Wrestling Omakase (Wrestling Omakase)

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk three big shows from this past week: NJPW Power Struggle, DDT Ultimate Party and Tokyo Joshi Wrestle Princess!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon will be covering three big tournaments in November & December: NJPW's World Tag League and Best of the Super Juniors, and DDT's D-ou! Plus get access to all of our previous coverage including daily audio from the recent G1 Climax, complete series covering every Okada-Tanahashi & Naito-Ishii match in chronological order, random match reviews submitted by patrons covering everything from late 80s UWF, early 90s WAR, early 00s AJPW and more, exclusive full 5 Matches episodes you can't get on the free feed, ANIME OMAKASE and a whole lot more! You can get access to all it right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest Hayley (@choerrycoloured) for three big show reviews! Before that they talk a little about the US election, so if you're really sick of election talk (understandable) just skip ahead about 10 minutes to start out. Once that's out of the way they begin their three big show reviews with NJPW Power Struggle, a show John really liked that also featured a major booking decision they weren't a huge fan of. Hayley, as the resident Kota Ibushi superfan, discusses her feelings on Ibushi being the first person to lose the Tokyo Dome briefcase. The two of them break down all six matches in detail, discuss Will Ospreay's (ahem) interesting presentation, and a whole lot more. They also break down the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors schedule and the Super J Cup tournament bracket.

Then they turn their attention to DDT Ultimate Party, again reviewing all ten matches on the card. They talk about the emotional DAMNATION civil war, an awesome AJPW/NOAH throwback in Akiyama-Takeshita, losing a match because you tried to hit on a girl on Instagram, and a whole lot more! Finally, they wrap things up with a full review of TJPW Wrestle Princess, an outstanding show that might just be the show of the year. They talk about a truly amazing main event along with the rest of the show, with a lot of praise for the amazing Saki-Misao match as well.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

This week on Wrestling Omakase we discuss two great nights of the G1 (including the best night so far) and an incredible final in the NOAH N-1 Victory!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your only place to get our full coverage of all three tournaments from New Japan, All Japan and NOAH. Weekend shows will be covered here on the free feed, but John will bring even more daily coverage of the weekday shows exclusive to the Patreon, including with guests too! We'll be breaking down the stretch run all week on the Omakase Patreon, and it will be the only place to hear our coverage of Nights 15, 16, and 17 (the A block finals from Ryogoku!). Plus, you can hear all the other tournament shows we've covered there so far dating back to September (including the AJPW Champion Carnival finals from this past week!) and the rest of our great audio content as well. It's all up there right now for just $5 per month at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest JoJo Remy (@jojo_runs) as they start by talking about the state of COVID in Japan (where JoJo is joining us from!) and the announcement of a tourism opening date. Then they quickly head into their show reviews, starting with Nights 13 & 14 of the G1 Climax! They break down some incredible matches, discuss MONEY CLIP GATE in great detail, break down what EVIL is and isn't good at, and a whole lot more. After the G1 they head back to the land of NOAH for the final night of the 2020 N-1 Victory, a great show featuring an absolutely incredible final with Kaito Kiyomiya and Katsuhiko Nakajima. They discuss whether both or either are legit Most Outstanding Wrestler contenders, plus break down the whole show match-by-match including a great junior title match (and touch on some of the controversy surrounding Kaz Fujita). A packed show of tournament action!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk one of the greatest AND one of the worst matches of all time plus a whole hell of a lot more! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

John is joined by Bryan Quinby from Street Fight Radio, making his first appearance on the show in a number of years. Before they get into the five match selections today John & Bryan catch up on a ton of topics, including how they're hanging in during this whole pandemic thing, wondering if you should even plan any live shows at all for the rest of 2020, what life might be like after this passes and whether or not John should go to Vegas, arcades, and some more talk on empty arena wrestling. Then we finally get into our 5 matches for the week, and it's honestly a pretty incredible list:

1. WALTER & Timothy Thatcher vs. Dominic Garrini & Tracy Williams, EVOLVE 1/13/18 (Youku, match starts around 20:30)

2. Sabu vs. The Sandman, ECW 11/30/97 (WWE Network)

3. Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose, WWE 4/3/16 (WWE Network)

4. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kohei Sato, Z1MAX 3/2/08 (Google Drive, match starts around 1:30:47)

5. Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW 4/9/17 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

Topics that come up along the way include: where we wish US wrestling could have gone vs. where it ended up going, Timothy Thatcher rules actually, John didn't know who Dominic Garrini was and feels bad because he was great, setting up elaborate spots and botching every single one, Sandman's flips (are good), Brock Lesnar destroying WWE, interpromotional feuds and why they rule, and finally a detailed breakdown of one of the best matches of all time (and maybe it's more okay to love it now that things turned out a little better with Shibata at the LA Dojo). It's a really packed episode!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week!

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's our fifth annual year end awards spectacular, as we break down the best and worst of 2021 in all of professional wrestling!

John is joined by an all-star panel of 2021 guests: VOW contributors Sean Sedor (@SASedor2994), Suit Williams (@SuitWilliams), Gerard di Trolio (@GerarddiTrolio) and Paul Volsch (@Darth_Dragon), plus Devin (@MoreThanMeatJoy), Mongo (@mongo_ebooks) and Liam McCann (@liam_d_mccann). They all talk a little about what they liked and didn't like about 2021, and what they thought of wrestling as a whole, before getting into their individual award picks. John also gives the overall winners of the voting, with all Omakase guests from the year being invited to send in their picks. Here's the awards in the order covered on the show:

-Worst Weekly TV

-Worst Major Show

-The WWE Memorial Award for Worst Promotion

-Worst Feud

-Worst Match of the Year

-Best Weekly TV

-Best Major Show

-Best Promotion

-Best Feud

-Most Outstanding Wrestler

-Tag Team of the Year

-Match of the Year

-Wrestler of the Year

Thanks for joining us at the end of another truly wild and somewhat awful year on this planet! Here's to 2022 being a whole lot better, both for wrestling and just the world in general!

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up- @wrestleomakase!

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's one promotion we discuss a lot and one promotion we haven't talked about in a long time, as we cover NJPW and AEW's recent big shows!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Going on right now is our exclusive daily coverage of the New Japan Cup, as John is up on the Patreon each and every day breaking down all the tournament matches! Follow along with our in-depth match breakdowns and reviews, pick 'em updates on what people predicted beforehand versus what actually happened, plus notes from the undercards that you're probably skipping! Plus, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, Tokyo Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Chris Samsa (@TheChrisSamsa) from Sport of Pro Wrestling for a packed show. They start out discussing adventures in vaccinations and more before getting into some macro thoughts on AEW, discourse, differences between wrestling promotions and how they're covered and a lot more. They then head over to New Japan for full reviews of the March 4th Anniversary Show headlined by Kota Ibushi vs. El Desperado (including lots of thoughts on the very controversial topic of title unification) and the March 7th New Japan Cup show, along with some brief thoughts on other Cup matches so far (head to the Patreon for full reviews!).

Once they're done with New Japan they head back to AEW for a full review of the Revolution PPV, breaking down every match from the main show in detail. They discuss spots that worked and didn't work, hilarious misfires (and not just the one at the end of the main event!), way too much interference, why AEW works better as a TV product than a supercard one in general, and a whole lot more.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's once again time for Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame talk! John is joined by the CAPTAIN Rich Kraetsch of the Voices of Wrestling flagship (@voiceswrestling) to once again break down every candidate in the Modern US/Canada and Japan categories. It's quite the dichotomy, as first we try our best to make a case for any one of a historically weak batch of US candidates including Bill Goldberg, CM Punk, Edge, Randy Orton, Sgt. Slaughter and more. Then we dive into a ridiculously deep slate of candidates from Japan including the "NJPW Modern 4" of Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Tetsuya Naito and Tomohiro Ishii, modern legends like Jun Akiyama and Meiko Satomura, and other interesting historical candidates like Akira Taue and Hayabusa. Then we talk about a few of the non-wrestling candidates like Gedo, Stephanie McMahon and Ted Turner. Finally we wrap things up with a really packed mailbag featuring questions on WRESTLERS AS POKEMON, the last time we really enjoyed WWE, who Naito should face on 1/5, and of course a ton of questions on the Hall of Fame as well. It's an absolutely jam packed edition of Omakase looking at the Observer Hall of Fame, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase now has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk a couple of Night 5s from two different tournaments- from a G1 Climax that's still in the early stages and a Champion Carnival that's going out with a whimper.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your only place to get our full coverage of all three tournaments from New Japan, All Japan and NOAH. Weekend shows will be covered here on the free feed, but John will bring even more daily coverage of the weekday shows exclusive to the Patreon, including with returning guests too! We dropped FOUR STRAIGHT DAYS of coverage on the Patreon earlier this week, including Champion Carnival Night 4 on Monday, N-1 Victory on Tuesday, a huge tripleheader (with a longtime returning guest Thomas Fischbeck!) with a G1 show and the day/night N-1 shows on Wednesday, and another G1 show on Thursday. And we've got even more to come this week- N-1 on Monday, G1 on Tuesday & Wednesday, and the Champion Carnival finals on the following Monday, plus much more. Don't miss out on a single minute of our great coverage- sign up for just $5 per month at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by VOW contributor and first-time guest Jon Hernandez (@FatmansAlright). John and Jon start by talking Night 5 of the G1 Climax from Kobe World Hall, a show they both liked but both are a little lower on than a lot of other people seem to be. They discuss whether or not a ****1/4 match can be a disappointment, some issues they had with Ospreay-Shingo that took it down a few notches, another underwhelming Okada main event (and yes we know it's a storyline, thanks), and more. They then go over the standings in the A Block so far, each give their top ten matches in the tournament through the first five nights, and look ahead to the next show on Tuesday from Korakuen.

Then John & Jon turn their attention to the final block night of the AJPW Champion Carnival, Night 5 from Kanagawa, which like most of this tournament so far was pretty bad! They break down all of their problems with this tournament, from the match quality to the booking, and ask a very simple question- is Shuji Ishikawa the worst booker in Japan today? They then review all eight matches on this quite crappy card, including one of the worst finishes of all time (yes, really). Finally, they wrap things up by going over each of their top 5 matches in the tournament (such as they are) and discussing the individual performances of each wrestler, with John giving their average star ratings for everyone. Spoiler alert: they're pretty bad!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we look at the end of a tour and two tournaments. John is joined by returning guest TJ (@aspir_) as they start by discussing their upcoming weekend, including two meet-ups ahead of NJPW FSU (NYC 3 pm at Pioneers Bar, Philly noon at Toll Man Joes!) and also a little bit of #animetalk. Once they actually get to the wrestling they start with New Japan, as John and TJ talk all about the Destruction in Kobe event. A lot of time is spent on the Naito-White main event as John breaks down all the reasons why they loved it, plus offers some takes on Naito's booking and some Naito fans that you may find a little surprising from them. Then the two of them break down the rest of the show, including an awesome Shingo-Goto match and the end of the Young Lions Cup. They wrap up the New Japan talk by looking ahead at the Fighting Spirit Unleashed cards plus King of Pro Wrestling and speculate about Power Struggle and the Dome.

After NJPW they turn their attention to All Japan, as the two of them wrap up the Oudou Tournament that we started covering last week. We talk all four second round matches, two of which we both really loved, and then the semifinals and finals (which we disagree a bit on). Plus we discuss whether or not Jake Lee can still be saved and more. Then our last promotion discussed is STARDOM where we break down the finals of the 5STAR Tournament, Hana Kimura's last few matches in general, and TJ offers some recommendations for the rest of the tournament if you're way behind (like John was!). Finally, we tackle a big mailbag this week featuring lots of questions on all 3 companies, including: who will the next THREE World of STARDOM champions be? Who should beat Miyahara and when? What's the best inanimate object in STARDOM? Is there a ceiling for how good a Young Lion match can be? And much more!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we present our mid-year awards for 2020, doing what we can to highlight the best (and drag the worst) of this very strange and terrible half-year!

We're returning to mostly covering current wrestling here on the free feed, but if you miss our 5 Matches format featuring discussion of older matches you can still catch brand new episodes at our Patreon! Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to a brand new exclusive 5 Matches episode with Nate from VOW network podcast Everything Elite, as John gives their controversial (?) thoughts on the Kenny/Page-Young Bucks match from Revolution earlier this year. Plus we cover Naito-Tanaka from 2013, Tanahashi-Nakamura from 2015 (the G1 final), the WCW HARDCORE JUNKYARD INVITATIONAL from 1999 and a whole lot more! In addition at the Patreon right now you can find two more exclusive 5 Matches episodes from last month with Alan4L & Rich Kraetsch, 11 episodes in our ongoing series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in order, 2 episodes of Anime Omakase, and our New Japan Cup pick 'em. You can get access to all of this bonus audio plus more to come throughout the month for just $5!

Here in the strange and cursed year of 2020 John brings on an esteemed panel of VOW contributors to help them break it all down. The guests are: Andy (@trillyrobinson), Paul (@Darth_Dragon), Ricardo (@wallyrgr), Taylor (@tamaimbo), Thomas (@rasslinratings) and Tyler (@TheRealForno). Below you can find all the awards we covered in their order of appearance on the podcast (everything up to Best Weekly TV Show was 1 pick per person and every award after that was 3 picks per person):

-Worst Weekly TV Show

-Worst Major Show

-Worst Promotion

-Worst Feud

-Worst Match of the Year

-Best Weekly TV Show

-Best Major Show

-Best Promotion

-Best Feud

-Most Outstanding Wrestler

-Match of the Year

-Tag Team of the Year

-Wrestler of the Year

Hear all of our picks for the best and worst of a very shitty year, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

This week on Wrestling Omakase we review the penultimate nights of the NJPW G1 Climax for each block, plus give our top 10 G1 matches so far and more!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. The vast majority of our coverage of the G1 Climax lives exclusively on the Patreon- every previous night of both tournaments that wasn't covered on a free episode, and all three nights that remain, are covered exclusively on the Patreon! Don't miss out on our coverage of the final shows of the G1! Plus, you can listen to every single piece of audio we've done since the start- including our Tokyo Dome series covering every single Dome main event of the 1990s! Feeling nostalgic about Okada/Tanahashi after their recent G1 match? Then check out our series covering the entire Okada/Tanahashi match series as well! And finally, don't forget that you get more full episodes too- every week there isn't a new show on the free feed, there's a full length episode exclusive to the Patreon! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Jon Hernandez (@OldJonHernandez) as they start out by discussing all sorts of random stuff: how both of them have been attending all sorts of wrestling shows lately, how they're both attending the NJPW Strong tapings in Philadelphia this coming weekend as well, HOT TUBS, the return of the NHL, the NHL's weird recent history on national television, Charles Barkley, more Revolutionary Girl Utena and a little Neon Genesis Evangelion, and frankly some other random crap John's probably forgetting about now.

Once that's all out of the way they get into the main topic, as they break down Nights 15 & 16 of the G1 Climax- the penultimate night of each block. They start with a great Night 15, including a third straight awesome Great-O-Khan main event. They then break down the many confusing different tiebreaker scenarios heading into the final night for A block. Then they turn their attentions to the unfortunately quite bad Night 16. John gives another EVIL rant right after promising they weren't going to do another EVIL rant, and they discuss how Kazuchika Okada apparently will explode if he wrestles a match under 20 minutes. They wrap things up by breaking down the much, much simpler scenario to decide who wins B block, and then giving each of their top 10 matches in the G1 so far.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's our 2019 Worldwide Fantasy Draft! That's right, our fantasy draft is back but this year for one episode only, as we bring you our first-ever FIVE-WAY worldwide draft! Any wrestler in the world, for any promotion, who has wrestled since the start of September 2019 is eligible to be drafted, which gives all our participants a lot to work with! John is joined by two guests from Voices of Wrestling, Music of the Mat host Andrew Rich (@AndrewTRich) and contributor Jack Beckmann (@packerman120). In addition, for the first time we took volunteers from our two Discord channels, with one participant chosen at random from everyone who volunteered in each channel. Joining us from the SJC discord is Jeff (@Ika_LIJ) and from the VOW discord is Craig (@GothTiger). All five of us pick 25 wrestlers each and then arrange them into our dream card, and once you finish listening it's up to you to pick who put together your favorite card! See below for the link to vote, and we hope you enjoy this week's episode!

Who had the best card? Vote for the winner! You have until Saturday night 10/26: http://www.strawpoll.me/18820715

For reference here are the full cards from all five shows. Make sure you listen to the episode first or else you'll get spoiled: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12eps6cHQKzfurqJ56mz_2oA5ZpvqikWEEX24x7jVN8I/edit?usp=sharing

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guests. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase now has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we break down two very different New Japan shows and dive into AJPW's most recent and upcoming tours!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Coming up in March will be extensive, exclusive coverage of the annual New Japan Cup, starting right away on March 3rd with our annual New Japan Cup Pick 'Em show! Patrons will also get to enjoy daily audio coverage of each and every New Japan Cup show & tournament match throughout the month. Plus, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, Tokyo Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest & VOW contributor Paul Volsch (@Darth_Dragon) as they dive right into two very different New Japan Pro Wrestling shows. They start out discussing some of the issues they've been having with NJPW on a macro level lately and whether or not they're worried about them both short- and long-term (very different outlooks!), before getting into both nights of Castle Attack. Night 1: horrible! Night 2: awesome! They break down all the matches from both nights, including Money Clip Okada coming up small yet again, EVIL's very strange booking, overdosing on BULLET CLUB crap, Naito and Ibushi having yet another match of the year contender, a junior title match that way overdelivered (and John admits that ELP is growing on them a bit), a NEVER title match that proved Great-O-Khan can have awesome matches, and much more.

Once they're done with NJPW they move over to the world of All Japan Pro Wrestling, covering the Excite Series tour. They go over some of the major matches before the final Korakuen, including very good All Asia & Jr. Heavyweight title matches from Nagoya, before then getting into the Korakuen Hall show from 2/23 in detail. They discuss a disappointing main event, Paul buries Suwama, a tag title match that wasn't very good either, an undercard that was just there, but also an incredible double turn angle with Jake Lee & Shotaro Ashino. They then preview the upcoming Dream Power Series, as well as run down the Champion Carnival participants.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we review the latest Korakuen shows from NOAH & Tokyo Joshi, plus we TALK SOME TITAN and a lot more on a real tangent-heavy episode!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. April is Champion Carnival month on the Patreon, as we're providing daily audio coverage of each and every event in All Japan's signature G1-style tournament! Our coverage of Nights 1, 2, 4 and 5, as well as every remaining night of the tournament, are exclusively hosted on the Patreon! As a bonus, we also had a full length Retro Roulette Omakase, covering five different randomly selected finals from Carnivals of the past! And you'll also get to hear a brand new 5 Matches episode next week with first time guest & VOW contributor Kevin Chiat! Plus, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, Tokyo Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Kevin Brown from the Bad Wrestling Podcast (@badwrespodcast). John & Kevin discuss the current pace of vaccine rollout, Round 1 arcade rankings and more, before getting into this week's first topic of discussion: Pro Wrestling NOAH's Neo Breeze Korakuen from April 18th. Well, actually just the top three matches of it for reasons out of their control (damn you Abema geoblocking!). They go into great detail on these matches to make up for it though, talking the controversial Keiji Mutoh GHC title reign and his hype match to set up his upcoming second defense with Masa Kitamiya, a junior heavyweight title match with Atsushi Kotoge and Nioh (with a bonus deep dive into Kotoge lore, discussing one of the weirdest wrestling careers in modern times!), and finally another hype tag for the upcoming Fujita/Sugiura National Title match, with a lot of praise for 'ol Ironhead.

Once that's out of the way they turn to Tokyo Joshi, our first trip back to that promotion in a while, to break down April 17th's Still Incomplete show, also from Korakuen Hall. The two of them discuss being two of the true TJP Oldheads who can remember when these wrestlers were mostly horrible and no one watched it, and then break down a fun show full of good to great matches. They also talk a surprise retirement, upcoming title matches on next month's Korakuen, RAKU'S TRAIN OF THE DAY, and more! Finally, they wrap up the show with the main event, TALKIN' TITAN, as John & Kevin discuss the horrible ending to the Attack on Titan manga. There are major spoilers here for people watching the TV series, but not to be worried if you're trying to avoid them- we give plenty of fair warning when we discuss them and it comes after all of the wrestling talk. But it's been a recurring bit for all of Kevin's Omakase appearances, so we had to wrap things up here with a fittingly terrible end of a truly terrible series.

