tetsuyanaito

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.

How do you like your steak? Medium? Medium rare? With out without mashed potatoes? Did you maybe not even ask for the mashed potatoes? Answering these questions is important of course, but even more important are the topics on this edition of the Eastern Lariat! STRIGGA & Dylan once again look at New Japn Pro Wrestling and their New Beginning in Hiroshima events as well as at their business stateside. The second big topic of the show is Pro Wrestling NOAH's return to Budokan that saw Keiji Muto capture the GHC Heavyweight Title. Join us in our discussion of NOAH Destination 2021, the company's new logo, English commentary and much more!

Sam & Brett wax lyrical about the matches that stood out for them in what was a tough year for everyone, especially the wrestling industry. Nonetheless there were still some absolute doozies.

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After two nights full of highlights, great matches, questionable decisions and also some underwhelming performances The Eastern Lariat presents Wrestle Kingdom 15 In Review! STRIGGA & Dylan tackle all the important matches, stories and developments surrounding New Japan Pro Wrestling's biggest and most important show of the year in a 2 hour show that praises where praise is due and that doesn't hold back when criticism is appropriate.

The Eastern Lariat proudly presents the Year End Awards 2020! In this episode STRIGGA, Dylan and their guest WH Park present their picks for a long list of categories that produce a wide rage of winners from all kinds of promotions throughout the japanese pro-wrestling scene which include MVP, best promotion, best show, most underrated, best moment and more! Join us in diving into the unprecedented and challenging year 2020 in japanese pro-wrestling!

The Eastern Lariat once again revolves around all the tournaments in Japan and two of those have already come to a close which allows both a look back at the finals and a look forward to the immediate future of All Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Still ongoing is the ZERO1 Fire Festival, but since none of it has made air yet STRIGGA & Dylan make quick work of that and focus on the main topic of the show: The G1 Climax and its final scenarios. With 4 days of block action left there are some possible finals left that would then create different roads to Wrestle Kingdom. Are they going with SANADA? Is it Okada's year? What about Jay White, EVIL and the BULLET CLUB? That and much more on a new Eastern Lariat episode!

With the 30^th anniversary of the biggest tournament in japanese professional wrestling right around the corner New Japan Pro Wrestling finally announced the full line up of the G1 Climax 30 stat's starting on September 19 in Osaka. Like every year STRIGGA & Dylan got together to discuss potential winners, dark horses, alternative candidates and of course who gets to beat the champion. This time the field of 20 also raises the question why there are no new entrants for the first time in the tournement's history and what that says about NJPW as a whole.

The Eastern Lariat returns with a huge episode covering all the events that occured last weekend in New Japan, Big Japan and All Japan. From New Japan's first outdoor show since 1999 over the last Yokohama Bunka show ever STRIGGA & Dylan go to All Japan's Korakuen Hall show. Other talking points are the AXIS split in Pro Wrestling NOAH, the new Joshi „Assemble“ as well as the first GLEAT card.

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.

In another super sized edition The Eastern Lariat looks back at possibly the most challenging and unusual six months in wrestling history from a japanese stand point. Like most other countries, Japan was affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 and still though wrestling found a way – mostly through empty arena shows. That's why this year for the first (and only?) time the Half Year Awards saw the awards for best empty arena wrestler and show besides the regular categories like MVP, most outstanding, best promotion, most underrated and so on and so forth. Join the Eastern Lariat for a fun ride through the entire japanese wrestling scene!

Calling the New Japan double shot eventful would probably be the understatement of the year. We saw turns, title changes, returns, ref bumps and shenanigans en masse. The Eastern Lariat tries to make sense of it all as STRIGGA & Dylan dicuss all of the important matches, EVIL joining the BULLET CLUB, the debut of his new “pareja” Dick Togo, Dangerous Tekkers and much, much more in a HUGE episode of the Eastern Lariat.

With pro-wrestling “returning” or more precisely getting back to normalcy step by step The Eastern Lariat debates which promotion made the most out of the unfavorable circumstances during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. In doing so STRIGGA & Dylan talk about 2AW, AJPW, Dragon Gate, DDT and NOAH and name some of the best matches and moments while also pointing out what didn't work. From there on the duo turns their attention to NJPW and the upcoming New Japan Cup. They lay out scenarios for the possible winners and name some matches they'd love to see within the tournament.

