suwama

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.

Tokyo once more was the center of japanese pro-wrestling this past Saturday with both New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling running important shows. While New Japan's Sakura Genesis in Sumo Hall produced amazing matches and stunning title changes in front of an ecstatic crowd, the opening day of the Champion Carnival 2023 left a lot to be desired and there were clear reasons for this lackluster tournament opening. STRIGGA & Dylan discuss these two shows and their implications for future developments. Join us a we discuss JUST...TWO...SHOWS!

With the end of the year approaching step by step all promotions are bracing themselves for the big shows coming up at the end of the year or in very early 2023. NOAH presented a double shot in Korakuen Hall with all GHC Title matches plus their DRAGONGATE joint venture Global Dream, All Japan's & Stardom's tag leagues started while DDT is closing in on their D King Grand Prix. While there's tons of stuff going on – All Japan are even running two tournaments at the same time – most companies don't feel as hot as they would love to and there's a number of reasons why that is. STRIGGA & Dylan bring up some of them and of course also point out what's working.

All Japan and Dramatic Dream Team are the main focus of the newest edition of the Eastern Lariat as both companies came off a weekend with multiple title matches. While DDT is giving us one of the best championship runs in recent history with Kazusada Higuchi, many decisions in AJPW, specifically around the Voodoo Murders, are mind boggling and they led to in part atrocious matches. Besides these two companies STRIGGA & Dylan also briefly preview the big NOAH & DRAGONGATE shows on the coming weekends and the final of the IWGP Women's Championship and its impact on NJPW is up for discussion at the end of the show!

Next weekend is loaded with shows in Japan, because September 19 brings another public holiday with Keiro no Hi (Respect for the Aged Day) so STRIGGA & Dylan got together to discuss Jun Akiyama's 30^th anniversary, All Japan's business ideas going into their 50^th anniversary show in Nippon Budokan as well as the card itself and possible outcomes for the future. Who's leaving with the Triple Crown? Who's challenging one day later in Korakuen? Will Chris Daniels be there? While AJPW is full of questions, DRAGONGATE delivers some answers with the pushes of Mochizuki Jr., Ishin Iihashi and D'courage so their upcoming Dangerous Gate gets a preview as well. Other topics are Keiji Muto's retirement show in Tokyo Dome plus an update on Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix!

Every year Umi no Hi, or the Day of the Ocean, marks the start of one of the busiest and most exciting weeks of the year for japanese pro-wrestling. Not only did the 32^nd G1 Climax start with a big double header in Hokkaido, but Pro Wrestling NOAH also ran one of their biggest and most well received shows in recent history in Nippon Budokan. Besides a discussion about these shows, matches and developments, STRIGGA & Dylan also analyse All Japan's booking around Suwama winning the Triple Crown, the newest advent of the Voodoo Murders and Budokan on the horizon.

Tournaments all over the place! STRIGGA & Dylan look back at the beginning of this year's G1 Climax where we saw highlights, but also lowlights and repetitive & tired tropes. The N-1 Victory and Stardom's 5 Star GP come across like fresher and more diverting tournaments – just because of their concepts? Besides these 3 tournaments The Eastern Lariat crew also looks at the most recent All Japan Korakuen Hall show, discusses Jake Lee as Champion and breaks down the Real World Tag League Line Up.

With Golden Week in the rear view mirror The Eastern Lariat crew got together to discuss major developments, matches and stories in some of the big japanes pro-wrestling companies. Following up Dylan's great Patreon series about the Champion Carnival he did with Rob (@BeMcCooley on Twitter) we once again got Rob onto the show to discuss the Carnival as well as other developments in NJPW, Kyushu Pro, TJPW, DDT and Dragon Gate in one of the busiest weeks of the year in Japan!

In this two parted episode the Eastern Lariat crew first looks at a bunch of different topics from last week including Samoa Joe being let go by WWE, TTT's new Indepenendent Championship, the 5/26 GLEAT card, DDT vs. NOAH and CyberFight, TJPW's amazing Still Incomplete show, Stardom's Cinderella Tournament and 2AW before STRIGGA & Dylan turn their attention to the first half of AJPW's Champion Carnival and put everything into perspective as they name their top five performers, top five matches and rate every performer's tournament so far.

This episode of the Eastern Lariat starts out with an hour long synopsis of the current state of New Japan Pro Wrestling after Sakura Genesis. This includes the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Kota Ibushi's fall from grace, Will Ospreay's rise to such as well as Okada, Tanahashi and much, much more. After that STRIGGA & Dylan make their picks for the 2021 Champion Carnival of All Japan Pro Wrestling thus mapping out their ideas for storylines within the tournament. Join in for a fun ride!

