Advertise on podcast: Eastern Lariat

STRIGGA & Dylan celebrate Dylan's 10th Anniversary show the only way they know and could: With a jam-packed episode covering current and upcoming events, stories and matches from seven japanese promotions. They kick things off with the joshi block on the show with Sendai Girls in Korakuen from 4/12, Stardom's All Star Grand Queendom card for 4/26, and Marvelous heading to Yokohama Buntai on May 5. Turning to the men's side, Pro Wrestling NOAH enters the conversation with Apex Conquest 2026 in Nagoya, a card that brought its own share of intrigue with the return of Shane Haste, while Dragon Gate's Golden Colosseum lineup continues to build momentum leading to a big Six Way Cage Match. Finally, New Japan's big matches on the Road to Wrestling Dontaku and on Dontaku itself are part of the discussion as well as Callum Newman as IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the upcoming Best of the Super Junior.

Returning from a hiatus, The Eastern Lariat jumps right back into the mix of japanese pro wrestling starting with TJPW's Texas Tour and Grand Princess, where Yuki Arai stood tall above all. Then they shift to Sendai Girls with Chihiro Hashimoto continuing to be the measuring stick of joshi wrestling. Since the world of professional wrestling is ever evolving, STRIGGA & Dylan also discuss the departures of Chi Chi & ZONES from Evolution and Dragon Dia aka. DIA from DRAGONGATE. This leads right away to NJPW and the preview of Sakura Genesis plus the roster for the Best of the Super Junior 33 (so far). The final topic of the show is another preview with All Japan's Champion Carnival coming up in mid April.

Halfway through the show STRIGGA had an unexpected and unfortunate situation where is X (formerly known as Twitter) account @STRIGGA was hacked. Therefore Dylan went solo for the last half or so after the 42 minute mark. We apologize for the inconvenience and will make it up one day!   On the return effort with Strig back from WxW we talk a bit about the state of the scene as well as an unexpected foray into the US and even Australian indies, but it leads us to Dylan's pick for a promotion to watch: Osaka Pro! We talked about the recent Tag Festival and the great storyline with VerteX and Rogue Nation, with great vibes of the promotion in particular. We then talk about the significance of Shinjuku FACE and how it will effect multiple companies going forward when it closes, along with the history of the building itself and Strig's past visits there.   After Dylan takes over solo he does a mini-run through of multiple big stories right now including:   - NJPW New Japan Cup - Stardom Cinderella Tournament - AJPW Champion Carnival Blocks - NOAH's 3.8 show featuring 2 great matches and a lot of rookies! - DG in Disarray and KAI vs. Kikuta being the next Dream Gate match   For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well, including the brand new EL Weekly Newsletter: https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat    Follow us on Twitter/X:     https://www.twitter.com/easternlariat    https://www.twitter.com/strigga       https://www.twitter.com/viva_zero   Follow us on BlueSky: @easternlariat.bsky.social @vivazero.bsky.social @strigga.bksy.social   Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/easternlariat   If you would like more info check out Ruth (@ruthisanotter) and her great coverage of the company and it's Units, check her out on Twitter/X as well as their fantastic article on the subject: https://sixtyminutedraw.com/guide-to-osaka-pro-factions

This week, the Eastern Lariat dives into a possibly defining show for New Japan Pro Wrestling on 2/11: Tsuji remains champ, Jake Lee looked goofy and Tsuji called out Bushiroad – a lot to unwind for STRIGGA & Dylan! They also discuss the big question: where exactly do you go with Olympic gold medalist Aaron Wolf from here? Who's stepping up after Finlay and Hiromu being added to the list of departures? Maybe Callum Newman? The New Japan Cup may provide some answers. Dylan also plugs his obituary for Tadao Yasuda and STRIGGA is hyped for Katsuya Murashima moving to Europe. After 90 minutes of NJPW, the Lariat goes rapid fire with the Champion Carnival line up, NOAH's latest Korakuen, GLEAT, TJPW and of course Saya Kamitanis's tremendous performance on February 7!  

