Opinion
Revealing The Asian Pacific Revival of Independent Wrestling
Shawn gives you an introduction to Asian Pacific wrestling in part 1 of his series!
Shawn gives you an introduction to Asian Pacific wrestling in part 1 of his series!
Many professional wrestling fans throughout North America have applauded 2018 as the year of Independent Wrestling’s coming out ceremony. Very few of today’s fanbase actually know the true extent and it wasn’t overnight. The current environment actually began in 2015 and it has only taken three years to produce results. Between late 2014 and today, eleven current major independent promotions in Asia have been established. Each had it’s own obstacles to overcome and though none produce the fanbase that WWE or much less ROH attract, they all bring in as much as most promotions while achieving up to 1,200 for large events. Those are amazing numbers for any promotion in their first five years.
Last week while interviewing for this position, I pushed to begin covering the Asian Pacific region. I didn’t need to push hard with the amazing trends taking place. This article will talk about a handful of people which played a pivotal role in today’s atmosphere.
Outside of Japan, Australia, and New Zealand professional wrestling is new to the Asian market. Some nations have been able to view WWE matches on television, but fail to grasp the nuances involved due to language and cultural barriers.
There are unique obstacles all of these promotions experience to a certain degree. The concept of cheering for the hero and reprimanding the heel in a competition is viewed as impolite. This creates the problems to the very core of the art of wrestling psychology and fan participation. Some promotions are unable to obtain safety equipment, find venues, receive permits, or visas to travel. Traditional stigmas of gender roles also plays a part in regards to women’s wrestling and intergender matches. Nations which are more open to modern gender equality have produced several up and coming stars, but the numbers are still small which forces the women into intergender matches or travel around to gain experience.
This report is the first of a two part overview about Asian Wrestling today. It discusses the major players in the current revival and how they contribute to the region’s success. Below are the promotions considered to be the Big Boys in Asia. Part 2 will talk about the Early Risers and Proactive fledglings of the region. The topic on individual wrestlers will be in future articles over the coming months.
Big Boys: Major players in the Asian Pacific region and have contributed major strides in building up the professional wrestling scene.
- Australia and Japan; The major promotions in these countries have provided trainers and talent in order to build the young promotions throughout the region. Japanese promotions Ryukyu Dragon Pro Wrestling, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, and DDT Pro Wrestling have allowed many of their women wrestlers to go on tour and with the addition of Australian stars allows greater exposure and tighter bonds within that demographic.
- Middle Kingdom Wrestling: The Middle Kingdom can be found on livestream ‘Nothing Else On TV‘ with a few free matches on youtube. MKW, started by American expat Adrian Gomez in 2015. The promotion operates in Guangdong province. MKW created the internationally popular ‘Belt and Road Championship’ event in 2018. The event attracted talent from Europe, Asia, and the U.S. The 2019 event will take place on 11 May in Kathmandu Nepal with the partner promotion Nepal Ring Wrestling Association (NRWA).
- Oriental Wrestling Entertainment (OWE): The first partner for America’s All Elite Wrestling can be watched on livestream ‘Nothing Else On TV‘ and some matches on youtube. Founded in 2017 by local Kung Fu movie producer Fu Huayang. Japanese Wrestling Legend and former Dragon’s gate partner CIMA branched off to work in OWE. The company is located in the eastern province of Shanghai China. OWE has introduced new elements into wrestling entertainment. Firstly, the ranking of roster members influenced by online fan voting helps to create future storylines and match results. Secondly, the company hired a popular girl band for pre-shows and ocassionally sing songs that further develop a storyline between matches. Weapon demonstrations also provide entertainment between matches. Finally, remarkable acrobatic feats emerged, as a result, of including Shaolin students into their matches.
- New Taiwan Wrestling (NTW): Founded in 2011, Nishimura, Takemura Hiroshi teacher, and ZERO-1’s Hiroyuki teacher, Fujita Aya, and American Independent wrestler Jonathan Gresham. The promotion is scheduled to compete with Oriental Wrestling in Shanghai, leading into the tournament season. Fans can watch past and current matches on their Livestream.
- Hong Kong Wrestling Federation: Some matches on YouTube Founded in 2009, by the Hong Kong native and professional wrestler Ho Ho Lun, from WWE in 205 live. Many observers view Lun as the father of Asian wrestling because of his contributions with new promotions. His proactive outreach helped to establish new promotions in Macau, Guangzhou, Singapore, and Thailand. Hong Kong and Taiwan are often the first stops for talent from .
All of the big promotions throughout Asia participate in summer tournaments therefor building stronger collaboration has developed in the region. This year’s first big tournament is the One Road One Belt Championship 2019 in Nepal.
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Opinion
Chris King: The Wyatt Sicks’ Wasted Potential By WWE
Chris King takes a look at the WWE and their wasted potential of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks faction.
Chris King takes a look at the WWE and their wasted potential of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks faction.
