Ramblings of an Englishman

As AEW begins to expand it's PPV schedule to six a year we get the first ever AEW Dynasty PPV. A card that is top to bottom filled with championship matches and feuds all built up through their previous weeks of television. I personally have enjoyed the last little run of AEW shows building up to this but really do wish AEW could gaslight an audience and have a PR division to manipulate people into thinking literally everything they do is great like WWE does. Regardless of another companies lifeless product which people will lie to your face and say is good I think on paper this was set to be a good show. With that in mind hopefully this show can live up to the card it is on paper.  Zero Hour Trent Beretta vs. Matt Sydal A bit of an odd one to be on PPV all be it a pre-show. Trent's heel turn is a major angle based on who it is against but still this feels like a match you'd see on Dynamite, not questioning the talent invovled just feel that this could've been on Dynami...

At the turn of March we welcome in the frist AEW PPV of what seems to be the biggest schedule of them since the companies inception. I think AEW will need to work on how they manage all of these PPVs with their TV time. Regardless, this show has been built arond the final match of Sting and his legendary career. I have had the privlage of seeing Sting live multiple times including at All In last year and can only add to the praise for his career. It is fitting that he main events a PPV on his final show. With that being said AEW has been strong in their booking so far this year and I think having MJF out injured has become addition by subtraction as it has helped elevate Swerve and Hangman into the main event picture which have been well recieved and with Samoa Joe and a great run as champion is has made the top of the card feel fresh. Zero Hour The Bang Bang Scissor Gang (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, and Jay White) vs. Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh, J...

For New Japan Pro Wrestling the year 2024 is off to a start where they need to look into a massive rebuild of their company. In the past 12 months or so they have lost Jay White, Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada leaving a hole in the top of their card in such quick order without being able to build replacements for them. It does seem dire but such is the current landscape of the wrestling world. New Japan will have to settle into being the third biggest company in the world unable to match the money that WWE or AEW can offer. I just wanted to cover my thoughts and if it was down to me how I would approach 2024 & 2025 for New Japan Pro Wrestling and booking the company. On the majority of things I'm willing to give New Japan a pass on booking decisions this year. This is a rebuilding year and as such some things will be done. I don't like them hiring Matt Riddle for dates and personally wouldn't but understand they want anyone with a name in wrestling to hope to fill any...

With the dust settling and fists meeting fate the story mode for Tekken 8 has given us the conclusion to the feud between the two main protagonists (and sometime antagonists) of the series in Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima and it feels like Tekken 9 will usher in a new era for the story of these games. I wanted to take some time like with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to go over my thoughts on this instalment and my hopes for the ninth entry in the series. I will say this however, I would be perfectly fine with another Tekken Tag Tournament next instead of Tekken 9. I feel that 9 will have such a shift when it comes to story and characters it may be best for the team and series director Katsuhiro Harada to give themselves some breathing room and thinking time to work over the plot and where to take their world. Plus it would be a nice time to test some things. I’d bring everyone from 7 onwards back including DLC characters. See who people like, who they team with each other and use it ...

 Spoilers from throughout the Like a Dragon/Yakuza franchise Man 25th January 2024 was a fun one. Both Like a Dragon 8 & Tekken 8 both releasing on the same date I had to make a decision on what one to play first. Deciding narrative over fighting I started Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and now just making the final preperations for the final bosses of the game I feel I made a good choice in what game to start (full disclosure I think Tekken 8 is good and the small amount I played I really enjoyed). Being at the end of the game and unfortunately the ending spoilt in some capacity I end up looking to the future. Becomming the series fastest-selling game to date with over 1 million units in the first week we can expect Like a Dragon 9 at some point in the future. So I wanted to go over Like a Dragon 8, what I felt and what I hope for in the future.  With an expanded map and roster of party members I expect us to be visting both Hawaii and Isezaki Ijincho again for ...

With 2023 coming to an end I think it's time for many to look back at the year they had. For me one thing I wanted to do this year was go to more wrestling shows. I only ever seem to go to one show a most a year but this year managed to get to a few more. Always a fun time so I wanted to compile my favourite matches I saw live in person. For the record the events I went to this year as follows: Revolution Pro Wrestling 11th Anniversary - 26th August 2023 AEW All In - 27th August 2023 NJPW Royal Quest 3 - 14th October 2023 Revolution Pro Wrestling Uprising - 16th December 2023 So without any other delay my top 5 live matches from this year are as below. 5) MJF vs. Adam Cole - AEW All In Starting with the main event of the biggest show I went to this year I found mtself as part of the group of people that enjoyed this match. While I understand those who don't like it due to it being like an old NXT Takeover style main event which I did like. It felt like a large part of telling t...

As 2023 draws to a close we have one final PPV from All Elite Wrestling. In a year of ups and downs sometimes in the same show it has been a weaker year for AEW. I do believe people are stupid to expect every year to hit 52 weeks of the year and considering people wet themselves over how great WWE is as Michael Cole can now say Bullet Club on TV the top two wrestling companies are not equally comparred. I do hope AEW can look at its positives from this year and build on those. With a lot of big stories coming up on this show and hopefully the reveal of a masked devil I wanted to break down match by match the final AEW show of 2023.  Zero Hour Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale Wow three women's matches on one show but Twitter told me that Tony Khan hates women. Regardless of what the depth of social media have to say (and the fact I feel a lot better not having to see it since deleting my Twitter account) I do feel that the title scene around the TBS title is stronger than the ...