SWalker's Weekly 5 (*2) - Shi-En is great, german wrestling, some sleaze & TNT DOA 2025 - (03/17-03/23 & 03/24-03/30)
After my big show marathon three weeks ago, I felt a little bit burned out. But the past two weeks I am back strong and tried to find valuable free time while playing Monster Hunter Wilds. But there were some really great matches, so let's get started!
Week 1 - Top 5
Kohei Kinoshita Produce: TiiiDA vs. Kohei Kinoshita
The Main Event of the Kohei Kinoshita Produce KOBE ALL WIN in Motomachi Ringsoul! After earlier apperances from Koju Takeda, Mikiya Sasaki, a crazy bout between Shigehiro Irie & Rey Paloma & Kinoshitas first match this evening in the opener, this was really fun to watch. All in all I wholeheartedly recommend the whole show. Great watch for grabbing a drink & to have a fun time!
Shi-En - Great venue, great tag match: Bomber Okuno & vs. Yuta Ogawa vs. Hiroto Okubo & Tetsuya Goto
This won't be the last time, Shi-En appears in this post. This was basically a little show somewhere in the streets of Osaka. Really great venue & a great match for an opening bout on a more out-of-the-way show, that was basically a prelude to the big Anniversary show! These four had a great match probably the one out of the three of this card! I really, really like Bomber Okuno. Also great showing of Tetsuya Goto & this definetely won't be his last apperance on my Top 5 lists!
Michinoku Pro 32nd Anniversary: Rasse, Yapper Man 2 & Yui Sato vs. Sangre Azteca Jr., Taro Nohashi & Yasutaka Oosera
Michinoku Pro had begun their 32nd Anniversary tour and fortunately, they published the first show of the tour on Wrestle Universe! This 6-man Co-main was great and it reminded me of these former crazy multi-tag matches, Michinok Pro was famous for in the late 90s. Definetely give this a watch, if you have like 15 minutes to spare. This was the match of this first week for me! And if you have half an hour more, also watch the main event of this show!
Catch Factory: Fast Time Moodoo vs. Hektor Invictus
Catch Factory had their big Homecoming 2025 show in January. In front of a sold out crowd at Westbad, hometown hero Fast Time Moodoo defended the Catch Factory title against Hektor Invictus. Great match from my Hometown promotion! Hektor had a big glow up in the past two years. He really developed a lot in terms of character and in-ring and is probably now on of my favourites in the german wrestling scene. He always delivers and brings a great intensity to the ring. Moodoo defends the title and now holds it for over one year. His next opponent in May will be all-time great Axel "Axeman" Tischer and I am pretty hyped about that. Hopefully, I can attend this show live! I also posted it on Bluesky, but big shoutout to Dave Grunewald - great ring announcer and singer!
wXw Post Carat: 1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire vs. Laurence Roman & Elijah Blum
16 Carat is over, but newly crowned winner 1 Called Manders & AMBITION winner Thomas Shire stay a little bit longer, to give us this banger of a match! This basically is a preview for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship, that takes place in a few days between Manders & Elijah Blum. I am a big Laurence Roman fan and he was overall the best wrestler from the 16 Carat Gold weekend. So no surprise, that this match delivered big time! Pretty surprised about the winners of this match but overall really cool.
Week 2: Top 5-1
Shi-En 15th Anniversary: Opener, Naruki Doi vs. Tetsuya Goto & Hiroaki Taniguchi vs. Kiai Ryuuken Ecchan
It makes me really happy, that Shi-En are releasing their shows really fast! This was a fantastic show, probably one of my favourites of this month. And it had really strong matches. Starting with the Opener, which had Bomber Okuno & Yuta Ogawa squaring up against Bahamut & Joker Fuyuki. And as I said before, I love Bomber Okuno. The crowd was hot, it had great moments and was an overall perfect start to a great show.
The second match of this show I want to point out is Naruki Doi vs. Tetsuya Goto. This match rocked! Everone know, that Naruki Doi is great. His time in Dragon Gate is legendary and with 44 years of age, he is still a really great wrestler. His opponent, with 27 years on the other end of the spectrum of age in wrestling, Tetsuya Goto has a bright future ahead of him. I would really like to see him in more promotions in Japan, because he is really great!
The last show of the match saw Shi-EN owner Kiai Ryuuken Ecchan face of Hiroaki Taniguchi for the Shi-En title! Kiai Ryuuken Ecchan layed out the challenge to Taniguchi a week prior at the show I already talked about in week 1. I am a big fan of Taniguchi. He is one the wrestlers I've seen the most so far this year. This match was a great ending to an overall great show. So I do not want to only recommend these three matches, instead I want to recommend this whole fantastic show!
IMPACT/EXIT/Ginza Pro Tatsuaki Nakano 40th Anniversary U-REMAIN: Nobuyuki Kurashima & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Masao Ando & Takahiro Tababa
Finding this match was really surprising, because I never thought, we've seen footage of this show. Finding a new Yuki Ishikawa match is always special, so him squaring up against Takahiro Tababa, I was really happy to watch it. But overall it let me down a little bit. It was a tad slow and it wasn't really clicking with me. But nevertheless really great find, that deserves a place on this list!
TNT DOA 2025
I've not seen much Deatchmatch wrestling the past few month, even less from promotions outside of Japan. This was an overall great Deathmatch show with some sick spots and a great Parker/Jayne match in the co-main. RSP won the whole damn thing and it was well deserved, as he was the MVP of this tournament. Definetely will check out more shows of them in the future. Production feels good and it overall feels not as trashy as some other Deathmatch events I've seen over the past few years outside of Japan!
The End
Live is really busy right now, so maybe I am not that consistent with my blog! So maybe, see you next week! But keep in mind, always enjoy some more wrestling!
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