Author: Alex Podgorski

When people think of  ‘the longest wrestling PPV ever’, the first name that usually comes to mind is (pre-COVID) WrestleMania. Before the pandemic hit, WWE’s approach to its annual spectacle was to stretch it out as much as possible. After all, the company was no longer beholden to PPV providers, so who was to tell them to stop shoving so much content onto a single show? But even though WrestleMania 35 is the longest WWE show in history, it isn’t the longest wrestling show ever. That honor goes to an event that took place twenty-five years prior, and it’s the…

Few wrestlers inspire as much awe and unease as the Great Muta. He’s the most famous face-painted wrestler in Japanese history. He has spent decades dazzling audiences with his incredible athleticism and unusual antics. And he has mastered the art of creating something inhuman out of the human sport of pro wrestling. The Great Muta terrorized his opponents as much as he did fans that were looking on. Who, or what, is The Great Muta? Muta is the alter-ego of Keiji Mutoh, who is one of the most iconic Japanese wrestlers of all time. From 1989 to the present, Mutoh…

Eddie Guerrero is an icon to both wrestlers and wrestling fans. Many people still remember him fondly long after his untimely death, and wrestlers tribute and reference him all the time. Much has been discussed about his work in North America. But little has been discussed about his time abroad. As such, we’d like to highlight some of Eddie’s greatest accomplishments from his time wrestling in Japan. Like many smaller and more technically adept wrestlers, Eddie found work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling during the 1990s. Eddie went on a foreign excursion to Japan to learn from NJPW’s cruiserweights and hone…

Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada. This was one of the most brutal, intense, and personal rivalries in pro wrestling history. It was one that blended professional competitiveness with real-life animosities. They were high school friends, tag team partners, professional adversaries, and in the end, bitter archrivals. Their rivalry bled into their real lives to the point that they fought for real. And yet, they managed to make the most out of that bitterness and use it in their matches. In doing so, they put on quite possibly the best collection of wrestling matches of all time. ______________ Misawa and Kawada…

Pro wrestling, at its core, is a manly profession. It’s the embodiment of toughness, determination, intensity, and the iron will to win. And no wrestling company understood that better than All Japan Pro-Wrestling (AJPW). Their original owner and creative figurehead, Shohei ‘Giant’ Baba, built his entire wrestling style around this philosophy. That style, called ‘King’s Road’ is considered the pinnacle of professional wrestling. It combines the classic American style of storytelling with legitimate Japanese martial prowess and physical intensity. That led to a golden age in AJPW that lasted from 1990 to 2000. And one of the best examples of…

On this day, Hulk Hogan wins the IWGP Championship. Thirty-eight years ago, Hulk Hogan made history as the first-ever IWGP Champion in New Jew Japan Pro-Wrestling. Not only did this win bring huge exposure to NJPW, but it also changed the direction of wrestling history. Hogan was part of a ten-man tournament in 1983 called the IWGP League. That tournament involved a multitude of top-level wrestlers from all over the world. Other participants included NJPW founder Antonio Inoki, UWA World Heavyweight Champion Canek, and CWA World Heavyweight Champion Otto Wanz. Inoki wanted the best wrestlers from far and wide to…

Few wrestlers are able to conjure up as much fear as Toshiaki Kawada. He’s a wrestler of mythic proportions. He exudes an aura of badassery that few wrestlers have been able to match. This stems from his reputation as being arguably the hardest hitting wrestler to ever step foot in a wrestling ring. Today we look at the career of Toshiaki Kawada, and how he became known as the most dangerous wrestler in Japan. Toshiaki Kawada & Mitsuharu Misawa – Rivals From The Beginning When one looks at the career of Toshiaki Kawada, there’s a second name that comes up…

Few women have had as much of an impact on women’s wrestling as Aja Kong. She is the standard-bearer for all women’s wrestlers that ‘don’t fit the mold’. Instead of being a skinny woman with little wrestling skill wearing even less clothing, Kong was and still is the women’s wrestling version of Big Van Vader. She’s a dangerous monster that kicks ass and doesn’t take crap from anyone. ________________ Aja Kong – A Difficult Start Erika Shishido, the woman behind the Aja Kong persona, became so vicious and notorious. This is due to a combination of her upbringing and her…

“The Ace of All Japan Pro-Wrestling.” “Greatest pro wrestler ever.” “The Standard Bearer for Future Generations.” These are a few terms used to describe one of the most famous wrestlers in Japanese wrestling history. He’s a man so revered and admired that CM Punk got a tattoo of the man’s wrestling boots. This is Mitsuharu Misawa. ______________ In fact, the work this wrestler and his compatriots did in the 1990s had a direct impact on the wrestling style of the early 2000s independent wrestling scene. That same scene that spawned the likes of Punk, A.J. Styles, Daniel Bryan, Chris Hero,…

Every famous group of wrestlers has that one person that ranks below the rest. For the SmackDown Six, it was Chavo Guerrero. The Four Horsewomen of WWE had Becky Lynch up until her meteoric rise to the top. And for All Japan Pro-Wrestling’s famed Four Pillars of Heaven, that person was Akira Taue. Taue was considered the weakest, of these famed four wrestlers. The least skilled, the least exciting, the least memorable, the least innovative. And while that’s true to an extent, it doesn’t convey the entire picture. Taue was and still is, criminally underrated for his ability to tell…