With only a few weeks left in the year (and we can all expect some of us may not be around as much during that time), now seems as good a time as any to reflect on the year and all that we’ve seen so far!

So with that said:

Matches, wrestlers, companies, what really stood out for you during 2023? What was your highest of highs, and lowest of lows. Did any wrestler go above and beyond your expectations? Did any big match you were waiting for end up being a huge let down? What company’s booking did you like and hate the most during the year? Let us know what you think of how everything has gone down below!

  • Neon_Carnivore@kbin.social
    5·
    9 months ago

    I’ll likely be editing/updating this later because I really need time to think about this and I was supposed to be asleep for work over an hour ago.
    Decided instead to just do a little formatting on this post and then continue my thoughts as comments below it.

    Yuka Sakazaki leaving TJPW:

    • I have absolutely zero worries about a TJPW without Yuka, they have a strong roster even without her. (I’ve got a gut feeling that Himawari will be one to keep an eye on). What I am worried about, is a Yuka without TJPW. If she’s full time AEW bound as we suspect, I worry she will be tossed into RoH jail with the other two thirds of AEW’s one match division. Speaking of…

    AEW’s “one match division”:

    • There HAVE been some improvements, particularly with Julia Hart and Skye Blue, but just as much, it seems there’s so little time for the women on TV that as soon as a female’s character becomes remotely interesting, she’s thrust into a title feud. This is most evident in the fact that despite LOSING in the 3 way match for the TBS championship, Skye IMMEDIATELY got a shot at the world title against Toni Storm. Wouldn’t one think that the WINNER of that match, or at the very least the former TBS champion would be ahead of Skye Blue in that line?
    • The 2 most interesting things I can recall Nyla Rose doing in 2023 happened on twitter (her Halloween costumehausen) and in TJPW (her match against Maki Itoh). Maybe TK, or the network, is afraid to use Nyla due to the current political climate surrounding trans people? But she has personality in spades. Imagine a Nyla/Willow tag team…
    • Hikaru Shida was a transitional champion TWICE this year. That doesn’t sit right with me. I’d rather see her get an actual storyline. Remember when she said she wanted to wrestle Athena? I haven’t forgotten.

    Ring of Elevation:

    • Aside from what others have already said, I think RoH needs a hook to motivate viewers to drop that 10 bucksonsoon a month. Or at the very least they could FUCKING PROMOTE IT. RoH has a ppv THIS WEEKEND that’s included as part of the Honor club subscription and I can’t recall a single instance of it even being mentioned on television. They finally mentioned it on last night’s Dynamite.

    WWE:

    • ADRENALINE!
    • PLAYED OUT MEME!
    • RUBBER CHICKEN
    • IN THE RING!
    • Was when I last watched dubya dubya EEEEEE!
    • WHOA-OH!

    AEW/RoH in general:

    • Christian has been the best heel in AEW this year by a long shot.
    • Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana together has been wonderful. The Swerve/Hangman death match was fucking bonkers, and the feud leading up to it was pretty good, too. A great year for Swerve, tbh.
    • Danielson vs ZSJ is a match that will go down as a greatest of all time.
    • Ric Flair needs AEW more than AEW will ever need Ric Flair. But if the reports about the energy drink deal are true, they basically got him for free. Good for them. But they can’t make me give a shit.
    • Certainly didn’t expect Roderick Strong and The Kingdom to become a weekly fixture, but the whole NeckStrong thing has been entertaining as hell.

    Falling asleep… need to stop for now.
    Continued below.

    • kessleragain@beehaw.org
      5·
      9 months ago

      That’s a really good point about Yuka. I was also scratching my head when Skye got that title shot.

      Curse you for putting Nyla/Willow in my brain. I want it now.

    • Neon_Carnivore@kbin.social
      5·
      9 months ago

      DDT:

      • Chris Brooks had a decent title reign that I feel was well deserved, and he dropped the belt to the right wrestler in Yuki Ueno. Also, if you like super wacky mat wrestling, check out his “Baka Gaijin and Friends” shows on YouTube. (English friendly!)
      • MAO is (and has been for a good while now) one to keep an eye on. And I am incredibly jealous of his jawline.
      • I’m honestly more upset about the Pheromones splitting up than I am about Saki Akai graduating, but that is in no way meant as disrespect to Akai.
      • Matt Cardona vs Maki Itoh was good fun.
      • Yoshihiko ❤

      Impact/TNA:

      • I’m not 100% familiar with their roster yet (aside from a few I know that came from other promotions), as I only became a regular viewer a few months ago, but I have yet to watch an episode and feel like my time was wasted.
      • IPWF was great fun.

      More TJPW:

      • MIZUKI winning the Princess of Princess Championship was well deserved and pretty great, especially considering who she had to beat to get it.
      • MIZUKI’s actual title reign, though… ouch.
      • I hope we get another Hyper Misao booked show.
      • Yamashita is now in the same position Yuka was at the beginning of the year in that she’s pretty much done everything there is to do in TJPW. I’m curious what the future holds for her.
      • Maki Itoh wrestled more outside of Japan in '23 than in. She also vaguely hinted that she’s wanting to graduate next year. Might be nothing, though.
      • I want to see Hyper Misao and/or Miu Watanabe get POP title runs in 2024.

      Miscellaneous stuff:

      • Pepsi Phil sucks.
      • Fuck Tyrus
      • Fuck Ronda
      • Billy Pumpkins is dumb.
      • Rest in peace Bray Wyatt, Jay Briscoe, and Terry Funk. That’s not even half of the wrestlers we lost in 2023, though.

      Miscellaneous Good stuff:

      • Wrestling fans are spoiled by choice of what to watch and that’s awesome.
      • Despite it being small, m/SC has been great.
      • You guys are awesome.
      • GeekFTW@kbin.socialOP
        4·
        9 months ago

        DDT/Brooks: I need to watch a lot more DDT (read: any) but I’ve always loved Brooks since seeing him on some random YouTube videos.

        Yamashita/Itoh: Ditto. I haven’t paid anywhere near as much attention to TJPW as I do Stardom so I don’t know how things go but losing Yuka and possibly Yamashita and Itoh would be a pretty huge blow (and legit 3 of the like 6 people I know on the roster lol). Idk how they’re ‘rookie’ process works but I hope they have people who’ll be able to come in to beef up the roster a bit.

        • Neon_Carnivore@kbin.social
          4·
          9 months ago

          Barring injuries and excursions, TJPW tends to have most of, if not the whole roster on the card (thanks primarily to LOTS of tag matches) for every show, so it doesn’t take long to familiarize yourself and find a favorite.
          But they have a very strict hierarchy in their booking, so expect rookies’ only victories to be either against each other, or when tagging with someone further up the food chain. It can take YEARS for someone to truly move up the card, which is the most common complaint among TJPW fans.
          The second most common gripe is most of the girls don’t “lay it in” when striking, drop kicking, etc. Some of this can be blamed on camera angles, and in the case of the rookies, lack of experience. It becomes less of an issue further up the card, though.
          We also got a nice handful of promising rookies in 2023, as well as a new Up Up Girl.
          A new year typically means new rookies, so expect some new roster members to debut soon.

          • GeekFTW@kbin.socialOP
            4·
            9 months ago

            Makes sense.

            I think someone somewhere described it to me once as ‘TJPW is a bunch of friends wanting to see who is the better wrestler, STARDOM is a bunch of women who wanna kill each other but can make friendships’ lol.