this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025

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SquaredCircle’s Weekly Pro-Wrestling Discussion Thread! (February 2nd, 2025) (Spoilers) (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 week ago by GeekFTW@lemmy.zip to c/squaredcircle@lemmy.zip

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Hello SquaredCircle! Welcome to our Weekly Discussion Thread!

What have you watched lately? Seen any great matches? Have suggestions for things to watch? Anything not getting covered in other threads that ya wanna fill people in about? Questions about promotions, wrestlers, 'the business' or more?

Feel free to post below!

(Reminder, this thread can and will contain spoilers for possibly any show. Spoiler tags are not required in here, but if the show just happened try and keep spoiler talk it to its respective discussion thread for the first day).

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[–] Brain@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Hey, if you guys used one of those API bots on reddit that deleted your comments or garbled them when the Reddit exodus happened, go double check it hasn't returned, I just got a comment on a 9 year old post that should have been gone.

EDIT: After some hours digging through pages in my profile, it appears that it is hit and miss what did or did not get removed with a variety of Removed by User, Deleted, gibberish, etc followed by full on posts. If I had to guess, I think it's possible they may have shut down the bots access in the middle of it doing its job so it never finished and I just obliviously didn't notice.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago

Oh that's dirty, fucking Reddit.

[–] Neon_Carnivore@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I deleted my accounts, so it won't be easy to check.

Oh, and fuck Spez.

[–] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 6 days ago

You know, I've been thinking about how AEW keeps trying and failing to "restore the feeling". And I think the big reason they can't is that "the feeling" had little to do with the in-ring product at all.

AEW, when it first started, was the promotion for wrestlers by wrestlers. The Elite were the faces of the promotion (hell, the place is named after them), and Tony Khan was more of a silent partner than anything. As TK has taken more of an active, public-facing role in the promotion, it has detracted from that feeling. He may be a wrestling superfan, but he's not a wrestler, and he damn sure isn't The Elite. As well, there's still the shadow of CM Punk that never quite went away. AEW used to be the place where everyone got along and worked to create the best show they could without the politics, but Punk destroyed that image, whether he cracked that foundation or merely exposed the cracks that were already there.

I still love AEW, it's still the only promotion I watch on a weekly basis, but it's undeniable that they've lost something important. And I don't know if it's something they could ever get back. I certainly don't see how they could.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Having stomped my feet and stormed off from TNA in protest of Tessa Blanchard, I think that in addition to trying to get into Stardom, I'm gonna start checking out NXT.

For Stardom, I think I'm going to go back in time a year. I found a download on the archive for All Star Grand Queendom 2024 and I'm going to take it from there, slowly making my way through PPVs (or also weekly shows if I really need to). I'm thinking that'll probably be the best way to get you know everyone and how things work, while easier access to translations and / or subtitles without any wait. So this is gonna be a long term thing to get into.

And for my immediate needs and to fill the hole for my weekly soap opera drama, I think I'm gonna start with the closest NXT PPV and catch up from there. I get the impression that they also feature women's wrestling a lot, plus I'd be seeing the Knockouts there. And it seems disconnected enough from the main roster that Raw and SmackDown would be optional, not mandatory. Although, honestly, I might check out how people like MCMG, the Lucha Bros and Jordynne Grace are doing too.

[–] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Having stomped my feet and stormed off from TNA in protest of Tessa Blanchard, I think that in addition to trying to get into Stardom, I'm gonna start checking out NXT.

I'm gonna be real with you; if you are swearing off TNA because of your moral objections, then you should probably also avoid any WWE product. Vince may be gone, but it's still tied to some absolutely horrible people.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Yeah I was actually kinda thinking that while I was typing it. It's probably going to be difficult finding a wrestling promotion where pieces of shit haven't been involved in some way. It's just that the TNA thing is fresh and blatant and the timing of them hiring Tessa Blanchard, right when a bunch of companies were bending over and removing diversity and fairness, was fucking awful.

