dragongate

After addressing the impact of the Vince McMahon lawsuit on the media and (japanaese)wrestling, STRIGGA and Dylan relax and sit back to give their thoughts on three big shows from this past weekend. First of all, Dragon Gate's Gate of Bayside is in the focus with discussions about Luis Mante as Dream Gate Champion, the Dream Gate & Brave booking as well as Kiyomiya & Alejandro excelling in DG. Championships are also the topic of debate with AJPW's event in Hachioji featuring Nakajima vs. Ashino and Tamura vs. Iwamoto and what possible title matches could be ahead. Shuji Ishikawa leaving is of course another topic that also is connected to DDT, so Dramatic Dream Team's Sweet Dream! 2024 is the final talking point with another look at the champions and the direction of the company at the start of the year.

Welcome to the Eastern Lariat Year End Awards 2023 – your ultimate celebration of excellence in the world of japanese pro wrestling! On this show it's time to honor the best of the best with awards that YOU, the listeners voted for. From heart stopping moments over stunning rookies to MVPs, we looked at every corner of japanese wrestling to crown outstanding achievements. For the first time, we present this show at the beginning of the following year to also potentially include matches and developments in late December. On top of the awards, we introduce the Eastern Lariat Hall of Fame on this show with the first two inductees. Join us in our celebration of japanese pro wrestling in 2023!

With the final episode of the year we introduce a new concept never heard before on the Eastern Lariat: A prediction show! STRIGGA & Dylan go through all relevant promotions in Japan to run down and rate YOUR and each other's predictions on the newly invented state of the art Predict-O-Meter! Join the fun ride for a look into the crystal pro wrestling ball!

STRIGGA & Dylan return with an impromptu episode after news and cards dropped on a rapid speed at the beginning of the week. Not only did New Japan announce a new Championship, Stardom, NOAH, DRAGONGATE and GLEAT also announced their cards for the upcoming big shows at the end of the year. The Eastern Lariat digests these developments, previews the big matches and while the recording happened, the Tokyo Sports Awards were announced. So this is a jam packed episode putting companies' situations into perspective.

After a huge weekend of Pro Wrestling in Japan there were a lot of talking points to get to so the Eastern Lariat returns with a look at New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestlig NOAH and DRAGONGATE. NJPW's Power Struggle on one hand is somewhat of a lame duck show in the calendar year of New Japan, but on the other hand it produced great and unique matches. Unique was Katsuhiko Nakajima's landing in All Japan, winning the Triple Crown as he walked in. STRIGGA & Dylan discuss the way the match came about, the action itself and of course the future implications for Nakajima, former champion Aoyagi and the first challenger Kento Miyahara. As Aoyagi's reign ended, Madoka Kikuta's reign as Open The Dream Gate Champion in DRAGONGATE surprisingly continued so the final topic of the show involves discussions about BIGBOSS Shimizu losing yet again and in which way stables could be shaken up in the world of DG.

After a brief hiatus the Eastern Lariat returns to catch up on the big japanese promotions and their most recent as well as coming up events. First, STRIGGA & Dylan tackle New Japan's Destruction in Ryogoku and Royal Quest III as well as their road to Wrestle Kingdom and if the show will be able to draw a bigger crowd than Muto's retirement. Someone who draws a lot of attention these days is Katushiko Nakajima so the following topics include his final Korakuen match for NOAH as well his appearance on AJPW's Korakuen show the day thereafter. Amidst all the dicussions about NOAH & All Japan, STRIGGA & Dylan also discuss the sensitive topic of Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano's exit from Pro Wrestling NOAH, the allegations against them and pro-wrestling's terrible reaction to it. The shows ends with a look at DDT's Korakuen, a brief preview of their Sumo Hall show and a look at DRAGONGATE's upcoming show in Osaka.

