La Zona Muerta

The thought occurs that I talk a LOT about wrestling I don’t like… but how about a quick recommendation for something I do like? Hence, a new, recurring feature: Chef Recommends. Have you TRIED the Clams Casino?

A fake (aka digital) painting of my shoot El Desperado pyonsuke on some shoot drapery

I think it’s safe to say that New Japan Pro Wrestling is my favorite wrestling promotion… and it’s also safe to say that it’s not exactly blowing up anyone’s skirts of late. I really have a big problem with their domestic shows, their Western expansion policy and lots more, besides. I’m not one of these weirdos that thinks that their AEW partnership has somehow been a detriment or anything… but they are missing something… a lot of things. There’s a distinct lack of urgency, a refusal to push new acts, some real failures to read the room, some real baffling booking.

One aspect they aren’t lacking in is their junior heavyweight division. That isn’t to say that there aren’t problems there, too; Hiromu Takahashi probably needs to move up to heavyweight (I know he’s small, but he’s really not much smaller than Tetsuya Naito, who also started as a junior) since he kind of casts a shadow over the rest of the division, they need to finally elevate Douki, given his popularity with the crowds (hey, perhaps they are actually doing that), etc. but they have a lot of really talented juniors, both native and foreign. The currently underway Best of the Super Juniors tournament is bound to have some excellent, stand out matches, and May 13th, night two had just that; a tremendous battle between El Desperado and Kosei Fujita.

I don’t really want to give it a blow by blow review or spoil it, but it’s a fast paced grappling battle with Desperado and Fujita struggling to actually out wrestle each other; Desperado trying to isolate and destroy Fujita’s knee while Fujita uses speed and hard strikes to counter attack. This was a quick, hard hitting match and I happily recommend you give it a watch if you’re still holding on to a NJPW World subscription. Maybe stick around for Douki vs. Hiromu, too.

Much was made of the “Reiwa Three Musketeers” and the near universal rejection of that title, but I genuinely think Fujita, who I would classify as being in the same graduating “class” as Yota Tsuji, Ren Narita and Shota Umino is better all around than at least two of those names, and in ring, possibly all three. Heck, I’d probably say that about Yuya Uemura, too. Tsuji is obviously the most charismatic of the lot (and it’s not merely charisma; he’s got effortless poise in interviews, too), Shota is probably the one they’ve pushed the hardest… but I genuinely think they have something in Fujita if they give him the old pushski.

I promise to recommend more stuff if I think it’s worth going out of your way to see.