This episode of the Eastern Lariat starts off with rather difficult topics as STRIGGA & Dylan discuss Marty Scurll potentially coming into New Japan, Hiromo Takahashi being out for a long time and Kota Ibushi's weird body language. But fear not! The guys have a lot of fun discussing All Japan's recent and upcoming events as well as the Champion Carnival line up plus CyberFight's announcement of a big joint show of all companies under their umbrella.

This New Year's Potpourri of the Eastern Lariat comes to you with a variety of topics. First STRIGGA & Dylan talk about the state of emergency in Japan due to COVID-19 and what it means for pro-wrestling. Under the impression of the looming state of emergency New Japan, All Japan, DDT and TJP all ran shows in the first week of 2021. The Eastern Lariat looks back at all those events and shout out great matches, stories and developments in each promotion.

After an eventful weekend in the realm of japanese pro-wrestling and an unexpected eventful Monday with the announcement of CyberFight The Eastern Lariat returns yet again to discuss a bunch of different topics starting with smaller companies such as Ganbare Pro, ZERO1, DOVE, BASARA and from there going to Stardom, their recent shows and the upcoming 5 Star Grand Prix. STRIGG A & Dylan also talk about the big title matches in All Japan (Suwama vs. Ishikawa, Yokosuka vs. Iwamoto) and New Japan (EVIL vs. Hiromu, Takagi vs. Desperado) that happened over the weekend and also discuss about the directions both companies are going in.

The Eastern Lariat returns with a two parted episode: First STRIGGA & Dylan talk about the call for help of the pro-wrestling community to the japanese government and its implications and they also debate the (likely) end to all NXT Japan plans in the current state of the COVID-19 crisis. Not only the crisis is the talk of the town, but also a possible Supershow organized by multiple japanese promotions when things get back to normal so the Eastern Lariat crew booked two All Together style shows following another FANTASY DRAFT~!

In this episode STRIGGA & Dylan talk about japanese pro wrestling under the influence of the Coronavirus. They first talk about Big Japan trying to hold onto their Hokkaido tour despite infections rising and what that could mean for them as a promotion. Then the Eastern Lariat crew talks about empty arena wrestling from Pro Wrestling NOAH and All Japan Pro Wrestling from late March and early April that featured some heavily debated matches including Shiozaki vs. Fujita and THAT Six Man Tag.

It's the Final Lariat of 2019! STRIGGA & Dylan first revisit the Year End Awards episode, name their Joshi MVP of 2019, debate about Hazuki, Kagetsu and Miyu Yamashita's plan to make TJP the #1 Joshi company before turning their attention to Dramatic Dream Team's D-King Grand Prix 2020 that also took place in 2019. From there on it's all about the future as the Eastern Lariat previews the AJPW double header on Januar 2nd & 3rd as well as the NOAH double header on January 4th & 5th. With NOAH's show on the 5th being a mystery show STRIGGA & Dylan go deep into fantasy booking bot mode. Last, but not least, Dylan brings up his thoughts on Tanahashi, AEW and The Elite which brings STRIGGA to an interesting business model between AEW and NJPW in the US.

The Eastern Lariat proudly presents the Year End Awards 2019! Based on the Tokyo Sport Awards STRIGGA, Dylan and their guest WH Park present their picks for some of the Tokyo Sports categories and for some of their own which include best promotion, best show, most underrated and more! Dive into the year 2019 with us and join us in our look back at an exciting year in japanese pro-wrestling!

STRIGGA & Dylan return to discuss the final stretch of this year's Champion Carnival that saw some of the best matches of the entire tournament that included the finals and an outstanding 30 minute time limit draw. The Eastern Lariat crew looks at all the participants and rates their performance within the tournament while also looking at the future for some of the main Carnival players. In the second half of the show you'll get introduced to a feature that will be on the Eastern Lariat Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat: Kao Mise! STRIGGA & Dylan introduce the entire All Japan roster, talk about stables, tag teams and the history of some wrestlers within japanese pro-wrestling.

A Sumo Hall trifecta is the main topic of this week's Eastern Lariat Episode as STRIGGA & Dylan discuss the DDT double shot in Ryogoku as well as the whacky Giant Baba Memorial show from this past Tuesday. There are a lot of things to unwind and a lot of questions coming out of these three events, that's for sure! Since Kento Miyahara headlined the Baba show subsequently talk about his great title defense against Suwama, the rest of the All Japan show from Yokohama and the Champion Carnival announcements!

Special guest WH Park (@whpark9 on Twitter) from POST Wrestling joins the Eastern Lariat crew to discuss this year's "Pro Wrestling Grand Prix", better known as the Tokyo Sports awards. The trio goes through every categorie and extensively debates the winners, names their choices and sometimes even tries to get to the bottom of what the awards actutally stand for. On top of that STRIGGA, Dylan and WH also talk about their top company and some of the most improved wrestlers in 2018.