In this episode of the Eastern Lariat, STRIGGA & Dylan mostly focus on the young and more up and coming talent that AJPW, DDT and DRAGONGATE have to offer as they discuss guys like Ryuki Honda, Yuki Ueno or the recent debut of T.N.Revolucion in DG. The show also offers a look at Pro Wrestling NOAH using and wasting potential, recommended matches from All Japan this month and a full review of DDT's Big Bang event from this past Saturday.

Dylan is joined by regular EL NOAH contributor Dean to talk about NOAH's N1 Victory Final which saw Go Shiozaki emerge victorious for his first ever NOAH tournament win. We talk about the whole show, the developments with Psycho Clown coming in to face Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. for the National Title, the developments of the Jr. Division and a get well soon to Chris Ridgeway. We talk about Kaito Kiyomiya's return to the promotion and the potential of him bringing back Oiwa from NJPW. Finally we go over the entire tournament and break down all 16 competitors. Who shined, who stood out, who disappointed, and who was the MVP? Finally, we talk about the near future of the company and Dean throws out some great predictions and ideas for the big Ariake show on January 2nd.

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In an impromptu show, STRIGGA called Dylan to look back at a weekend in japanese pro wrestling that had ups and downs, was hot and cold and something in between. After first going over the next big show line ups for New Japan Pro Wrestling, they discuss DRAGONGATE's Dangerous Gate from Ota City as well as their immediate future with some ideas for turns. The next big chunk of the show is devoted to NOAH's N-1 Victory, which is on its home stretch now. You can't claim that about Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix, but it's another hot tournament on the menu for this episode. At the end of the show, STRIGGA & Dylan get into some All Japan with a main focus on Ryuki Honda's rise within the company and them trying to figure out what AJPW will do in Yoyogi.

On Super Sunday in japanese pro wrestling all major companies ran major events that varied in success depending on how you looked at them. The Eastern Lariat of course takes an extensive look at New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax and the finals of Block A & B. Given the results, they discuss the outlook for Hikuleo, the performance of the Reiwa 3 and # Kaito Kiyomiya's future. Block B leads straight to the discussions about the knockout stages and who will be winning. Before the G1 talk, STRIGGA & Dylan looked back at DRAGONGATE's King of Gate Final, the crazy GLEAT show from Sumo Hall as well as AJPW & NOAH from Super Sunday!

Dylan engages in a full preview of Pro Wrestling NOAH's N1 Victory tournament with predictions for every single match up to the final, and he's joined by Dean and Dr. Jonathan Foye who also give their predictions and as it turned all 3 had different winners of the tournament! It's long, but we talk about everyone and go over a ton of scenarios, and somehow come out with everything being alright by the end.

Look forward to more coverage on the Patreon where EVERY SINGLE MATCH will be covered with both Dean and Jonathan factoring in along with others! And of course keep your eyes peeled to watch the N1 itself on Wrestle Universe where you will see who if any looks like genius and/or idiots.

Get coverage of the N1, same day reviews of the G1, same day reviews of STARDOM's 5 Star Grand Prix, an archive featuring thousands of hours of historical audio, all for only $5 a month. Also reviews of major Manami Toyota matches in her career for free! All on patreon.com/easternlariat

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This past weekend New Japan presented two G1 Climax shows that could not have been more different. While the one from Nagaoka received almost unanimous praise, the one two days later in Nagano was rated the lowest of all G1 shows this year so far. STRIGGA & Dylan discuss all the matches and go into some wrestler's quest so far and in some cases – once again – question their role in the biggest tournament of the year. The G1 talk is sandwiched between some notes on DRAGONGATE's King of Gate and their upcoming Korakuen as well as DDT's Peter Pan with the emotional highlight of Chris Brookes winning the KO-D Title at the beginning and a quick review of Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix opening night at the end of the show.