It's time for a New Japan centric episode with STRIGGA & Dylan looking back at The New Beginning from Sapporo, Korakuen and Osaka by discussing some of the top names of the company both during this tour and what their future holds in 2020. Will Naito hold on to the double title? Where's KENTA gonna fit in after his title shot? Are SANADA, Shingo Takagi or Will Ospreay knocking at the main event door? What about Okada? The Eastern Lariat tries to predict where the pieces fall until G1 Climax!

Wrestle Kingdom weekend is over and the end of Wrestle Kingdom always is the beginning of the new season for New Japan Pro Wrestling. So the Eastern Lariat takes a look back at New Year Dash which featured Jushin Thunder Liger's retirement and set the direction for some programs in months to come. Besides that STRIGGA & Dylan also discuss the mystery show Pro Wrestling NOAH had in Korakuen on 1/5 that had a great main event.

The second day of Wrestle Kingdom 14 is in the books and it was an historic event for many reasons. STRIGGA & Dylan got together to discuss their top 5 moments and matches from the show including the main event, Jushin Thunder Liger's retirement, Minoru Suzuki's entrance and the Jay White character. Other topics include a discussion about the general idea of running two Tokyo Dome shows, the post main event angle and – starting the show – a look at Joshi Wrestling in the year 2020.

A wild and crazy Taiiku no Hi (Health & Sports Day) lies behind us which in the very early hours brought us Giulia jumping from Ice Ribbon to Stardom which caused a lot of turmoil in the Joshi scene. STRIGGA & Dylan first address this topic and look at the possible motivations. In that context the two also debate a possible big breaking news story shaking up Japan. The main topic of the show however is New Japan Pro Wrestling's King of Pro Wrestling from Sumo Hall headlined by Kota Ibushi vs. EVIL and Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA. Since the show traditionally sets up Wrestle Kingdom the Eastern Lariat once more dares to look ahead to January 5 & 5, 2020.

In their quest to find what sets their world on fire STRIGGA & Dylan Fox return with a new episode which focuses on WRESTLE-1, All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling. At first the Eastern Lariat crew extensively debates the positives, the negatives and the business model of WRESTLE-1 while looking back at their big Yokohama show from early September. Then STRIGGA & Dylan take a look back at AJPW's Oudou Tournament and its future implications before talking about the main matches of NJPW's Destruction tour that – truth be told – didn't set their world on fire.

The Eastern Lariat Potpourri returns! The big anchor of the Summer Potpourri is this past weekend's Big Japan show that was headlined by the big boy battle between Daisuke Sekimoto and Michael Elgin. STRIGGA & Dylan also discuss the new Strong World Heavyweight Champion and the chances for young guys within Big Japan. A preview of the Saikyou Tag League concludes the Big Japan topic before the Eastern Lariat crew talks about Dragon Gate's Dangerous Gate show, New Japan's Super J-Cup and the Young Lions Cup, WRESTLE-1's upcoming show in Yokohama and some other news and notes on Ice Ribbon, OZ Academy and HEAT UP … and what about the Zodiac?

In the end there can only be one. There can only be one winner and there can only be one G1 Climax Megashow! STRIGGA & Dylan got together to talk about the two Block Final shows and the Final event from Tokyo Nippon Budokan. While going through this trifecta of shows the Eastern Lariat crew not only discusses all the G1 matches from Saturday until Monday, but they also rate every single performer's G1 tournament. You'll also get some fantasy booking revolving around the winner and some other outstanding performers plus the Eastern Lariat G1 Awards!

STRIGGA & Dylan return with their coverage of the Osaka doubleheader of this year's G1 Climax tunament. They not only talk about every single of the 10 tournament matches themselves, but also go in depth on Toru Yano and his appeal to casual wrestling fans. That's not all though! In more in depth discussions the Eastern Lariat team touch on the tournament so far for Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi and they also break down the SANADA and Jay White characters and what clearly sets them apart. In the end STRIGGA & Dylan also name their top 5 matches of the G1 Climax 29 so far.