Ramblings of an Englishman

​The King of Sports is back and I’m not talking about that horror show of an AI Antonio Inoki. New Japan has been hovering for years and I do think this year has show some ambition towards its rebuild of the coming with this generation. I’ve had my issues with New Japan towards this I think they waited too long to move a lot of new talent into title contention and when everyone was gone you were left with a lot of people not established as next up with credentials to back it. We essentially had to have Tsuji carry the load for regular talent as more and more established guys went away. However, I do think there’s some good moments. Shock booking like Callum Newman’s Heavyweight Title win have helped and The Knockout Brothers run of title defences and that New Years Dash promo it just felt like we needed a moment in time where everyone (well nearly everyone) moved in sync and the battle to determine the strongest of the summer was it. G1 Climax season always feels me with hope to begin ...

Is this PPV really needed? A strange opening sentence but legit help me out here. I dunno why we are doing this are we not better suited to running through to All In? I get we need to get all the ducks in a row but are some of those big enough for PPV hooks? Look I'm watching I pay MyAEW for that privilege and I'm sure this PPV is being created to justify the price points but still. As ever yeah sure will be a good show they always are but let's break it down. Last one of these actual quick thoughts before I am at Wembley all Bank Holiday August weekend. I wanna dedicate this one to my cat Jess who passed away the Monday before the show. Redemption is the first AEW I'll watch without her sleeping in the kitchen and disturbing here when I go to the fridge. She's give me a confuse look and then go back to sleep it wasn't breakfast time just yet. I'm gonna miss you so much and just hope you know how much you were loved and how much you will be missed.  Zero Hou...

​July 2026 is a funny time for a niche topic in the grand scheme of things. It will be 20 years since my first wrestling show seen live (I mean it will be if All-Star never get back to me regarding the buttons 2004 show I was at, the DMs is there in your requests please respond). As such it’s a nice round number to fully look into the facts and figures. A lot of these shows are from the last 12 months where I've really started to be more interested in live wrestling as opposed to just going to the bigger shows and watching the rest at home but it's still a fun collection of names and matches.  For the record this contains 32 shows which are broken down as the below x2 LDN Shows (2006-2007) x8 TNA/Impact Wrestling Shows (2008-2016) x3 NJPW Shows (2019-2024) x15 RevPro Shows (2023-2026) x3 AEW Shows (2023-2025) x1 Pro Wrestling EVE Show (2026)  Most Seen Wrestler So who takes the crown for most seen wrestler? Well as ever there’s some slight controversy with it in terms of the w...

Forbidden Door season rolls about again. Not in the UK this time we have all in but this show will have UK implications with the finals of both men and women’s versions of The Owen. Slight deviation on normal I’ve been away for the most part so my thoughts on TV may not be accurate for what the show has shown. I’ve not seen everything so you know what can you do.  Buy In Drilla Moloney vs. Daniel Garcia  A match announced while I was sleeping before the show. It should be a fine match but I have nothing but that to say for it. I might hit that Drilla right. This was good enough felt heatless with how late it was announced. Drilla killer is nice. 2.75/5   Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Skye Blue vs. Maika  I’ve really enjoyed the idea of building to the next TBS champion after Willow sadly had to vacate the belt. Build up to it make it seem like everyone wants it and blow that off with a first time gimmick match (in AEW) of Survival of the Fittest. F...

Look I know it’s only halfway through 2026 and here I am looking at 2027. But I’m thinking and when I think I have to write it down so the ideas leave my mind. As this one states it’s all about changes I’d make to AEW and their PPV line up in 2027. Look next year is 8 years for AEW the format has been added on and fixed in place (mainly in terms of having your AEW UK show in August whatever it’s called more than anything). Originally Double or Nothing was the top show and then replaced with All In. For 2027 I want to reflect on how I’d change things around a little bit and just explain that reasoning. I’m not on the business side of AEW maybe some of this is impossible I dunno but it’s fun to just speculate. As a caveat I won’t be removing any PPV or changing the names. I don’t think AEW will despite my issues with Forbidden Door as a name. All In Starting with All In and I’d take another break from it being in the UK. Ticket sales aren’t exactly booming and I think Wembley has been a ...

​Sitting here away on holiday thinking about wrestling. I know doesn’t seem like I do much else. But we are in full Forbidden Door season for AEW which I was fortunate to be at last year in the O2 and well is the idea of ‘Forbidden Door’ redundant now?  If you look at what this show meant to being with it was the first union of AEW and NJPW following years of tension. After AEW was founded the president of NJPW at the time Harold Meji felt slighted by the departure of The Elite as well as other key talents to the new promotion in America opting for closer bigger paydays. New Japan saw The Best Friends gone just as they were looking to push Trent as a singles talent and mainstay Lance Archer to name a few.  I wasn’t really until the build up to Wrestle Kingdom 14 and Chris Jericho vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi that Tanahashi said should he win and get a shot at the AEW title he would walk through ‘The Forbidden Door’ to win the title. While Tanahashi didn’t win that day I think it went...