling, don’t want to give up on wrestling, but look at the boring lukewarm state of the western product, and don’t know where to go, NJPW will be perfect for you. I click on NJPWWORLD on a daily basis, just to see what is coming up next. I’ve been a subscriber for a couple of months, and my love for pro-wrestling has been completely revitalised. I’m just getting fully immersed within the NJPW world now, getting to know the characters, the factions, the histories, and everything else that is so wonderful about the promotion. I love it, and that is why I have just written this review.

Thank you NJPW, you are awesome. You deserve all of the success that you are currently receiving, and the future success that will come your way as more and more jaded westerners (like myself) take a chance on your product, and re-discover what made them fall in love with pro wrestling in the first place.

The New Japan Cup 2017 finals are on Monday 20th March 2017 and can be seen (with English commentary) on njpwworld.com live, or on delay. Semi-final night is on Sunday 19th March, plus we have the Sanada versus Ishii match on Friday 17th to look forward to as well.

As I finish off this article I’ll give you my final prediction for the winner of the New Japan Cup 2017 tournament. I’m going with EVIL. Why am I going with EVIL? Because, and here’s a reference that you’ll only get once you start watching NJPW, because EVERYTHING IS EVIL, that’s why. Click on the link below this review, and sign-up for njpwworld.com NOW. If you love, or have ever loved pro wrestling in the past, you won’t regret it.


Sign up for NJPW here: 
http://njpwworld.com/  


English site for NJPW: 
https://www.njpw1972.com/


Awesome NJPW related podcast:
http://newjapanpurocast.com/