But I agree, I have felt a bit like a hypocrite saying that I'm gonna drop TNA for NXT. I'm just not sure where else to go for good women's wrestling from the USA. Maybe things have changed but I very much have the impression that it's an afterthought in both AEW and ROH. And I'm not prepared to put up with people like the Young Bucks just for one women's match in 3 hours lol.

But I'm hooked on Stardom right now anyway and haven't even been in the mood for TNA or NXT. And I found a website that also has TJPW and a bunch of Japanese stuff. So it might be keeping me busy enough in the next few months to not even miss American pro wrestling.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah I was actually kinda thinking that while I was typing it. It’s probably going to be difficult finding a wrestling promotion where pieces of shit haven’t been involved in some way. It’s just that the TNA thing is fresh and blatant and the timing of them hiring Tessa Blanchard, right when a bunch of companies were bending over and removing diversity and fairness, was fucking awful.

There's no ethical consumption under capitalism! (outside of piracy lol). Try not to worry about it too much, all you can do is talk with your wallet, try to limit who you pay for and go from there.

As for US women's: NXT/TNA have routinely been the best for a while stateside, I give em the edge cause they give them a decent chunk of airtime. AEW has 1 match a show frequently, but a lot of the women are cooking when they get a chance, ROH gets a lot more time for women's matches so hopefully the network their TV deal ends up at enjoys women more than WB does. Can't talk WWE main roster as I just watch clips on Bluesky and occasionally Reddit lol.

Japan wise, TJPW is another great option since ya found it. Neon and a few of the others here will have better knowledge regarding them than I do, but their shows are always awesome and TJPW is pretty much always the #2 to Stardom's #1.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

While I'm kinda between promotions and exploring my options, I might as well throw hearsay and assumptions out the window and give AEW and ROH a decent shot again. Probably gonna burn myself out in a few months time lol but it's been a long time since I've made the effort to check out everything else and I'm enjoying it for now at least.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh and quick useful update as I just saw it, re: Stardom subs and their time frame, at least as of today I can say they seem to have about a 5 day turnaround when it comes to the backstage post-match interviews. This past Sunday was the Supreme Fight event, Stardom World just uploaded them with the full subs, so they seem to be fairly on the ball!

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh very cool. I've actually been considering giving the Google Translate app or something similar that can translate speech a try lol.

I would honestly prefer just subtitles to gaijin commentary. I went back and watched Historic X-over 1. Thought I might as well seeing as there's only been two so far and watched the English commentary. And while it was nice getting an English break down of Mayu Iwatani and Kairi's backstories for example, those commentators were such fucking dorks lol.

I think it has the same problem for me as English commentary for Mexican stuff has been in my experience so far. They don't come across as part of the show but rather tourists or outsiders, or fans, which I guess they are. So I don't believe them when they start putting on their 'emotional' big fight Michael Cole voices.

It's better than nothing but if Stardom were to ever get English commentary or at least show hosts, I would way prefer if it was someone homegrown that can speak English, even if it's not perfect English, over Americans or Brits that come across more like people who post in wrestling forums than a part of the show.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I know we aren't gonna get it cause they aren't play-by-play/color commentators nor do they really have the skills at it (yet 👀) but I'd love to see them have shows called by some of the wrestlers that are fluent in English (Mina, Waka, Momo Kohgo) plus the foreigners like Xena/Thekla/etc. Not gonna be worse than the NJPW guys at least lol

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 days ago

Based on what I've seen so far, Thekla would immediately add a strong language rating to the show lol. She could definitely work as the heel commentator that makes excuses or looks the other way when someone does something bad though.

I'd still love to actually learn Japanese though. I say that but my life is basically full of unfinished projects and plans with no action lol so, we'll see if that ever actually happens. But one thing that I still feel like I'm missing out on that subtitles and commentary will probably never fully cover is all of the shit talking in the ring. Which there is a lot of. And a lot of these women seem fucking hilarious.