This week's edition of Wrestling Omakase is sponsored by Manscaped. Get 20% off + free shipping with promo code OMAKASE at http://www.manscaped.com

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week Wrestling Omakase's third annual Year in Review series continues! Each week from now until the end of the year we will recap the 2019 of a specific promotion, promotions, or type of wrestling, covering all their major shows and moments and giving our picks for the major award categories. It's a great way for you to catch up with wrestling you may have missed this year and identify matches you may want to watch or rewatch before doing your end of the year awards voting!

We've almost reached the end of another Year in Review series. In our penultimate episode, John is joined by returning guests and VOW contributors Thomas Fischbeck (@rasslinratings) & Paul Volsch (@Darth_Dragon) to talk a great deal of the Japanese wrestling scene. Basically we're covering all the major men's puro companies other than NJPW & DDT today, and we start with a long look at the year of All Japan Pro Wrestling. Even though business stagnated a bit, how much is the booking to blame? And was the wrestling still among the best in the world? We then turn our attention to a promotion that's received a great deal of hype this year in Pro Wrestling NOAH, as we discuss that hype vs. the reality and also some of the positive business signs for the company. We then take a look at the always-perplexing world of Big Japan Pro Wrestling, talking how their year went in some wacky directions and discussing their big shows and tournaments. Then we take quicker looks at Dragon Gate, Wrestle-1 and ZERO1.

Along the way we preview all the major early January shows for all these promotions, and then end up just playing a "Wrestle Kingdom Week: Path of Greatness" game where we map out what shows we would go to if we were going to Japan that week. If you happen to be going for the first time we also discuss the geography of various venues, in case you're wondering how quick it will be to travel between them. Then we pick our awards winners for all of these promotions in the usual categories, including a strong Match of the Year list and more. Finally we wrap things up with your questions on all sorts of different topics. It's a fun trip through a ton of different puro companies, this week!

You can take a look at Thomas' doc for all the announced shows and matches for Wrestle Kingdom week here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-zlTqyAkdhA_JnVIKHP8Ahv-uuWKrcJln7sXhS9ys_k/edit?usp=sharing.

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Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we wrap up our King of DDT coverage with a full review of the finals from Korakuen Hall, and take a look at new promotion GLEAT's official launch show from Tokyo Dome City Hall!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. We just completed our series watching all ten of the Naito/Tanahashi singles matches that were available online, and you can relive their entire decade-spanning rivalry with us right now! With that now behind us we'll be resuming our series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order (we left off in 1995, so we're about to hit all the NJPW vs. UWFi stuff!) leading up to New Japan's rescheduled WRESTLE GRAND SLAM event at the end of July. You get access to all of this plus everything else we've ever done- our 1st Round coverage of the 2021 King of DDT, exclusive full episodes, matches requested by patrons, all the major tournaments of the past year covered, ANIME OMAKASE, and much more! Next week we'll have exclusive coverage of the NJPW Summer Struggle in Sapporo shows, only on the Patreon! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by first time guest Devin (@MoreThanMeatJoy) as they start by doing what they always do with first time guests- ask them to get into their background with wrestling in general and puro specifically. Once that's out of the way they talk about what else has been going on- John is very excited about their new soundbar and Dolby Atmos, Devin watched the original Dragonball and saw Goku's little wee-wee, John was thrilled to welcome Bakarina And Her Fabulous Bisexual Harem back to the airwaves with the return of Hamefura, and who knows what other random stuff they talked about.

But then they do turn their attention to some actual Japanese wrestling shows, starting with the King of DDT finals from July 4th at Korakuen Hall. John and Devin discuss the semi final matches, the Danshoku Akai Adventures, and the finals in detail. Plus, some breaking news on a big upcoming tag team match for their outdoor Kawasaki Peter Pan show in August and the start of the next D-Ou.

After the DDT talk is over, John and Devin head over to GLEAT to discuss their official launch show (after months of "soft launch" shows), GLEAT Ver. 1. This is a great primer for you if you don't know who any of these wrestlers or this promotion are, as they introduce the various wrestlers in each match and where they came from, plus go over the rules for the UWF style matches (and how they differ from the old UWF rules) in detail. They also of course review all the matches as well. Finally, they wrap things up by going over the upcoming GLEAT dates for late July/early August.

This week’s edition of Wrestling Omakase is sponsored by Manscaped. Get 20% off + free shipping with promo code OMAKASE at http://www.manscaped.com

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we discuss a difficult topic and a whole lot of very average wrestling, save a couple bright spots here or there.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. We just concluded our daily coverage of the New Japan Cup and it's still all there for you to listen to, if you'd like to go back and re-live each and every night of the tournament. Coming up next for our daily tournament coverage will be the AJPW Champion Carnival in April! And next week, tune in to an exclusive full-length episode, as John and Quinlan play WRESTLEMANIA RETRO ROULETTE! Which six random matches will they get from six random Wrestlemanias?! Plus, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, Tokyo Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Jeri Evans (@TheJerriest_Jer) as they discuss happy anniversaries and first hockey games in a long time, among other things. Then they unfortunately have to get into the New Japan Cup finals, including most obviously the very controversial angle that closed the show with Will Ospreay and Bea Priestley. John and Jeri do their best to explain just why that angle left such a bad taste in their mouths and why it just didn't work for them at all. Stop making such shitty decisions New Japan! The two of them also discuss the Ospreay vs. Shingo NJC finals that was completely overshadowed by the boneheaded angle, as well as the rest of an otherwise very sleepy card from Sendai.

Then they turn their attention to NOAH and their 3/21 NOAH the INFINITY Korakuen Hall show. They discuss an awesome main event as Iron Head Fujita delivers yet again, a good junior tag title match, and another mostly sleepy undercard. They also look ahead to upcoming shows in April from Korakuen and Nagoya.

Finally, John & Jeri wrap things up with a review of AJPW's 3/21 Dream Power Series show from Kyoto KBS Hall. After a few quick thoughts about the famous building and its giant mural, the two of them break down a lackluster Suwama vs. Yoshitatsu Triple Crown title match and yet another sleepy undercard. They wrap things up with a look at next Sunday's tour-ender from Saitama, as well as the opening night of the upcoming Champion Carnival.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we break down Night 9 of the NJPW G1 Climax from Nagoya and the finals of NOAH's N-1 Victory from Korakuen Hall!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. The vast majority of our coverage of both the G1 Climax & NOAH N-1 Victory lives exclusively on the Patreon- every previous night of both tournaments that wasn't covered on a free episode, and every single night of the G1 going forward until the next one, is covered exclusively on the Patreon! Don't miss out on our daily coverage of both tournaments! Plus, you can listen to every single piece of audio we've done since the start- including our Tokyo Dome series covering every single Dome main event of the 1990s! Feeling nostalgic about Okada/Tanahashi after their recent G1 match? Then check out our series covering the entire Okada/Tanahashi match series as well! And finally, don't forget that you get more full episodes too- every week there isn't a new show on the free feed, there's a full length episode exclusive to the Patreon! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Liam McCann (@liam_d_mccann) as they start off with a discussion of sports heartbreak and fandom. This has been brought on by the fact that John is a Toronto Blue Jays fan and they were eliminated from the MLB postseason earlier on Sunday in about the worst way possible, but they touch on other sports too (mainly NHL hockey and Premier League soccer), and the whole discussion is probably pretty universal to the sports fan experience (they even compare it to some of what it's like to be a fan of a specific wrestler as well!). The conclusion: don't be a sports fan, do drugs instead, it's better for you.

Once that's out of the way the two of them turn to the ongoing NJPW G1 Climax, specifically Night 9 (10/3) from Nagoya. John opens up with a bit of a rant on how different clap crowds can actually make a huge difference, no matter what anyone else has told you, before they get into a very good show with two strong matches at the end as the highlight. Liam disagrees a bit on Ibushi/Shingo and on Kota Ibushi's current arc in general, so there's quite a lot on that, but they go into every match in some detail. Then they give a standings update for the A block and look ahead to the next two nights of the G1.

Then it's on to Pro Wrestling NOAH, as they discuss the final night of their own N-1 Victory tournament, also on 10/3 from Korakuen Hall. John & Liam review the entire show in detail including two great semifinal matches and an absolutely outstanding finals. Plus: confusing talk about age in the old fuck offer six-man! NOSAWA continues to book the juniors like an absolute mad man! And a look ahead to possible matches for January's big Budokan show, as John somehow forgets that Go Shiozaki exists and should be coming back soon! Look, they had a rough day.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we take our second completely randomized look back at WCW's annual spooktacular, Halloween Havoc!

John is joined by returning guest Matt Francis (@archivingmatt), as they start out with a bit of a longer off-topic discussion than usual. John & Matt discuss weird trick or treat times before John gets into the recent announcement that the Wrestling Omakase Patreon will be going on hiatus (although you can still check out the rather extensive archives at any time for only $5, as John goes over on the episode- http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase), and that then evolves into a discussion on why the current state of wrestling and wrestling discussion isn't doing a lot for either of them. Once that's out of the way they get into the actual topic, which is six randomly selected matches from six randomly selected years of WCW's annual Halloween Havoc pay-per-view. If you'd like to be surprised you can of course stop reading here, but if you'd like to know ahead of time what matches we got, please see below (all can be found on Peacock in the US and WWE Network elsewhere):

1990: Rick & Scott Steiner vs. The Nasty Boys

1991: Oz vs. Bill Kazmaier

1992: Big Van Vader vs. Nikita Koloff

1994: Arn Anderson vs. Dustin Rhodes

1995: Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant

1999: Sting vs. Goldberg

Topics that come up along the way include: a strangely fun Nasty Boys match, why wouldn't you have these guys under contract before you start this big feud, the no longer Great or Powerful Oz, the weird and short career of Bill Kazmaier that took him from Stampede to RINGS to WCW, WCW announcers spending more time about New Japan's next Tokyo Dome show than the match they're supposed to be calling, Dustin Rhodes not listening to Arn Anderson when he's talking, a weirdly non-grudge feeling grudge match, the start of crash TV era 90s wrestling is right here, Hulk Hogan's weird "darkside" gimmick, the SUMO MONSTER TRUCK MATCH, the Giant dies and then rises from the grave in the span of about 15 minutes, Vince Russo takes over WCW and immediately does away with all their existing storylines, the "pin me may me" Hogan angle that no one even remembers, Sting really never said this was for the WCW title did he, and finally: Madusa kicking ass.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk three different Korakuen Hall shows from three different promotions, more on EVIL as champion so far, we set the table for the Sengoku Lord main event and we discuss a possible return to Japan by......*thunderclap* The Gamer.

Wrestling Omakase now has a Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to four exclusive 5 Matches episodes that you can't find on the free feed, plus our first episode in our new series covering every Naito-Ishii match in chronological order, all 14 episodes in our recently completed series doing the same for Okada-Tanahashi, 4 episodes of Anime Omakase, and more. Plus, Saturday night John and former Omakase guest Quinlan will be bringing you a same day reaction show to NJPW Sengoku Lord, exclusively for patrons! The only way you'll be able to hear John's thoughts on EVIL-Hiromu, Shingo-Desperado and anything else from Sengoku Lord is by signing up and checking out that episode. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for only $5 per month, so sign up today!

John is joined by returning guest Hayley (@choerrycoloured) as they start by talking how hard an anime con season without any anime cons is for both of them. They quickly move on to the wrestling shows they're here to talk about, namely three Korakuen events, starting with NJPW's New Japan Road show from Monday (7/20). This involves obviously more EVIL discussion, plus a lot of El Desperado praise and a LOT of Master Wato talk. Seriously, a whole lotta Wato. Much of it might be hard to make out due to our combined laughter but we're sorry. We also do a quick preview of the top 3 of Sengoku Lord and where we think NJPW is going from here.

Then we move over to the world of DDT and Tokyo Joshi for the first time in a long time, talking their Korakuen double-header from Thursday 7/23. On the Tokyo Joshi side we discuss Yuki Aino's big main event shot against Yuka Sakazaki, a spirited battle with Mina Shirakawa and Yuki Kamifuku and a whole lot more. We then talk DDT's Summer Vacation, talking how great Jun Akiyama in DDT is going so far, an awesome main event with Tetsuya Endo and Yuki Ueno, and some comedy that didn't quite land. Finally we wrap things up with a few of your questions, including: who will unseat EVIL, who will win the Tokyo Joshi Princess Cup and who will win King of DDT. Will Endo succeed in bringing the dreaded Gamer himself, Kenneth James Omega (NOTE: I have no idea if that's actually his middle name, it just sounds funny), back to DDT? Will the immigration authorities stop him? Will HAROLD intervene yet again?!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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We're back for our first new episode of Wrestling Omakase in quite a while, as John is once again coming to you live from Japan! First, they're joined by Joel from the Super J-Cast for a full review of the NJPW Sakura Genesis 2025 show, with John giving you the live perspective from the front row of Sumo Hall. Lots of talk about NJPW's current booking direction, where things may be going from here, and of course full reviews of all the matches. Then, John goes solo for an additional 45 minutes as they take you through their entire Japan trip so far, including shorter reviews of the NJPW Jr. Genesis show from Korakuen, STARDOM's 4/2 Korakuen featuring Tam Nakano vs. Saori Anou, Sendai Girls 4/3 and WAVE 4/1 (both from Shinjuku FACE) including Meiko Satomura vs. Minoru Suzuki, and, yes, a review of a Secret Base (!) show from the tiny Ring Soul bar in Kobe! Plus lots of other random Japan travel talk and complaining about tariffs!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk the second week of NJPW Strong featuring the New Japan Cup USA semifinals, the Atsushi Aoki memorial Korakuen from AJPW and a truly awesome start to the STARDOM 5STAR GP.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is the best mix of modern puro & historical coverage your five dollars can buy. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to five exclusive 5 Matches episodes that you can’t find on the free feed (including our latest episode with Todd Martin from last week, covering Tanahashi-Shibata from 2014, Kobashi vs. Takayama from 2004, SUPER DRAGON VS. NECRO BUTCHER and much more!). Plus you’ll get access to four episodes of tournament coverage for the 2020 King of DDT and Tokyo Joshi Princess Cup, our series covering every Naito-Ishii match in history (which just reached the halfway point, the main event of Wrestling Dontaku 2016), our review of the controversial Sengoku Lord show, ANIME OMAKASE~! and a whole lot more. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for only $5 per month, so sign up today!

John is joined by returning guest TJ (@aspir_) from the One Wrestling Podcast (@onewrestlingpod) to break down shows from three different Japanese promotions. We start with week 2 of NJPW Strong, New Japan's US studio show, as we talk the semifinals of the New Japan Cup USA and two fun tag team matches featuring some new and returning faces. We then turn our attention to All Japan for the first time in a while, talking their August 15th Atsushi Aoki memorial show from Korakuen Hall. We also discuss where things stand in the promotion in general as we rapidly approach the start of the Champion Carnival. Finally we wrap things up with the first two nights of STARDOM's 5STAR GP, also from Korakuen on 8/8 & 8/9, and one of these two shows was a bonafide Show of the Year contender. You'll have to listen to find out which one.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase it's time for our New Beginning in Osaka review! John is joined by longtime friend Bryan Quinlan (@IM_NOT_QUINLAN) to break down all the matches from New Japan's sellout Osaka Jo Hall event, as well as all the big news that broke during the show. They start at the very top of the card with what's sure to be a bit of a controversial Tetsuya Naito vs. KENTA main event, so tune in to hear their thoughts on it. They work their way down from there with thoughts on the wild Suzuki-Moxley brawl, the crazy Hiromu-Lee mile-a-minute match, a SANADA-White match that's also sure to divide people, all the undercard tags, the junior tag title match and more. They also break down the big news of NJPW's return to Madison Square Garden in August, their move to primetime television in Japan for World Pro Wrestling and more. Finally they wrap things up with a brief look ahead to NJPW's next tours as well as a look back at this past week's Korakuen Hall events. It's all things New Japan, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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"This week on Wrestling Omakase we review an awesome SUMMER STRUGGLE in JINGU show, the KOPW 2020 matches from Korakuen and Strong Week 4 on an all-NJPW episode.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is the best mix of modern puro & historical coverage your five dollars can buy. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to six exclusive full 5 Matches episodes that you can’t find on the free feed (including our latest episode with Garrett Kidney from last week). Plus you’ll get access to five episodes of tournament coverage for the 2020 King of DDT and Tokyo Joshi Princess Cup, our series covering every Naito-Ishii match in history (up to episode 8 now, covering their match from King of Pro Wrestling 2017), ANIME OMAKASE~! and a whole lot more. And coming up in September, exclusive coverage of the G1 Climax, AJPW Champion Carnival AND the NOAH N-1 Victory tournaments. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for only $5 per month, so sign up today!

John is joined by returning guest Quinlan (@IM_NOT_QUINLAN) as they start out with some off-topic anime chat, and discuss Roman Reigns' big heel turn over in WWE-land. They then quickly recap the four KOPW 2020 matches from Korakuen Hall before getting into their full SUMMER STRUGGLE in JINGU review, talking all six matches from what was a really great show. They talk a brutal Shingo-Suzuki match, a Hiromu-Ishimori match with a great story, another great tag title match and finally yet another controversial EVIL main even. Finally, they wrap things up with another quick recap of the NJPW Strong Week 4 (Road to Fighting Spirit Unleashed).

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week’s guest. We really appreciate it: https://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd"

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk a trio of shows from New Japan, All Japan and DDT!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Going on right now is our exclusive daily coverage of the New Japan Cup, as John is up on the Patreon each and every day breaking down all the tournament matches! Follow along with our in-depth match breakdowns and reviews, pick 'em updates on what people predicted beforehand versus what actually happened, plus notes from the undercards that you're probably skipping! Plus, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, Tokyo Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest TJ (@aspir_) from the One Wrestling Podcast as they start off by discussing Night 9 of the New Japan Cup. They break down the Tanahashi vs. Jay White main event (and why White kind of feels stuck in neutral at the moment), YOSHI-HASHI vs. David Finlay in the other tournament match, give an update on the current Omakase NJC pick 'ems, and talk a little bit about everything going on in NJPW in general at the moment.

Then the two of them head over to All Japan to discuss an eventful time for the company, breaking down their March 14th Dream Power Series Korakuen with a lot of talk about the new heel unit Total Eclipse. John and TJ discuss whether or not the Jake Lee/Shotaro Ashino double turn is working so far and what they think of the big new unit. Plus, they review an awesome tag team title main event and talk about Yuma Aoyagi's continued ascent.

Finally, they wrap things up with DDT's Day Dream Believer Korakuen from the same day, March 14th. They offer effusive praise for Yuki Ueno vs. Yusuke Okada (and Ueno in general), discuss two title changes, and look ahead to DDT's second Korakuen of the month in a few weeks.

(NOTE: We are aware of a slight audio sync issue that has happened on the last few episodes, including this one. I tried to make a slight adjustment before recording and it actually seemed to cost us a couple bits of TJ's audio, which is why there's a couple awkward transitions early on, but unfortunately it didn't quite solve the problem. We'll be moving to a new recording method next week that should hopefully solve it, and we apologize again for the recent issues. It's definitely still listenable but it makes it sound like I'm talking over the end of everything my guest is saying, which isn't ideal and why I hope to have it fixed next week!)