The summer of tournaments rolls on and so does the Eastern Lariat. In this episode STRIGGA & Dylan look back at Days 3 & 4 of the G1 Climax 33 from Yamagata and Sendai, which leads to a discussion about the format of the tournament. What improvements could there be to provide more interesting undercards and an more intriguing field of competitors? While some matches are lacking excitement, others over delivered so far – the G1 has truly started. At the end of the show the Eastern Lariat duo also discusses DRAGONGATE's King of Gate as well as the N-1 Rumble leading up to NOAH's N-1 Victory and the Sumo Hall Cards for DDT & GLEAT.

Out with the old, in with the new! The Eastern Lariat got new any shiny awards waiting for winners in 13 different categories that saw almost every japanese promotion represented in some form or fashion. Led by the ballots sent in by the listeners, STRIGGA and Dylan make their own picks starting with Best Foreigner, going over most improved, best promotion, best wrestler and much more until the final two awards: The Manami Toyota Joshi MVP and the Kenta Kobashi (overall) MVP. Join the Eastern Lariat on a journey through the first six months of japanese pro-wrestling in 2023!

With STRIGGA back after an hiatus of 5 weeks, him and Dylan open the show with a preview of the newly named categories for the Half Year Awards. From there, the two discuss Forbidden Door, STRIGGA's take on the G1 Climax as well as the N-1 Victory Blocks for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Dylan gives his take on the highly acclaimed 12 Women Cage Match from Stardom's Sunshine show and the duo talk about DRAGONGATE's upcoming biggest show of the year: Kobe World! Who's gonna lose their mask?The show closes with a quick discussion about Yuji Okabayashi, who's taking an indefinite hiatus.

Golden Week traditionally is the week of the year that delivers the most concentration of big shows apart from the first week of January. This year was no different as every major company ran shows during the holidays so the Eastern Lariat's plate was full of matches, developments and surprises to talk about. STRIGGA & Dylan of course focus on the traditional big three, but also dive into Big Japan and DRAGONGATE deeper than they usually do and overall about a dozen companies are mentioned on this year's Golden Week Extravaganza~!

With the announcement of All Together Again on June 9, the Eastern Lariat returns to discuss a possible card for the show and to take a look back in history when STRIGGA & Dylan first fantasy booked All Together shows in 2020. After that the attention is on two of the three companies represented on All Together: Pro Wrestling NOAH presented a loaded show from Sendai that saw Jake Lee vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Go Shiozaki returning and much more. In All Japan, the Champion Carnival continues and has some good matches and upsets to offer. Finally the Eastern Lariat presents a run down of the shows Big Japan and DRAGONGATE have to offer during golden week. A packed episode as always! 

At the beginning of 2023, japanese pro-wrestling has some great champions and challengers alike to offer. STRIGGA & Dylan discuss the champions of the traditional “big three” as well as those holding the gold in six other companies. With the general rule of thumb of the champion reflecting the state of a company, the Eastern Lariat crew not only discusses potential challengers, but also look at rookies in development and the general state of some of the rosters.

What a spectacle it was. Keiji Muto retired on unquestionably the biggest show in japanese pro-wrestling in decades. The Eastern Lariat looks back at the entire show with discussions about Keiji Muto vs. Tetsuya Naito and Kazuchika Okada vs. Kaito Kiyomiya and their implications for the future taking center stage. With Muto presenting this huge event, two questions seem crucial: Can japanese pro-wrestling present something bigger or anything close to this? Who gained the most from this event? Besides that, STRIGGA & Dylan also put every match on the card into perspective and highlight current developments in the respective companies. 

More than ever in the past three years it feels like pro-wrestling in Japan is once again gaining momentum. Therefore, STRIGGA & Dylan first discuss Kota Ibushi's freelance status as well as Keiji Muto's big retirement show on the horizon. With a lot of promotions represented on that show, the Eastern Lariat also looks at the individual shows that DRAGONGATE, AJPW and NJPW put on plus Dylan gives his rundown of the big Osaka show Stardom ran this weekend. Exciting times in japanese pro-wrestling may be ahead, which also leaves the Eastern Lariat crew feel that same excitement!