Best Japanese Wrestling Company

[The Line]

I kinda want to get into the Puro scene, thanks to ROH piquing my interest with NOAH and Dragon Gate, and TNA with the NJPW show. So which companies(both past and present) are the best for a relatively new puro guy to start out with(the most puro I've seen is what has been shown on ROH shows)? Also, which shows and/or matches from said companies(both past and present) are good to start with?


Thanks. I know there are at least a few die-hard puro marks on this board.

[The Line]

anyone?

[Jimichiro Likes Erick Rowan]

Now, I'm no expert, but I imagine anything All Japan up until 2000 or 2001 is high quality. But anything since 2000, definately pick up some NOAH, New Japan or Hustle.

As mentioned though, an expert I am not. I could be wrong.

[The Line]

eh, anyone is more of an expert than me.

[Joekishi]

It's definitely New Japan, followed by HUSTLE and All Japan, then followed by Zero-1, then Dragon Gate, and finally NOAH.

DDT and Big Japan are also really good. Ryuji Sai in particular.

Hmm if anything I'm guessing you're a ROHbot

So i'll recommend you anything from the past 2 years of Zero-1 and DRagon Gate, All Japan, and New Japan.

Wrestling wise they have produced the best matches full of great psychology and good action, with a variety of different wrestling styles presented.

NOAH is very narrow and mostly spot-based and head-droppy.

But definitely get NOAH dome shows, in particular Sasaki/Kobashi best match of 2005

[hollywood]

Currently, just based on what little I've seen and read, NOAH is your best source for Puro wrestling.

[leemir]

NOAH for their Jr. Heavyweight division but New Japan overall.

["Nature Boy" Ric Moranis]

Anything from All Japan from 1983-1995 is some of my favorite stuff to watch, period (my sig happened during AJPW's Real World Tag League in 1987...great stuff).

[Joekishi]

Currently All Japan stuff is just great. I mean storyline wise and in-ring wise, you know who the bad guys are and you know who will have the best matches.

But yeah you can watch the older stuff to see what the current style has evolved from, but old school New Japan shouldn't be forgotten either, Tatsumi fujinami/Akira Maeda DEFINES strong style

[01 Mark!]

leemir said:

NOAH for their Jr. Heavyweight division but New Japan overall.

No imho NJPW has them beat there too as there Juniors are more experienced and demonstrate better psychology

[Joekishi]

NOAH is stricken with Headroppy and flippiddy-do-itis

[The Line]

basicboogeynomix said:

Hmm if anything I'm guessing you're a ROHbot

No guessing necessary. I said in the first post that its thanks to ROH that I want to get into Puro.

[samachine]

noobglock said:

leemir said:

NOAH for their Jr. Heavyweight division but New Japan overall.

No imho NJPW has them beat there too as there Juniors are more experienced and demonstrate better psychology

Yeah Minoru >>>>> KENTA


And to the OP, it depends on what you like, what you're looking for

You want lucha-inspired puro like CIMA, Dragon Kid, etc you watch Dragon Gate, El Dorado, K-Dojo
You want comedy, watch HUSTLE or DDT
You want beat the f*** out of each other, you watch older AJPW or older NOAH, unfortunately there's not any promotions like this running right now, maybe Kobashi's return will spark it back
You want psychology and storylines, watch NJPW
You want a great junior division, watch NJPW or Michinoku Pro

NOAH is the only promotion I don't really like, they got Kobashi, Morishima, Marufuji, and a few other talented guys, but they're like WWE, living on the past, see Misawa. Akiyama's great though.

Old Zero-One ain't bad either. I really recommend El Dorado for your wild matches though.