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we take a completely randomized look at events from the Tokyo Dome!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, most notably two full length exclusive episodes per month. Most recently we covered the finals of the AJPW Champion Carnival and both nights of NJPW Wrestling Dontaku, exclusively on the Patreon. Throughout the rest of May we'll also be presenting a new 1 Match series on a famous NJPW rivalry (likely Naito vs. Tanahashi, but the poll to select which one is still open!), so come follow along with us on each and every match in a legendary feud! Plus, you get all of our past content, including full tournament coverage of the Champion Carnival, tons of past exclusive episodes and much more. You can get access to all of this and much more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest and longtime friend Quinlan (@IM_NOT_QUINLAN) for his first episode on the free feed in quite a while. They talk a little bit about John's birthday party last week and the topic of vomit makes a surprise appearance (??), but then it's right down to business: six randomly selected matches from six different Tokyo Domes! Of course there's no main events here since we're covering every single Tokyo Dome main event in order back on the Patreon, but that didn't stop us from putting every single Dome show in history into the randomizer and getting six random shows, then selecting any match from each show other than the main event! You can see what we got below, unless you'd rather be surprised as you listen (in which case you should stop reading right now!):

AJPW King's Road New Century: Masanobu Fuchi vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, 1/28/01 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKlHPJj9bcE)

NJPW Indicate of Next: Bob Backlund & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk, 10/8/01 (https://www.bilibili.com/video/av65604079/)

NJPW The Spiral: Bob Sapp vs. Manabu Nakanishi, 10/14/02 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00161_1_1 or https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00161_2_01)

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom I: Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuji Nagata, 1/4/07 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00168_1_7)

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata, 1/4/16 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00361_2_07 or https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00360_2_07)

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13: Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito, 1/4/19 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00498_5_08 or https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00498_6_08)

Topics that come up along the way include: heading into the DANGER ZONE, lots of boring holds (but it gets better), MISTER Backlund, Dory Funk Jr. stopped aging at some point, the prototype for all those late Brock WWE matches, Bob Sapp is the greatest and the worst wrestler of all time simultaneously, Suzuki and Nagata get bloody, why would you pull someone up when the Triple Crown is on the line, boy do we miss Shibata, going out on your sword, Let Us Take You Back To A Time When Chris Jericho Was Still Great, both these guys just bump like crazy, and white belt acceptance.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk, honestly, a whole lot of mid-to-late 2010s NJPW. If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

John is joined by first time guest Liam, co-host of fellow VOW network podcast Wednesday War Games (@WarGamesPod). Before they get into the fun stuff, John and Liam do briefly touch on the tragic week in wrestling, including of course Hana Kimura's incredibly sad and sudden death, so I wanted to make sure you're warned about that here. We do not spend very long on this subject nor do we get into any details surrounding how it happened; John briefly talks about meeting Hana at the STARDOM NYC show last year and both talk a little about how much it upset them, but that's really about it. If you're in the US and need to talk to someone, the suicide hotline number is 1-800-273-8255. Please know people out there care about you.

After that unfortunately tragic opening we thankfully move on to much lighter topics, including a brief review of the previous night's AEW Double or Nothing PPV (or at least the three matches John saw of the show). Then we get into our 5 Matches picks for the week, and here they all are in order:

1. Nick & Matt Jackson vs. Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong, PWG 5/22/09 (Highspots Network, match starts around 2:19:24)

2. Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, NJPW 1/4/15 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

3. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn, WWE NXT 4/1/16 (WWE Network)

4. Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega, NJPW 8/3/16 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

5. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega, NJPW 6/11/17 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

Topics that come up along the way include: Liam watching PWG as a 12 year old, Ibushi/Nakamura vs. Ibushi/Zayn, Naito vs. Omega both as a series and why this match is their very bets one, Liam gives a prepared speech about why Okada-Omega II is his favorite match ever and then John says it was Actually Bad (okay, not really, but not that great!), and then a long discussion on mid-to-late 2010s NJPW in general and their favorite and least favorite years at the very end. It's a real fun time that will hopefully get your mind off what an incredibly shitty week it's been in wrestling!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we kick off the NJPW G1 Climax with the opening two nights, along with some bonus coverage of the NOAH N-1 Victory!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. The vast majority of our coverage of both the G1 Climax & NOAH N-1 Victory will live exclusively on the Patreon- every single night of both tournaments from now until our next free episode in two weeks will be covered on the Patreon in detail! Don't miss out on our daily coverage of both tournaments! Plus, you can listen to every single piece of audio we've done since the start- including an extensive G1 preview that can help you pick which nights to watch and which to skip (if you're looking to do that sort of thing), plus our Tokyo Dome series covering every single Dome main event of the 1990s! Feeling nostalgic about Okada/Tanahashi after their match this past weekend? Then check out our series covering every single Okada/Tanahashi match in history as well! And finally, don't forget that you get more full episodes too- every week there isn't a new show on the free feed, there's a full length episode exclusive to the Patreon! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Harley Duncan. Harley's under lockdown still in Australia while John recounts their recent trip to western New York to see Niagara Falls and a bunch of other stuff- kind of mean on their part, really! Once that's out of the way John & Harley review both the opening nights of NJPW's G1 Climax 31! They talk a little about some of the dumb New Japan takes that have been out there lately (including some folks telling on themselves when it comes to how little they've been watching....), while breaking down each and every match so far in detail. It was a great start to the tournament, and they go over all of it, including the "big three" matches of Naito/ZSJ, Ishii/Shingo and Okada/Tanahashi!

Then the two of them turn their attentions to NOAH's N-1 Victory tournament, specifically Night 2 from the empty arena. John & Harley discuss how difficult it was going from even a clap crowd New Japan show to the fully empty arena of NOAH, and then break down two subpar matches along with two better ones (one that was much better).

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase it's time to talk three gigantic Japanese wrestling shows! John is joined by returning guests Taylor (@tamaimbo), Thomas (@rasslinratings) and Jack (@packerman120) to break down all the shows from this past weekend. We start with New Japan's Power Struggle show from Osaka, as we talk all the major matches and angles on the last major show before Wrestle Kingdom. We discuss a somewhat controversial final segment setting up the double title match, Hiromu Takahashi's incredible return, BUSHI and Will Ospreay putting on a banger, the finals of the Super Junior Tag League, another awesome Naito-Taichi match and more! We wrap up New Japan talk with a quick look ahead to their next US show in San Jose as well as the new matches booked for both nights at the Tokyo Dome.

Then we head over to the Dramatic Dream Team for a long review of their gigantic Ultimate Party show from Sumo Hall! We talk all fourteen (!) matches from an incredible card, including a great Ironman Heavymetalweight battle royale, some very cool undercard sprints, the Tokyo Joshi girls stealing the show, ANTONIO HONDA SILENCING THE HATERS (and that Kenny Omega guy actually looking alive again), HARASHIMA rising up for olds everywhere and much more. Finally we wrap things up with a shorter review of BJW Ryogokutan, a more mixed bag of a show that still featured a ***** match (in two of our opinions)! Hear about the many ups and downs of the final Sumo Hall show of the weekend! A packed show full of puro goodness, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase now has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we take a completely randomized look back at WCW's annual February extravaganza, SuperBrawl, on our second ever Retro Roulette episode!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, most notably two full length exclusive episodes per month. Our next episode will feature our 5 Matches format with debuting guest WH Park from Post Wrestling, as he and I will cover some awesome stuff from Japan spanning 4 different decades. Plus, you get shorter and yet still jampacked 1 Match episodes, currently covering matches submitted by Omakase patrons (spanning a wide range already in week 1- a BattlArts classic shoot-style match from 2000 and a DDT cinematic match featuring Yoshihiko from 2020!), ANIME OMAKASE, daily coverage of all the major Japanese tournaments (soon to include the New Japan Cup!), and so much more! You can get access to all of this and much more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by first time guest & VOW contributor Matt Francist (@archivingmatt), an old school WCW fan dating back to the early 90s which makes him the perfect guest for this episode! If you missed our prior Retro Roulette episode from October (that time covering Halloween Havoc), it's sort of a different spin on the 5 Matches format- instead of just picking five old matches ourselves, in this case we've come up with a theme (WCW SuperBrawl PPVs) and then let the randomizer gods choose six random shows, and then one random match on each of those shows. Here's what we ended up with. All can of course be found on the WWE Network, along with many other illicit places I'm sure:

1991- Dan Spivey vs. Ricky Morton

1992- Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs. The Taylor Made Man

1996- Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage (WCW World Title Steel Cage)

1997- Jeff Jarrett vs. Mongo McMichael

1998- Rick Martel vs. Booker T (WCW World TV Title)

2001- Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire vs. Mark Jindrak & Shawn Stasiak (WCW World Tag Team Titles)

Topics that come up along the way include: boy did the randomizer job us out on some of these shows, brief thoughts of SuperBrawl and some of the weirdness involved with WCW's schedule (and which one was bigger, SuperBrawl vs. Starrcade), Spivey does some movez, Morton months away from turning on his partner for a computer, why couldn't we get Pillman vs. Liger instead of this, did Jesse Ventura just make a joke about Bagwell's apparently legitimate mommy issues, Bobby Heenan has some thoughts on the opposite sex, THE DEADLY EFFECTS OF SHOE VIOLENCE, John and Matt disagree sharply on this 97 match, Debra was completely insane during this match, Rick Martel's sadly aborted major league comeback, the best match we discussed on this show by far, the WCW Heat Machine, a good little tag match to wrap us up, and a whole lot more.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we review the greatest pay-per-view in AEW history, discuss two good shows from NJPW, and talk about a LOT of very stupid takes!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Our series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order is about to finish the 1990s, and you can listen to all of the past episodes right now covering it all! We discuss the main events of each show in detail but also talk about everything else going on in Japanese wrestling around that time, so you can relive the nWo Japan split, Inoki's ill-fated UFO promotion, the shocking death of Giant Baba and all the related fallout, and a lot more as you follow along with us. Plus, coming up this month will be daily audio coverage of the G1 Climax and NOAH N-1 Victory tournaments, which you'll only find on the Patreon. And finally, don't forget that you get more full episodes on there too- every week there isn't a new show on the free feed, there's a full length episode exclusive to the Patreon! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Chris Samsa (@TheChrisSamsa) from VOW & Sport of Pro Wrestling. They start off with some quick thoughts on both their live adventures- John being in attendance for the Toronto Blue Jays CRUSHING the New York Yankees and Chris being in attendance for one of the greatest North American PPVs of all time. One is a little more relevant than the other for sure. They then get into a very long (nearly 2 hours!) and very detailed review of AEW All Out, as they discuss all the matches and big debuts, what stood out for them and what didn't work quite as well, and much more. Chris also gives us the live perspective throughout the show of course, which is very nice to have.

Once that's out of the way they turn their attention to good 'ol New Japan Pro Wrestling. John has read some very, very stupid and repetitive takes on Twitter lately and sounds off a little about them before the two of them get into full reviews of two Wrestle Grand Slam in Metlife Dome events, two shows that were 2021 NJPW in a nutshell: no atmosphere whatsoever but a lot of great wrestling. There was some bad stuff too though for sure, and they discuss that as well. They also quickly go through the G1 blocks and what stands out to them, if anything. Finally, they wrap things up with your mailbag questions on the end of DAMNATION in DDT, who we'd want to redeem our nutz, what we think the Power Struggle main event will be and more.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we review two big shows from the past weekend- AEW's Full Gear and NJPW's Battle in the Valley!

John is joined by returning guest Chris Samsa (@TheChrisSamsa) as they start out with some quick updates on their lives and then talk for quite a bit on the dual possibilities of reopening borders and crowd cheering in Japan. They then get into a full review of AEW's Full Gear PPV from Minneapolis, talking about the good, the bad and the ugly from the latest show. The good: an awesome main event, a match with some real emotion in Punk/Kingston (plus some chat about how Punk maybe needs that kind of emotion to hit anything close to his peak) and an amazing opener from MJF & Darby Allin. The bad: A very weirdly and unevenly paced show with two walk-n-brawls, and just a general feeling of doing way too much that makes the show kind of drag. The ugly: Jay Lethal signing with the company, and what it says about them.

Then they turn their attention to NJPW's Battle in the Valley, as they discuss some of the issues that New Japan's US brand continues to have. They break down a pretty fun show though with plenty of good matches, and then rant (and debate a little) about the rather convoluted set up for the upcoming Tokyo Dome nights of Wrestle Kingdom.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we take our third completely randomized look back at shows that took place inside the Big Egg, the Tokyo Dome!

John is joined by returning guest & VOW contributor Jeri Evagood (@TheJerriest_Jer) for her record TENTH appearance of the year! Wow! John crowns her MVP (Most Valuable Podcaster) before they get into what they've both been up to, including Christmas, worrying about Omicron cancelling their plans, and a whole lot more. Plus there's some discussion of Jeri's semi-recent Atlantic City trip, and John's pre-emptive year end thoughts ahead of next week's 2021 Year End Awards episode. Once that's out of the way they get into their topic, which is six randomly selected matches from six randomly selected Tokyo Dome shows (all Dome shows were eligible, not just 1/4 and not just NJPW). As always, stop reading here if you want to be surprised, but if you'd like to know beforehand here they are below:

1. Great Muta vs. Masahiro Chono, NJPW 1/4/93 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00114_1_7)

2. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Kengo Kimura & Tatsutoshi Goto, NJPW 1/4/95 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00132_1_9)

3. Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, NJPW 4/29/96 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYbamFhKl-g)

4. Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, NJPW 5/2/02 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00160_1_2 or https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00160_2_2)

5. Heat vs. Tiger Mask, NJPW 1/4/05 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00165_1_3)

6. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Go Shiozaki, NJPW 1/4/10 (NJPW World: https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00174_1_8)

Topics that come up along the way include: since we did get all NJPW this time John gives some background on the promotion's very turbulent history as we go through the years here, Chono's bizarre clean-cut years, Muta nearly commits a random murder, a little background on both Heisei Ishingun and Yatsu's very strange career journey to this point, a boring match with not much to talk about, how the hell did we get Savage vs. Tenzan again, Savage at least puts in some effort this time, Takayama on the verge of breaking out as a megastar, Yuji Nagata FUCKING OWNS, Minoru Tanaka's bizarre videogame gimmick, EVIL HEAT, Love & Energy forever, a damn great match to close things out, and much more!

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up- @wrestleomakase!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we're back on the air and ready to talk some Japanese wrestling! John starts off with a quick update on their health, as they're thankfully feeling better after a long and exhausting battle with (probably) COVID-19, which caused the show to miss a week (sorry!). They're joined by returning guest TJ of the @onewrestlingpod and formerly @w1_eng, so we start things out with a bit of a look back at Wrestle-1 after they recently wrapped up their run with the April 1st Korakuen show. John and TJ discuss the history of the promotion as well as what their legacy might look like going forward. Once that's out of the way they turn their attention to a pair of Korakuen shows: NOAH's 3/29 show with a divisive main event, and BJW's 3/21 Strong Climb show. Hear their thoughts on two very different events, one in front of fans and one in front of no one. We pack a lot into just one hour of podcasting, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week's episode is brought to you by Roman. Go to www.getroman.com/VOW for your free online visit and free two-day shipping!

This week it's time for Wrestling Omakase's third annual awards episode! The Omakase awards are open to each and every guest who appeared on the show during the calendar year, and for 2019 we received votes from 37 different people across the wrestling spectrum. Here to share their picks with John are six returning guests: Kelly Harrass, Thomas Fischbeck, TJ, Mongo, Jeff and Suit Williams! We all go through our picks and then give the overall winners in the following categories (in their order of discussion on the show): Worst Weekly TV Show, Worst Major Show, Worst Promotion, Worst Feud, Worst Match of the Year, Best Weekly TV Show, Best Major Show, Best Promotion, Best Feud, Most Outstanding Wrestler, Best Tag Team, Match of the Year and finally Wrestler of the Year. As an aside, we made a concerted effort to get through the Worst categories very quickly this year, so the vast majority of the episode runtime is dedicated toward discussing our favorites of 2019. And don't forget to check out the full list of Top 10s in every award going up on Voices of Wrestling a day or two after this episode.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guests. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we once again take a completely randomized look at events from the Tokyo Dome!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, most notably two full length exclusive episodes per month. Right now we're in the middle of our series looking back at every Tokyo Dome main event in order- we're in 1995, in the midst of the memorable NJPW vs. UWFi trilogy. We break down the main events in detail but also go into lots of other notes and memorable moments on each and every Tokyo Dome show! Plus, our most recent Patreon exclusive full episode recapped both NJPW Summer Struggle in Sapporo shows in detail, plus previewed the upcoming WRESTLE GRAND SLAM in Tokyo Dome event and more! You can also listen to all of our previous audio, including our various rivalry series (Okada/Tanahashi, Naito/Ishii, Naito/Tanahashi), our series reviewing matches submitted by Omakase patrons, ANIME OMAKASE, and much more. You can get access to all of this and much more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined once again by returning guest and longtime friend Bryan Quinlan (@IM_NOT_QUINLAN). They start by apologizing for the fan in the background, which is quite loud, but it felt like 100 degrees in New York City when they recorded this and they didn't wanna die of heatstroke. They then get into the reason why they're here, breaking down six different randomly selected matches from six different randomly selected Tokyo Dome shows, in our second episode talking random Dome matches! They have six entirely different Dome shows from the last time around, so here's the full list of matches covered on the episode in order:

SWS Wrestlefest: Mr. Perfect vs. The Texas Tornado, 3/30/91- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7rmbLEMMBc

NJPW Wrestling World: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto, 1/4/99- https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00153_1_4

NJPW Wrestling World: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, 1/4/01- https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00157_1_6

NOAH Departure: Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Keiji Mutoh & Taiyo Kea, 7/10/04- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWD1MCNcaE

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 5: Takashi Sugiura & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada, 1/4/11- https://front.njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00175_1_9

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 7: Prince Devitt vs. Kota Ibushi vs. Low Ki, 1/4/13- https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00203_1_7

Topics that come up along the way include: boy did we not expect to watch a WWF match on this, three people involved in this match are dead (and one of them is a pedophile), the iron claw is over at least, Kanemoto is a jerk, Liger doesn't sell the leg, why did they bother with this IWGP title tournament, Kawada and Tenzan just beat the absolute piss out of each other, everyone wanted to see Misawa vs. Mutoh but this is the best we got, some history on Taiyo Kea, this man looks nothing like Kazuchika Okada, how did Okada tear himself away from that TNA excursion to do this match, what in god's name is wrong with Low Ki, and finally: three ways are still bad.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we take a completely randomized look back at the "granddaddy of them all", WCW Starrcade!

John is joined by returning guest & VOW contributor Matt Francis (@archivingmatt) for his third WCW Retro Roulette episode of the year! Before they get into the episode topic John discusses attending AEW's Dynamite/Rampage taping at UBS Arena on Long Island this past Wednesday, including a little bit about how people apparently don't understand what crowd numbers in certain buildings actually mean. Once that's all out of the way they get into this episode's randomly selected six matches from six randomly selected years of WCW Starrcade- if you want to be surprised you should stop reading now and go ahead and listen, but otherwise here they are below (all can be found on Peacock in the US and WWE Network in the rest of the world):

1994: Johnny B. Badd vs. Arn Anderson (World TV Title)

1995: Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (World Cup of Wrestling)

1996: Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper

1997: Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko (Cruiserweight Title)

1998: Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash (World Heavyweight Title)

2000: Mike Awesome vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (Ambulance Match)

Topics that come up along the way include: Honky Tonk Man is mad about his lack of a contract, Arn Anderson is a more than suitable replacement, Johnny B. Badd was more popular than you probably remember, the WORLD CUP OF WRESTLING draws a bad buy rate, WCW can't spell Tenzan, Savage was pretty bad at this point, a match that looks awesome on paper just doesn't live up to it at all, how fitting that was for one of the biggest letdown PPVs of all time, nobody remembers how over Kevin Nash was at the time (and WCW flushed it down the toilet!), when backstage politics attack, THE WRATH OF THE CATTLE PROD, very unconvincing disguises, WCW's "unique" booking for Mike Awesome, camera shots that give away gimmicked ambulance roofs, and a whole lot more.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up- @wrestleomakase!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we introduce a brand new retro concept for us as we take a completely randomized look back at WCW Halloween Havoc through the years!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon brought you coverage of all three major tournaments this fall: the G1 Climax, the AJPW Champion Carnival and the NOAH N-1 Victory. We'll be right back at it again in November & December with three MORE tournaments: the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors & World Tag League, and the DDT D-ou. The only way to hear all of our daily coverage will be to subscribe! Plus, you'll get to hear our exclusive full length episodes like a great 5 Matches episode we did last week with Mike Spears (EE/OTVG), all of our 1 Match episodes covering everything from major NJPW feuds to 90s joshi to deathmatches to WAR and much more, ANIME OMAKASE, etc. You can get access to all of this and more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest & VOW contributor Gerard Di Trolio (@GerardDiTrolio) for the start of a new episode format: Retro Roulette! Instead of just picking five old matches ourselves like we do on the 5 Matches episodes, in this case we've come up with a theme (WCW Halloween Havoc PPVs, for obvious reasons) and then let the randomizer gods choose six random shows, and then one random match from each of those shows. Here's what we ended up with. All can of course be found on the WWE Network, along with many other illicit places I'm sure:

1993- Texas Death (Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal): Cactus Jack vs. Big Van Vader

1994- Vader vs. The Guardian Angel

1995- Meng vs. Lex Luger

1996- Jeff Jarrett vs. The Giant

1998- US Title: Bret Hart vs. Sting

1999- Eddie Guerrero vs. Perry Saturn

Topics that come up along the way include: DID WCW EVER BOOK A SINGLE CLEAN FINISH IN ITS HITSORY, Tony Schiavone eats some kids, sometimes old stuff doesn't really hold up, adventures in ripping off the Big Bossman while trying not to get sued, THE MONSTER MENG just gets his ass kicked, why were these WCW 1995 storylines so convoluted and confusing, the awesome nWo set-up at Halloween Havoc '96 and how it really made that storyline work right off the bat, Jarrett sticks and moves against Giant, our only big disagreement on match quality, don't watch Bret Hart vs. Sting based on those two names and expect it to be good, Bret won't wear the nWo shirt (and also won't try), Sting knocks himself unconscious, WCW crowds in 1999 sure hated mat wrestling, Eddie and Saturn were both pretty great, and a whole lot more.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

This week on Wrestling Omakase we've got our first-ever all-NJPW 5 Matches edition, talking Naito-Omega II, Ishii-Shibata from the G1 and much more! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase now has a Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to two exclusive 5 Matches episode with VOW flagship co-host Rich Kraetsch and Alan4L from the PWTorch, plus 9 episodes in our ongoing series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in order, 2 episodes of Anime Omakase, and our New Japan Cup pick 'em. Coming up in July will be 2 more exclusive full-length 5 Matches episodes of Omakase (while the Omakase free feed transitions back to covering more current wrestling), another set of episodes covering an entire match series in order (and you'll be able to vote on which one!) and much more. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for just $5 a month!

