Eastern Lariat – Details, episodes & analysis

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!

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https://open.spotify.com/show/1sjbd84fZN0VC46hCnyc3V

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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.

STRIGGA & Dylan return with their coverage the final days of NJPW's G1 Climax 35 – the biggest tournament of the Summer. With the final and the road leading to it being pretty controversial, did the tournament hold up the high G1 standards? What does the crowd reactions during Konosuke Takeshita vs. EVIL tell us about the individual performers and the state of the company? From booking choices and patterns to match quality and overall presentation, The Eastern Lariat breaks down what worked, what didn't, and where New Japan Pro Wrestling stands after the conclusion of the tournament.

On a special edition of the Eastern Lariat podcast, Dylan welcomes Japanese wrestling translator & historian Cameren Lee on to discuss the life and career of Antonio Inoki. From an unbelievably harsh childhood and improbable upbringing in the wrestling industry we discuss his early days as Rikidozan's trainee and his ascent and attempts to ascend to leading the company which turns into the formation of New Japan Pro Wrestling. From there we go into the deep political waters Inoki was forced to wade through with other wrestlers and especially TV Networks, his rivalry with his former tag team partner Giant Baba as they engage in constant attempts to one up each other as AJPW & NJPW owners. We talk about some of his biggest triumphs and matches in the ring and how he was even more than his reputation hails him as, which leads to scandals as time goes along with questionable decisions being made personally and professionally. We also discuss the underrated hand Inoki's wife at the time, the actress Mitsuko Baisho played in keeping NJPW afloat and all the mayhem surrounding Inoki through the decade. Finally we (relatively) briefly cover his political career which involved more scandal, his 4 year long retirement tour and his post-in-ring career including some talk about the Inoki-ism era of NJPW and his fade into IGF, closing into our thoughts in the overall legacy of this one of a kind complex & influential figure in life, letalone wrestling.

Rest in Peace Antonio Inoki. February 20th, 1943 - October 1st, 2022.

Follow the Eastern Lariat on Twitter: @EasternLariat

Follow Cameren @KinchStalker & check out his blog centered around classic Japanese wrestling translation: frommilotomisawa.wordpress.com

Also very soon STRIGGA will return and join Dylan for a more in-ring focused look at Inoki and his career when we do a Week of: Antonio Inoki. The first episode will be free for all on this feed and the later matches will be on patreon.com/easternlariat so subscribe to hear that along with much great pro wrestling content. Also feel free to follow @STRIGGA for more into him and make sure to subscribe to the Eastern Lariat wherever podcasts are heard and any 5 star reviews are truly appreciated.

Most of all, thank you so much for listening! Thank you Antonio Inoki!

The Eastern Lariat returns with Big Match Sunday … on a Monday! This past weekend saw many big title matches including Higuchi vs. Takeshita and Kenoh vs. Kiyomiya so STRIGGA & Dylan's primary focus was on those matches as well as on some more bullet points from each promotion including the future of the GHC Heavyweight Title, GLEAT's identity, Naruki Doi's status as well as the upcoming D-King Grand Prix. The show however starts with an extensive look at All Japan Pro Wrestling's big 50th Anniversary from Budokan the weekend before plus their Korakuen Hall event the day thereafter.

Next weekend is loaded with shows in Japan, because September 19 brings another public holiday with Keiro no Hi (Respect for the Aged Day) so STRIGGA & Dylan got together to discuss Jun Akiyama's 30th anniversary, All Japan's business ideas going into their 50th anniversary show in Nippon Budokan as well as the card itself and possible outcomes for the future. Who's leaving with the Triple Crown? Who's challenging one day later in Korakuen? Will Chris Daniels be there? While AJPW is full of questions, DRAGONGATE delivers some answers with the pushes of Mochizuki Jr., Ishin Iihashi and D'courage so their upcoming Dangerous Gate gets a preview as well. Other topics are Keiji Muto's retirement show in Tokyo Dome plus an update on Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix!

Tournament season and no end! On this episode STRIGGA & Dylan discuss NOAH's N-1 Victory in depth in its entirety: Kaito Kiyomiya winning and possibly reclaiming his spot as the ace, Hideki MVP, Great Muta's business for NOAH, Nakajima/Okada and of course all performers and best matches. On top of that the Eastern Lariat crew compares the N-1 with New Japan's G1 Climax. Stardom's tournament however is still going on so STRIGGA & Dylan make predictions on who's going to advance, name best matches and their top performers.

New Japan Pro Wrestling has crossed the finish line and after a little over one month the 32nd G1 Climax is over! Kazuchika Okada scored back to back tournament wins and called his shot, Will Ospreay rose to new hights and left Tetsuya Naito behind, which caught many fans by surprise. Tama Tonga got revenge on Jay White and much, much more happened in these 4 weeks. STRIGGA & Dylan put it all into perspective while bringing up both, the positive and negative aspects of the tournament itself and the surroundings of it. Some of the talking points include their lack of making new stars, their rigid booking patterns and the lack of fan interest, but also the great individual performances and the overall enjoyable tournament. There was a lot to get into, so hop on and enjoy the ride!

After being rather negative on the last episode, STRIGGA & Dylan bounce back with an episode covering two topics that let them enjoy japanese pro-wrestling more than last time while also pointing out what went wrong in their opinions. Part of that is Yuka Sakazaki winning the Princess Cup 2022 over Miu Watanabe about which The Eastern Lariat Crew has a clear opinion and also discusses the general possibility of upward movement within the Cyberfight groups. After that it's G1 time once again with days 16 & 17 of the tournament that delivered one match in particular that STRIGGA & Dylan had totally different takes on. To close out the show they go over the tournament standings and predict the semi finals for Wednesday. A fun time to be had!

This episode of the Eastern Lariat is a mixed bag in many ways. One, because of the usual range of topics from ZERO1 over NOAH to New Japan. Then, there's a lot of mixed feelings towards many of the matches that occurred in the Fire Festival, the N-1 Victory and especially the G1 Climax. STRIGGA & Dylan shout out some of the most outstanding tournamens matches in Tanahashi vs. Goto and Okada vs. Lawlor, while at the same time 2022 feels like a down period in japanese pro-wrestling across the board.