Eastern Lariat

The second episode of the Sakura Potourri features an extensive look at the joshi scene in Japan as STRIGGA & Dylan not only discuss the Marigold press conference and its future outlook, but they also take a ride through almost the entire scene with a focus on Ice Ribbon, WAVE, Sendai Girls & TJPW before turning to NOAH's most recent Korakuen Hall show and DRAGONGATE's Rey de Parejas Final & Dead or Alive card. Final topic of the show is New Japan with their Windy City Riot featuring Jon Moxley's title win and many more matches to discuss as well as the upcoming cards for Wrestling Dontaku.

Join STRIGGA & Dylan for another episode as they dive into the ever evolving world of japanese pro wrestling! In another potpourri episode the Eastern Lariat covers a lot of ground covering no less than 8 different promotions. The discussion begins with DDT, TJPW & DRAGONGATE on WrestleMania weekend and quickly moves to a more general discussion about the DG roster and the missing game changing high flyer for all of japanese pro wrestling. This also brings the Eastern Lariat crew to NJPW and the line up for the Best of the Super Junior as well as a discussion about a very mediocre Sakura Genesis show including that Gabe Kidd promo, Tetsuya Naito vs. Yota Tsuji and the possibilities for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title at Windy City Riot. Following that, they take a deep dive into the latest events in AJPW, including some harsh words on Anzai vs. Nakajima, speculations about Nakajima's exit and a the post-title change ramifications for the Champion Carnival.

Welcome back to the Eastern Lariat! STRIGGA & Dylan dive right back into the hottest topics in the world of japanese pro wrestling! As Stardom sees the departure of five wrestlers who are very likely heading to Rossy Ogawa's new project, STRIGGA & Dylan explore the implications for both sides and what impact it could have on the scene as a whole. In NJPW, Yota Tsuji's New Japan Cup victory is the talk of the town right now, while at the same time the quality of the tournament and of the roster as a whole raises questions and concerns about the future. Towards the end of the show, AJPW's Champion Carnival lineup and Katsuhiko Nakajima's Triple Crown run take center stage.

Another Eastern Lariat awaits you with almost two hours full of news, discussions and opinionated takes on the world of japanese pro wrestling. After a brief talk about Jun Akiyama vs. Bryan Danielson, STRIGGA & Dylan present Wrestle Universe's latest upgrades and price modeling before they go to the much-anticipated and very well received debut of Kasei Takechi. Following some quick notes on Pro Wrestling NOAH & REALZERO1 the next big talking point is All Japan and the Excite series with some questions looming above the promotion and it's direction towards the Champion Carnival. Last and maybe least(?) STRIGGA & Dylan take about an hour to break down the atrocious week in Sapporo with some head scratching title changes and decisions that washed away lots of excitement they had built just two weeks before. While doing so, the Eastern Lariat crew also breaks down the roster in an attempt to figure out who could be trusted with the World Title right now.

The Eastern Lariat returns with an analysis of the most recent developments across various promotions in Japan. From El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.'s GHC Heavyweight Championship win in Pro Wrestling NOAH to Rei Saito's unfortunate injury keeping him out of the Triple Crown match with Nakajima, we discuss championship changing hands, the reasoning behind Kenoh losing YET AGAIN and also look at upcoming All Japan cards. Additionally, we address Bushiroad firing Stardom founder and long time booker Rossy Ogawa amidst accusations of poaching and allegedly being far advanced in setting up a new promotion. This sent shock waves through the wrestling world much like the highly acclaimed Danielson vs. Zack Sabre match and the Dog Pound Cage Match from Osaka. We provide in-depth analysis of the the New Beginning in Osaka including Kazuchika Okada's weird retirement road, so join us for a 2 hour discussion the major stories in japanese pro-wrestling!

