As a wrestling fan, one of my personal goals for this year has been to broaden my horizons away from the current-day WWE product. Whilst the in-ring product isn’t bad (and with the quality on the current roster, how can it?), the creative tied to those matches can often be deflating. So, to provide some variety, I’ll be trawling the internet and reviewing random matches from around the world (as opposed to entire shows).
Browsing: Reviews
January 30 marked Shinsuke Nakamura’s final match (for now) in a New Japan ring, with Korakuen Hall being the venue for his swansong. In the world of NXT spoilers, we already know that Nakamura has already sent in a video for a future episode of the show, to promote his debut on WrestleMania weekend. But first, there was the small matter of a farewell show.
So, the first pay-per-view of 2016 is in the books, and WWE has a new champion. Perhaps the biggest surprise on Sunday was that the company kept their surprises limited to two: a debut, and the new champion.
Owen Hart’s passing in May 1999 stunned the wrestling world. To the wider world, the attention came as this was the first time in a long long time that a wrestler had died without it being the traditional “wrestler’s death”. It robbed fans of a talented, yet under-appreciated performer, and caused reverberations that tore a grieving family apart.
As part of my informal new year’s resolution to be more diverse with my wrestling watching, I’ve taken the plunge and have signed up for New Japan World – the NJPW version of the WWE Network, for the uninitiated. This past Monday saw New Japan’s version of WrestleMania – WrestleKingdom 10 – and with all of the buzz around WWE’s raid of New Japan, this was as good a time as any to start.
BackBodyDrop wraps up 2014 with our final awards at 2014, including some of our wishes for the year ahead. And a positive word to say about Grado too!
As we continue to wind down the year 2015, we continue our look at the year with some more of our awards for the best (and possibly the worst) of the year.
After picking out the top performer in 2015 in WWE (and believe me, it didn’t match the Slammys!), it’s time to rattle through a few more year-end awards. As ever, these are obviously my opinion, and my opinion only…