John is joined by debuting guest Sylvi (@sylvisurfer) from the podcasts Friends at the Table (@friends_table) and Emoji Drone (@emojidrone). Before getting into their picks John and Sylvi go off on an extreme Gundam tangent based on Sylvi's recent appearance on another Patreon, discussing some reasons why Gundam Wing isn't popular with certain types of fans and more. Then they get into this week's matches, which include:

1. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW 8/4/13 (NJPW World)

2. Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega, NJPW 8/13/17 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

3. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, NJPW 3/6/17 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

4. Tetsuya Naito vs. Hirooki Goto, NJPW 3/12/16 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

5. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW 7/5/15 (NJPW World)

Topics that come up along the way include: the greatest start to a wrestling match in history, how Sylvi escaped the horrors of WWE fandom, John forgot their own pick, The Shin Nihon Shawn Michaels, it's a good thing Naito and Kenny are on separate continents now because they were probably going to kill each other, Ryusuke Taguchi's bony ass, Hiromu's original rampage, the tragedy of Hirooki Goto, John brags about being in the building for Naito wins again, when the Laughter7 ends, and gross ankle sock tossing.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated with every episode.

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk two early 10s Shinsuke Nakamura matches, a 2016 DDT mat classic, an Aztec Warfare match and maybe the last good ladder match of all time. If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

John is joined by Joel Abraham (@joeljabraham) of VOW's New Japan Pro Wrestling podcast the Super J-Cast (@thesuperjcast), and though we do talk some NJPW we also give Joel a chance to spread his wings a bit. Here's the full list of five matches that are discussed this week, along with the easiest place to find them:

1. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit, WWE 1/21/01 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Royal-Rumble-2001-11802, match starts at 22:51)

2. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto, NJPW 4/4/10 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00300_1_1 or https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00300_2_01)

3. Aztec Warfare 2, LU 12/12/15 (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6uc0ou)

4. Isami Kodaka vs. Masa Takanashi, DDT 1/30/16 (DDT Universe: https://www.ddtpro.com/universe/videos/3170)

5. Tetsuya Naito vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, NJPW 8/14/11 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00183_2_5)

Topics that come up along the way include: a review of the Hi-Score Girl anime John recommended to Joel and some character discussion, Joel's starting point in wrestling fandom, spots that should absolutely never be done again, when exactly Goto started getting viewed as a geek (and many different ways he was done dirty by the booking), dropping into Lucha Underground and trying to make sense of it all, matches that build internally being better than just endless references to past matches, Stardust Genius Naito was Good Actually, what a Nakamura return to NJPW run might look like and whether or not he could actually pull it off, yet another "Nakamura-Zayn is just Nakamura-Ibushi reskinned" discussion, and much more.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk FIVE big Korakuen shows from two different Japanese wrestling companies! John is joined by returning guest Hayley (@choerrycoloured) to discuss a very busy week of action, starting with four straight nights at Korakuen from New Japan. Hear their thoughts on the two very different retirements of Tiger Hattori and Manabu Nakanishi, four title matches, Hayley's opinion of the Tanahashi/Ibushi team in general from the perspective of a big Kota fan, the Naito-Hiromu feud and a possible burgeoning Naito-Ospreay rivalry, which unit they're very sick of, and much more! Once they're finished with all four shows from NJPW their attention turns to DDT's Into the Fight Korakuen from Sunday, featuring the crowning of a first-ever DDT Universal Champion, an awesome KO-D Openweight Title challenge for MAO, a SWORD changes hands multiple times, and more. Plus John and Hayley talk about the currently running anime series Magia Record (and the original Madoka too for good measure), debate what makes a good heel and much more. It's a packed episode of Korakuen action, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we give you a double dose of BIG VAN VADER, more Sting, a DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Battle Royale, some 2014 DG action featuring Akira Tozawa and early weekly PPV era TNA! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week! It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

John is joined by returning guest Jake (@Oatgan) to discuss a very unique set of five matches. Before they get into this week's set of matches Jake and John briefly discuss the Yakuza game series which is now helping John pass these many lonely quarantine hours at home, plus there's some talk about some recent empty arena wrestling shows and how some of the new ones out of Japan have been improving as well. Once that's out of the way we get into our five picks for this week, and here they all are in order of discussion:

1. T-Hawk vs. Akira Tozawa, DG 5/9/14 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYsTt1sfCXE)

2. Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Rick & Scott Steiner, NJPW 6/26/92 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00107_1_1)

3. Ken Shamrock vs. Sabu, TNA 7/24/02 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCEzmIFbsxs)

4. Ironman Heavymetalweight Battle Royale, DDT 11/3/19 (DDT Universe: https://www.ddtpro.com/universe/videos/7212, match starts at 32:40)

5. Sting vs. Vader, WCW 12/28/92 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Starrcade-1992-9818)

Some of the discussion points that come up along the way include: DG units of the time period and where things went sideways with the Millennials, how Vader, Bam Bam and the Steiners came together here and then immediately went off in different directions never to meet again, TNA's long history of top heel units including lots of SEX talk, DDT jokes that are easy to get vs. harder ones, and where this particular match stands up in the Sting-Vader pantheon.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk a pair of Korakuen events from a men's and women's company, plus a whole lot more! First, John is joined by returning guests and VOW contributors Gerard Di Trolio (@GerardDiTrolio) and Paul Volsch (@Darth_Dragon) to break down All Japan Pro Wrestling's 2/11 Korakuen, featuring a somewhat controversial Kento Miyahara Triple Crown title match on top and a lot more. We take this chance to discuss the new Shuji Ishikawa booking regime more generally as well, as there's been a lot of changes already. The three also have a conversation on the Japanese wrestling scene more generally, including a lot of information on New Japan's new domestic TV deal, consolidation, the looming threat of NXT Japan and a whole lot more. They wrap this segment up with a breakdown of the Champion Carnival participants and full schedule, plus answer a number of listener questions.

Then John does a solo segment for the second time in Omakase history, talking STARDOM's 2/8 Korakuen. John discusses an outstanding last three matches including an absolutely incredible Mayu Iwatani vs. Takumi Iroha main event, the new use of outsiders in STARDOM, the post-match angle with Saki Kashima and the new role for Oedo Tai (and whether their in ring work is really reflecting that so far) and much more. Plus, John answers your STARDOM questions and then finally does a brief preview of New Japan's 2/19-2/22 Korakuens as well as DDT's 2/23 Korakuen (all of which we'll be reviewing on next week's show). It's a packed episode of Omakase covering all across the Japanese wrestling spectrum, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's a compilation of our two live reaction shows after each night of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15, previously available exclusively for Patreon subscribers but now here on the free feed as well!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Again, patrons were able to listen to our Wrestle Kingdom 15 coverage LIVE after the end of each show, and they got to hear the audio back on demand a full 5 and 6 days before this hit the free feed. You can also check out our now-completed 2020 Year in Review series, with Patreon-exclusive episodes covering DDT and Joshi. Plus, check out our ongoing series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order, continuing throughout the month of January, and you can submit matches for our second round of patron-picked 1 Match episodes, coming in February! You also get instant access to everything else we recorded during 2020 too- tournament coverage, shows covering every Okada-Tanahashi and Naito-Ishii matches in order, ANIME OMAKASE, and a whole lot more. You can get access to all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by not one, not two, not three, but FOUR guests to break down two fantastic nights of Wrestle Kingdom! VOW contributors Chris Samsa (@TheChrisSamsa, also of course from Sport of Pro Wrestling), Jeff Andrews (@Jeff_andrews21) & Jon Hernandez (@FatmansAlright) and also Liam McCann (@liam_d_mccann) from the Super J-Cast discord are all on the line for both nights. They break down every single match and moment from two huge nights of Wrestle Kingdom, again each recorded just minutes after each show went off the air. Some major arguments about El Phantasmo, EVIL and the nature of heel heat break down toward the end of Night 1, and in both cases you can actually hear the energy escaping from our bodies in real time at like 8 am on the east coast (without any sleep). A patron referred to them as "the Monster's Ball matches of audio: five competitors unable to sleep for 24 hours and then released", which is.....probably a compliment! It was definitely some unique audio, that is for sure!

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's all about Japan's two oldest promotions! John is joined by returning guest and VOW contributor Gerard Di Trolio (@GerardDiTrolio) to discuss two shows from NJPW and the opening round of AJPW's annual Oudou Tournament. First we discuss New Japan's Destruction in Beppu, a not very good show that at least is nice enough to have an awesome main event. Then we talk Destruction in Kagoshima, a much better effort all around and featuring KENTA vs. Kota Ibushi, a match we're both stunned has turned out to be as divisive as it is. Finally we wrap up the NJPW talk with a look ahead at next week's Destruction in Kobe as well as possible match ideas for the US Fighting Spirit Unleashed tour.

Then it's on to All Japan to discuss the first eight matches in the single elimination Oudou Tournament, and here John and Gerard actually disagree quite a bit on what the best match of the opening round was. We then look ahead at the rest of the tournament as well as the final two tours for AJPW this year.

Plus we answer some questions on missing NJPW wrestlers, why Japanese wrestlers go to the fed, whether the heavyweight/junior divide will ever vanish in NJPW and if that would be a good thing, whether or not the Naito-White feud is really horny (spoiler: yes), and John presents their Theory of Why Sailor Mercury is Actually Bad, and much more!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we bring you our annual Year End Awards episode, as John and five guests break down the best and worst of wrestling from the cursed year that was 2020!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. We'll be bringing you LIVE COVERAGE via Youtube the moment that each night of Wrestle Kingdom 15 ends, exclusively for patrons! Even if you didn't see this in time to sign up for the live audio, you can still get access to it days ahead before the free feed does! You can also check out our now-completed 2020 Year in Review series, with Patreon-exclusive episodes covering DDT and Joshi. Plus, check out our ongoing series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order, as we recently talked the second and final SWS Dome show with a divisive Hulk Hogan vs. Genichiro Tenryu main event, with more to come throughout the month of January. You also get instant access to everything else we recorded during 2020 too- tournament coverage, shows covering every Okada-Tanahashi and Naito-Ishii matches in order, ANIME OMAKASE, and a whole lot more. You can get access to all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

It's our annual Year End Awards episode, and John is joined by a great panel: VOW's Suit Williams (@SuitWilliams), Gerard Di Trolio (@GerardDiTrolio) and Harley Duncan, plus Monumental Pod's Mongo Ebooks (@mongo_ebooks) and One Wrestling Podcast's TJ (@aspir_). The year 2020 sucked real bad of course, but that doesn't mean we can't honor the best and bury the worst of what was still an eventful year in wrestling! Here's all the awards we covered on the show, in order:

-Worst Weekly TV Show

-Worst Major Show

-Worst Promotion

-Worst Feud

-Worst Match of the Year

-Best Weekly TV Show

-Best Major Show

-Most Outstanding Wrestler

-Best Promotion

-Best Feud

-Tag Team of the Year

-Match of the Year

-Wrestler of the Year

Each of the guests gives their picks before we give the overall winners of the Omakase Awards, voted on by the vast majority of the guests who appeared on the podcast during the calendar year 2020. New for this year, we also have separate award winners voted on by the Omakase patrons, so it was fun to compare and contrast the results between what the guests picked and the patrons picked (often similar, but not always!). Join us in a look back at how wrestling helped us all get through this incredibly crappy pandemic year.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we kick off an abbreviated Year in Review series as we cover all the men's promotions in Japan other than NJPW or DDT- NOAH, AJPW, BJW, and more!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. You can sign up right now and listen to everything from daily audio coverage of EIGHT different tournaments this year across a wide variety of promotions (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, DDT and TJPW), our 1 Match series looking back at every Tanahashi vs. Okada and Naito vs. Ishii match in order, our 5 Matches series featuring John and a ton of different guests from both VOW and places like the PWTorch as well breaking down some of their all time favorite matches, and a lot more! Plus, check out our new series covering every Tokyo Dome main event (not just 1/4 or NJPW!) in order, which is four episodes in and counting- most recently covering an interesting old vs. new tag team match from NJPW in 1990 and the Stan Hansen vs. Hulk Hogan main event of the infamous AJPW/NJPW/WWF Wrestling Summit show! And as a Patron you can vote in our Omakase Year End Awards! You can get access to all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guests and VOW contributors Gerard (@GerardDiTrolio), Paul (@Darth_Dragon) and Jon (@FatmansAlbright) for our first Year in Review episode! It was a crappy year in many ways of course, but there was still some damn good wrestling to talk about, and this time around we're covering a ton of different promotions. We start out talking about NOAH's awesome 2020, especially in the main event scene, but discuss some of the flaws as well (junior booking, mostly). Then it's over to AJPW, who of course had a much worse year. The team discusses the major issues with the booking and a putrid Champion Carnival, but also the somewhat forgotten positives, mostly from the first half of the year. After that we take a look at BJW, which had an under-the-radar good year, and finally wrap up with some talk about ZERO1, Wrestle-1's last days, some other random tiny indies and more!

We then turn to handing out awards, starting with full top 10 MOTY list for these promotions (plus DG as well), picking their favorite matches of the year. There's bound to be more than a few that you missed! After the MOTY lists we hand out other Observer-style awards for Wrestler of the Year, Most Outstanding, Tag Team of the Year, Best Feud, Best Promotion and Best Major Show. Finally, we wrap things up by answering a few of your questions- how to fix AJPW in 2021, what NOAH can do in the coming year to keep growing, is Daichi Hashimoto underrated (or overrated or fairly rated!), and more!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk Dick Togo in Osaka Pro, Kobashi vs. Nagata from NOAH in 2003, a classic Blood Generation vs. DoFIXER 6-man from Dragon Gate in 2005, Honma in BJW and TAKA & Sasuke in the WWF. If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase now has a Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to our latest Patreon-exclusive full episode, Omakase #156: 5 Matches with Robin Reid (host of VOW Quiz Night and ex-host of the Brit Wres Roundtable). Plus: three more exclusive 5 Matches episodes with VOW flagship co-host Rich Kraetsch, Alan4L from the PWTorch and Nate from Everything Elite, our complete series covering all fourteen matches of Okada vs. Tanahashi in chronological order, our upcoming series doing the same for Naito vs. Ishii, an exclusive same-day reaction show following NJPW Sengoku Lord next Saturday, 3 episodes of Anime Omakase and more to come! You can get access to all of our bonus audio for just $5 per month!

John is joined by returning guest Joe Gagne (@joegagne) from the 5 Star Match Game, our second quiz show host in three days! John starts by asking for Joe's takes on the hot topic of the week, EVILGATE, before we quickly head into discussing our 5 Match picks of the week. Here they are in order:

1. Super Delfin, Super Demekin & Tsubasa vs Black Buffalo, Daio QUALLT & Dick Togo, Osaka Pro 3/25/00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYZdQEBpVXk&feature=youtu.be, Match starts at 32:12)

2. Kenta Kobashi vs. Yuji Nagata, NOAH 9/12/03 (http://youtube.com/watch?v=OgXdbnP4qA0)

3. Tomoaki Honma vs Ryuji Yamakawa, BJW 6/20/99 (https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV12W411U7Ss?p=2, Note: Does not work on mobile, only desktop)

4. Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi vs. CIMA, Naruki Doi & Don Fujii, DG 7/3/05 (https://www.bilibili.com/video/av73410351, Note: Does not work on mobile, only desktop)

5. The Great Sasuke vs. TAKA Michinoku, WWF 7/6/97 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/In-Your-House-Canadian-Stampede-11766)

Topics that come up along the way include: DICK WORLD, really hoping a wrestler is wearing a mask because otherwise it looks distressingly like blackface, John quizzes the quizmaster (again!), lots of head drops, Nagata channeling the very spirit of NJPW against the NOAH ace, Honma does way more cool moves in a deathmatch than he ever did in NJPW (even back when he was still good), FLAMING KENDO STICK BALCONY ATTACKS, Dragon Gate six-mans are tough to do play-by-play on, 'Stone Cold' Dragon Kid, adventures in Japanese pronunciation, and indeed, what a maneuver.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

This week on Wrestling Omakase we wrap up our 2020 tournament coverage with the combined finals of the NJPW World Tag League & Best of the Super Juniors from Budokan Hall, and the last round robin night of the DDT D-Ou GP!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. You can sign up right now and listen to everything from daily audio coverage of EIGHT different tournaments this year across a wide variety of promotions (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, DDT and TJPW), our 1 Match series looking back at every Tanahashi vs. Okada and Naito vs. Ishii match in order, our 5 Matches series featuring John and a ton of different guests from both VOW and places like the PWTorch as well breaking down some of their all time favorite matches, and a lot more! Plus, check out our brand new series covering every Tokyo Dome main event (not just 1/4 or NJPW!) in order, which kicked off this past week with two episodes: the very first Dome show from NJPW featuring Inoki taking on a giant judoka from the Soviet Union in 1989, and the only Dome show from the shoot-style UWF, just before its epic three-way implosion (which we discuss in detail!). And as a Patron you can vote in our Omakase Year End Awards! You can get access to all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest JoJo Remy (@jojo_runs) as they start with some updates on their lives lately (not much to speak of there of course) and bury, uh, one of the two counties they're currently residing in. Once that's out of the way they discuss NJPW's big Budokan Hall show from 12/11 in detail, the joint finals of the World Tag League 2020 & Best of the Super Juniors 27. They go through the whole card in detail, talking all of the big angles building up to Wrestle Kingdom 15, and then of course spend extra time on the two tournament finals, especially Hiromu vs. Desperado (a bonafide Match of the Year contender).

Then they turn their attention to DDT's final block night of the D-Ou GP 2021, from December 12th. They talk all six tournament matches in detail, breaking down one of the best nights of the entire league: Takeshita's surprising victory, Akiyama's far less surprising but still great win, one match that John absolutely hated and ranted about a lot, and more! John then wraps it up with their full top 10 D-Ou GP matches from the entire tournament, in case you'd like to go back and pick and choose only the best matches, and then ranks all the wrestlers in each block by average star rating as well.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Black Lives Matter. Find a charitable cause and donate: https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-for-black-lives-matter.html

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk some pretty incredible Japanese wrestling, including a triple dose of Toshiaki Kawada! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase has launched its brand new Patreon. Head to www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can get, right now, two episodes in our new series covering all of the Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi matches in order (with a third to follow shortly after this goes up) as well as the first edition of Anime Omakase. And next week it will be the ONLY place to catch Wrestling Omakase #148, our first Patreon-exclusive episode of the podcast, with debuting guest Alan Counihan (@Alan4L) from PWTorch. Get all of our Patreon audio for just $5 a month!