Which right now, makes Thekla's chirps especially funny because it's a rare time I can understand exactly what someone is saying. The latest one I just saw was her saying to the ref "why are you always on my ass, bro?" None of the audience reacted but I thought it was fucking funny.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Hope you don't mind but I just want to come back to the commentary thing now that I'm done with the 7 Golden Week shows (I actually didn't end up skipping through much at all, so it's taken time). But I'm realising that as a noob, bad English commentary is actually better than no English commentary. At least when you're first getting into it.

I'm thinking of how when I watched NJPW for a while a few years ago, by now I would've known everyone's name by memory and probably also their motivations and shit. Those commentators were actually ok when they're just being wrestling nerds with stat sheets and bullet points and not trying to do the Michael Cole big match voice and acting like they've been friends with these people backstage for decades.

But on the Stardom side of things, the majority of my viewing has now been without any commentary at all and without any match graphics or graphics of any kind (and if there are match graphics, it's a 50/50 if you're even going to see a wrestlers name in the Latin alphabet). So I've been switching to another web page throughout that has the match card written down but is pretty inconsistent in listing faction associations and champions.

So while there's definitely wrestlers that I can name on sight, it's taking me much longer to get to the point where I don't need a quick reminder of someone's exact name or the spelling while I'm watching. But I'm getting there.

Just wanted to say, I've sightly changed my mind regarding commentary since last time. I think these no commentary shows will be more enjoyable once I know everyone properly but as a noob, a bit of English is super helpful.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'd say that's understandable. I've been watching for about 3y so my own experience won't match a new watchers. When new wrestlers come along I get the benefit of just need to learn 1-3 new names at a time, you're stuck with most of a full roster's worth of learning atm lol.

The Stardom website's roster page was one thing I had to cross reference like crazy trying to memorize peoples names (even if the name is in kanji, the page url is in English so you can see their names there easily) and learning who goes where faction wise, if you have not visited yet.

(Mind you unlike NJPW who lists everyone who ever blinks inside a NJPW venue regardless of company affiliation, freelancers aren't listed on Stardoms page so people like Tomoka and Azusa Inaba aren't listed despite being on almost every show for a year now, as they work for JTO).

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I'll get around to checking out official pages and stuff, for now though I'm just trying to avoid spoilers. I've already spoiled one future feud between members of the same faction (at least I hope it's still in the future and not even further back because I am for damn sure looking forward to it now) while trying to look for translated promos on the Stardom YouTube page (and failing).

So for now, I'm still doing this mostly blind and probably reading into feuds and dynamics a little bit and making up my own head canon based on what I can piece together. But once I've caught up or am close to it, I do intend to do some more thorough research and bookmarking of good resources.

If you don't mind me asking YET ANOTHER question. I think you mentioned that when management changed, 6 wrestlers walked. Am I past that point yet or is it still coming? And if it is still coming, do you mind telling me who it is that walks so that I don't get too attached or anything?

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Never worry about asking!

Rossy was fired February 5th (and his planned booking continued for a month or two). The wrestlers who left to join him in Marigold left on or around *googles* the third week of March so you probably already missed them cause I think you said you were starting a month or so after that, but it was:

Giulia (the one who is now in NXT, she left Stardom for Marigold to boost em up as Rossy was starting it, then left for WWE. She was leaving for WWE anyway mind you, going with Rossy to help out was done while under WWE contract iirc, or at least really well confirmed intent)
Utami Hayashishita, who led Queen's Quest and partnered with Saya Kamitani long term.
MIRAI, who was in God's Eye.
Mai Sakurai, who had been in Giulia's faction (Donna Del Mondo) but DDM was disbanded just prior to Giulia leaving, due to her leaving.
Yuzuki (now called Victoria Yuzuki in Marigold), who had just started wrestling/finished her training a month or two prior (and was rumoured to have been trained by Mayu Iwatani).
Nao Ishikawa was supposed to be doing something with Stardom and usually appears listed as one of the Stardom women to jump ship but I don't think she really did much if anything with Stardom so you can classify her as one of the Ice Ribbon people.
Nanae Takahashi, one of the founders of the company alongside Rossy. Good riddance lmao.

