週刊プロレス talk
(@fallynleaf)
The biggest news this week is the “賛否両論を巻き起こした2冠統一問題” with the reveal of the new IWGP World Heavyweight Belt and Ibushi’s sudden defeat.
I was expecting more commentary about it than there is, but perhaps it’s still too recent news for full features. 拳王 talks about it in his column and likes the new belt, saying it looks like a Kamen Rider transformation belt and is “今っぽい,” fitting for the younger, lighter, more elegant athletes at the top of the NJPW scene right now. But he points out inserting “World” into the belt’s name doesn’t really make sense since IWGP already has “International” in it.
At the end of the magazine, in a spotlight about Okada returning to the title picture, Okada has a similar sentiment where he says it’s a world-class championship because IWGP=NJPW and it’s the most prestigious championship in the world because of that, regardless of whether “world” is in there or not.
AJPW’s Champion Carnival is starting up, so there’s a big interview with Jake Lee, along with surprise entrant Shinjiro Otani and a funny one with Izanagi where he uses his mystic powers to predict various outcomes.
Last year the Champion Carnival, G1 Climax, N-1 Victory, and 5 Star GP were all at the same time, so since I thought being WFH because of the pandemic this would be my one chance to do something like that, I watched all of them. The Champion Carnival was the one I liked the least, but it did win me over hard on Kento Miyahara, and I’m feeling a bit wistful seeing it’s starting again… Now I have more context about the wrestlers, and might appreciate people like Suwama and Ishikawa more, and I am still WFH after all…
The centerpiece of this issue is an overview of 8 men’s wrestling promotions, with a faction guide showing the full roster, champions, and summaries for each. The charts are very cool, and I thought the most interesting bullet point was the “最大のセールスポイント” so that’s what I’ll list out here.
The promotions are:
- 新日本プロレス
最大のセールスポイントは。。。ビッグマッチ攻勢
(which is probably why I’ve cooled off NJPW the most in the pandemic era… The audience went such a long way towards giving a “big match” the aura of an earth-shaking event)
- 全日本プロレス
最大のセールスポイントは。。。ヘビー級の厚み
(the champions here are still beefy boys, while other promotions these days are usually much more open to different styles at the top. I think knowing this was what to expect going in might have made me more receptive last year - Suwama isn’t typically how I picture a wrestling champion nowadays)
- NOAH
最大のセールスポイントは。。。武藤の“味”
(武藤 as in Keiji Mutoh, to be clear. Talking about his dynamism at his age and the road of title defenses ahead)
- DDT
最大のセールスポイントは。。。プロレスの本道
(with Jun Akiyama as new champion and head coach, the keyword is “本道” and further establishing DDT as a promotion that can sell on pure wrestling merits and not just as a variety show)
- DRAGONGATE
最大のセールスポイントは。。。新ウニットが続々誕生
(I guess Dragon Gate frequently forms new stables, such as the recent マスカレード and ハイエンド. I don’t know anything about Dragon Gate, but Shun Skywalker comes up a lot in these magazines (and the pull-out calendar included in one issue that I put on my fridge) and it looks potentially cool. It’s also the promotion that inspired Mayu Iwatani to become a pro-wrestler, so there’s that.)
- 大日本プロレス
最大のセールスポイントは。。。デスマッチXストロング
- FREEDOMS
最大のセールスポイントは。。。心に刻むデスマッチ
(Rina Yamashita is a tag champion here, that’s cool! I saw her in a death match in Ice Ribbon and was very impressed)
- みちのくプロレス
Michinoku Pro doesn’t actually get a listed salespoint, but it looks like the place to go for 東北 regional wrestling, and The Great Sasuke doing a lot of zany fun stuff. I’d watch that!
Maybe they’ll do the women’s promotions next issue, that’d be cool.
The historical column is about the start of the Inoki era as in 1967 he returned to Japan and rescued Giant Baba from a dastardly attack by a group of foreign heels including Waldo Von Erich (not actually a Von Erich, luckily for him) and Butcher Vachon. Apparently following this Inoki (in his 20s then) was called 若獅子 for a time. I don’t know how long or how extensively, but I assume that’s where the term “young lion” for trainee wrestlers in NJPW comes from! Neat!
Maki Itoh’s column is about her twitter getting hacked!
Apparently it happened from an Instragram phishing ransomware message that she clicked on because it said her account broke the terms of service and she was worried it was because of all the raised middle fingers and swearing and whatnot. So in some ways it’s a relief it wasn’t real and she can post freely. She hopes whoever the hacker is, they make a living in a happier way, and if that doesn’t cheer them up, then they could try watching her wrestling.
There’s a big interview with 男色ディーノ as he’s challenging Akiyama in DDT.
I don’t know if new users know this, but for a long time Wanikani’s mnemonic for せい involved the wrestler/comedian Razor Ramon Hard Gay, before it was changed as people were understandably confused and uncomfortable about it. I haven’t watched enough DDT to know what to think about Dino, but it’s probably a good thing WK didn’t use him as a mnemonic for だん!
The interview seems pretty sober. He talks about being a Peter Pan figure trying to keep DDT from growing up vs. very serious adult Jun Akiyama.
(there’s a couple other DDT interviews I didn’t have enough context for to get a ton out of)
There’s a column about an upcoming Hana Kimura memorial show
It talks about Kyoko Kimura’s efforts to preseve Hana’s legacy, her lawsuits and non-profit Remeber Hana, and they also interview a wrestler named Asuka (朱崇花, not that ASUKA) about tagging with Hana pre-Stardom and appearing in the memorial show.
In a rare additional WWE coverage, there’s interviews with Io Shirai and Asuka (this time that ASUKA) in the leadup to Wrestlemania week. Io talks about how she’s ending up a babyface for this title defense because she’s found babyface or heel, she’s respected by the fans and she’s touched by that.
Asuka talks about nearly missing wrestlmania because of a concussion and teeth-related injury and surgery. This is where I learned the word 脳震とう. Reading this much about wrestling, I’m honestly shocked it took this long
There’s an ad for the New Japan smart phone site, which has weekly diaries from various wrestlers. I actually haven’t checked these out! I just kind of assumed they’re region locked in some way, but who knows.
In any case, there’s a list of the diaries here, and all of these titles crack me up! They all somehow perfectly match each wrester’s personality. The air quotes around YOSHI-HASHI slay me and I don’t know why.