John is joined by debuting guest Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) from the Wrestlenomics podcast, right here on the VOW network. John and Brandon open things up discussing a little about getting into Japanese wrestling at a similar time, and Brandon talks a bit about how he evaluates matches as a wrestling trainer. Then we get into our 5 picks of the week, and it's a real stacked lineup:

1. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi, AJPW 6/9/95 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2OLvGT5ROU)

2. Toshiaki Kawada vs. Shinya Hashimoto, AJPW 2/22/04 (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7cw715)

3. Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kensuke Sasaki, NJPW 10/9/00 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00156_1_1)

4. Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito, NJPW 3/4/12 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00190_1_2)

5. Hikaru Shida vs. Aja Kong, OZ 9/17/18 (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7musls)

Topics that come up along the way include: how you can break all the rules when you get over, that old school AJPW Budokan vibe, little bro Kawada, two wrestlers meeting toward the end of their careers, Japan's long history of interpromotional matchups, the NJPW/AJPW feud of the early 00s, babyface Naito was more over than you remember, Okada and Naito having an absolute classic that you may have never even watched, Aja Kong says you have to bring the action to her, and much, much more! This is an episode where we honestly go on so many tangents I can't even recall them all now writing this description, but it's definitely one I think you'll find enjoyable. Brandon brings a great perspective as someone who's been in the ring before.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's time for King of Pro Wrestling! John is joined by first time guest Hayley (@choerrycoloured) to help break down NJPW's biggest show of the fall. But before we get into KOPW Hayley talks about how she got into wrestling in general and NJPW specifically (which coincidentally involves John and they had no idea) and there's also some more #animetalk on everything from Love Live to some recommendations for the new fall season and more. Once they get into the show they start right at the top of the card with lots of thoughts on Okada-SANADA and Ibushi-EVIL and how the whole double title/double dome thing is or isn't shaping up so far. Hayley as a huge Kota fan has some thoughts on whether or not his G1 win feels a bit overshadowed at this point as well. The rest of the card is covered in reverse order too including the makeshift US Title match, thoughts on the junior title battle that are sure to be controversial with some, the Liger-Suzuki showdown and much more. After going into KOPW in great detail and briefly looking ahead to the Super Junior Tag League, John and Hayley wrap up the show with a brief overview of the first two weeks of AEW Dynamite, including what's working for them so far and what isn't and what they would like to see change in the future. It's a fun show with a brand new guest, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase now has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we review two shows from All Japan and New Japan, and break down what could be next for both companies!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, including two extra full length Omakase episodes per month (like a brand new 5 Matches Omakase that just dropped this past Monday!), our shorter and yet still jampacked 1 Match episodes that each cover a certain theme (right now talking all of the Tokyo Dome main events in order, with our last episode covering the famous BIG EGG WRESTLING UNIVERSE joshi show from 1994!), ANIME OMAKASE, daily coverage of all the major Japanese tournaments, and so much more! Plus, patrons can submit matches for John to cover in February! If there's a match you always wanted to hear John talk about, come get your submission in now! You can get access to all of this and much more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest Joey Bay (@joey_bay) as they start with some banter on what they've been up to lately (not much, of course) and reminisce on their trip to Japan together back in 2016, as well as subsequent trips as well. They then turn their attention to All Japan Pro Wrestling, as the episode's main topic is a detailed review of AJPW's 1/23 Korakuen show. John and Joey start at the top as they break down an awesome Suwama vs. Shotaro Ashino Triple Crown title match, discuss the somewhat-controversial decision for Suwama to retain, and give a great deal of thought on where both guys (and the company) might go from here. They also review the rest of the card including two more title matches, and go over some of the big names that came out to challenge the winners, as well as look ahead to upcoming matches that have already been booked for February.

Then they turn their attention to New Japan with a full review of their disappointing 1/23 Ota Ward Gym Show. John goes on Another ELP Rant™ but also breaks down an extremely odd New Beginning tour in general, and how some of the main feuds aren't really working, leaving the lower feuds to feel like they're carrying the company. They also touch on the other Korakuen shows (and which are worth your time and which aren't) before previewing the upcoming New Beginning shows in Nagoya & Hiroshima, and speculate on some possible big matches for Castle Attack and beyond. Finally, they wrap things up with a quick mailbag featuring some questions on AJPW & NJPW alike.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we review a big show from NOAH in Nagoya and talk about the hot topic of New Japan Pro Wrestling malaise (while also discussing some of their recent bigger matches).

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. We covered each and every Champion Carnival tournament match in detail throughout the month of April, so if you want to listen back to the coverage of AJPW's flagship tournament (their equivalent of the G1) that's all available for you right now. Coming up on Tuesday 5/4, we'll review the Carnival finals along with both nights of NJPW's Wrestling Dontaku with guest Gerard Di Trolio from VOW, exclusively on the Patreon. You can also listen to a new 5 Matches episode from last week which got rave reviews, as John was joined by VOW's Kevin Chiat for a super informative crash course on Australian wrestling! During the month of May we'll be resuming our series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order (we left off last time in 1995, so we're just getting to the meat of the NJPW vs. UWFi feud!). On top of all of this recent and upcoming stuff, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, early Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Jeri (@TheJerriest_Jer) as they start out by discussing some of their recent antics (birthday parties and second vaccine shots, mostly). They then get into a full and detailed review of NOAH's big 4/29 show from Nagoya, NOAH the GLORY. John & Jeri discuss the English commentary, a main event they disagreed on quite a bit, a semi-main event they did not, and what if anything might be worth watching on the undercard. Plus, we get late breaking developments in the world's #1 soap opera, the NOAH junior division!

Then they turn their attention to New Japan, first on the fashionable topic of NJPW western fan malaise (and how annoying some of the takes are for a very specific reason) and some of the factors that are resulting in a similar lack of interest for both of the hosts. Once that's out of the way they break down the major matches from NJPW's recent shows- Naito vs. O-Khan and SANADA vs. Henare from 4/26 in Hiroshima, and the top matches from the 4/28 & 4/29 Satsuma no Kuni shows in Kagoshima. Which match was maybe THE WORST MATCH IN NEW JAPAN HISTORY?? You'll have to listen to find out, although frankly if you look at the cards you can probably guess! Finally, they wrap things up with a quick preview of the upcoming Wrestling Dontaku shows from Fukuoka.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk a crazy 14-man elimination tag from Dragon Gate, a coming out party for a super rookie in STARDOM, a WWE classic from 2004, a rare good match for Yujiro Takahashi and an infamous TNA tag sprint from 2008. If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase's Patreon (http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase) brings you tons of awesome bonus audio featuring both historical and current content. If you like 5 Matches episodes you can listen to four Patreon-exclusive full episodes right now from June & July, plus there's another one coming up next week with guest Todd Martin of the PWTorch. You can also hear our completed series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in chronological order, plus our in progress series doing the same for every Naito-Ishii match as well. And for current wrestling, check out our exclusive Sengoku Lord review from next week, and upcoming tournament coverage of the King of DDT next week. Plus, Anime Omakase covering the wide world of anime and a whole lot more! All of this is yours for only $5 per month, so sign up today at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest Andrew Rich (@andrewtrich), host of the VOW network podcast Music of the Mat. We talk a little bit about the neverending boredom of our current pandemic lives, because really what else is there to talk about, before John makes a brief but impassioned plea for everyone to #WatchHameFura. We then get into this week's 5 Matches, which in order are:

1. Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Magnitude Kishiwada, Gamma, Cyber Kong, Genki Horiguchi & Jack Evans vs. CIMA, Ryo Saito, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid, BxB Hulk, Anthony W. Mori & Matt Sydal, DG 4/17/07 (https://www.bilibili.com/video/av65526322/, Note: Does not work on mobile, only desktop)

2. Mayu Iwatani vs. Utami Hayashishita, STARDOM 9/24/18 (STARDOM World: https://www.stardom-world.com/set/1678/contents/1677?fcid=2)

3. Cactus Jack vs. Randy Orton, WWE 4/18/04 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Backlash-2004-11880)

4. Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahashi, NJPW 7/21/14 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00232_1_6)

5. Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs. Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin, TNA 6/12/08 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuwyGtQSjlg)

Topics that come up along the way include: clipping woes, Andrew the Move Name Robot, lots of flash pins, Utami impresses, Mayu bends, actual good WWE announcing, Mr. Socko or Barbie, Yujiro's awesome saxophone theme, Naito will never get his revenge, the most stereotypical theme song of all time, USA ack-pooey and a whole lot more.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's time for our first fantasy draft of 2020 with our first historical draft ever, the 90s Puro Draft! With the Coronavirus unfortunately at least postponing the beginning of the New Japan Cup, we had to switch around this week's episode (and we still hope to bring you the originally planned NJC Pick 'Em down the line if things work out) but we've still got a really fun episode for you this week! John is joined by returning guests Gerard (@GerardDiTrolio) and Paul (@Darth_Dragon) and debuting guest Flae (@flaeblazer) for a great deal of draft fun. But before they begin their draft, the four of them break into a bit of a mini-discussion on the other breaking news out of Japan this week: the upcoming closure of the Wrestle-1 promotion. Hear their thoughts on some of the company's seven-year history, the sudden announcement of their closure and what could be (and what probably isn't) behind it, and they go over W-1's remaining schedule of shows as well. This is definitely a topic Omakase plans to revisit on future episodes so stay tuned!

After that's over they begin their draft with the following simple rules: only men's wrestlers are eligible (so we can do a separate 90s Joshi Draft episode later on) and only wrestlers who appeared in at least 10 matches in Japan in the 1990s. After the order is picked all four of them each make 22 total picks, and once they've all made their picks they put together their dream supercards. In a day or two John will be posting a poll on Twitter where you can decide for yourself who put together the best 90s Puro dream supercard, so go to @wrestleomakase on Twitter and vote! It's a real fun time picking from the best of Japanese wrestling in the 90s!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Make sure to check out this week's sponsors: ZipRecruiter and Roman! Go to ZipRecruiter.com/VOW to start hiring for free and GetRoman.com/VOW to set up your free online doctor's visit and get two day shipping!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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The Most Active Podcast in History™ is back for our third episode of 2024! John is joined by returning guest Chris Samsa (@TheChrisSamsa) from Sport of Pro Wrestling/VOW and, somehow, first time guest J. Michael (@ryugu_go) from Voices of Wrestling for the most thorough and complete wrap-up of the 34th edition of the Grade One Climax you're going to find anywhere! John, Chris and J. Michael break down the tournaments of all twenty wrestlers, talk about where they ranked by match quality, their strengths & weaknesses throughout the tournament, and where they might be heading from here as NJPW transitions into the fall season and Wrestle Kingdom. Along the way a very wide range of topics are covered, with a lot of focus on how the new generation of NJPW is shaping up. Plus, an extensive discussion on the controversial booking decision to have Zack Sabre Jr. take his IWGP World Heavyweight Title challenge at King of Pro Wrestling in October instead of Wrestle Kingdom, and where things might be going for the Dome!

Follow us on Twitter (I will never call it the other thing): @wrestleomakase

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk two shows of very divergent quality: a not-so-great night in the NJPW World Tag League and an awesome opening night in the DDT D-Ou Grand Prix.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is covering three big tournaments in November & December: NJPW's World Tag League and Best of the Super Juniors, and DDT's D-ou! It kicked off this past week with three shows exclusive for patrons, and it really goes into overdrive this coming week with SIX more shows covered exclusively on the Patreon! Plus you can get access to all of our previous coverage including daily audio from the recent G1 Climax, complete series covering every Okada-Tanahashi & Naito-Ishii match in chronological order, random match reviews submitted by patrons covering everything from late 80s UWF, early 90s WAR, early 00s AJPW and more, exclusive full 5 Matches episodes you can't get on the free feed, ANIME OMAKASE and a whole lot more! You can get access to all it right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest and VOW contributor Jeff (@Jeff_andrews21). They start out by talking a little bit about AEW and what they do and don't like in the promotion, before quickly moving over to the fourth night of the NJPW World Tag League. Unfortunately this was just not a very good show; John's been raving about the first three nights of the Tag League back over on the Patreon, but this was easily the worst night of the tournament so far. They break down all the tournament matches in detail, talking the few highlights of the night (SANADA & Shingo! Fale actually tries! FinJuice are good! Cobb & O-Khan are a cool new team!) and the lowlights (everything else). Plus, a look at where the Saku City General Gymnasium is in Japan and what shows NJPW has run there over the years, and it's an eclectic mix.

Then they turn their attention to DDT for the opening night of the D-Ou Grand Prix, a great show that flew by. John and Jeff break down all the tournament matches, almost all of which were extremely enjoyable sprints. How the hell does Jun Akiyama still do this? How great are Yuki Ueno and Kazusada Higuchi? And a whole lot more. They also look ahead to the next night of the D-Ou and where the tournament might be going from here. And what's with all the aces in every company having depression now??

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXdA

This week on Wrestling Omakase we cope with unsettling world events the only way this podcast knows how: by talking about some damn good Japanese professional wrestling. John is joined by returning guest Thomas Fischbeck (@rasslinratings) as the two of them open things up talking about the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak, both in the US and Japan, and how it's affecting wrestling in both countries. They discuss some reason for cautious optimism that shuttered Japanese wrestling companies might slowly come back online soon, just as it looks like the US and other Western countries are getting ready to bunker down.

Once the chat of world events is over they turn their attention to two Korakuen Hall events from promotions that never stopped running in the first place: Big Japan Pro Wrestling and ZERO1. The shows took place on 3/3 and 3/1 but didn't make tape until 3/10 and 3/12 respectively, so John and Thomas give their thoughts on these two shows full of hard-hitting action just a few days after they aired. First it's BJW filled with the first matches of the Strong Climb tournament as well as a huge tag team title match main event. We also take a brief look ahead at the upcoming BJW 3/16 show in Yokohama that's also still scheduled to take place as we record this. Then we move over to the land of ZERO1 and talk about a really great six-match show featuring old men whipping ass, big beefy battles, heel general managers (??) and much more. It's a trip through two promotions that are helping us keep a little bit of our sanity, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

This week's show was brought to you by Roman. Go to GetRoman.com/VOW to set up your free online doctor’s visit and get two-day shipping!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week Wrestling Omakase's third annual Year in Review series continues! Each week from now until the end of the year we will recap the 2019 of a specific promotion, promotions, or type of wrestling, covering all their major shows and moments and giving our picks for the major award categories. It's a great way for you to catch up with wrestling you may have missed this year and identify matches you may want to watch or rewatch before doing your end of the year awards voting!

What an eventful year it was for joshi pro wrestling in 2019. You really had it all: major purchases, WWE poking around trying to get NXT Japan started, the most exposure they've gotten in the west in years, and of course just flat out awesome shows and matches put on by outstanding promotions. Here to help me break it all down are Luke (@oystersearrings) from @apricotpod and VOW contributor Taylor (@tamaimbo), as the three of us discuss everything from macro topics like the future of joshi in an increasingly corporate-dominated scene to individual shows, matches and wrestlers. The promotions we cover, in order, are: STARDOM, Tokyo Joshi, Sendai Girls, SEAdLINNNG, Gatoh Move, Marvelous, Ice Ribbon, Actwres girl'Z, OZ Academy, WAVE, PURE-J, YMZ and Diana (well, we lament that they never make tape at least). Of course, some companies get much more attention than others, but the sheer number of promotions we were able to cover in some form or fashion truly makes this an amazing episode.

Once we finish going company-by-company we head into our joshi awards, including a detailed look at our Top 10 MOTY lists for all of joshi pro wrestling that's one of the highlights of the episode. Finally, we wrap things up with a gigantic mailbag. It's a huge and packed episode of Omakase covering all things Japanese women's wrestling, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we look back at a great final night of tournament action in both the Best of the Super Juniors and World Tag League, recap both tournaments overall, and review Night 6 from the DDT D-Ou Grand Prix!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. You can sign up right now and listen to everything from daily audio coverage of EIGHT different tournaments this year across a wide variety of promotions (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, DDT and TJPW), our 1 Match series looking back at every Tanahashi vs. Okada and Naito vs. Ishii match in order, our 5 Matches series featuring John and a ton of different guests from both VOW and places like the PWTorch as well breaking down some of their all time favorite matches, and a lot more! Plus, coming up in December will be our new 1 Match series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order, and some of our annual Year in Review coverage will move to the Patreon as well. And you can vote in our first ever Wrestling Omakase Patron awards! You can get access to all of it right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by first time guest and VOW contributor Jeri Evans (@TheJerriest_Jer) as they review the combined Night 9 of the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors and World Tag League. They review all ten matches in detail, discuss how we ended up with our two finals, and then also rank all ten wrestlers and ten teams by John's average star rating across each tournament, with Jeri throwing in her thoughts on all of them as well. They don't spare any harsh words for those who deserve it (Wato! Chase! Fale!) but of course there's tons of praise for those who deserve that too (Hiromu! SHO! Tekkers! Many others!).

Once that's out of the way John goes solo for the rest of the show, and before they get into their DDT review John brings the breaking news of the final card for the upcoming BOSJ/WTL finals at the Nippon Budokan on Friday. They speculate a little on some potential Wrestle Kingdom matches too. Then they turn their attention to the DDT D-Ou Night 6, a very solid night of action from a tournament that's been more miss than hit so far. John breaks down an excellent Takeshita-Sakaguchi match and a very good Endo-Takao match, plus all the other matches on the card as well. Finally, John looks ahead to next Saturday's Night 7, the last round robin night, and what the scenarios look like for all the remaining contenders to advance to the finals.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase it's time to talk some Pro Wrestling NOAH! John is joined by returning guest Skylar (@Twwitterdotcom) to break down NOAH's two big shows that opened the year, the January 4th New Sunrise show that went head-to-head with night 1 of Wrestle Kingdom 14 and the January 5th Reboot show that was their New Year Dash of sorts, both from Korakuen Hall. Hear John and Skylar break down every match from both shows including an instant classic for the GHC Heavyweight Title between Kaito Kiyomiya and Go Shiozaki, a much-praised junior title win for veteran Yoshinari Ogawa, a lot of RATEL'S action, appearances from international stars Michael Elgin, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr and more, and Japanese legends like Kazushi Sakuraba, Masaaki Mochizuki and Dick Togo making their presences felt as well. We also talk a bit of other wrestling as well, including Skylar's thoughts on modern New Japan/WK weekend, how John has come around on NJPW since 2018, a few AEW takes, a brief preview of next weekend's Royal Rumble extravaganza, and much more.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's our final "normal" show of the year before our Year in Review series gets kicked off, and we go out with a bang talking four big shows! John is joined by returning guests Taylor (@tamaimbo) and Aaron Bentley (@aaronlikethecar) of Everything Elite (@EverythingAEW), here to plug his new Patreon to that VAST Omakase audience (http://patreon.com/everythingelite). We're here to talk four shows from four very different promotions, starting with the AEW Full Gear PPV from this past weekend. Hear some very different thoughts on AEW's third PPV event, as we cover all the matches from top to bottom, and also talk more macro opinions on the company so far.

Once we're done with that American stuff we thankfully turn our attention to Japan, beginning with NOAH's big 11/2 Sumo Hall show. There's again some varied opinions on some of the matches here, including but not limited to the big Kiyamiya-Kenoh main event. But we all loved 'OL IRON HEAD and AXIZ, don't worry. Then we head over to the world of joshi for SEAdLINNNG's 11/2 Kawasaki show, including the much-hyped Arisa Nakajima vs. Nanae Takahashi Hair vs. Hair match. Does it live up to those lofty expectations? Finally, we wrap things up with a quick trip through STARDOM and their 11/4 Korakuen Hall show, including again some varied opinions on Bea Priestley, Arisa Hoshiki and more. Everyone loves Big Saya, though, thankfully. A fun trip through four very different wrestling promotions, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase now has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase the G1 Climax gets underway, and we talk some NOAH N-1 Victory too!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon will be your only place to get our full coverage of all three tournaments. Weekend shows will be covered here on the free feed, but John will bring even more daily coverage of the weekday shows exclusive to the Patreon, including with returning guests too! The Patreon right now has our coverage of AJPW Champion Carnival Night 3 from Tuesday 9/15 and the opening night of the NOAH N-1 Victory from Friday 9/19, and will continue this week with a ton more exclusive shows, including G1 Climax reviews on Wednesday and Thursday!

Don't miss out on a single minute of our great coverage- sign up for just $5 per month at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase! And don't forget that you'll get all of our other audio too- our recently compete series talking every Naito-Ishii match in order, our Pateon-exclusive 5 Matches episodes with a whole load of guests (Rich Kraetsch! Alan4L! Todd Martin! Chris Samsa! And more!), ANIME OMAKASE, and a whole lot more. Check it out again at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by first time guest and VOW contributor Harley Duncan, who's coming to us from the other side of the world. Harley introduces himself and talks about getting into both wrestling in general and Japanese wrestling in particular, which leads to a larger discussion of various jumping in points that are common to NJPW fans in the West (and what might make new fans in Japan).

Once that's out of the way we turn our full attention to the first two nights of G1 Climax 30, discussing all ten tournament matches in detail. Major topics that come up include why the interference from Jay White didn't bother us this time, the Okada "working vs. washed" debate, whether or not this current Okada storyline is even all that interesting or well laid out so far, Juice Robinson's wacky new gear (and really new gear talk for a bunch of wrestlers), and of course the absolutely outstanding main event between Naito and Tanahashi. We also look ahead to the upcoming Nights 3 & 4 in the G1 as well, which again will be covered exclusively on the Patreon.

