Puro Pourri Podcast

In another edition of Match Microscope, the boys finally get to talking about the contest that is, in a roundabout way, responsible for the podcast's very existence (in that Statto and an extremely steaming Daniel bonded over it at a RevPro show back in 2015). Anti-Aging Hero Yuji Nagata takes on Akira Taue, "the ultimate mobile tree man" (copyright David Forrest), in a match where the honour of Pro Wrestling NOAH is on the line to an even greater extent, if such a thing is possible, than the Kevin Mask vs. Mr. Christmas bout we reviewed in our first Christmas Special. And as an added bonus, there's a treat for all you quiz fans as Daniel and David once again pit their wits against each other - with varying degrees of success - as Statto challenges them to name as many wrestlers as possible who featured on NOAH's first-ever show.

Matches:

Yuji Nagata vs. Akira Taue (NOAH, 6 June 2003)

The Shoot. The Incident. The Split. If you love drama as much as we do, welcome to the episode where David, George and Sarah finally cover the messy history of Jackie Sato, Shinobu Kandori and the birth of LLPW from JWP. We also get to rave about some of the most violent matches on the card at Big Egg Wrestling Universe and compare Kandori’s hair with Pat Butcher.

Find our sources, match recommendations and more in the show notes: http://www.imaintainthedoublefootstompissilly.com/big-egg-podcasting-universe-episode-5-show-notes/

MATCHES

Match 10: Shinobu Kandori and Mikiko Futagami vs. Toshiyo Yamada and Tomoko Watanabe (https://youtu.be/ykz-LeJ6ZGg)

Match 11: Etsuko Mita and Mima Shimoda (c) vs. Yasha Kurenai and Michiko Nagashima (UWA Women's Tag Team Championship) (https://youtu.be/N0Or5Gb5aT4)

Episode IV: A New Hope

A long time ago in a wrestling promotion far, far away, Chigusa Nagayo had to retire. She did not approve, and a few months before Big Egg Wrestling Universe she announced a company of her own that would eventually become the next big player in joshi. Welcome to GAEA, whose first few signees are in the early matches that David, Sarah and George are tackling in this episode. Plus bonus Chaparita Asari, and who doesn’t love a Sky Twister Press?

Find our sources, match recommendations and more in the show notes: http://imaintainthedoublefootstompissilly.com/big-egg-podcasting-universe-episode-4-show-notes/

MATCHES

Match 1: Chaparita ASARI and Bomber Hikaru vs. Hiromi Sugo and Hiromi Yagi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsalpoe5CGY)

Match 4: Suzuka Minami vs. KAORU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y20opLWbi80)

You’ve been waiting for two whole episodes now; finally, some wrestling. We start our deep dive into every match at Big Egg Wrestling Universe with some of the biggest drawing stars in Japanese history - Chigusa Nagayo, Lioness Asuka and Jaguar Yokota were some of the biggest names of the 1980s, and they all made a comeback in November 1994. Meanwhile, David falls in love with a Bison. Enjoy.

Find our sources, match recommendations and more in the show notes: http://www.imaintainthedoublefootstompissilly.com/big-egg-podcasting-universe-episode-3-show-notes/

MATCHES

Match 9: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Reggie Bennett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV_bppVFqxs)

Match 12: Lioness Asuka and Yumi Ogura vs. Jaguar Yokota and Bison Kimura (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ef9bKT2t-M)

A show like Big Egg Wrestling Universe takes a lot of build-up and demands some pomp and ceremony, so here we are, with David, George and Sarah bringing the pomp as we talk about the opening ceremony. Like London 2012, but with less Brunel and more Bull Nakano.

Find our sources, match recommendations and more in the show notes: http://www.imaintainthedoublefootstompissilly.com/big-egg-podcasting-universe-episode-2-show-notes/

Look everyone, it’s another wrestling podcast! Sarah Parkin joins George and David for a special limited series focusing on Big Egg Wrestling Universe, the legendary all-day joshi extravaganza from November 1994. This first instalment whizzes through the story of Japanese women’s wrestling and traces the Road To Big Egg, where more than 30,000 people went to a 10-hour show at the Tokyo Dome years before Wrestle Kingdom felt that long.