(Everyone else in Marigold came largely from AWG, Ice Ribbon, or other rando indies like the gaijin ladies).

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ah so it's definitely already happened from where I started. All Star Queendom was April 24 I think. Glad to know because a little bit of worry has been creeping in while I'm starting to figure out who my favourites are. Like, I would be devastated if I lost Yuna Mizumori now after just finding her. She gives the impression that she's having the absolute time of her life every time she's out there. Her and Jody Threat from TNA would be a bonkers tag team.

I definitely recognise a lot of those names, so they do seem like fairly high profile losses though. But I might catch them soon elsewhere. Not gonna do too much more exploring until I can name the Stardom wrestlers without jumping between web pages. But while Stardom and TJPW are the main two on this website, I have also spotted Sendai and Marigold floating around. So I'll probably at least check it all out eventually.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Yuna is fantastic! She came in from (iirc) Chocopro (which is another one, free on youtube, fantastic, but nontraditional, you'll get it, it's where Emi Sakura of AEW usually is as she owns it) and had to earn her way into Cosmic Angels as Tam was quite harsh on her, but she's now basically in the position of the main one who recommends new members to the group. When they do trios they frequently have split up with Yuna leading the 'junior members' team (to Tam leading the seniors).

Sendai my only interactions with really are when they come to Stardom/New Blood shows or vice versa, but DASH Chisako, Mika Iwata, Chihiro Hashimoto and Manami are all great. Manami you'll see of in the 5STARGP as she participated iirc, Mika Iwata you'll see later in the year as she has a program with Saori Anou of Cosmic Angels that goes back and forth.

Marigold aside from who I mentioned have some good people on the roster (Chiaki, Chika Goto, Amarei Kouki, Miku Aino, Natsumi Showzuki several of which have won and traded around titled by now). The other half of the roster does vary. One of the non-Japanese women on the roster tried to do a Michinoku Driver that was so horrid 2 weeks ago that even Taka come on social media and told her to not fucking do it cause it looked like shit lmao

Edit: Oh and Marigolds website is flame broiled arse. Aside from the schedule page its not updated since last may lol

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Tam was quite harsh on her

Tam Nakano is another one that has been intriguing me a lot, probably because she was the first one I saw that was involved in an obvious non-title storyline. The 'kawaii' thing really doesn't do it for me but watching her go from the end of some sort of odd couple relationship with Aja Kong to picking up a stray Starlight Kid, she seems much more interesting than the 'kawaii' lets on. She also comes across to me like she may possibly be missing a marble or two lol. And while I'm at it, Natsupoi also comes across as much more of a wild child than first impressions would give. It's actually hard to pin anything down to a subculture and have certain expectations as far as Japan goes lol. Because you'll have someone in a white frilly outfit with a 'kawaii' gimmick coming out to symphonic metal entrance music and acting generally unhinged. One of my favourite Natsupoi moments so far was watching her have a good munch on someone's arm at ringside, then looking at the camera with crazy eyes and wiping her mouth lol.

Saori Anou

Also one of my immediate favourites before I even knew much about her. Love her style, entrance music and general attitude. She gives me video game character vibes lol. Like she would fit well as a Tekken character.

I also just want to also mention, because where else am I going to get this all off my chest. But the potential feud that I saw and am now very much looking forward to involves Syuri & Ami Sohrei. Both also immediately caught me from the first show. Honestly if I could ever get to see Syuri vs Ami Sohrei vs Lady C vs HANAKO, I think I would be in heaven. But Syuri vs Ami Sohrei will be more than enough to sate me for now (please don't say I've already missed this).

