Wrestling Omakase #188: NJPW Year in Review w/ Joe, Rich, Damon & Joel

Wrestling Omakase

This week on Wrestling Omakase we bring together the hosts of three different network podcasts, as John is joined by Rich & Joe from the VOW Flagship and Joel & Damon from the Super J-Cast for our 2020 NJPW Year in Review episode!

The Wrestling Omakase Patreon is your best source for coverage of Japanese wrestling, from yesterday and today. Our 2020 Year in Review series will continue exclusively on the Patreon this coming week, as John will be joined by Jamie from DramaticDDT & JoJo for our DDT episode, and Taylor from Jumping Bomb Audio and Luke from the Apricot Pod for our Joshi episode! Plus, check out our ongoing series covering every Tokyo Dome main event in order, as we recently talked Ric Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami from the first NJPW/WCW show and Genichiro Tenryu & Hulk Hogan vs. The Road Warriors from the SWS/WWF event, both in 1991, with still much more to come. You also get instant access to everything else we recorded during 2020 too- tournament coverage, shows covering every Okada-Tanahashi and Naito-Ishii matches in order, ANIME OMAKASE, and a whole lot more. Finally, patrons can vote in our Omakase year end awards until January 1st! You can get access to all of this right now for only $5 at www.patreon.com/wrestlingomakase!

New Japan had a controversial year- was it the beginning of the end for the peak era, a bump in the road, or was it #actuallygood? Opinions often diverged even here on the VOW Podcast Network, which is why people asked for this specifically- get all of the podcasters on this network who talk NJPW in one (virtual) room, and let's talk this out. John is thus joined by Joe & Rich from the VOW Flagship (@voiceswrestling), and Damon & Joel from the Super J Cast (@thesuperjcast), for a slightly different format of Year in Review show; rather than going in chronological order and going through the shows, John sets some of the most discussed topics from New Japan's 2020 for the panel to go through together and try to reach some sort of consensus (or at least grudging disagreement!).

Topics covered include: EVIL's championship victory, run-ins and interference in NJPW in general (and how much more is there really now vs. the past), is the overall in ring quality still the best in the world, the downswing in Western interest and how much of it can be blamed on the clap crowds/COVID in general, the FORBIDDEN DOOR with AEW, returning faces Great-O-Khan and Master Wato, and a whole lot more. Then the panel each give their picks for NJPW's award winners in 2020 across your usual major Observer-style categories (WOTY, Most Outstanding, etc.) and finally try to tackle as many of your mailbag questions as they can- should they REPLACE GEDO?! Has Will Ospreay regressed? Is New Japan leaving money on the table if Shingo Takagi never gets past the NEVER level? And more! It's a packed episode you won't want to miss!

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