After addressing the impact of the Vince McMahon lawsuit on the media and (japanaese)wrestling, STRIGGA and Dylan relax and sit back to give their thoughts on three big shows from this past weekend. First of all, Dragon Gate's Gate of Bayside is in the focus with discussions about Luis Mante as Dream Gate Champion, the Dream Gate & Brave booking as well as Kiyomiya & Alejandro excelling in DG. Championships are also the topic of debate with AJPW's event in Hachioji featuring Nakajima vs. Ashino and Tamura vs. Iwamoto and what possible title matches could be ahead. Shuji Ishikawa leaving is of course another topic that also is connected to DDT, so Dramatic Dream Team's Sweet Dream! 2024 is the final talking point with another look at the champions and the direction of the company at the start of the year.

This special episode of the Eastern Lariat is all about Kazuchika Okada leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling. Join us as we analyse the immediate ramifications of Okada's unprecedented departure, where he could go and what it means or should mean for management and Gedo. While the first ever full time departure of a true ace guy to America caused shock waves through japanese pro wrestling and for its fans overseas, this is also the time to discuss the exciting potential for new talent to rise to the top and change NJPW as we know it.

Welcome to the Eastern Lariat Year End Awards 2023 – your ultimate celebration of excellence in the world of japanese pro wrestling! On this show it's time to honor the best of the best with awards that YOU, the listeners voted for. From heart stopping moments over stunning rookies to MVPs, we looked at every corner of japanese wrestling to crown outstanding achievements. For the first time, we present this show at the beginning of the following year to also potentially include matches and developments in late December. On top of the awards, we introduce the Eastern Lariat Hall of Fame on this show with the first two inductees. Join us in our celebration of japanese pro wrestling in 2023!

With the "Big 3" of japanese pro-wrestling running big shows around New Year's Eve, the Eastern Lariat starts off the new year in proper fashion and very much in the tradition of the show's history. Of course one major talking point is Wrestle Kingdom 18 with Tetsuya Naito's roll call and Championship win, Okda vs. Danielson and all the fallout after New Year Dash, but that's not all. STRIGGA & Dylan go into depth with Pro Wrestling NOAH's New Year show in Ariake that featured the already infamous Kota Ibushi vs. Naomichi Marufuji match, but that also saw some great action. A very emotional point of discussion is AJPW and all the developments since mid December until now with a focus on Katsuhiko Nakajima's title run and his defense against WWE's Charlie Dempsey.

With the final episode of the year we introduce a new concept never heard before on the Eastern Lariat: A prediction show! STRIGGA & Dylan go through all relevant promotions in Japan to run down and rate YOUR and each other's predictions on the newly invented state of the art Predict-O-Meter! Join the fun ride for a look into the crystal pro wrestling ball!

STRIGGA & Dylan return with an impromptu episode after news and cards dropped on a rapid speed at the beginning of the week. Not only did New Japan announce a new Championship, Stardom, NOAH, DRAGONGATE and GLEAT also announced their cards for the upcoming big shows at the end of the year. The Eastern Lariat digests these developments, previews the big matches and while the recording happened, the Tokyo Sports Awards were announced. So this is a jam packed episode putting companies' situations into perspective.

A trifecta of topics marks the return of the Eastern Lariat after a month and STRIGGA & Dylan are jumping right into the final tournament season of the year in Japan. However, at the beginning of the show, they focus their attention on AEW's Continental Classic and compare it to tournaments in Japan. From there this Eastern Lariat episode covers New Japan's World Tag League, All Japan's REAL World Tag League and DDT's D-Ou Grand Prix while there's also a rant about Pro Wrestling NOAH's card for January 2 sandwiched into the NJPW part of the show. A fun time was had!