Honestly though, at this point there's rarely a match where I'm not rooting for at least one person in each corner. Unless it's Oedo Tai. I love them but they beat up (and often steamroll) all my favourites so I also hate them lol.

Chocopro

I have heard about this promotion before and from what I understand, it's one of the more wild and wacky promotions as far as storylines go. Probably right up my alley and I definitely need to check it out too.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Cosmic Angels (and out of all of them, Tam/Poi the most) lean hard into the Japanese Idol shtick. It's part of the reason Mina Shirakawa dances, she used to be in CA way back when. Tam herself mentally is fantastic. This woman writes pages of lore on her social media for her big feuds (and is possibly influential in the booking). Her matches will always excel.

Also don't be fooled with Saori, she has perfect resting bitch face but shes apparently a big dork according to the rest of CA lol.

I'll break your heart off the bat, don't expect Syuri/Sohrei lol. Ami is Syuri's right hand woman basically, most tenured in the group along with Syuri so they don't have m, and i'll spoil it for you now but Ami gets injured a couple months ahead of where you are right now and is out until..like this week or next week lol. That being said, I love them both and both are fantastic.

Chocopro

Very wacky. Most of their shows (the ones that arent huge ones) take place at Ichigaya Chocolate Square, which is basically a small room with a mat, and fans sitting right up to the edge of it. No ropes, no turnbuckles, and a lot of creativity lol

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I'll break your heart off the bat, don't expect Syuri/Sohrei lol

Ok this is embarrassing but I checked the promo I saw and I confused Ami Sohrei with someone else.. To be fair to me though, not only was it a shocking scene but I tried to unsee it as soon as I saw it, in anticipation.

It was actually a wrestler called Himeka. And it was a press conference scene where at first Syuri and Himeka seemed really aggressive towards each other, only for Himeka to fucking kiss Syuri?! And it also sounded like she made a pun afterwards about Syuri sounding like yuri lmao. NOT what I was expecting to see in a Japanese promotion.

I feel pretty shitty now that I thought it was Ami Sohrei (and a little disappointed if I'm being honest). I've only seen her in multi women matches so far and I'm probably a bit overloaded with new wrestlers to keep track of right now. Plus I only watched the promo once and my eyes fell out of their sockets and I immediately started jumping to conclusions lol.

Tam Nakano

Honestly not all that surprised to hear that she's a creative mastermind. I definitely got the impression right off the bat that interesting non-title match storylines are kinda her domain.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

lmao! no worries, it happens. As for Himeka...yeah that was def Himeka! LMAO. She was fantastic, the 'Jumbo Princess', was Maika's tag partner back in those days in DDM. Unfortunately that promo was from (if I'm seeing the date right) April 2022. Himeka went on to retire in April of 2023 (in good health and spirits!) and hasn't really been seen since (aside from being spotted in the crowds, and 1 appearance as a ref(ish) for a match at Nao Kakuta's self-produced show last July, which was a good match lol).

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Jumbo Princess

That sounds so familiar to me. I think she might have been at Historic X-over 1. I've watched so much of this in the last few days that I'm slipping here. There's definitely a few that I've seen or at least heard of before though. But it would've been once offs and cameos in US promotions so I can't really pinpoint when and where.

Maika

Just have to say, I've had her entrance music stuck in my head on a loop since I woke up yesterday morning. I've definitely seen her before, maybe even in TNA. And she's a wrestler I'm for sure keeping an eye on right now.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That sounds so familiar to me. I think she might have been at Historic X-over 1.

You got it!: Queen's Quest (AZM, Lady C and Saya Kamitani) defeated Donna Del Mondo (Himeka, Mai Sakurai and Thekla) by pinfall.

I’ve definitely seen her before, maybe even in TNA

Never worked for TNA, but she did have 1 match for ROH at Supercard of Honor 2024!

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Weird, I've definitely not watched that ROH PPV but I've definitely seen Maika somewhere before. But that actually goes for a few of these women, and I'm probably mixing things I've seen lurking on Reddit with things I've actually watched.

