When I first joined TWM back in December, I volunteered to handle the coverage of New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America (NJoA). I had been a casual viewer of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) for a few years, tuning in to big events such as the Wrestle Kingdom shows, and had kept updated on certain athletes, stables and storylines – especially, like most western wrestling fans, Bullet Club (yeah, I’m a bit of a mark, so what?).
As TWM already had coverage of NJPW shows, it made sense to look at what they were doing in America.
So, in January, I started providing weekly results and recaps of NJPW Strong along with other NJoA coverage – including a two-part roster review (part 1 | part 2) and the Unofficial NJoA Annual 2020.
Some of you may have come to expect these recaps as part of the TWM Japan coverage. Some of you may even have come to welcome, and (dare I say it?) look forward to them. But if you fall in this category I am here to say I’m sorry, you won’t be getting any more NJoA (or NJPW coverage at all, for that matter) from me.
Some of you might question this, some of you probably won’t even care – after all, it’s not even been half a year – but, for those that are wondering, here’s why I fell out with NJPW.
First, as a minor inconvenience, I’d like to point out that the issue of pre-taping shows is something that annoys me as someone who writes recaps. When you have a wrestler who is injured, or otherwise indisposed, appearing on your show, it looks weird.
In the space of a few weeks, NJPW Strong had Danny Limelight wrestling on TV despite having announced he’s having to isolate due to a positive COVID-19 test and David Finlay appearing with no visible effects of the injury he’s been selling in Japan for the previous week. Also, if you have a two-person announce team, one of them should not act like an idiot.
Sorry, Alex Koslov, I loved you as a wrestler, but your character cannot carry the second seat in a commentary booth – it puts too much work on Kevin Kelly, who has to bail you out weekly by either explaining your “joke” or having to acknowledge that he’s ignoring you. However, these irritants are a drop in the ocean.