Thought this subreddit might get a kick out of it! My friend showed me this song he did, and I thought it'd be cool to make an MV that's based on Funaki's work outside of the WWF. It was a fun, goofy shoot. But quite proud of how it turned out!

Enjoy one of the best indies in Japan (and in the world, for that matter).

Match Card:

Shigehiro Irie, Kohei Kinoshita & HUB vs. TiiiDA, KUUKAI & Sho Mizuno

Zeus, Billyken Kid, Tsubasa & CIMA vs. Super Delfin, Kuishinbo Kamen, The Bodyguard & Motonobu Tezuka

Kazuaki Mihara vs. Goliath

**Osaka Meibutsu Sekai-ichi Championship 3WAY Match**: \[7th Sekai-Ichi\] Joeichiro Osaka vs. \[Challenger\] Ebessan vs. \[Challenger\] Tigers Mask 

**Osaka Light Heavyweight Championship Match**: \[2nd Champion\] SUZAKU vs. \[Challenger\] Yasutaka Oosera

**Osaka Pro-Wrestling Tag Championship Match**: \[50th Champions\] Takoyakida & Ultimate Spider Jr. vs. \[Challengers\] TORU & Shu Asakawa

**Osaka Pro-Wrestling Championship Match**: \[38th Champion\] Ryuya Matsufusa vs. \[Challenger\] Aran Sano 

Date: November 20, 1994

Promotion: All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW)

Match Stipulation / Type: V*TOP Five Star Tournament Semi-Final Round / Singles Match

Event: Big Egg Wrestling Universe
Known in Japan as Dōmu Chōjo Taisen (憧夢超女大戦)

Location: Tokyo, Japan | Tokyo Dome

➜ This blockbuster event featured 23 matches, a record that still stands to this day! The event lasted ten hours & was promoted as the biggest card in the history of women's wrestling. Match 21 featured Dynamite Kansai and Aja Kong, two legendary figures in Japanese women's professional wrestling (joshi puroresu) who delivered some of the most celebrated and physically brutal matches of the 1990s. They fought in the V*TOP Five Star Tournament, which was the central part of the show. It was an eight-woman tournament to crown the best woman in AJW and it featured a veritable who’s who of Joshi at the time.

🎥 Full Match: https://youtu.be/UyWZUFuzQjk?si=E-16RKVpSqALUsKs

Kitao Dojo 1st
Anniversary Martial Arts Tournament
February 21, 1995

Watched Queen of Villains (the Dump Matsumoto biopic on Netflix, strong rec btw) a while back and have been meaning to make a thread asking about this ever since, based on one line from one scene.

Basically, when tasked with turning heel & brainstorming how to make it work, young Dump says (or is told, IDK) something like “Japanese people like to be scared”, specifically citing Abdullah the Butcher & Devil Masami. Which, of course, goes on to inform the entire Dump persona.

One of my fave things about pro wrestling is the cultural aspect. I.e. how different towns, states & counties have their own stylistic flourishes to the presentation & psychology dictated by the tastes of the local audience. As such, I never entirely “got” how heelwork in Japan fundamentally works, since puro’s so based on sportsmanship & personal pride. And supposed “heels” like Chaos, LIJ & HoT tend to be very popular with the native crowds.

This tho… this explanation made a LOT of sense to me. The old monster gaijins like Hansen & Brody, the cold brutality of a Kawada or Chono, the aura of sheer DREAD around Minoru Suzuki, that feels distinctly “Japanese” in the same strange indecipherable way Godzilla or The Ring or Junji Ito or Silent Hill are. Is there anything to this as an underlying trope fundamental to puro or am I crazy

The Great Muta adds the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship after defeating Masahiro Chono at Tokyo Dome back on January 4,1993.

Date: July 17, 1996

Promotion: New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)

Match Stipulation / Type: IWGP Heavyweight Championship / Singles Match

Event: Summer Struggle '96: WCW World in Sapporo

Location: Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan | Nakajima Sports Center

➜ This blockbuster event showcased the height of the NJPW/WCW partnership. High-profile matches & once in a lifetime encounters. The iconic card featured Shinya Hashimoto defending his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Ric Flair. Ric Flair challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship only two times in his career with this meeting being the last.

Such a awesome game

💥 HARD HITTING SHIT 💥

One of my favorite pro wrestling games of all time