It’s that time of the year again, folks; it’s unfortunate and downright awful that so many WWE superstars got released today. I’m not going to list all of them, but I am going to talk about one of my favorite factions,
The Wyatt Sicks. Nikki Cross, Joe Gacy, Erik Rowan, and Bo Dallas (Uncle Howdy) were something special. After Bo’s brother Bray Wyatt’s tragic passing, WWE felt like there was a hole that needed to be filled. Wyatt was one of the most creative and brilliant characters, and Bo would be taking over his brother’s concept and bringing it to life. In 2024, at the end of an incredible documentary highlighting Wyatt’s career and struggles, Bo appeared on the screen portrayed as Uncle Howdy. The last time Uncle Howdy was seen on-screen was at the 2023 Royal Rumble, where Wyatt defeated LA Knight in a Pitch Black Match. Howdy jumped off a structure onto Knight.
This post-credit scene sparked so much speculation and excitement that Wyatt’s brother would carry on his legacy and possibly debut the faction that was Wyatt’s concept. On the June 17th episode of Monday Night Raw, The Wyatt Sicks made their dramatic debut ,destroying the backstage area as well as “murdering” Chad Gable. It was such an iconic arrival for Howdy as he made his menacing walk from the back into the audience who were chanting “Holy Shit.” The Sicks and American Made (Chad Gable and The Creed Brothers) battled for months, with The Sicks being victorious. On the September 9th episode of Raw, The Sicks defeated them, with Howdy getting the win with Sister Abigail.
The following year, The Sicks would move over to Friday Night SmackDown, and it seemed like WWE had a plan in place. They would win the tag team championships from The Street Profits and start to look dominant. Now, what should have happened next is Howdy should have won the United States title. The Sicks could have held all the gold over on the blue brand, but it never happened. The Sicks entered into a never-ending feud with The MFT’s (Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, JC Mateo, and Talla Tonga.) It started off exciting, and the WWE Universe was red-hot for their interactions.
After months of repetitive matches and The MFT’s stealing their lantern, the feud grew tiresome and boring. Even Tama asked Solo why they are still holding onto the lantern, as it was destroying them as a whole. Finally on the SmackDown before Mania, Tama
gave the lantern back to Howdy against Solo’s wishes. Please explain to me why both factions fought almost every single week instead of just having one final blowoff match at WrestleMania.
It should have been either a massive street fight or a falls count anywhere match on the grandest stage of them all. Instead, it turned into a meaningless week-after-week extravaganza that benefited no one. The MFTs won the rivalry, and The Sicks don’t even work for WWE anymore. This was the same criminalized creative process that Wyatt dealt with during his first run in the company.
We’ll never know how much of a dangerous force The Wyatt Sicks could have been in the WWE. For all their careers’ sake, I hope they stay far away from the company for as long as possible. Every superstar that was cut deserves better!
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Opinion
Chris King: Bloodline Saga: Is This the Right Call For WWE?
Chris King questions the WWE’s logic in setting up Jacob Fatu as the next challenger for World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns
Chris King questions the WWE’s logic in setting up Jacob Fatu as the next challenger for World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns is once again World Heavyweight Champion after his dominant win over CM Punk at WrestleMania 42. On the following night on Monday Night Raw, The OG Bloodline came back together as a well-oiled machine as The Usos stood side by side with Roman. With the WWE Universe asking who would be the first to challenge “The Tribal Chief,” Jacob Fatu shocked the world by answering the call.
Fatu is running hot after his impressive win over Drew McIntyre and feels like he is ready to become the new world champion. This bloodline segment ended Raw, and it picked right back up on SmackDown with even Solo Sikoa and the MFTs involved. This is now two shows that have been centered around The Bloodline saga, and it’s made me question whether or not WWE should be retelling this story.
The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, The Usos, and Solo Sikoa) ran WWE for over four years as Reigns’ henchmen, doing his dirty work to retain his title. Even though Roman has declared he doesn’t want Jey and Jimmy to serve him, it sure seems like WWE are spinning their wheels. Fatu could add a whole new chapter into the story, even if he’s not able to beat Roman at Backlash. “The Samoan Werewolf” could be forced to do the same thing as Jey did all those years ago and fall in line.
In my opinion, I feel like Fatu should be challenging for the Undisputed WWE Championship because that’s a title I feel like he should win. I understand standing up to your blood and trying to prove you’re the best, but I don’t think this is the right move. It feels like 2022 all over again, as The Bloodline is the central focus on both shows. If Fatu doesn’t win, what happens to all his momentum he’s been building over the last two years?
Why did WWE make this the best choice for storyline purposes? Why couldn’t creative have come up with a different challenger for Roman? There are so many other superstars that could challenge The Tribal Chief, such as Rusev, Bron Breakker, Gunther, or even a returning Sheamus.
I just can’t help but question WWE’s logic here, and it kind of reminds me of all the times The Shield reunited. Could WWE be pushing the same storyline too many times here? Could the WWE Universe get tired of this rinse and repeat cycle of The Bloodline Saga?
Are we about to see all the weekly episodes solely focused on The Bloodline again? Will it be cinema… Yes. Is there still money in The Bloodline… Yes. Was it the right call? That’s to be determined!
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