You'll have to forgive me because I've now got decades of wrestling in the faulty hard drive in my brain and the filesystem is probably a little corrupted by now lol, so a lot of dates and metadata is missing.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I feel ya lmao

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have to be annoying you a little bit now but I just have to report. It's now day 3 and Maika's theme song is still stuck in my head. Not sure how I'm going to rid myself of it.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

On the plus side, Maika is the shit so it could be worse!

[–] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

AEW's women's division has been on a steady upswing. It hasn't had the kind of spotlight that WWE gives their women, but they have some great talent there and they've been telling some engaging stories.

I'm honestly not sure where else to go for American women's wrestling these days. EVE has been putting on some amazing shows, but they're UK based. Still very worth checking out.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'll get around to checking out AEW again. I'm going to be watching the crossovers while I'm catching up with Stardom here for a bit of variety, which gives me Forbidden Door 2024 to still get to.

And maybe I'll check out EVE some time. UK wrestling in general seems to be rare to come across in the wild on the internet.

[–] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

EVE does post their shows on YouTube, but some require a paid subscription. https://youtube.com/@prowrestlingeve

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Nice, thanks. I never think about checking YouTube for wrestling. I think a few smaller / indie promotions use YouTube. And TNA of course.

[–] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago

No worries. Glad to help!

If you're interested in more indie stuff, there are also streaming services that feature that sort of thing, though I haven't delved too deeply into them. Fite.tv, IndependentWrestling.tv, and highspots.tv are the ones I'm aware of.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 days ago

Don't look for it any time soon as the adhd is strong, but eventually I plan to have youtube links side-by-side with the website links for all the promotions in the sidebar, to make it simple.

Actually this might be what fuels me to hyper-fixate on it and do it sooner lol

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

All Star Grand Queendom 2024

Not a bad idea, that's around when Rossy left/Okada began booking so you'll get a fresh start going forward!

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nice, seems like a perfect place to start. I actually started watching TNA around the time of a regime change too, so it works.

Haven't started watching yet, although I've checked out about 5 minutes of the beginning segment with the four hosts (commentators?) talking about stuff. I was kinda hoping it would be a subtitled download by now but funnily enough, after a few repeated watches of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, it's not complete gibberish to me anymore.

I don't know exactly what they're talking about but I can figure out what's going on and get the idea. And pick up basic shit yes or no and types of greetings. Makes me wonder if I should pair getting into Stardom with some Duolingo.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Makes me wonder if I should pair getting into Stardom with some Duolingo.

Not a bad idea tbh, you'll get farther than me who gave up after learning the words for toilet and beer lol.

Expect the first chunk of what you're watching to probably not have any English period (despite the stuff I told ya yesterday which will apply more later in 2024).

When Rossy left his right-hand man Sonny left too (thank christ cause he was a piece of shit), and Sonny was responsible for 99% of the editing/translating/uploading to Stardom World/etc so when they left that segment of production tanked.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just finished the first match for the 'Future of Stardom' championship, I'm guessing these ladies are kinda like young lions or in the development division. Seems like a great match to start with and give me someone to follow on their upward arc.

I honestly zoned out most of the commentary and Pink Devil did a victory speech at the end that sounded snarky and cocky as fuck. I'm honestly thinking I could just get by with looking up old reviews afterwards, and looking up any specific wrestler I'm interested in though.

And I'm glad to hear that I seem to have chosen a time to start when problematic management has just been ousted.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just finished the first match for the ‘Future of Stardom’ championship, I’m guessing these ladies are kinda like young lions or in the development division. Seems like a great match to start with and give me someone to follow on their upward arc.

For rookies yeah. FoS is a title fought for by those who have less than 3y of wrestling experience (or are under 20yo regardless of experience level, iirc). Gives a good idea of who the company sees something in despite being rookies, and is usually defended on New Blood shows (which are for rookies, junior members of the roster, and freelancers/visitors from other companies).

