Category: Author: Ruth
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Year of the Dragon: Ryuya Matsufusa Rising.
In January 2024, Billy Ken Kid and Ryuya Matsufusa had a match for the Osaka Pro Wrestling Light Heavyweight Championship. Catching viewers attention with Matsufusa’s babyface performance and Billy’s relentless attacks that showed both all and none of his 50 years, the match was a breakout hit, escaping the usually small western fanbase to make…
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Little Legacy
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The most important tag match of 2023 happened on January 29th. Well, for me anyway. On January 29th 2023 DDT Tag champions ShunMAO, in between a hectic schedule appearances in the US, faced the recently reformed Ω/Omega team of Makoto Oishi and Shiori Asahi. At a basic level, the match is one pair of idiots…
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Jake Lee; GHC
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Jake Lee entered NOAH on 1st January 2023 an outsider, entering in the same costume and to the same entrance theme he used just weeks before in AJPW. Those elements haven’t changed but Jake’s hands (or at least his gloves) are now, quite literally, dyed the same green as the company whose highest belt he…
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AMAKUSA: Thnks fr th mmrs
AMAKUSA is a genius. In a matter of months he has overcome being cast as NOAH’s perennial loser, won (and lost) the GHC Junior Heavyweight championship and managed to turn denial of his past identities into a t-shirt slogan. Just in case you’re at all uncertain of my position I’ll say it again – AMAKUSA…
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The Growing Pains Of Kaito Kiyomiya, Aged 26 ½
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The singles match with Okada has the potential to reveal a matured, post-Mutoh Kaito or, yet again, could define Kaito by who and what he is not.
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Death match and chill
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I don’t like horror. As a genre, whether movies, tv, fiction etc. I don’t like it. Or rather, I don’t get it. The awful creativity of the human mind in creating monsters or new ways of suffering, the rising suspense in waiting for the worst to happen, imagining the worst…not my thing. Or so I…
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Haoh and the meaning of loss
Loss and losing is an essential part of wrestling. It’s part of compelling struggles retold a thousand different ways. Even our favourites need to lose. After all, who doesn’t love a redemption arc?
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“Don’t say rivals”: The match that marked the beginning and end of a rival story.
When Harada walked into the arena, he was facing an opponent who could barely acknowledge the ties between them, who repeatedly denied their connection as rivals or as partners. But by the end of this match, something important shifted.
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The life and burial of Super Hardcore Katsumata
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Super Hardcore Katsumata (SHK) was, for the man under the facepaint, Katsumata Shunma, an embodiment of Shunma’s specific talents. Talents that, over the 14 months of SHK’s existence, found recognition and helped establish ‘idol wrestler’ Shunma as a serious competitor whose creativity brings far more than just novelty value to his wrestling. In between the…
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The Perpetual Invention of Detail: Shiozaki and Nakajima
Nakajima Katsuhiko betrayed Shiozaki Go on the 30th August 2020 in front of a small and shocked crowd, ending their partnership as Axiz and seemingly aligning with Kongo. Between the moment of betrayal and meeting as opponents competing for Shiozaki’s GHC heavyweight belt in November, they faced each other seven times.