This year we see the return of our coverage of the Hall of Fame, said by many experts to be among the most "legit" hall of fames among wrestlers themselves as well as historians and journalists. But more importantly than the inner workings of the Hall of Fame, we're here to discuss the candidates up and down and top to bottom and talk about these historical legends in wrestling. (And sometimes not legends) Joining Dylan once again is the Emerald FlowShow's Gerard Di Trolio, an active voter in the HOF itself. We end up running down every candidate as well as who he ultimately voted for with some back and forths on a number of people in these regions, which feature the following candidates up for induction: HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA (eight maximum) Ole Anderson Bob Armstrong Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson w/J.J. Dillon Jack & Jerry Brisco British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith) June Byers Wild Bull Curry Junkyard Dog Cowboy Bob Ellis Pampero Firpo Black Gordman & Great Goliath Archie "Mongolian Stomper" Gouldie Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) Sputnik Monroe Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch Argentina Rocca & Miguel Perez Johnny Rougeau Iron Sheik Tiger Jeet Singh Sgt. Slaughter Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood Mad Dog & Butcher Vachon Von Brauners & Saul Weingeroff Kevin & Kerry & David Von Erich MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA (five maximum) Mark & Jay Briscoe Young Bucks Edge Bill Goldberg Matt & Jeff Hardy Becky Lynch Jon Moxley Kevin Nash & Scott Hall Paul Orndorff Randy Orton Seth Rollins C.M. Punk Roman Reigns Trish Stratus Rick & Scott Steiner JAPAN (three maximum) The Beauty Pair (Jackie Sato & Maki Ueda) Cima Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan Yoshiaki Fujiwara Hayabusa Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi Tomohiro Ishii Meiko Satomura Shingo Takagi Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada MEXICO (three maximum) Angel Blanco & Dr.Wagner Sangre Chicana Los Hermanos Dinamita (Cien Caras & Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000) Dorrell Dixon Pirata Morgan Blue Panther El Hijo del Santo & Octagon La Parka AAA Huracan Ramirez EUROPE/AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND/PACIFIC ISLANDS/AFRICA (four maximum) Spyros Arion Big Daddy Dominic DeNucci Billy Joyce George Kidd Killer Karl Kox Mike Marino Kendo Nagasaki Jackie Pallo The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) Johnny Saint Adrian Street Jose Tarres Otto Wanz NON-WRESTLERS (six maximum) Dave Brown (U.S. & Canada modern) Bobby Bruns (Japan) Bob Caudle (U.S. & Canada historical) Bobby Davis (U.S. & Canada historical) Joe Higuchi (Japan) Jim Johnston (U.S. & Canada modern) Larry Matysik (U.S.& Canada historical) Rossy Ogawa (Japan) Reggie Parks (U.S. & Canada modern) Morris Sigel (U.S. & Canada historical) Tony Schiavone (U.S. & Canada modern) George Scott (U.S. & Canada historical) Sanshiro Takagi (Japan) Mike Tenay (U.S. & Canada modern) Ted Turner (U.S. & Canada modern) Roy Welch (U.S. & Canada historical) Stanley Weston (U.S. & Canada historical) Grand Wizard (U.S & Canada historical) James Melby (U.S & Canada historical) And we finish off by going over the people that have been talked about and we suggested ourselves to be put on the ballot on 2024! For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well: patreon.com/easternlariat Follow us on Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/easternlariat https://www.twitter.com/strigga https://www.twitter.com/viva_zero Check out Gerard as well and give a listen to his show, the Emerald FlowShow! https://www.twitter.com/GerardDiTrolio https://www.twitter.com/EmeraldFlowShow Special thanks to Souichi Sakagami & Mikado Miyabi for the OFFICIAL Eastern Lariat theme song: "Rainy Day" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3yWeS1ILdE

After a huge weekend of Pro Wrestling in Japan there were a lot of talking points to get to so the Eastern Lariat returns with a look at New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestlig NOAH and DRAGONGATE. NJPW's Power Struggle on one hand is somewhat of a lame duck show in the calendar year of New Japan, but on the other hand it produced great and unique matches. Unique was Katsuhiko Nakajima's landing in All Japan, winning the Triple Crown as he walked in. STRIGGA & Dylan discuss the way the match came about, the action itself and of course the future implications for Nakajima, former champion Aoyagi and the first challenger Kento Miyahara. As Aoyagi's reign ended, Madoka Kikuta's reign as Open The Dream Gate Champion in DRAGONGATE surprisingly continued so the final topic of the show involves discussions about BIGBOSS Shimizu losing yet again and in which way stables could be shaken up in the world of DG.