After we're done with the G1 we head over to NOAH for Night 2 of the N-1 Victory, a kind of sleepy night of just pretty good action. We break down all four tournament matches plus the two non-tournament ones, including the very surprising result in an eight-man tag team match. Afterward we look ahead to what should be a much better N-1 show for NOAH, Tuesday's Korakuen (also covered exclusively on the Patreon!).

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk four huge shows from NOAH, NJPW and DDT in an absolutely packed episode!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, most notably including two full length Omakase episodes per month. Already in February we had our 5 Matches episode with WH Park from POST Wrestling, and coming up next week will be our first ever NJPW Retro Roulette episode covering past Anniversary Shows! Plus, our shorter and yet still jampacked 1 Match episodes that each cover a certain theme (we just finished up the first part of our series watching every Tokyo Dome main event in order, covering through 1995, and then started another series covering patron-submitted matches with everything from BattlArts, DDT and NJPW covered so far), ANIME OMAKASE, daily coverage of all the major Japanese tournaments, and so much more! You can get access to all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest & VOW contributor Gerard di Trolio (@GerardDiTrolio) as they start out with a tiny bit of AEW/forbidden door talk, but very quickly transition right into this week's topic- a ton of big puro shows to cover! They start out with NOAH's much-anticipated return to the Nippon Budokan from 2/12, Destination 2021, and get right into their thoughts on the controversial Keiji Mutoh vs. Go Shiozaki main event (and specifically the result). They eventually review every match on the card of this eventful show, talk about how NOAH is trying to present themselves as the "anti-NJPW" in many different ways, and discuss where things might be going during the rest of 2021.

Then they turn their attentions to NJPW's two New Beginning in Hiroshima shows, and John has some complaints here. What the hell is this EVIL/Okada feud? Does this booking for Naito to challenge Kota only for the Intercontinental title make sense with what they've done previously? These weren't great shows, and John runs down some of their big problems. Plus, they look ahead to two very different looking CASTLE ATTACK shows at the end of the month.

Finally the two of them wrap things up with a full review of the DDT Kawasaki Strong show from 2/14, including the huge Jun Akiyama vs. Tetsuya Endo main event as well as the rest of the card. They then look ahead to what DDT has coming up for the rest of the month and get excited about a future KO-D title match, as things look strong for DDT coming out of this show (well, Universe performance aside!).

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk DDT's return to running shows in front of audiences and Big Japan's 25th Anniversary Show! John is joined by returning guest Thomas (@rasslinratings) as the two talk a little about Coronavirus lockdowns (but not a lot, we promise....) and the controversial decision from virtually every promotion in Japan (save NJPW, which might be coming soon) to start running full shows in front of audiences again. We then turn our attention to two shows, one from one of the first companies to come back and one from a company that never actually stopped. First it's DDT Judgement from Korakuen Hall on 3/20, featuring a double title match main event with one that got a mixed reaction from our two hosts (one loved it, one not so much) and another that both were in stronger agreement on. Then it's Big Japan's 25th Anniversary Show from 3/16 in Yokohama, as John has a HOT TAKE to fire off about a match on this otherwise not super-interesting show. Plus, we take a brief look ahead at some other companies' upcoming comebacks: AJPW's 3/23 Korakuen and STARDOM's 3/24 Cinderella Tournament show (also from Korakuen). You probably don't have much better to do anyway, so sit back and listen to some more Japanese wrestling talk, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week Wrestling Omakase's third annual Year in Review series continues! Each week from now until the end of the year we will recap the 2019 of a specific promotion, promotions, or type of wrestling, covering all their major shows and moments and giving our picks for the major award categories. It's a great way for you to catch up with wrestling you may have missed this year and identify matches you may want to watch or rewatch before doing your end of the year awards voting!

Oh boy folks. Strap in for this one. John is joined by returning guests Garrett Kidney (@garrettkidney) and Kelly Harrass (@comicgeekelly) to review, yes, World Wrestling Entertainment's 2019. John wasn't sure if they even wanted to do this episode again this year but felt like they owed it to Garrett and Kelly, who reviewed all these terrible PPVs over the past few years for the VOW website and finally were done in by Hell in a Cell. So the three of us recap all the WWE PPV shows of the year, trying to find some diamonds in the rough along the way. We also talk a lot of the more macro topics of the year, including: WWE's terrible, awful, horseshit crowds; Kofi Kingston's big moment and the title reign that followed; Brock Lesnar's continued omnipotence; Seth Rollins the Geek; the very meta attempt at rehabilitating Roman Reigns and why it might actually work; MURDER MYSTERIES; and much more. Then we try to look through the smoldering wreckage of this year and pick out our award winners, plus answer a huge mailbag. It's all WWE, all the time, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase now has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk three very different joshi matches, plus a 2004 NJPW blodobath and some UWFi! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase has launched its new Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to episode 148 of Wrestling Omakase, 5 Matches with Alan4L, our first Patreon-exclusive full episode. Plus you can get 6 episodes in our series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in order, our 2020 New Japan Cup Pick 'Em bonus episode with VOW contributor Tyler Forness, Anime Omakase and more! And next week's Patreon-exclusive episode will be Omakase #150, a major milestone, featuring VOW flagship co-host Rich Kraetsch. Get all of our Patreon audio for just $5 a month!

John is joined by returning guest Taylor Maimbourg (@tamaimbo), who of course has been on Omakase many times before, but this is his first appearance of 2020 and his first one since starting his own VOW network podcast Jumping Bomb Audio (@JBombAudio). John and Taylor talk a bit about adjusting to the work at home life in New York (where they both live) and when and how they expect to be heading back to the office, before they begin discussing this week's 5 Match picks. Here they all are in order:

1. Ayako Hamada vs. Misaki Ohata vs. Arisa Nakajima, WAVE 5/14/18 (Youtube)

2. Io Shirai vs. Kairi Hojo, STARDOM 1/17/16 (Dailymotion)

3. Nobuhiko Takada vs. Gary Albright, UWFi 8/5/92 (Youtube)

4. Yuji Nagata vs. Kensuke Sasaki, NJPW 1/4/04 (NJPW World)

5. Akira Hokuto vs. Meiko Satomura, GAEA 4/29/01 (Youtube)

Topics that come up along the way include: John's girlfriend thinks Taylor cheated, the ultimate in wrestling hipster-ism even for this show, Io and Kairi beat each other's asses in a way they definitely can't do in WWE anymore, why did no one ever give Gary Albright a shot in the US, UWFi fucking rules, not all mid-00s NJPW is bad and right here's your proof, Sasaki's weird history leaving NJPW with Choshu and coming back and then immediately leaving again for the entire rest of his career, yet another thing COVID took from us, GAEA Girls, and much more.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated with every episode.

Wow, TWO new episodes of The Most Active Podcast in History™ in one month?! Aren't you lucky?? Yes, John is back again this time with a special double-sized episode of Omakase that's essentially two episodes in one!

For the first half, John is joined by Beth (@lovesongwriter on X) as the two longtime Tetsuya Naito superfans talk about the shocking news of his & BUSHI's departure from New Japan Pro Wrestling. They get into their feelings when the news dropped, what it was like to get checked in on by everyone they both knew like someone just died, wild speculation on what might be next for Naito (and what they would personally like to see as fans), and discussion of his career and legacy with New Japan!

The second half of the episode sees John joined by Velkej Bracha (@Velkej_Bracha on X), host of the ActWres Stage podcast (here's their most recent episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDfPF6W4M9U) and a longtime STARDOM/joshi fan for a full primer on the World Wonder Ring in 2025! John and Velkej go over what they both feel has been the promotion of the year so far, discussing the incredibly deep roster, various units, and some of the biggest moments and matches dating back to last December's Sumo Hall show. Then they launch into a preview of STARDOM's huge All Star Grand Queendom show from Yokohama Arena next week (which Velkej will be attending live!), plus a brief preview of the final Korakuen show a few days earlier as well.

This week on Wrestling Omakase we review the third week of NJPW Strong and the King of DDT finals, plus look ahead to a big week for New Japan with the KOPW 2020 first round at Korakuen and a major show at Jingu.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is the best mix of modern puro & historical coverage your five dollars can buy. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to six exclusive 5 Matches episodes that you can’t find on the free feed (including our latest episode with Garrett Kidney from just a few days ago, covering possibly the last truly great WWE match of this era, the start of the AJ-Naito trilogy and three of the most memorable TNA matches of all time for, uh, very different reasons!). Plus you’ll get access to four episodes of tournament coverage for the 2020 King of DDT and Tokyo Joshi Princess Cup, our series covering every Naito-Ishii match in history (up to episode 6 now, covering their match from the first round of the IWGP US Title Tournament in 2017), ANIME OMAKASE~! and a whole lot more. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for only $5 per month, so sign up today!

John is joined by returning guest and VOW contributor Jeff (@jeff_andrews21) as they start off with New Japan and another really fun edition of NJPW Strong. They discuss the finals of the New Japan Cup USA tournament and the start of some new feuds heading into the next Fighting Spirit Unleashed tour. Then they preview some upcoming shows back in Japan, talking all four first round matches in the KOPW 2020 tournament (and why people have kind of lost their minds on this), and then an exciting card for SUMMER STRUGGLE in JINGU. Afterward they turn their attention to DDT for a full review of the King of DDT finals from Korakuen, talking all three tournament matches as well as some surprisingly fun undercard tags. They speculate on whether or not Kenny Omega will actually be able to make it into the country for a planned showdown with Tetsuya Endo at Ultimate Party and how that might go if he does. Finally, they wrap things up with a quick look ahead to DDT's next Korakuen on September 7th and the three confirmed matches.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we head back to the world of drafting for our first ever 00s Puro Fantasy Draft!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, including two extra full length Omakase episodes per month (like a brand new 5 Matches Omakase dropping on Monday January 18th!), our shorter and yet still jampacked 1 Match episodes that each cover a certain theme (right now talking all of the Tokyo Dome main events in order, with our last episode featuring Genichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu from 1/4/93!), ANIME OMAKASE, daily coverage of all the major Japanese tournaments, and so much more! Plus, patrons starting this coming week will be able to submit matches for John to cover in February! If there's a match you always wanted to hear John talk about, come get your submission in now! You can get access to all of this and much more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guests & VOW contributors JoJo (@jojo_runs) & Gerard (@GerardDiTrolio) and first time guest THE INFAMOUS Smoldoink (@smoldoink) for our 00s Puro Draft! The four of them take twenty-five different men's wrestlers who met the criteria of wrestling at least ten times in Japan from 2000 through 2009, and it's one of the fastest actual drafts ever if you're not as into the "picking names" part of these episodes. But all four go into detail on why they're picking these guys and why they're happy with their rosters (with some very different philosophies in some cases!), and then the real meat of the show is going through four very different supercards! Everyone discusses why they put these matches together and even who's going over as they go into great detail on four different cards- and then it will be up to you to vote on who had the best show! Just go to @wrestleomakase and make your voice heard!

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

We're back for a very special episode! John is joined by returning guest Mongo (@mongo_ebooks), and only one thing can get them out of podcast semi-retirement: Tetsuya Naito is a 2022 Wrestling Observer Hall of Famer!

John & Mongo talk a little about all of the new inductees but the most focus is on Naito, Kota Ibushi, and some of the other people who didn't get in (one CM Punk perhaps?). They discuss why Naito was such a slam dunk candidate even if you didn't necessarily love him or his fans, using some cold hard facts and business metrics to make their case. Plus, a look ahead to next year's nominees and more!

Wrestling Omakase is back for another new episode! John is joined by returning guest Joel of the Super J-Cast (@thesuperjcast) for a bit of a state of New Japan Pro Wrestling update. Where does NJPW stand after losing Okada & Ospreay to AEW? What does fan reaction look like after the controversial New Beginning in Sapporo shows? What strengths do NJPW still have, and what are their big threats heading into the future? Then John & Joel bring back a former annual Omakase tradition: the New Japan Cup Pick "Ems! They each give their (sometimes very different!) picks for each and every 2024 New Japan Cup match, right down to who they ultimately think will lift the trophy this time around! All this plus a (well deserved) burial of a popular wrestling website, wow!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we hit a double dose of action from across the Atlantic! John is joined by returning guest Quinlan to talk two big shows from the same day, starting with NJPW Royal Quest live from London. Hear their thoughts on a rocky live stream experience from FIVE TV marring what seemed like a good undercard, another pretty whatever IWGP Tag Team Title match, a NEVER title match that was going great until it suddenly wasn't, and finally two awesome main events that really saved the show.

Once that's out of the way they turn their attention to AEW's second PPV and fourth show overall, All Out from Chicago. They run down the entire nearly 5-hour show including a women's casino battle royale that was much better than the first, a tag match that reminded them why they don't really like a lot of US indies, a fun main card opener, Omega-PAC which they (perhaps unsurprisingly) had very different viewpoints on, an absolute car crash of a 3-way, The Dark Order still not working out super well, a good joshi match that had to fight a dead crowd, Cody-Spears with a surprising finish, another Young Bucks ladder match where it looked like people were going to die, and finally a surprisingly great main event with the JUDAS IN MY MIND. A fun show talking two big wrestling cards, this week!

This week on Wrestling Omakase we're not gonna let a stupid virus get us down, it's time for empty arena madness! John is joined by first time guest Callum (@IceAgeComingSA) to talk four shows with (almost) zero fans between them, as Japan is still in the midst of their Coronavirus outbreak. After a brief discussion of where we stand there (and what might be coming soon to the US in the very near future) we get into all of these shows, starting with STARDOM's first ever live show on Youtube. Hear our thoughts on some surprise battle royale entrants, two very good tag matches, and a main event that was a bit all over the place but still came together into a great match in the end.

Then we turn our attention to three shows from DDT's dojo, the 3/1 DDT show and the 3/1 & 3/8 Tokyo Joshi Pro events. What was the atmosphere like for these Dojo shows? We discuss strange debuts for much-hyped international wrestler, Owashi staring into our souls, two really fun Tokyo Joshi tournaments, green = blue in Japan, and much more! It's a packed show full of NO PEOPLE goodness, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we debut our new format that we'll be using to get us through this current pandemic hell! Each week, John and the guest will each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we'll each choose a third match, which we'll put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week! It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Our first guest for the 5 Matches format is none other than the King of Banter himself, Joe Lanza of the Voices of Wrestling flagship podcast (@voiceswrestling). Joe and John open things up with some talk about how they're each adjusting to pandemic life, and John explains a little about why they're not all that interested in covering the few empty arena wrestling shows that are still happening. Once that's out of the way they get into their matches, and here they all are in order along with where you can watch them yourself:

1. Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics, WCCW 1/26/85 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/WCCW-2268)

2. Meiko Satomura vs. Sareee, Sendai Girls 4/16/19 (https://rutube.ru/video/844658c07b4ad72f6c4b6417ce3dd504/)

3. Kota Ibushi vs. El Generico vs. Nick Jackson vs. Jigsaw, CHIKARA 3/28/09 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XesuznnHaA)

4. Sanshiro Takagi vs. Minoru Suzuki, DDT 6/1/17 (DDT Universe, no subscription required: https://www.ddtpro.com/universe/videos/2040)

5. Steve Austin vs. Chris Benoit, WWE 5/31/01 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/SmackDown-4781)

These matches give us all sorts of jumping off points including John and Joe's history attending many of the same shows and venues (and a few they didn't attend!), the current CINEMATIC WRESTLING boom, US indie style from 11 years ago leading into AEW, and much more. It's a packed two hours covering all sorts of different wrestling, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we take a completely randomized look back at WWE's late November/Thanksgiving tradition, Survivor Series!

John is joined by first time guest & VOW contributor Liam Byrne (@tvtimelimit), who as we discuss probably sets some kind of record for "most Omakase guests with the same first name". Liam goes into his history as a fan and why he maybe hasn't appeared on an episode until now, and John makes a quick little detour to talk about their trip to the new UBS Arena this past Wednesday at Belmont (an arena that will soon host two wrestling shows over the next couple weeks!). Once that's all out of the way they get into this episode's randomly selected six matches from six randomly selected years of Survivor Series- if you want to be surprised you should stop reading now and go ahead and listen, but otherwise here they are below (all can be found on Peacock in the US and WWE Network in the rest of the world):

1987: Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan & Brutus Beefcake vs. The Honky Tonk Man, Hercules, King Harley Race, Ron Bass & Danny Davis

1990: Hulk Hogan, The Big Bossman, Jim Duggan & Tugboat vs. Earthquake, Haku, The Barbarian & Dino Bravo

1998: Steve Austin vs. Big Bossman

2000: The Rock vs. Rikishi

2003: Eddie & Chavo Guerrero vs. Doug & Danny Basham

2016: Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg

Topics that come up along the way include: how weird is it that we got randomly assigned the very first match in Survivor Series history, Randy Savage's first face turn, a couple wrestlers who usually get ragged on manage to look pretty good here, Hulk Hogan is still extremely over, the future Natural Disasters collide (but not really), the history of the Deadly Game tournament, is this the best thing Vince Russo ever did, inconsistent heel authority figure logic, Rikishi's disaster of a heel turn, Rock does everything in his power to make his cousin look like a monster, the very strange Bashams/Shaniqua gimmick, incredible creepy spots in hindsight, the start of the second brand split, the strange build up for Brock vs. Goldberg, and finally: WWE booking critiques that look kinda pointless in hindsight.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk a ton of different wrestling shows and news from NJPW, AJPW, and NOAH in a packed show!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is the best mix of modern puro & historical coverage your five dollars can buy. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to five exclusive 5 Matches episodes that you can't find on the free feed (including our latest episode with Todd Martin from just a few days ago, covering Tanahashi-Shibata from 2014, Kobashi vs. Takayama from 2004, SUPER DRAGON VS. NECRO BUTCHER and much more!). Plus you'll get access to our ongoing daily tournament coverage of the King of DDT and Tokyo Joshi Princess Cup, our series covering every Naito-Ishii match in history, our review of the controversial Sengoku Lord show, ANIME OMAKASE~! and a whole lot more. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for only $5 per month, so sign up today!

John is joined by returning guest Gerard (@GerardDiTrolio) as we talk about a wild week in Japanese professional wrestling. We start things out by discussing the AJPW Champion Carnival participants and blocks, and give our predictions on who will come out on top in a shortened Carnival. We also discuss the crazy overlapping schedules of the Champion Carnival, NJPW G1 Climax & NOAH N1 tournaments. We then move over to NJPW and discuss the first week of the NJPW Strong show featuring the first round of the New Japan Cup USA, and then break down all four Summer Struggle Korakuens featuring the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Title Tournament. What were the highlights across both tournaments, and what could have been better? Finally we wrap things up with NOAH's two Departure Korakuens featuring one awesome main event, one not-so-awesome main event and a very mixed bag of undercard matches. It's a packed show talking a whole lot of puro, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we review two shows from Korakuen Hall: the 2nd Round of the King of DDT tournament and Tokyo Joshi's 6/17 show, Additional Attack.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. We've hit the home stretch of our series covering every Naito vs. Tanahashi match in order, as we're right in the middle of their legendary 2017 trilogy! Listen now as we go over their epic match from Wrestle Kingdom 10, and coming this week we'll discuss the rematches from Dominion & the G1 Climax! Plus: our annual Mid-Year Awards, held every year at the end of June, will be this coming week and exclusively on the Omakase Patreon! And once the Naito/Tanahashi series wraps up, we'll be resuming our series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order (we left off in 1995, so we're about to hit all the NJPW vs. UWFi stuff!) leading up to New Japan's rescheduled WRESTLE GRAND SLAM event at the end of July. You get access to all of this plus everything else we've ever done- our 1st Round coverage of the 2021 King of DDT, exclusive free episodes, matches requested by patrons, all the major tournaments of the past year covered, ANIME OMAKASE, and much more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Hayley (@choerrycoloured) as they start out with the ever-popular anime discussion, going over shows they've been watching lately, more thoughts on the return of cons and more. Once that's out of the way they turn to the King of DDT 2nd Round show, held on June 20th at Korakuen Hall, breaking it all down match-by-match. They get into a disappointing main event, another Sasaki Screwjob™, Takeshita and MAO having a friendly bro battle, Endo and Higuchi tearing the house down, a rant on how good Tetsuya Endo is (and a prominent British flippy wrestler he's better than), some upcoming DDT announcements, a fun 3-way tag, UTAMI'S DAD GETS SOME, and the saga of the Paulie clan. Plus, somehow a digression about AEW stables is in there somewhere. I don't know how that happened either.

