Wrestling Omakase

Wrestling Omakase is back on the air after a little time off, and boy do we dive right back into it with the start of tournament season in Japan! John's originally planned guest unfortunately had to miss the show due to circumstances out of their control, but thankfully their buddies Suit Williams & Quinlan (who, in a very weird coincidence, are both celebrating a birthday this coming Saturday!) came in to pinch hit and do a very able job.

First, Suit gives an interesting perspective of a relative STARDOM newcomer who decided to jump in for the 5 Star GP this year, as John & Suit break down a great opening three nights of the tournament (and an incredible MOTYC that had nothing to do with it at all, oddly enough). Then Quinlan joins John to talk about a very promising first four shows from Japan in the G1 Climax. Finally, John then goes solo for the rest of the episode as they discuss Dragongate's biggest show of the year, another great Tokyo Joshi Korakuen, Sendai Girls' not 20th anniversary show (also from Korakuen) and finally NOAH Summer Epic. Well, some of it anyway.

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It's another LIVE ON LOCATION episode of Wrestling Omakase, this time from BEAUTIFUL Hoffman Estates, Illinois! John is joined by three frequent Omakase guests all live in the hotel room, as Arametha, Quinlan & John Bivins help them break down an incredible first night of the New Japan Grade One Climax! All nine matches get reviewed, vibes get talked, and a whole lot more.

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Episode 2 of the three-episode Arametha takeover is a bonafide Korakuen-palooza, as the two of them discuss new Korakuen shows from NJPW (a big Road to G1 show featuring a major title change and then Tiger Mask's retirement), STARDOM (featuring an awesome red belt match), Dragongate (yet another middling show) and NOAH (which the two hosts strenuously disagreed on about almost everything!). They also preview a busy upcoming summer in Japanese wrestling with breakdowns of NJPW's G1 Climax and STARDOM's 5STAR GP tournaments, including predictions and full rundowns of both opening nights. And then they preview Dragongate's biggest show of the year, Kobe World, as well as NOAH's big upcoming show in Osaka. There's a lot going on right now. Also as a warning, this episode might have a lot of random/off topic banter even by our standards....

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It's an annual tradition here on Wrestling Omakase, and John isn't going to get the fact that they are very, very jet lagged put a stop to it! They're joined by an all star panel of frequent Omakase guests for our 2026 Mid-Year Awards, as all five choose the best & worst of the first half of a busy year in Japanese wrestling! See below for the full list of awards that were covered on the episode, in order.

Best Tag Team

Best Feud

Most Improved

Most Overrated/Overpushed

Most Underrated/Underpushed

Best Unit

Worst Unit

Best Major Show

Worst Major Show

Most Outstanding Wrestler (in ring only)

Best Promotion

Worst Promotion

Match of the (Half) Year

Worst Match of the (Half) Year

Flair/Thesz Award (in ring + drawing, basically MVP)

Apologies for Zencastr repeatedly fucking with us, as well as John falling asleep at the end. Jet lag is real!! It's a menace!!

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It's another Live from Japan episode, this time covering STARDOM The Conversion. John (while a little drunk) and Matt break down what was possibly the show of the year, featuring shocking results, a mega-hot crowd, and a whole lot more. Very short description because I'm in a rush to go to club MOGRA. Go listen. Or don't, it makes no difference to me really.

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It's the THREE HUNDRETH EPISODE of Wrestling Omakase (!!), and in very fitting fashion we are live from Japan! John is joined by first time guest Matt from their hotel room in Osaka for a full review of an eventful NJPW Dominion show from Osaka Jo Hall. Lots of live notes of course on the building and what the crowd was like in person as they break it all down match by match. A bit of a shorter episode than usual this week (the izakaya was calling us to be honest), but definitely a fun one!

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John is back on another Japan trip eve-eve, so they're filled with restless energy at the prospect of soon being back in a giant metal tube for 14 hours and they're pretty sure it showed! Thankfully returning guest Velkej is here to help them break down the end of the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and boy is there a lot to talk about: the very divisive winner, who had the best and worst tournaments, the giant gap between A and B blocks, and a whole lot more! Plus, a preview of a very underwhelming-on-paper Dominion card for Osaka Jo Hall (not ideal when you're going to it of course!).