I honestly zoned out most of the commentary and Pink Devil did a victory speech at the end that sounded snarky and cocky as fuck.

Rina is a little brat I love her lol. She's one of the youngest on the roster so she calls everyone else old hags lol.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm about halfway through now. Probably gonna do part 2 later.

Hope you don't mind me dumping this here, just gotta say, so far it looks like I'm gonna be liking everyone from Oedo Tai based on first impressions. But God's Eye also looks like a faction to keep an eye on. Also I'm immediately a fan of Saya Iida "Gorilla Power" lol.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not at all, more Stardom discussion is always welcome!

Saya is one of the most underrated people. Shes strong as hell, and has a habit of getting her hoodie stuck in the rafters (you'll come across them when they happen lol), but Rossy saw nothing in her and she was a pin eater for the longest time. You're watching her do her best work right now.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just finished. A 5 hour runtime (minus two pre show matches) is actually pretty brutal, so I ended up taking multiple breaks. But I'm definitely in. It has everything from flippy rookies to hoss legends and in between.

Realised that Oedo Tai aren't simply trouble causers and tweeners but full heels (although cool heels). So I'm probably going to be loving to hate them. Kinda pissed with them now after the way they turned on Starlight Kid lol.

I've got quite a few first impression favourites so far. Although I haven't looked up translations or too much info yet, so I don't really know them yet. I don't want to spoil current storylines or champs before I get there, so I guess I'm just gonna go low information for now. But it's enough to hook me. Now I just hope it's not going to be too much trouble looking for shows between then and now.

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Realised that Oedo Tai aren’t simply trouble causers and tweeners but full heels (although cool heels). So I’m probably going to be loving to hate them. Kinda pissed with them now after the way they turned on Starlight Kid lol.

Oh yeah lol. They are really the only full on heel stable in Stardom, but they do a good job at it. Don't worry too much about SLK though, no spoilers but she'll be fine.

I don’t want to spoil current storylines or champs before I get there, so I guess I’m just gonna go low information for now.

For the best. There'll be..well I don't wanna say a lot of changes over the year but a decent bit which you're just starting right now and you'll see soon!

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Nice! I'm honestly itching to get to the rest of it now. Thought I'd start catching up with NXT but I'm just in the mood for more Stardom at this point.

If you don't mind me asking a quick question. I've made myself a quick list of all the big events from where I am to current day based on this Wikipedia page, while ignoring any results as best I could. Looks like a good excuse to catch a NJPW show here and there and finally check out Rev Pro. Then apart from the big events, from what I've gathered their weekly show is 'We Are Stardom!!' and that runs on weekends? Am I correct with that and is this basically everything I need to know?

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

I'd say you pretty much got it. As for We Are Stardom, it's more of a '1-2 months behind recap show' (watched an episode from a week or two ago and I think it was covering late Nov/early Dec-ish?). It's your "I dont follow Stardom regularly and don't keep up with the news about shows but would still like to watch the occasional wrestling match' program essentially. I forget how the subtitles are on it or if it covers promos (if it does its another helpful avenue for those), but match wise I wouldn't worry too much about it since you'll already be watching those matches in full during the events.

Beyond that you pretty much got it. There'll be the odd NJPW show and Rev Pro show as you said, some AEW/ROH appearances for the odd person like Mina, AZM, Hanako, etc. Later in the year there'll also be some other interpromotional fights (once things got up and running at a good pace under Okada as the booker they opened up the 'forbidden door' a bit more and have had more people from Sendai Girls/Diana/Wave/Oz/etc come by, as well as sending Stardom women to their promotions to win/defend titles.

[–] Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago

Nice, thanks for all the info. And I've actually just found another 'watch-wrestling' website (this one with a hyphen) that has Stardom and a lot more Japanese stuff on offer than the old watchwrestling website I've been using. And it seems to list everything here in a handy chronological list. So looks like I'm set.

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