We’ll be putting links to watch the show online and lots of other lovely sources and info (and links for our shameless plugs) in our show notes: http://www.imaintainthedoublefootstompissilly.com/big-egg-podcasting-universe:-episode-1-show-notes/

George "Statto" Thompson: Vocals, Ukulele, Mandolin, Pennywhistle

Come one, come all and step right up to try your hand at the Puro Pourri Podcast's Big Puro Quiz. Join your fiendish quizmaster George "Statman's World" Thompson as he puts David and Daniel through their paces over five wild and wacky rounds. Give the old grey matter a workout worthy of the AJW dojo by playing along at home, or simply just listen along while the PPP Brains Trust wildly flail around for a wisp of a correct answer as they cast their minds back through the entirety of humankind's history to try and determine the year of Terry Funk's first retirement match, attempt to avoid picking the ****3/4 match in a sea of ***** efforts, match pro wrestlers to their often hilariously crap MMA records, forage their way through the AJPW Triple Crown title lineage, and much more besides! Stay safe, wear a mask and fuck the Tories.

Round 1: Home or Away (3:40)

Round 2: Meltzer Minesweeper (27:08)

Round 3: Ticket to PRIDE (52:20)

Round 4: Play Your Belts Right (1:16:24)

Round 5: I Know You Can Read My Thoughts, Boy (2:01:31)

In the first of what will hopefully be a long-running series of interviews with luminaries of the grappling scene, mat maestro Daniel Makabe, in a chat recorded just before this year's Wrestlemania weekend, takes us through a hand-picked mixtape of his favourite puro matches, and tells us how they influenced his career and his thinking. With a diverse array of wrestling styles covered, it's a wide-ranging discussion that was an absolute blast to record, and the tangents on punk and football are very much in keeping with the PPP ethos. We learned a lot, and are sure you will too.

MATCHES:

4:29 - Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Kantaro Hoshino and Umanosuke Ueda vs. Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido and Kazuo Yamazaki (NJPW, 26 March 1986) - dailymotion.com/video/x60ilzd

27:53 - Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori (AJW, 2 April 1993) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrSQyoEfAvQ

44:03 - Atsushi Onita, Katsutoshi Niiyama and Mr. Gannosuke vs. Mr. Pogo, Hideki Hosaka and The Gladiator (FMW, 25 September 1994) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDvvTsuQufw

1:06:51 - Shinjiro Otani (c) vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship) (NJPW, 17 June 1996) - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x760nmb

1:17:56 - Mitsuharau Misawa and Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue (AJPW, 6 December 1996) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1KJ102doqE

1:29:50 - Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 22 January 1997) - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wvyj0

1:46:11 - CIMA, Curry Man and Super Boy vs. Minoru Fujita, Jody Fleisch and Shiryu II (Michinoku Pro, 21 December 1999) - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe1n8b

2:17:31 - Minoru Tanaka (c) vs. Takehiro Murahama (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship) (NJPW, 20 April 2001) - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ozmrr

2:28:15 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (Futen, 24 April 2005) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxRLkhX_yMs

George, Daniel (at least for the first half before having to attend to his new cats) and David turn their keen yet jaundiced eyes to WWE's annual extravaganza of grappling, glitz and godawful booking in the Triple P's Wrestlemania 36 special. It's a dizzying spiral of boneyards and bollocks as the lads debate who did more to earn a tag title shot out of Austin Theory and the 10-year-old boy who teamed with Braun Strowman, discuss the suspicious resemblance of certain Megadeth songs to certain Metallica songs, and consider who or what a "Gronk" is. We realise this isn't the content you come to us for, but you're probably on lockdown - what else are you going to do with your time?