Then it's over to Tokyo Joshi for nothing but unabashed praise (well, not quite as much from Velkej but hey) as John happened to think this random Korakuen show from them ended up being one of the very best shows of the year- from any promotion. They break down a MOTYC tag title match, a strong undercard with their young wrestlers once again showing out, and a surprisingly great main event. Afterwar they head back to Dragongate for a very mixed bag of two more Korakuen Hall shows, including the enormous news of Shun Skywalker's imminent departure. They break down the perplexing way that's been handled so far, comparisons to Okada's NJPW departure, some really weird and stupid angles, and Kobe World being booked seemingly on the fly.

Finally, John goes solo to break down AJPW's 6/6 show from Nikko, another fun show from the most improved promotion of 2026. They wrap things up with a little bit of rambling on as we approach the 300th episode of this stupid podcast, somehow. Thanks to our listeners!!!

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John and Eric (fka Snazzy??) are back for another super packed episode of Wrestling Omakase! They start things off with some discussion of VOW's latest edition of the 30 Under 30 project- who they voted for that got lost in the honorable mentions, then as 30-16 dropped right when they started recording they go through that list as well. Plus, lots of discussion on young wrestlers and how different places do (or don't) develop them in general! Then it's on to a major topic from last week, as they talk the major news of NJPW's sale from Bushiroad to TV Asahi & Cyberagent, including a lot of things they think people are getting wrong about this topic so far.

Then of course it's on to our show reviews, starting out with a STARDOM Korakuen show from 5/26 packed with major news: of course, Utami Hayashishita's sudden return to the company being the big one, but also a major title change on top. They break it all down as well as the sudden burst of unit movement from this past weekend as well. Then it's on to NJPW BOSJ Nights 8-10 (5/27, 5/29 & 5/30) which were kind of the dog days of the tournament, though there were still a couple highlights (and some real lowlights as well).

Afterward they talk a trio of shows that all took place on May 31st, starting with the King of DDT finals from Korakuen Hall. They break down a somewhat surprising winner, whether or not this was a mistake, if DDT's young talent is being pushed fast enough, "vibes" and more. Then it's over to Marvelous to talk their latest Shin Kiba 1st Ring show, featuring some notable foreign talent, Chigusa Nagayo's divisive commentary (Nicole made a run in for this part- she is not a fan!), and what's coming up next for them. Finally, it's back to the land of Ice Ribbon to discuss their show from Yokohama that John was particularly invested in the result of, as their favorite wrestler in the promotion tries to earn a title shot on a show they're going to next month! Also somewhere in here we rank the Omakase co-hosts by who would beat who in a FIGHT, so definitely don't miss that!

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John is joined once again by Arametha, the man of many pronunciations, as they discuss mostly absolute nonsense for 45 minutes before finally getting into STARDOM's Queen Dynasty show! They break down another strong showing for the World Wonder Ring at the box office, a fun undercard, and then very notable first title defenses for Sayaka Kurara & Hanan! After that it's over to New Japan for continuing coverage of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, covering night 4 from Korakuen Hall (the final true dual block show for a while) before heading into single block nights from Osaka, Hyogo & Kyoto! Who's been standing out so far, and who's been disappointing?

Then it's back to joshi with Marigold's Shine Forever, their annual anniversary show from Ota Ward Gym. We discuss a difficult time for the embattled young promotion due to a mix of injuries and departures, and talk about where they might be able to go from here. Finally, we wrap things up with Tokyo Joshi's 5/22 Shinjuku FACE show, a delightful little event on their road to their next Korakuen show next month.

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John is back alongside returning guest Velkej Bracha as they open things up with the start of NJPW's annual Best of the Super Juniors tournament! They discuss all the tournament action from nights 1 through 3 all around Tokyo, breaking down which performances have been entertaining and which ones have been grating so far (and there's been plenty of both!). Then they head back to AJPW to wrap up their surprisingly good 2026 Champion Carnival, in front of one of their biggest crowds in years at Ota, before looking ahead to some big upcoming shows next month.

Next up it's back to the World Wonder Ring, as John & Velkej discuss another solid Korakuen Hall show from STARDOM, celebrate the long-awaited return of the Artist six-woman belts (and talk a little about why they've been so important to the promotion historically), and then preview this coming weekend's Queen's Dynasty PPV from Aichi. Finally, they wrap up the episode with a review of Marigold's most recent Korakuen, including some surprisingly frank English commentary on everything surrounding Utami Hayashishita's departure, the promotion's current struggles but also the young talent we think can help them turn things around in the future. There's also a few very brief notes on NOAH's latest Korakuen, which we meant to review more in full but ran out of time this week.

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