Was this past week enough for you? Well, this week is an even bigger one in pro wrestling! Here’s a look at all the best.
Recommendation of the Week: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kaito Kiyomiya
Ever since the second Wrestle Kingdom show of this year, the world of wrestling was hyped about this matchup. However, the rivalry between Kaito and Kazuchika has been brewing for more than a year since Okada dismissed Kiyomiya as an opponent. With both competitors having major championships, a clean win for one of them seems quite unlikely, but that doesn’t minimize the anticipation for their clash at all. This is THE match to watch out for this week. Shame it’s on a Tuesday, eh?
NOAH
The rest of the Keiji Muto retirement show card is extraordinary. Obviously, you have the last match of Keiji facing Tetsuya Naito from New Japan. The junior champions Hiromu Takahashi and AMAKUSA square off. NOAH’s cross-promotional matches with AJPW and DRAGONGATE look phenomenal too. And to have some women’s action TJPW gets to showcase 8 of their best talents in the Tokyo Dome.
IMPACT
After winning the Career vs Title match against Jordynne Grace, Mickie James now needs to deal with the Russian beast Masha Slamovich. Josh Alexander continues his reign on top of Impact facing his next challenger in the charismatic Rich Swann. The in my opinion best matchup of the whole show, in Mike Bailey vs Jonathan Gresham, unfortunately, has been relegated to the preshow. They will most certainly put on a great match anyway. KUSHIDA teams up with the Motor City Machine Gund to take on the Bullet Club trio of KENTA, Ace Austin, and Chris Bey.
DDT
To determine the number one contender for Yuji Hino’s KO-D Openweight Championship HARASHIMA will battle the brute Yukio Naya. Yukio Naya just came up short in the D-Oh Grand Prix against Yuki Ueno, so it will be interesting whether DDT decides to gamble on the brawler or choose the old but gold HARASHIMA. Additionally, Mizuki Watase will fight against Shinichiro Tominaga.
STARDOM
The STARDOM in SHOWCASE shows have been a mix of wonderful dreams and terrible nightmares. The card for this iteration of the event looks stellar. We have another AZM fatal four-way to look forward to including Natsu Sumire, Hanan, and Momoka Hanazono. Syuri will once again scare Saki Kashima to her core in a UWF Rules Match and Prominence faces DDM in a hardcore match.
NJPW
New Japan and CMLL host the Fantastica Mania events again. In numerous multi-man tags NJPW talent and CMLL talent square off. Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and El Desperado are some of the talents representing NJPW. CMLL can showcase its luchadors like El Soberano Jr., Templario, Volador Jr. and so many more at these events. There will most certainly be some interesting matchups for you.
AEW
In another more calm week for AEW, the AEW All-Atlantic Title will be defended by Orange Cassidy against the ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta. To find out the third tag team at Revolution, there will be a tag team battle royal including the former NJPW Team Aussie Open. Hangman Adam Page’s friend Evil Uno defends Hangman and takes on Jon Moxley.
DPW
The still relatively new promotion DPW has its next event this Saturday. The DPW Women’s Champion Emi Sakura faces off against the Japanese legend Sumie Sakai. In a Title vs Career Match, Lucky Ali takes on Colby Corino. With the rumors that Corino might join WWE, the result seems certain, but the match will still be awesome.
RIXE
A french promotion I have only known for about five hours, RIXE, managed to get Will Ospreay over for a match. His opponent is a mainstay of European wrestling Tristan Archer. He has had numerous impressive performances in wXw, so I’m really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, it will probably only be available in about a month, judging by their YouTube schedule. Hey, at least it’s not as bad as PWG’s schedule.
Overview
This week looks like another banger in pro wrestling. We have definitely made it out of the post-Wrestle Kingdom slump and are heading towards Revolution and Wrestlemania, with some awesome Japanese Events spread throughout. Did I miss anything? What are you excited about the most? Send me all your feedback to @UpcomingWrestl1 on Twitter.
Stay tuned to the Five Star Network for all updates on the world of Joshi, Puro, and more!