Eastern Lariat

Dylan engages in a full preview of Pro Wrestling NOAH's N1 Victory tournament with predictions for every single match up to the final, and he's joined by Dean and Dr. Jonathan Foye who also give their predictions and as it turned all 3 had different winners of the tournament! It's long, but we talk about everyone and go over a ton of scenarios, and somehow come out with everything being alright by the end.

Look forward to more coverage on the Patreon where EVERY SINGLE MATCH will be covered with both Dean and Jonathan factoring in along with others! And of course keep your eyes peeled to watch the N1 itself on Wrestle Universe where you will see who if any looks like genius and/or idiots.

Get coverage of the N1, same day reviews of the G1, same day reviews of STARDOM's 5 Star Grand Prix, an archive featuring thousands of hours of historical audio, all for only $5 a month. Also reviews of major Manami Toyota matches in her career for free! All on patreon.com/easternlariat

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Eastern Lariat - @EasternLariat

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The G1 Climax has reached its half way point and also delivered three shows in Tokyo so this is the perfect moment to not only look back on two Korakuen Hall shows and an event from Ota Ward that delivered some of the best matches of the tournament, but it's also an opportunity to highlight each block's best performers, which Dylan takes care of with his scientifically certified ratings system – unlike NJPW this can't be rigged. Before the G1 talk starts, the Eastern Lariat looks at Saya Kamitani being out of the 5 Star GP, Stardom's card for August 13 and ZERO1 losing their long time ring announcer as well as Fuminori Abe due to injury.

This past weekend New Japan presented two G1 Climax shows that could not have been more different. While the one from Nagaoka received almost unanimous praise, the one two days later in Nagano was rated the lowest of all G1 shows this year so far. STRIGGA & Dylan discuss all the matches and go into some wrestler's quest so far and in some cases – once again – question their role in the biggest tournament of the year. The G1 talk is sandwiched between some notes on DRAGONGATE's King of Gate and their upcoming Korakuen as well as DDT's Peter Pan with the emotional highlight of Chris Brookes winning the KO-D Title at the beginning and a quick review of Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix opening night at the end of the show.

The summer of tournaments rolls on and so does the Eastern Lariat. In this episode STRIGGA & Dylan look back at Days 3 & 4 of the G1 Climax 33 from Yamagata and Sendai, which leads to a discussion about the format of the tournament. What improvements could there be to provide more interesting undercards and an more intriguing field of competitors? While some matches are lacking excitement, others over delivered so far – the G1 has truly started. At the end of the show the Eastern Lariat duo also discusses DRAGONGATE's King of Gate as well as the N-1 Rumble leading up to NOAH's N-1 Victory and the Sumo Hall Cards for DDT & GLEAT.

The first weekend of the 33rd G1 Climax is in the books, so Dylan & STRIGGA sat down to look back at the best matches of the first set of shows – was there a signature G1 match that takes the tournament out of the gates? Besides the matches, the two talk about the start of the Reiwa Toukon Three Musketeers and their individual prospects of positioning within the company. STRIGGA & Dylan also lay out their picks for block winners, runner ups and for the winner of the G1 Climax 33. With that in mind, the two discuss some booking ideas for Wrestle Kingdom 18 that revolves around the question if SANADA remains champion until January 4. At the end of the show the focus transitions to Pro Wrestling NOAH's One Night Dream show, a unique spectacle of a show that featured one of the best matches of the year in Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara.

Out with the old, in with the new! The Eastern Lariat got new any shiny awards waiting for winners in 13 different categories that saw almost every japanese promotion represented in some form or fashion. Led by the ballots sent in by the listeners, STRIGGA and Dylan make their own picks starting with Best Foreigner, going over most improved, best promotion, best wrestler and much more until the final two awards: The Manami Toyota Joshi MVP and the Kenta Kobashi (overall) MVP. Join the Eastern Lariat on a journey through the first six months of japanese pro-wrestling in 2023!

With STRIGGA back after an hiatus of 5 weeks, him and Dylan open the show with a preview of the newly named categories for the Half Year Awards. From there, the two discuss Forbidden Door, STRIGGA's take on the G1 Climax as well as the N-1 Victory Blocks for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Dylan gives his take on the highly acclaimed 12 Women Cage Match from Stardom's Sunshine show and the duo talk about DRAGONGATE's upcoming biggest show of the year: Kobe World! Who's gonna lose their mask?The show closes with a quick discussion about Yuji Okabayashi, who's taking an indefinite hiatus.

Come for the All Together Again, stay for an hour on each company involved with it! No stone gets left unturned with everything going on in NJPW and AJPW and NOAH. Dylan is joined by Dean again and talk about the full card of All Together and then go over the G1 Climax Blocks, where AJPW, NJPW & NOAH go from here and a breakdown of all sorts of stories and wrestlers going on in each company with talk and even disagreements about different wrestlers like Kaito Kiyomiya, Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi, Ishii, Shingo & much unhappiness thanks to STINGER!

For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for over 1000s of hours of audio: https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat

Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EasternLariat https://www.twitter.com/STRIGGA https://www.twitter.com/Viva_Zero https://www.twitter.com/dnmt67

Special thanks to Souichi Sakagami & Mikado Miyabi for the OFFICIAL Eastern Lariat theme song: "Rainy Day" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3yWeS1ILdE

With STRIGGA on vacation and a big STARDOM show to talk about Dylan brings back Sondre Bjørn for a ride through, as they go through the spectacular finals of NJPW's Best of the Super Jr. Run down best matches, what they think of Wato and his big win, as well as where the Jrs. and the company as a whole is headed towards in the future. The second half of the show is dedicated to STARDOM, as we talk about the entire Flashing Champions show, the direction of the company and then run down the participants announced for the Five Star Grand Prix with a spirited conversation about things in Joshi's most popular company.

For more coverage of Japanese pro wrestling, modern and classic, check out our Patreon patreon.com/easternlariat for just $5 a month to gain access to thousands of hours of shows talking wrestling.

Follow the Eastern Lariat and Sondre on Twitter and let us know your thoughts on Japanese wrestling!

@EasternLariat @Viva_Zero @SondreBjorn @STRIGGA

and listen to Sondre and Dylan's show the Dramatic Dream Dragons about DDT, Dragon Gate & GLEAT. https://open.spotify.com/show/0lmhqND9EcIB8jFIGvScoT

Hopefully you enjoyed the show and have a great week!

This week, (almost) the entire focus of the show lies on the 30th Best of the Super Junior, New Japan's annual Junior Heavyweight Tournament that has produced some of the best and most talked about matches of the year as well as some unforgettable moments in its past iteration. This year, some new competitors enter the field to mix it up with the top of the junior division in New Japan, which already provided some great pro-wrestling. STRIGGA & Dylan look back at the first half of the tournament and rate each wrestler, their matches, their stories and their chances of advancing to the semi finals. Before that, the show opens with All Japan Pro Wrestling and Shotaro Ashino's tragic injury, his replacement and a look at the first matches for All Together.