Once that's finally done they head over to the magical world of Tokyo Joshi to break down their June 17th Additional Attack show, also from Korakuen Hall. They start with a long review of the NEO Biishiki-gun vs. Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh main event, a truly awesome match that they break down from all angles, which includes another rant on why Sakisama is so great. Then they break down the rest of the show, including long explanations on Japanese Gal/Gyaru culture (due to "Gal Wrestler" Marika Kobashi challenging for the International Princess Title in the semi-main) and the 48/46 groups (because SKE48 idol and new wrestler Yuki Arai has her first ever singles match here), and this has to be the only wrestling podcast you can come to for that kind of information. If there's another one, I'd love to meet them.

This week’s edition of Wrestling Omakase is sponsored by Manscaped. Get 20% off + free shipping with promo code OMAKASE at http://www.manscaped.com

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This week Wrestling Omakase's third annual Year in Review series continues! Each week from now until the end of the year we will recap the 2019 of a specific promotion, promotions, or type of wrestling, covering all their major shows and moments and giving our picks for the major award categories. It's a great way for you to catch up with wrestling you may have missed this year and identify matches you may want to watch or rewatch before doing your end of the year awards voting!

AEW and ROH are two American wrestling companies that had very different 2019s, and we discuss them both on this episode of Omakase. John is joined by returning guest and VOW contributor Sean Sedor (@SASedor2994) and Nate (@epitasis) of Everything Elite (@EverythingAEW) as we start out with some talk about Nate's upcoming trip to Japan and thus some NJPW talk, including who is walking out of Wrestle Kingdom with both belts. We then talk Ring of Honor's incredible decline. Was there anything they could have done to prevent their fall? Just how bad has it gotten in the back half of the year? We then move over to discussing the first calendar year in existence for All Elite Wrestling, as we break down how things are looking for them as they exit their proverbial honeymoon period. We talk some of the big mistakes they made in terms of perhaps trying to promise to be all things to all people, and why some types of fans may have turned on them recently. But of course we also talk some of our favorite matches, moments and Dynamite episodes so far. Finally we wrap things up with our award winners and another spirited mailbag.

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Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week's Wrestling Omakase sees us review two very different wrestling shows from the opposite ends of the world. John is joined by returning guest and VOW contributor Jack Beckmann (@packerman120) to talk the WWE Royal Rumble and DDT's 1/26 Korakuen, Sweet Dreams. First, the Royal Rumble review touches on the entire main card, from a terrible falls count anywhere match to some very mixed (but mostly bad) title matches and, thankfully, two very good Royal Rumble matches that basically save the show. What did we think of The Brock Thing? Who were the stars of each Rumble? How did the third women's Rumble ever compare to the first two? We go through it all in great detail, from #1 to #30 of both Rumble matches as we go competitor by competitor.

Once that's done we head to the land of DDT for the first time in a while, covering their 1/26 Korakuen Sweet Dreams. Hear our thoughts on some fun hair-based comedy, a really inventive mixed battle royale/ladder match, a weird decision by Daisuke Sasaki that any amount of thought quickly reveals was nonsense, a slightly disappointing match with a big guest star, and finally two really good title matches to close the show. It's two big shows from the same day on the opposite ends of the earth, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase it's finally time to head back to New Japan land! John is joined by returning guests and VOW contributors Chris Samsa (TheChrisSamsa) and Thomas Fischbeck (@rasslinratings) to break down the two big New Beginning in Sapporo shows in detail, as they go match-by-match on both cards. Hear praise for a number of the undercard matches (except one in particular that gets ripped by pretty much everyone; you'll have to listen to find out which one) and then some strong opinions on the major matches of both shows: EVIL-Ishii, Shingo-Goto, ZSJ-Ospreay and Okada-Taichi. We then do a brief preview of the upcoming New Beginning shows from Korakuen Hall and Osaka and speculate on what could be coming later in the year in NJPW as well.

Once that's wrapped up we turn our attention to the big story from Japanese wrestling this past week: the sale of Pro Wrestling NOAH to DDT's parent company CyberAgent. Hear us give some thoughts on why the sale might have gone down and how Japanese wrestling is consolidating with the specter of NXT Japan looming large. We then briefly discuss NOAH's latest Korakuen show (and first airing on DDT Universe) from 1/30 and look ahead to their major shows in February as well, plus as a bonus we take a look at the Big Japan Strong Climb lineup that was recently announced. It's a jam-packed episode of Japanese wrestling, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guests. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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(CONTENT WARNING: We very briefly discuss the events of this past week in professional wrestling at the very start of the episode. We do not go into any detail on specific allegations and it's easily skippable, about 3 minutes or so. We stand with and believes all victims.)

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk some interpromotional matches from the mid-to-late 00s, a classic from NOAH in 2004 and much more. If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase now has a Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to our huge milestone 150th episode of Omakase, 5 Matches with Rich Kraetsch, where we talk Tanahashi-Suzuki from 2012, Bret-Austin from 1996, the famous NJPW vs. UWF elimination tag from 1986, and much more. Plus you can get another Patreon-exclusive full episode (148, 5 Matches with Alan4L), 7 episodes in our series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in order, our 2020 New Japan Cup Pick 'Em episode with VOW contributor Tyler Forness, Anime Omakase and more! Get all of our Patreon audio for just $5 a month!

John is joined by debuting guest Case Lowe (@_InYourCase) from VOW's resident Dragon Gate podcast Open the Voice Gate (@openvoicegate) as they start by discussing their attempts to get into Japanese baseball. Nippon Professional Baseball, the world's number two league, just returned this past weekend, and with the world's number *one* league seemingly as far away from returning as ever it's never been a better time to get into the NPB. They discuss the somewhat hilarious origins and state of Case's chosen favorite team, plus John talks a little about the NPB video game and enjoying it as a change of pace after many years of playing MLB The Show. Once that's out of the way they get into this week's chosen matches, which are:

1. Jado & Gedo vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii, NJPW 1/7/07 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gze6hk6fb7c&feature=youtu.be)

2. Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino & Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Shingo Takagi, BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong, DG 7/1/07 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nHljki0NJovM-SjNgx6mB0NmzNyKXusi/view?usp=sharing)

3. Go Shiozaki & Takashi Sugiura vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Milano Collection AT, NOAH 3/1/09 (https://youtu.be/IE6sQtAXxgU)

4. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA, NOAH 4/25/04 (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17q6ni)

5. Keiji Mutoh vs. Nobuhiko Takada, NJPW 1/4/96 (https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00141_1_10)

Topics that come up along the way include: JACKED JADO, Case <3s Masaaki Mochizuki, John <3s this one DG six-man (and they don't give a damn about no botched finish, JAE), Magnitude Kishiwada ruled, where Go Shiozaki and Shinsuke Nakamura were in their developments in 09, one of the last great Milano Collection AT matches ever, Misawa won't sell for these little pricks, KENTA channels Kawada, Keiji Mutoh struggles at shoot-style grappling, and finally John & Case disagree on a match after being very agreeable.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk an awesome Tanahashi vs. Shingo match in New Japan, the build to NOAH's long-awaited return to the Nippon Budokan and more!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, including two extra full length Omakase episodes per month, our shorter and yet still jampacked 1 Match episodes that each cover a certain theme (we just finished up the first part of our series watching every Tokyo Dome main event in order with an infamous disaster of a Hashimoto vs. Chono match that headlined the Weekly Pro Wrestling 13-promotion Bridge of Dreams show in 1995), ANIME OMAKASE, daily coverage of all the major Japanese tournaments, and so much more! You can get access to all of this and much more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest Paul Volsch (@darth_dragon) as they start out with some rare current US wrestling coverage here on Omakase- namely some thoughts on what little they watched from the GCW Fight Forever 24-hour stream, and some last minute thoughts before the WWE Royal Rumble (and thoughts on some Rumble events from recent years past). They quickly shift gears to NJPW's New Beginning in Nagoya event from this past Saturday, and spend a great deal of time breaking down the Shingo Takagi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi NEVER title match main event in detail. They also discuss wildly diverging opinions on Ospreay-Kojima, Tenzan vs. O-Khan, O-Khan's big night in general, compare Naito and Okada's quiet tours, and look ahead to the rest of the New Beginning shows, including four more (!) Korakuens and the two New Beginning in Hiroshima events.

Then they turn their attention to Pro Wrestling NOAH with a full review of their 1/31 Higher Ground show from Korakuen Hall, the last big hype event for their upcoming return to the Nippon Budokan on 2/12. They break down all six matches, starting from the top with two strong main events and eventually working their way down to the rest of the undercard, and thoughts on how the company is using different guys right now (especially the "shooters", but also some thoughts on the recent Inamura turn). They also preview all nine matches on NOAH's big Budokan card and get into the rather confusing way the two halves of the card are split between pay-per-view and free streaming (not at all how you would expect!). Finally, they wrap things up with a pair of questions on DDT and the ShuPro awards and NAITO'S SPITTING.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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Wrestling Omakase kicks off 2020 with full coverage of both nights of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14! To celebrate this historic two-night event we went live on Youtube with instant reaction streams right after both nights went off the air, so this week's episode is a combination of both those streams. For the first night John is joined by VOW contributors Chris Samsa (@TheChrisSamsa), Tyler Forness (@CCSTheRealForno) and Paul Volsch (@Darth_Dragon) and for the second night John is joined by Chris and Tyler again as well as Gerard Di Trolio (@GerardDiTrolio). Hear their thoughts immediately after each night went off the air, as well as some interactions with fans listening live and more. What were their favorite matches of a stacked weekend? How did John react to finally seeing Tetsuya Naito's big moment after all these years? And much more! Relive the journey of the two nights as we react in real time to each one!

Please note that since this was recorded in an unusual way compared to every other Omakase episode that the audio is a little different; John did their best to fix it in post-production but they still sound a little lower than everyone else and the two parts sound a little different as well. We appreciate your patience and understanding, and think you'll still find this to be a really fun episode. We'll be back to our normal recording method next week.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we review two of the biggest shows from Japan in quite a while: NJPW Dominion and the CyberFight Festival!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. We're in the middle of our series covering every Tanahashi vs. Naito match in order, but we'll be taking a pause this week to bring you exclusive tournament coverage of the 1st Round of the 2021 King of DDT! Plus: our latest Retro Roulette episode, NJPW Dominion Retro Roulette, coming next week exclusively to the Patreon! You get access to all of this plus everything else we've ever done- matches requested by patrons, every Tokyo Dome main event through 1995 (with more to come), all the major tournaments of the past year covered, ANIME OMAKASE, and much more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest, VOW contributor and ex-Wednesday Wargames co-host Liam (@TheGLEATMuta), as they start out by discussing how bad American wrestling is for some reason. Also, John gives Liam some lessons on hockey (this happens at the start AND the end of the show) while cursing the damn Islanders. Once that's out of the way they get into the first of two major shows, NJPW Dominion, and Shingo Takagi's huge IWGP World Heavyweight Title victory. The two of them break it down from every possible angle, going quite a while on both Shingo's win, what it could mean about NJPW's future booking plans (and what the original plans may have been before Will Ospreay lost his smile or whatever), and of course give a full review of the match. They then break down the rest of the card, including Kota Ibushi vs. Jeff Cobb, the junior title match and more.

Then they turn their attention to the stacked CyberFight Festival, the big interpromotional NOAH/DDT/Tokyo Joshi/Ganbare show from Saitama Super Arena. They review all FIFTEEN (!) matches, obviously some in a little more detail than others, starting at the top with a great triple main event and heading into some awesome NOAH vs. DDT matches, a not-quite-as-awesome undercard, some thoughts on the English commentary, and a whole lot more. Finally, they give a brief preview of the upcoming King of DDT 1st Round & Tokyo Joshi's next Korakuen, plus a couple notes on upcoming NOAH events.

This week’s edition of Wrestling Omakase is sponsored by Manscaped. Get 20% off + free shipping with promo code OMAKASE at http://www.manscaped.com

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we break down Sakura Genesis from NJPW and Judgement from DDT in detail, and talk a little bit about being burned out on clap crowd era wrestling.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. April is Champion Carnival month on the Patreon, as we'll be providing daily audio coverage of each and every event in All Japan's signature G1-style tournament! As a bonus, we'll also be producing an exclusive full length Retro Roulette Omakase this week (before the start of the tournament), covering five different randomly selected finals from Carnivals of the past! Plus, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, Tokyo Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by first time guest & VOW contributor Neil David (@chubby_cthulhu), who introduces himself by discussing how he first got into wrestling in general and puro in particular. Then John and Neil discuss being burned out on 2021 wrestling- especially facing down more clap crowds in Japan for god knows how long- and what it's been like for each of them during this difficult period of wrestling viewing. Once that's out of the way they get into NJPW Sakura Genesis, a decent show with some major flaws. They disagree quite a bit on the main event in particular, and both of them do their best to make their case on its quality. John of course isn't thrilled about Ospreay winning the shiny new belt either, and they explain why it just felt like a poor move (especially when it comes to Kota Ibushi's character at the moment).

Then they turn their attention to DDT's Judgement anniversary show from Korakuen Hall, starting at the top and working their way down through a better show. John defends the Akiyama-Higuchi main event from the haters, explains a Danshoku Dieno angle in probably way too much detail, and both of them rave about a short but sweet HARASHIMA-Sakaguchi encounter. Finally, they wrap things up by running down the card for DDT's next Korakuen that's only a week away (and will be covered on next week's show!), April Fool.

This week's edition of Wrestling Omakase is sponsored by Manscaped. Get 20% off + free shipping with promo code OMAKASE at http://manscaped.com

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we reviewed the alleged and the actual biggest party of the summer- WWE Summerslam and DDT Wrestle Peter Pan!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Our series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order is pulling up on the end of the 1990s, and we've just recently put up all sorts of great episodes- Misawa vs. Kawada! Antonio Inoki's retirement! Riki Choshu's retirement! And much more! We discuss the main events of each show in detail but also talk about everything else going on in Japanese wrestling around that time, so you can relive the nWo Japan split, Inoki's ill-fated UFO promotion and a lot more as you follow along with us. Plus, coming up in September will be daily audio coverage of the G1 Climax and NOAH N-1 Victory tournaments, which you'll only find on the Patreon. And finally, don't forget that you get more full episodes on there too- every week there isn't a new show on the free feed, there's a full length episode exclusive to the Patreon! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest Jamie (@JamieOD), who of course runs the English language DDT resource Dramatic DDT (http://dramaticddt.wordpress.com). John & Jamie start out by discussing CM Punk's return to wrestling for AEW from this past Friday, as John touches on what it was like to see him come back after following along with his early career in Ring of Honor (most of which they attended live). Then the two of them turn their attention to the first main topic of the episode, as they review WWE Summerslam from Las Vegas in detail. They go over each and every match on the show, discussing the good (a couple strong matches), the bad (yet another crappy WWE live crowd) and the ugly (the complete destruction of Bianca Belair and the total debacle that was Goldberg/Lashley). Also as John types up this episode description they just remembered they forgot to talk about the Miz & Morrison/Xavier Woods segment, so they just wanted to note here that it absolutely sucked.

Once WWE's out of the way they head over to the land of DDT for a much more enjoyable overall show, Wrestle Peter Pan from Kawasaki. They again review every match in detail including the electric current bat match with Onita, the teenage wrestlers, a trio of fantastic matches, and the Saki Akai/Yuji Hino storyline that was better "storytelling" than anything the storytellers of WWE pull off nowadays. Finally, they wrap things up by taking some of your mailbag questions on both promotions, as Jamie explains why DDT's comedy is superior to WWE's and much more.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk some really good matches and, uh, some really bad ones too! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

As we talk about on the show, Wrestling Omakase is about to launch our brand new Patreon! We go live on Monday June 1st at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase. For just $5 per month you'll get: TWO bonus full 5 Match episodes of Omakase per month (our first two Patreon-exclusive guests will be Alan4L of PWTorch and Rich of the VOW Flagship!), our new 1 Match series where John will discuss an entire series of matches in bite-sized podcasts (each covering a single match) starting with every single Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi match in chronological order, Anime Omakase bringing you our first ever anime-exclusive podcast on a wide range of shows, movies and more, and daily tournament coverage of the G1 Climax, Champion Carnival, D-ou and more! Join us on our new journey!

John is joined by first time guest Chris (@funkyassdg), co-host of the Bad Wrestling Podcast (@badwrespodcast). We talk a little about recent events and also just playing Yakuza and EWR/TEW to get through the current quarantine, plus briefly discuss an absolutely amazing opening segment of Friday Night Smackdown from this past week. Once that's out of the way we get into our five matches of the week, and boy are they a doozy:

1. Carlos Colon & Invader #1 vs. The Sheepherders of Butch Miller & Luke Williams, WWC 12/21/85 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSThGYoMgzM)

2. Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kazusada Higuchi, DDT 9/25/16 (https://youtu.be/3PyPtBU7-gQ)

3. Crazy Crusher vs. Hell Storm, EWR 12/19/04 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo5RmTOTBb8)

4. Homicide vs. Takeshi Morishima, ROH 2/17/07 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrUZBWHIhoQ)

5. Jimmy Jact Cash vs. Hippy Dicky Moon, SWA 10/8/16 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqQFo4awoGI)

Topics that come up along the way include: what the hell was going on in Puerto Rico that night, big boy slaps and unfortunately big boy headbutts too, the single craziest match you've never heard of with some absolutely insane spots described in detail, singles vs. multi-man ladder matches, Homicide's place in history, how to put a guy over for a big run, Jimmy Jact Cash somehow having a 20-year career with absolutely nothing to show for it, and Dennis John: What The Fuck? Yes, it's quite the packed episode.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk New Japan's first two shows with fans since March, including one of the most shocking title changes in company history.

Wrestling Omakase now has a Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to three exclusive 5 Matches episode with VOW flagship co-host Rich Kraetsch, Alan4L from the PWTorch and Nate from Everything Elite, plus 13 episodes in our ongoing (and soon to conclude) series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in order, 3 episodes of Anime Omakase, and our New Japan Cup pick 'em. Coming up next week will be another exclusive 5 Matches episode with former Brit Wres Roundtable co-host and current VOW Quiz Night host Robin Reid, the start of another set of episodes covering an entire match series in order (which series depends on the results of a soon-to-be-completed poll), and much more. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for just $5 a month!

John is joined by returning guest Sean Sedor (@SASedor2994) to talk a very eventual two nights in Osaka Jo Hall. They start the show off with some thoughts on the end of Tetsuya Naito's title reign, and if you've heard some of John's previous rants and- let's face it- minor breakdowns on the air over Naito losses you may be a little surprised by their take here. John and Sean then get into breaking down each and every match across both nights, including the underwhelming NJC final, the awesome NEVER & IWGP Tag Title matches from Dominion, and finally the already controversial double title match. John also discusses why some of the takes on Naito-EVIL have really missed the mark, especially the ones about a supposed lack of crowd heat. We then get into your mailbag questions on the two shows, including lots of MASTER WATO~!!! talk and much more.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk two New Japan US shows that we attended live, plus chat some DDT! First John is joined by returning guest Bryan Quinlan (@IM_NOT_QUINLAN) to talk NJPW's Fighting Spirit Unleashed shows from NYC & Philly. Hear us discuss 90 minute ambulance delays, unruly fans, much nicer fans, who was over and what the crowd reactions were like in general compared to past US shows (including the ROH/NJPW shows in some of the same buildings), and of course break down all the matches across both events. After those two reviews and a brief preview of the following week's Korakuen and King of Pro Wrestling, the two dive into a big mailbag featuring lots of questions on what kind of shows NJPW should run in the US, how the cards compared to past events here, yet more Naito at the Tokyo Dome questions and much more.