After a brief hiatus the Eastern Lariat returns to catch up on the big japanese promotions and their most recent as well as coming up events. First, STRIGGA & Dylan tackle New Japan's Destruction in Ryogoku and Royal Quest III as well as their road to Wrestle Kingdom and if the show will be able to draw a bigger crowd than Muto's retirement. Someone who draws a lot of attention these days is Katushiko Nakajima so the following topics include his final Korakuen match for NOAH as well his appearance on AJPW's Korakuen show the day thereafter. Amidst all the dicussions about NOAH & All Japan, STRIGGA & Dylan also discuss the sensitive topic of Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano's exit from Pro Wrestling NOAH, the allegations against them and pro-wrestling's terrible reaction to it. The shows ends with a look at DDT's Korakuen, a brief preview of their Sumo Hall show and a look at DRAGONGATE's upcoming show in Osaka.

With a japanese bank holiday upon us, the Eastern Lariat returns this time for a rare preview episode as STRIGG A & Dylan take a look at some of the cards scheduled for this coming Monday, October 9 known as Sports Day in Japan. The focused promotions this time are NOAH, GLEAT, AJPW, TJPW and NJPW. Before going into any cards though, the first big chunk of discussion revolves around Katsuhiko Nakajima's departure from Pro Wrestling NOAH and the speculation where he might end up. From there, the Eastern Lariat duo looks at the title matches T-Hawk vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Yuma Aoyagi vs. Kento Miyahra and EVIL vs. SANADA while also discussion the current state of each company.

The Eastern Lariat tackles the Final of the 5 Star Grand Prix from STARDOM. And boy do we go in depth on this tournament. We go through the final night, breaking down every single participant's tournaments, the blunders that haunted this tournament in terms of scheduling, a disappointing ending after a really strong match, a defense of Suzu Suzuki and average ratings for the tournament rounded up on average courtesy of the inmates of Cagematch.net and we found out what the people think, as well as where they're going as a company heading into the big year end show, with the winners of our own awards. Finally...we get GLEAT into STARDOM as we head towards Halloween and try to figure out what the heck is going on around here. "Where is my STARDOM!?" For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well PLUS same day reviews of G1 Climax Shows + STARDOM 5 Star GP Reviews: https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat Follow us on Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/EasternLariat https://www.twitter.com/STRIGGA https://www.twitter.com/Viva_Zero https://www.twitter.com/SondreBjorn

In this episode of the Eastern Lariat, STRIGGA & Dylan mostly focus on the young and more up and coming talent that AJPW, DDT and DRAGONGATE have to offer as they discuss guys like Ryuki Honda, Yuki Ueno or the recent debut of T.N.Revolucion in DG. The show also offers a look at Pro Wrestling NOAH using and wasting potential, recommended matches from All Japan this month and a full review of DDT's Big Bang event from this past Saturday.

Dylan is joined by regular EL NOAH contributor Dean to talk about NOAH's N1 Victory Final which saw Go Shiozaki emerge victorious for his first ever NOAH tournament win. We talk about the whole show, the developments with Psycho Clown coming in to face Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. for the National Title, the developments of the Jr. Division and a get well soon to Chris Ridgeway. We talk about Kaito Kiyomiya's return to the promotion and the potential of him bringing back Oiwa from NJPW. Finally we go over the entire tournament and break down all 16 competitors. Who shined, who stood out, who disappointed, and who was the MVP? Finally, we talk about the near future of the company and Dean throws out some great predictions and ideas for the big Ariake show on January 2nd. For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well PLUS same day reviews of G1 Climax Shows + STARDOM 5 Star GP Reviews: https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat Follow us on Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/EasternLariat https://www.twitter.com/STRIGGA https://www.twitter.com/Viva_Zero https://www.twitter.com/dnmt67

In an impromptu show, STRIGGA called Dylan to look back at a weekend in japanese pro wrestling that had ups and downs, was hot and cold and something in between. After first going over the next big show line ups for New Japan Pro Wrestling, they discuss DRAGONGATE's Dangerous Gate from Ota City as well as their immediate future with some ideas for turns. The next big chunk of the show is devoted to NOAH's N-1 Victory, which is on its home stretch now. You can't claim that about Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix, but it's another hot tournament on the menu for this episode. At the end of the show, STRIGGA & Dylan get into some All Japan with a main focus on Ryuki Honda's rise within the company and them trying to figure out what AJPW will do in Yoyogi.