Welcome to the 2026 edition of the New Year Potpourri! After Wrestle Kingdom and the Year End Awards, this show looks back how the first month of the year went for some of the top companies in Japan. Of course STRIGGA & Dylan start off by breaking down EVIL leaving NJPW and reflecting his legacy with the company. Was he a true top guy? From there on, the Eastern Lariat talks about the identity of Hayabusa and his match on Monday Magic including some more developments in the new season of the show. Then, the show takes a closer look at DDT's busy January including the D GENERATIONS Cup and weird WCW vibes. The show adds in a stop for All Japan Pro Wrestling in Chiba, featuring Kento Miyahara vs. Talos and Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Seigo Tachibana before wrapping up with DRAGONGATE, spotlighting BIGBOSS Shimizu vs. Natural Vibes and possible directions for Yuki Yoshioka and Ryoya Tanaka heading towards Kobe World in the summer.

It's this time of the year again! This episode is all about celebrating the very best of the year 2025 in japanese Pro-Wrestling as STRIGGA & Dylan unveil the Eastern Lariat Year End Awards that you, the listeners, voted for! Across 12 categories, both hosts break down the winners, debate cases and tight races, spotlight moments, matches, and performers that defined the year. From MVP, Best Wrestler, Best Jr. Heavyweight over Best Bout, Most Improved and Best Foreigner, this show offers a synoptic look at a crucial year for puroresu!   Intro song: 「ANTI-FORMALISM」 by OBSESS HEDERA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIC0uRHmms0

The beginning of the new year is the endpoint of a career at the same time. It's not the endpoint of a regular career, but the endpoint of Hiroshi Tanahashi's career that shaped japanese pro wrestling over the past 26 years and helped change the balance of power in the business. So it's no exaggeration to say that fans witnessed the closing of the book of one of the most important careers not just in New Japan Pro Wrestling, but in modern professional wrestling as a whole. Besides the Tanahashi festivities and his tremendous final match against longtime rival Kazuchika Okada, STRIGGA & Dylan review the full card, talk about what worked, what didn't, and how New Japan presented its biggest show of the year. Above all though, the Eastern Lariat reflects on Tanahashi's legacy as the Ace, what his farewell meant in the context of the event, and where NJPW goes from here without the man who carried the company on his back and broke his own body doing so.

It's the yearly tradition back again. 2025 is in the books and now we go over the predictions from the fans. We got a ton and Dylan goes through every single one, determining if things are more likely or unlikely to happen and my thoughts on the possibility of them happening. Finally he throws out a few predictions of his own that he foresees for 2026. It's a new year! What will the future hold for us? The Eastern Lariat Family comes together to try to determine one aspect!   For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well: https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat    Follow us on Twitter/X:     https://www.twitter.com/easternlariat    https://www.twitter.com/strigga       https://www.twitter.com/viva_zero   Follow us on BlueSky: @easternlariat.bsky.social @vivazero.bsky.social @strigga.bksy.social   Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/easternlariat

For the final show of the year 2025, STRIGGA & Dylan Fox dive into their 25 under 25 list of the very best Japanese pro wrestling talent under the age of 25. From already main eventing standouts to promising prospects with seemingly limitless ceilings, they talk strengths, trajectories, and who's in line to define the next coming years of their respective promotion or maybe the entire scene. Join in, come up with your own list or learn about new talent that's about to put their stamp on the next decade.

Merry Christmas from the Eastern Lariat!   As a special gift to you, STRIGGA & Dylan go 25 years back in time and present their review of the Super J-Cup 3rd Stage hosted by Michinoku Pro Wrestling on the 1st & 9th of April 2000! This tournament featured a colorful cast of characters from New Japan's Jushin Thunder Liger over Michinoki Pro's Great Sasuke and WCW's Kaz Hayashi to Big Japan's MEN's Teioh and BattlArts representative Katsumi Usuda.   Join in as the Eastern Lariat travel back to a different world of professional wrestling!