After we wish Quinlan farewell for the week John gives the first solo review on Omakase, as they talk DDT's Who's Gonna TOP? 2019 Korakuen. John breaks down the entire card including two ****+ matches and one that was close, as this was a very good show. Plus, John talks about the announcement of the D-Oh competitors and runs down the card for the upcoming ULTIMATE PARTY show from Sumo Hall. A fun time talking New Japan and DDT, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest and we really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Come join the Super J-Cast Discord, which now features a dedicated Wrestling Omakase channel to chat with John and other show guests and submit questions: https://t.co/ce3q9Bad85?amp=1

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's our first 5 Matches episode on the free feed in a very long time, as John & Jon discuss the ROH vs. CZW feud, Goto vs. Tanahashi from 2009, IRON HEAD FUJITA vs. Shibata from 2004 and more! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, each episode John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote right here on the Patreon, letting the patrons choose our fifth and final match to discuss. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Right now on the Patreon we're currently reliving the Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi rivalry, watching every singles match between the two of them that made tape. We're still right at the start but doing 2 per week, so it's a great time to jump onboard and follow along with this legendary feud (with plenty of historical notes and talk about the periods as well!). Coming up in a couple weeks, before the end of May, we'll be doing our Best of the Super Juniors Final Retro Roulette, as we discuss five randomly selected finals of NJPW's late spring classic! On top of all of this recent and upcoming stuff, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, early Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes (if you enjoy this format there's MANY more on the Patreon!), ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest & VOW contributor Jon Hernandez (@OldJonHernandez), and they start things off with 26 minutes (!) of completely off topic banter. So if that's your sort of thing, feel free to indulge as we talk indoor dining awkwardness, Atlantic City (and gambling in general), the start of the NHL playoffs and the end of the NHL on NBC era, and much more. Or, you can just skip ahead to get to this week's five matches, which are as follows:

1. Daisuke Masaoka v. Violento Jack, FREEDOMS 11/13/17 (IWTV: https://independentwrestling.tv/player/Jdv1RkP4bN/1542, match starts around 1:41:25)

2. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW 7/19/04 (https://dailymotion.com/video/x3dd3v)

3. Chris Hero, Necro Butcher & Super Dragon vs. Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer, ROH 4/22/06 (https://bilibili.com/s/video/BV1XE411r74G)

4. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto, NJPW 5/3/09 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_archive_65_1_08)

5. Bret Hart vs. Jean-Pierre LaFitte, WWF 9/24/95 (Peacock: https://peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/GMO_00000000378101_01/75be8263-fe0a-33b9-bfec-abf00b88e948, match starts around 1:09:45)

Topics that come up along the way include: two deathmatch guys you should know if you don't already, HEEL DON'T PLAY, matches just on wood look weird but also awesome, Shibata's departure from NJPW (and then soon after from wrestling in general), Iron Head Fujita's IWGP title reigns and their inauspicious endings, an awesome match between two bad-asses, ROH vs. CZW, That Super Dragon vs. John Story Again, shoot monkey-flips, having to look at yourself from fifteen years ago, a brief history of Hirooki Goto IWGP Heavyweight Title challenges, how Goto & Tanahashi work differently (and how they work the same) now vs. twelve years ago, PCO the Pirate, Bret Hart's wonderful 1995 feuds (and promo lines), and a match that was probably too good for the WWF in 1995.

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every time: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

We're back once again for another Very Special Episode of Wrestling Omakase! John is LIVE ON LOCATION from the Conrad and also a random AirBNB in Tokyo, as they're joined by returning guest Paul and THE BEBBLER to discuss all things Wrestle Kingdom 18! All three of them go over everything you could ever want to know about attending WK live, including various seat sections and what you might get when you choose them, beer girls (and their fanboys), fan calls, food options and much more! They also of course review the show in some detail and give their thoughts on the various matches. Once that's out of the way, it's time to go BACK IN TIME to earlier recorded audio with John & Paul from their AirBNB (which is why the sound is slightly different- it had a very high ceiling!) following the AJPW 12/31 show from Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2. John & Paul discuss the incredible Miyahara vs. Nakajima main event, Nakajima's Inoki tribute trolling, a big junior title change, and just talk about how much better it is to attend shows in Japan than in the West in general.

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk some matches that are really all over the map! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week! It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

John is joined by returning guest Kevin Brown (@darukinoi) of the Bad Wrestling Podcast (@badwrespodcast), and fittingly the wrestling quality is all over the map this week: some bad, but also some good (even one match at least some of you might find surprisingly good). Here's the full list of matches we discuss this week in order, along with the easiest place to find them all:

1. Vampiro vs. David Flair vs. Crowbar, WCW 1/16/00 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Souled-Out-2000-9737)

2. Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada, NJPW 1/5/20 (NJPW World: https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00532_8_18)

3. BJ Whitmer vs. Steve Corino, ROH 6/24/16 (Honor Club: https://rohwrestling.com/roh-tour/062416-best-world-concord-nc)

4. Kota Ibushi vs. KAGETORA, El Dorado 12/29/07 (https://bilibili.com/video/av81956218, as a note do not try to watch BiliBili matches on mobile as it will only give you the first 5 minutes, but on desktop it works fine and it's free)

5. Triple H vs. Eugene, WWE 9/6/04 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Raw-5256)

That's quite the variety of stuff and gives us plenty of topics, including: WCW 2000 vs. WWE 2020, NJPW main event style and whether this Okada-Naito match is about as good as it gets there, the absolutely insane Whitmer-Corino build, DRUNK MATT TAVEN, John attempts to explain the very strange history behind El Dorado in like 2 minutes and probably fails, Eugene in general, and much more. Plus before we get into the matches we talk Hi-Score Girl and, yes, ATTACK ON TITAN and much more, so check it out!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase a couple of G1 Climax B Block Defenders™ report for duty, and we wrap up a great NOAH N-1 Victory as well.

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your only place to get our full coverage of all three tournaments from New Japan, All Japan and NOAH. Weekend shows will be covered here on the free feed, but John will bring even more daily coverage of the weekday shows exclusive to the Patreon, including with guests too! We'll have four more straight days of coverage on the Patreon, including a doubleheader tomorrow (Monday 10/5) with returning guest Paul Volsch on G1 Night 9 & the Champion Carnival finals, and then three more days of exclusive G1 reviews. Plus, if you sign up now you can listen to all our coverage from September as well as the rest of the coverage in October! It's all up there right now for just $5 per month at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest Skylar (@Twwitterdotcom) for a whole lot of interesting takes on a whole lot of topics, including, uh, what's in the news lately. John also re-tells a memorable story based on a recent topic: their infamous run-in with Harold Meij. Then they discuss Night 8 of the G1 Climax from this past Thursday in Niigata, a B block show headlined by Tetsuya Naito and SANADA. John and Skylar are both major B block apologists so they try to defend a block that's been maligned in some corners of the Western puro internet and try to describe why they actually prefer it to A block at this point. Plus, they review all the matches from the night, John gives their top 10 matches of the G1 so far and their top (and bottom) performers, and we look ahead to Night 9's A block show.

Then they turn their attention to the final block night from Pro Wrestling NOAH's N-1 Victory, again breaking down all the tournament matches as well as the junior battle royale. The battle royale also leads us to talking the NOAH junior division and its many, many turns, but they spend plenty of time on the heavyweights and their matches as well. They wrap things up with John giving their top 10 matches of the tournament and again top and bottom performers, and both of them looking ahead to the NOAH N-1 Victory finals from next weekend, which look awesome. They also do a brief look at the upcoming AJPW Champion Carnival finals as well.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we review Night 3 of AJPW's Champion Carnival and a very entertaining Korakuen show from DDT, April Fool! Plus, some quick Wrestlemania thoughts as well!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. April is Champion Carnival month on the Patreon, as we're providing daily audio coverage of each and every event in All Japan's signature G1-style tournament! Our coverage of Nights 1 & 2, as well as every remaining night of the tournament, are exclusively hosted on the Patreon! As a bonus, we also had a full length Retro Roulette Omakase this past week, covering five different randomly selected finals from Carnivals of the past! Plus, you always get instant access to all of our archived content, including our many 1 Match episodes covering everything from Omakase patron requests, Tokyo Dome main events and famous rivalries, our exclusive Retro Roulette & 5 Matches episodes, ANIME OMAKASE, and more! You can get all of this right now for only $5 at http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase

John is joined by returning guest & VOW contributor Paul Volsch (@Darth_Dragon), and they start out with a very brief (read: under 10 minutes) Wrestlemania review. Believe it or not John actually had TWO matches from WWE's annual extravaganza at four stars or better, which is actually a lot for them, and you'll have to listen to find out which ones. There's lots of laughing about the latest chapter of the Fiend saga too though, of course. Once that's out of the way they get into a full review of Night 3 of All Japan's Champion Carnival tournament, 4/11 from Niigata. John and Paul discuss a fun show full of good, solid matches, breaking down all the action in detail. They wrap up the AJPW segment by ranking their top 5 matches from the entire tournament so far, going over the standings, and discussing next Saturday's Night 4 card.

Then they turn their attention to DDT with a long review of the 4/11 April Fool Korakuen. John and Paul discuss the unexpectedly amazing Jun Akiyama vs. Danshoku Dieno main event in great detail, discuss Konosuke Takeshita's recent appearance in AEW (and why it doesn't make a lot of sense), talk about upcoming DDT plans including a major match for the 6/6 Cyberfight Festival and a confirmed date for the start of 2021's King of DDT, go over some very fun comedy on the undercard, discuss the debut of a new rookie and more. If you've come for DDT talk this is the week for you, as it gets nearly a full hour to wrap up the show.

This week's edition of Wrestling Omakase is sponsored by Manscaped. Get 20% off + free shipping with promo code OMAKASE at http://www.manscaped.com

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase it's our full preview of the upcoming Mega Puro Weekend! John is joined by returning guests Taylor (@tamaimbo) and ex-Burning Spirits co-host Kevin Hare (@stan__hansen) to preview four huge shows from Japan. Before they get into the shows there's a bit of Japanese travel chat as Kevin will actually be heading overseas for the first time to attend the three events at Sumo Hall, so we discuss his trip as well as give some thoughts and memories from John and Taylor's previous journeys as well. Before diving into the shows John also announces the results from last week's 2019 Omakase Fantasy Draft, and we discuss possible goals for the different companies when it comes to drawing fans and what the attendances might end up looking like in the end.

Then we get going with the previews, starting first with Pro Wrestling NOAH's Sumo Hall show on 11/2. Hear our full thoughts on what we think of Kiyamiya-Kenoh as a main event, some wacky names on the undercard, whether or not AXIZ should be considered Tag Team of the Year contenders and more! Then we discuss the announced matches for NJPW's 11/3 Osaka show, Power Struggle. What do we think of the Okada-Ibushi build so far and where does the tag match on this show fit in? How about Naito-Taichi, Ishii-KENTA and White-Goto? Then we head to DDT, first with a quick rundown of their 10/27 go home show from Korakuen Hall including a couple great matches and a whole lot of build up. Then we break down the entire 11/3 Ultimate Party card in detail, including all fourteen (yes, really!) matches! What do we think of Kenny Omega's usage on the show and where could we see him going from here in DDT? Finally we wrap things up with a quick preview of Big Japan's Ryogokutan show on 11/4, the last of the three Sumo Hall shows, including sounding the alarm bells for NXT Japan. A fun preview episode of some major upcoming puroresu, this week!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase now has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we return to the world of fantasy drafts but with a big twist- our first ever make your own G1 draft! That's right, to prepare for the upcoming G1 Climax, John and FIVE GUESTS each draft 20 male wrestlers from the entire wrestling world and put together their own G1-style round robin tournament! It's a whole lot of fun!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is the best mix of modern puro & historical coverage your five dollars can buy. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to seven exclusive 5 Matches episodes that you can’t find on the free feed. Our celebration of the G1 Climax featured John and Chris Samsa from the Sport of Pro Wrestling hosting a very special all-G1 5 Matches episode, covering all sorts of awesome matches (Naito-Omega III! Akiyama vs. Tenzan in the finals from 2003! Nakamura-Ibushi from 2013 and much more!), and you can only listen to it on the Omakase Patreon. Plus you'll be ready for John's thorough coverage of the G1 Climax, AJPW Champion Carnival and NOAH N-1 Victory tournaments, as they'll be bringing you daily coverage that you won't be able to find on the free feed, featuring special guests as well! And you get all of our other content too, including our just-completed series covering every Naito vs. Ishii match in chronological order and a whole lot more. All of this can be yours for only $5, so sign up today!

John is joined by not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE returning guests from Voices of Wrestling! Sean (@SASedor2994), Paul (@Darth_Dragon), Andy (@trillyrobinson), Suit (@SuitWilliams) and Kelly (@comicgeekelly) are all here for our biggest fantasy draft yet! All six of them, including John, have 20 picks each, choosing from any men worldwide who have wrestled since the start of September 2019 to assemble their rosters, and then they put together two G1 blocks of 10. Then they reveal their blocks, matches they're excited for, and the final nights of each block, including who's still alive and what are the scenarios for them to move on. Finally, they each crown their G1 champion.

Once you're done listening it's up to you to choose YOUR champion- whose G1 did you like the best? Since we have six different people to choose from this time around, for the first time we're introducing RANKED CHOICE VOTING! That's right, instead of just picking one, you'll actually choose your top 3 favorite G1s. Reward your three favorites now and get your votes in to help us choose our champion! Polling will be open until the day the real G1 starts on Saturday 9/19, and the winners will be revealed on that weekend's free episode. Go here to vote: https://forms.gle/5CyFWLaHyEz3yhu49

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk two Kobashi-Akiyama bouts, some FMW and Toryumon and a WCW classic! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account, letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week! It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

John is joined by JoJo Remy (@jojo_runs), ex-host of the Japan Audio Wrestling podcast and very longtime Japanese wrestling fan. JoJo is making his debut on Omakase but he and John go way back to John's very first trip to Japan in March 2016, right around the same time JoJo first moved to the country, so there's a lot of reminiscing and general "we've been watching this stuff a long time" discussion. JoJo also discusses what life in Japan has been like for the last four years and much more. Then we get into this week's 5 matches, and here they all are in order of their discussion on the episode, with links so you could watch them all:

1. Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi, AJPW 7/24/98 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhrWd4BHcKQ)

2. Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi, NOAH 8/6/00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHNsg55dqU)

3. Jinsei Shinzaki v Mr. Gannosuke, FMW 4/21/98 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QnS7N1homE&feature=youtu.be&t=1218, match starts at 20:18)

4. CIMA/Don Fujii/TARU vs. Dragon Kid/Masaaki Mochizuki/Ryo Saito vs. Darkness Dragon/Genki Horiguchi/Magnum TOKYO, Toryumon Japan 7/7/02 (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4f0fjm)

5. Sting & Lex Luger vs. Rick & Scott Steiner, WCW 5/15/91 (WWE Network: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Superbrawl-1-9389)

This obviously gives us a ton to talk about, including: early Western puro fandom (and their extreme Kawada bias), NOAH vs. the rest of Japanese wrestling in the early 00s and how that may have had an effect on a quickly dropped Akiyama move, different eras of FMW, 2002 Toryumon Japan stables, LEX LUGER DEFENSE SQUAD and much more!

This week's Wrestling Omakase is brought to you by Roman and ZipRecruiter! Go to www.getroman.com/vow for a free consultation and free 2 day shipping, and head to www.ziprecruiter.com/vow for all your job listing needs!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

This week on Wrestling Omakase we bring together the hosts of three different network podcasts, as John is joined by Rich & Joe from the VOW Flagship and Joel & Damon from the Super J-Cast for our 2020 NJPW Year in Review episode!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Our 2020 Year in Review series will continue exclusively on the Patreon this coming week, as John will be joined by Jamie from DramaticDDT & JoJo for our DDT episode, and Taylor from Jumping Bomb Audio and Luke from the Apricot Pod for our Joshi episode! Plus, check out our ongoing series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order, as we recently talked Ric Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami from the first NJPW/WCW show and Genichiro Tenryu & Hulk Hogan vs. The Road Warriors from the SWS/WWF event, both in 1991, with still much more to come. You also get instant access to everything else we recorded during 2020 too- tournament coverage, shows covering every Okada-Tanahashi and Naito-Ishii matches in order, ANIME OMAKASE, and a whole lot more. Finally, patrons can vote in our Omakase year end awards until January 1st! You can get access to all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

New Japan had a controversial year- was it the beginning of the end for the peak era, a bump in the road, or was it #actuallygood? Opinions often diverged even here on the VOW Podcast Network, which is why people asked for this specifically- get all of the podcasters on this network who talk NJPW in one (virtual) room, and let's talk this out. John is thus joined by Joe & Rich from the VOW Flagship (@voiceswrestling), and Damon & Joel from the Super J Cast (@thesuperjcast), for a slightly different format of Year in Review show; rather than going in chronological order and going through the shows, John sets some of the most discussed topics from New Japan's 2020 for the panel to go through together and try to reach some sort of consensus (or at least grudging disagreement!).

Topics covered include: EVIL's championship victory, run-ins and interference in NJPW in general (and how much more is there really now vs. the past), is the overall in ring quality still the best in the world, the downswing in Western interest and how much of it can be blamed on the clap crowds/COVID in general, the FORBIDDEN DOOR with AEW, returning faces Great-O-Khan and Master Wato, and a whole lot more. Then the panel each give their picks for NJPW's award winners in 2020 across your usual major Observer-style categories (WOTY, Most Outstanding, etc.) and finally try to tackle as many of your mailbag questions as they can- should they REPLACE GEDO?! Has Will Ospreay regressed? Is New Japan leaving money on the table if Shingo Takagi never gets past the NEVER level? And more! It's a packed episode you won't want to miss!

Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter to submit questions for future episodes and get alerts every time new episodes go up (both free feed & Patreon)- @wrestleomakase!

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guests. We really appreciate it!

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

This week on Wrestling Omakase we take a completely randomized look back at the biggest party of the summer, SummerSlam!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Patrons get so much bonus audio that never hits the free feed, most notably two full length exclusive episodes per month. Right now we're in the middle of our series looking back at every Tokyo Dome main event in order- we just got through 1997, as we discussed the very memorable circumstances behind the start of the famous Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa feud. We break down each of these main events in detail but also go into lots of other notes and memorable moments from each and every Tokyo Dome show! Plus, our most recent Patreon exclusive full episode reviewed the NJPW WRESTLE GRAND SLAM in Tokyo Dome show in detail, along with all the major matches from the Summer Struggle shows from Osaka & Nagoya! You can also listen to all of our previous audio, including our various rivalry series (Okada/Tanahashi, Naito/Ishii, Naito/Tanahashi), our series reviewing matches submitted by Omakase patrons, ANIME OMAKASE, and much more, with access only costing $5 right now at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guests Jeri Evagood (@The_JerriestJer) & Neil David (@chubby_cthulhu) for our SummerSlam Retro Roulette episode! As always for a Retro Roulette episode, we chose six random years and then chose a random match (all done through an RNG) from each one. You can see below for what we ended up with, or skip this and go right to the episode if you'd rather be surprised. All matches can of course be found on either Peacock or WWE Network, depending on where you live/are pretending to live.

1991: The British Bulldog, The Dragon & The Texas Tornado vs. Power And Glory (Hercules & Paul Roma) & The Warlord

1999: D-Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett

2000: Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho

2005: The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton

2008: CM Punk vs. John Bradshaw Layfield

2013: CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar

Topics that come up along the way include: who does and doesn't have nostalgia for early 90s WWF, The Dragon is maybe every Vince-ism combined, who cares about two titles when you have two large fake breasts to talk about, a very stereotypical Vince Russo finish, doing a 2 out of 3 falls match for literally no reason, THIS FEUD MUST CONTINUE (except it oddly didn't really!), a Taker vs. Orton match that nobody seems to remember (maybe for good reason), Bob Orton's fake wig makes Undertaker very mad, we swear we didn't fix the results to give us two CM Punk matches while his name is in the news lately (honest!), Punk's flaccid 2008 title run, Punk and Brock tear the house down, and finally: forgetting how much Paul Heyman was involved.

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we break down the last two nights of the G1 including the controversial B block finals and the divisive overall final, then give a full review of everyone's tournaments, breaking them down wrestler-by-wrestler!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon brought you coverage of all three major tournaments this fall: the G1 Climax, the AJPW Champion Carnival and the NOAH N-1 Victory. If you haven't been following along it's all archived up there for you right now if you sign up, including our A block final audio with a special guest! Plus we'll be getting back to great retro coverage coming up soon, and next week it will be the only place to hear an Omakase episode at all since we're taking the week off here on the free feed. Finally, we'll be covering three MORE tournaments in November & December: NJPW's World Tag League and Best of the Super Juniors, and DDT's D-ou! You can get access to all of this and much more right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

John is joined by returning guest Todd Martin (@ToddMartinMMA), making his debut here on the free feed after an earlier Patreon episode. John and Todd start by talking about interesting ads during election season before getting right into the G1 action. They review the B block finals from Saturday and the final night from Sunday, covering all the matches on both shows with a lot of thoughts on SANADA and EVIL in particular. They also discuss some of the many matches being teased for the upcoming Power Struggle tour. Finally, the show ends with our full G1 Climax 30 wrap-up, as John and Todd each list their ten favorite matches of the tournament and John ranks all 20 wrestlers by their average star rating (yes, real nerd shit here) with Todd giving his thoughts on each of their tournaments as well. A fun end to a fun G1!

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Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd