The Year of Years: Celebrating Samoa Joe’s Sensational 2005
In 2005, Samoa Joe produced an unreal trifecta: he starred in one of TNA’s best matches ever, a top-five ROH bout, and arguably the best action IWA-Mid South has ever produced.
NJPW Power Struggle Preview
The road to Wrestle Kingdom 15 is about to kick into the next gear, and the drivers sat in pole position could find their favourable fortune falling. Power Struggle might result in the entire complexion of Wrestle Kingdom being turned upside down. A rivalry that has been the hallmark of New Japan this year will have its newest instalment, …
October’s Most Joyful Players
Welcome to the October edition of Most Joyful Players (MJP)! Every month, a selection of WrestleJoy’s writers will bring you their individual picks for the past month’s MJP. In September, writer Molly Belle highlighted John Silver as her MJP, and since then WrestleJoy have joined The Dark Order! Maybe I should pick Chris Jericho, and hopefully he’ll invite me …
A Hero’s Journey: The Unlikely Rise of Eddie Kingston
“Who’s Eddie Kingston?” – Chris Jericho I am ashamed to admit I didn’t know anything about Eddie Kingston beyond his name. I had seen him wrestle against Masato Tanaka at the Wrestlecon show in NYC on Mania weekend. The next day Conrad Thompson told me over breakfast that Eddie Kingston and Mance Warner were two guys he thought had the …
Terms From The Inside: Botch
At its core, pro wrestling is an intricately planned dance. A brutal and hard hitting dance, but a dance nonetheless – one that requires coordination and pinpoint accuracy to succeed. Something going wrong is the biggest fear of every performer in the ring, but also inevitable given the sheer number of wrestlers and performers participating in wrestling matches every …
Crowning A New King: Sami and Nakamura Take Over Dallas
My favorite matches – the ones that stay with me forever – are those that can tell a story as beautifully without words as they can with them. Within the confines of NXT, or any other promotion for that matter, there are not many matches that have done that for me as well as Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura …
‘Twas Halloween Night: A Very Nice, Very Evil Danhausen Poem of Sorts!
‘Twas Halloween night, and all across TwitterWrestling fans were popping for creatures and crittersThe timeline was littered with scary and spookyYet the most evil of all could be considered quite kooky A ghastly white face and a big toothy smileSaid Danhausen’s coming to frighten in styleA permanent grin though nothing was funny Except he was here to steal big bags …
Kenny Omega: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and The Cleaner
Kenny Omega’s five year journey with NJPW started with his grand reveal as the newest Bullet Club member on November 8th 2014 at Power Struggle. Immediately, he stated his intentions to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, declaring “I’m here to clean up the junior division.” Omega spent barely a full-time year in the junior heavyweight division, but in …