This week on the Eastern Lariat, STRIGGA & Dylan kick things off by talking about one of their japanese pro-wrestling soft spots in ZERO1. As the company is "reborn", they took it to Korakuen Hall where the "reborn" Hayabusa faced Kaito Kiyomiya. Kiyomiya also recently faced "Mr. Smack Daddy" Yoshiki Inamura in the main event, so Pro Wrestling NOAH and their upcoming Budokan card is the next topic. From there, STRIGGA & Dylan take it to New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 20 card that is shaping up nicely. While ZERO1 always seems to be on its last legs, All Japan continues to have boom and bust cycles as currently, they're struggle both in-ring and behind the scenes, while over in DRAGONGATE, the King of Gate Final delivered huge with the most unlikely final. And finally, STRIGGA runs down Michinoku Pro's Great Space War Match and the lore behind this year's iteration.  

With the smoke clearing on the 2025 WON Hall of Fame ballots, we have a whopping 8 new inductees to discuss. With all 7 voted in being candidates voted on by returning guest from the Emerald Flowshow, Gerard di Trolio. We go over the inductees, near misses, surprising totals and the future of the ballots with new and returning candidates being announced, finally with picks suggested by us to big Dave himself that we feel should be on the ballot, belong and deserve a look in the future. It was a fun ride covering it once again in 2025 and for the first time we wrap it up with the results!   If you wanna hear more of Gerard and talking about modern NOAH, AJPW, occasionally GLEAT & BJW, check out the Emerald Flowshow!   twitter.com/emeraldflowshow   https://open.spotify.com/show/1sjbd84fZN0VC46hCnyc3V   For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well: https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat    Follow us on Twitter/X:     https://www.twitter.com/easternlariat    https://www.twitter.com/strigga       https://www.twitter.com/viva_zero   Follow us on BlueSky: @easternlariat.bsky.social @vivazero.bsky.social @strigga.bksy.social   Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/easternlariat

For the firs time in a long time STRIGGA & Dylan invest a lot of time into DRAGONGATE and analyze the current stable landscape of the promotion guiding you through the different camps and what their aspirations and goals are. In doing so, they also discuss the most recent Gate of Destiny and King of Gate events. From there, they take it to New Japan Pro Wrestling in November and on their road to the Tokyo Dome. This episode was taped before Tanahashi's opponent was announces, so part of this speculation is redundant – it's fun nonetheless! Finally, the Eastern Lariat reviews DDT's Ultimate Party from November 3rd – a very long, yet fun show.

