Category Archives: NJPW

Ring of Honor – Where Will the Top ROH Wrestlers Sign?

Late last month, Ring of Honor Wrestling announced they will be taking a hiatus to regroup and assess a new vision for the company. All contracted talent will be let go from their contracts at the start of 2022.

ROH is expected to resume tapings in April 2022 and will essentially become a super-indie by paying top independent stars on a per-show appearance. Many of their wrestlers may still appear for them on those deals while also taking a steady diet of indie bookings. There are a dozen or so wrestlers/teams that will have significant interest from the other top wrestling companies in the world.

Continue reading →

WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic – Where Are They Now?

It’s been three years since the WWE aired its Cruiserweight Classic tournament on the WWE Network. It was meant to give fans some nostalgia of the great Cruiserweight matches on WCW. All-time greats like Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Ultimo Dragon and others helped WCW feel different than WWF, which then almost exclusively featured large, hulking wrestlers.

The Cruiserweight Classic was critically-loved as the action was high-flying and some stuff was never seen on a WWE-branded product before this tournament. The actual streaming numbers aren’t known, but it helped launch the new cruiserweight division.

Many of the wrestlers in this tournament have went on to have careers in WWE and a few have gained stardom elsewhere.

Where are the Cruiserweight Classic wrestlers now?

Continue reading →

The 25 Best Wrestling Entrance Theme Songs of All-time

Great entrance music can help make a superstar. The wrestler will need to back up the hype in the ring and on the microphone, but a great entrance song can go a long way.

Let’s use Bobby Roode as an example. He had a great career in TNA, but that promotion started to die off as Roode was finishing up there. There’s no doubt he would have received a good pop upon his first appearance, but his WWE entrance theme made him look like a damn superstar. It also shows the fans that they were putting ‘the machine’ behind the wrestler, so they will push them as far as they can go.

NXT has been the starting point of some of the songs on this list. I want to credit Triple H as he’s a fan of harder music and no doubt had the final say on the music. I am just thankful Vince doesn’t have his hands in NXT or every guy would be coming out to Flo Rida or Florida Georgia Line songs.

Continue reading →

25 Indie Wrestlers WWE Should Sign Right Now

The WWE keeps raiding the independent scene for talent to stock NXT with experienced workers. You would think the well would run dry of new guys, but they keep emerging. New talented wrestlers keep making a name for themselves by wrestling for independent promotions all over the world.

If you’re expecting this list to be full of New Japan talent like Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks or even Cody Rhodes, you’d be disappointed. New Japan isn’t an indie promotion in my eyes. If so, Kazuchika Okada, Hiromu Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito would top the list. NJPW have so much homegrown talent that I decided to not include those guys on this list. I did add a few gaijins (foreigners) who work for New Japan (as well as otehr promotions), but they’re not the tippy-top guys.

Continue reading →

Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 56

I’m a self-confessed vintage toy nerd. I collect vintage wrestling action figures from the 80’s & 90’s. I started purchasing some vintage toys out of nostalgia. Well, WWE and Mattel sucked me into their new stuff. I now buy a few figures a month. You can view photos of my collection on my Instagram account.

The lineup for WWE Elite series 56 has been known for awhile (and I actually own a few of these figures right now). I fell behind on some of my toy reviews during football season. My betting picks and other gambling-related topics took over the site, so I didn’t have time to write up a couple posts about a hobby I enjoy.

Elite 56 has a couple first-ever elites and includes a couple top stars like AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. It’s a solid set, especially since we finally have The Club elites.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 56 are AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Jack Gallagher, Roman Reigns & Samoa Joe.

Continue reading →

Top 10 Pro Wrestling Matches of 2017

A couple weeks ago I started to put together a list of the best pro wrestling matches of 2017. I realized that the WWE didn’t have many spot on the list, so I compiled a list of best WWE matches of 2017.

Since I got that post out of the way for American mainstream wrestling fans, I finished my original list that is unsurprisingly heavy on New Japan matches.

Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito are the three-best wrestlers in the world and had impressive matches in New Japan this year. They take up a good portion of the list.

Which Okada/Omega match tops our list?

Here are our top ten pro wrestling matches of 2017 (and a few honorable mentions).

Continue reading →

Review: New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom 11

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest event of the year happened last night/this morning (depending on where you live).

The January 4th show at the Tokyo Dome has been a tradition for decades, but they have branded it ‘Wrestle Kingdom’ the last eleven years. The last few January 4th shows have been epic and this year’s card was stacked as well.

2016 was all about anointing new stars in New Japan after losing stars Shinsuke Nakamura and A.J. Styles to the WWE, and Kota Ibushi to, um, free agency? NJPW has been trying to push Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito and random other members of Los Ingobernables de Japon to the next level.

Could this be the show when New Japan crowns a new face of the promotion?

Continue reading →