It's time for the Hall of Fame! Dylan is joined by the Emerald Flowshow and WON Hall of Fame voter Gerard di Trolio to discuss this year's ballot, with particular spotlight on the new candidates on this year. Every single region is covered as he reveals his ballot, with perhaps one Dylan swaying him on somewhat? Buckle up and check out our look at a wrestling history perspective for over 3 hours, with a couple of tangents on the Blue Jays, Gerard showing up to Sweet Daddy Siki's karaoke nights, and who could be next on the pipeline to be placed on the ballot in the future. It was another edition at the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame for the year 2025. Below is the full ballot and list of candidates:   I FOLLOWED THE HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA CANDIDATES (Six maximum)   Ole Anderson Afa & Sika Anoa'i Bob Armstrong Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson w/J.J. Dillon British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith) June Byers Wild Bull Curry Junkyard Dog Cowboy Bob Ellis  Pampero Firpo  Black Gordman & Great Goliath  Archie "Mongolian Stomper" Gouldie  Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)  Sputnik Monroe  Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch  Iron Sheik Sweet Daddy Siki Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood Mad Dog & Butcher Vachon Kevin & Kerry & David Von Erich   I FOLLOWED THE MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA CANDIDATES (Six maximum) Mark & Jay Briscoe Edge/Adam Copeland Bill Dundee FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheleer) Bill Goldberg Samoa Joe Matt & Jeff Hardy Becky Lynch Drew McIntyre Mercedes Mone/Sasha Banks Jon Moxley Kevin Nash & Scott Hall Randy Orton C.M. Punk Cody Rhodes Seth Rollins Sabu Trish Stratus Rick & Scott Steiner    I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN JAPAN CANDIDATES (Three maximum)   Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan Yoshiaki Fujiwara Hayabusa Masaaki Mochizuki Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi Zack Sabre Jr. Meiko Satomura Io Shirai/Iyo Sky Tiger Jeet Singh Yoshihiro Takayama Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada   I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN MEXICO CANDIDATES (Three maximum) Angel Blanco & Dr.Wagner Sangre Chicana El Dandy Dorrell Dixon Gran Hamada Los Infernales (El Satanico & Pirata Morgan & MS 1) El Hijo del Santo & Octagon La Parka AAA Mascarita Sagrada Volador Jr.   I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN EUROPE/AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND/PACIFIC ISLANDS/AFRICA (four maximum)   Spyros Arion Dominic DeNucci George Gordienko Steve Grey Billy Joyce Les Kellett Killer Karl Kox Gilbert Leduc Ted Boy Marino The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) Adrian Street Jose Tarres Otto Wanz   NON-WRESTLERS (Seven maximum)   Dave Brown (U.S. & Canada modern) Zane Bresoff (U.S.& Canada modern) Bobby Bruns (Japan) Bob Caudle (U.S. & Canada historical) Joe Higuchi (Japan) Jim Johnston (U.S. & Canada modern) Larry Matysik (U.S.& Canada historical) James Melby (U.S. & Canada historical) Bill Mercer (U.S. & Canada historical) Gorilla Monsoon (U.S. & Canada historical) Rossy Ogawa (Japan) Reggie Parks (U.S. & Canada modern) Morris Sigel (U.S. & Canada historical) Tony Schiavone (U.S. & Canada modern) George Scott (U.S. & Canada historical) Kevin Sullivan (U.S. & Canada historical) Mike Tenay (U.S. & Canada modern) Ted Turner (U.S. & Canada modern) Jesse Ventura (U.S. & Canada historical) Roy Welch (U.S. & Canada historical) Stanley Weston (U.S. & Canada historical) Grand Wizard (U.S & Canada historical) Koichi Yoshizawa (Japan)   -   If you wanna hear more of Gerard and talking about modern NOAH, AJPW, occasionally GLEAT & BJW, check out the Emerald Flowshow!   twitter.com/emeraldflowshow   https://open.spotify.com/show/1sjbd84fZN0VC46hCnyc3V   For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well: https://www.patreon.com/easternlariat    Follow us on Twitter/X:     https://www.twitter.com/easternlariat    https://www.twitter.com/strigga       https://www.twitter.com/viva_zero   Follow us on BlueSky: @easternlariat.bsky.social @vivazero.bsky.social @strigga.bksy.social   Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/easternlariat

The guys kick things off with a look at the bad blood between Go Shiozaki and Pro Wrestling NOAH over the ZERO1 Title – a messy situation that All Japan Pro Wrestling could benefit from a lot. From there, it's over to All Japan, where STRIGGA brings up the point of production values in contrast to NOAH or NJPW. They'll also talk about HAVOC being over with the crowd and how Shiozaki fits into the group and the promotion. From there, they take it to NOAH's Wrestle Odyssey from Sumo Hall that featured some strong junior matches but plenty of disjointed storytelling. Another question raised and tackled is where New Japan goes next with Konosuke Takeshita as new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Is Okada going to be his Wrestle Kingdom opponent? Is It Tsuji? This could also interfere with possible Tanahashi retirement opponents. Other topics on NJPW include the hit Tag Team Title match, thoughts on the IWGP Women's Championship, a ridiculous Super Jr. Tag League lineup. The final topic includes early speculations about DRAGONGATE's King of Gate winner. Ten years in, the Eastern Lariat remains your go-to source for all things puroresu – insightful, opinionated, and always unscripted!