Kings Road Chronicles

Kings Road Chronicles Welcome to the Kings Road Pod page! Your source for updates, posts and banter on the world of Japanese professional wrestling.

All views are my own and all comments are welcome. Lets make the IWC a safe space again.

“But why do you even like wrestling, it’s FAKE!”Oh yeah, well fu***ng tell him that.- ...
27/11/2025

“But why do you even like wrestling, it’s FAKE!”

Oh yeah, well fu***ng tell him that.

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27/11/2025

The definition of a hidden gem in its entirety. While this match was used to build up Fuji towards his ROH title shot against Nigel McGuinness the following month, it really is one of those random matches that the promotions decided to throw together. There’s no stakes beyond Honor. And Honor is real.

The Messiah of the Backbreaker vs The Genius of the Ark empty their clips on each other in front of a fantastic Toronto crowd. Peak ROH in my opinion.

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Hey, who else remembers when this mad bastard tried to m*rder a young lion Kazuchika Okada? Cause I sure do.Not sure if ...
26/11/2025

Hey, who else remembers when this mad bastard tried to m*rder a young lion Kazuchika Okada? Cause I sure do.

Not sure if Okada remembers though, that’s a hell of an impact to the dome. A valuable lesson in how not to p**s off someone nicknamed KILLING MACHINE. Takashi Sugiura is awesome.

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26/11/2025

It’s January 2010 and Toshiaki Kawada’ legendary 27 year career is winding down. Age, the knee injuries and the trauma of Misawa’ tragic passing has taken its toll on Dangerous K and, now 45 years old, he’s looking towards the end now.

The last two years of Kawada career were spent outside of All Japan, finishing up in HUSTLE, working NOAH, NJPW and critically of all in Zero1 in his final world title reign.

So you’d think that if he was winding down, with 7 months left on his career, that he’d take it easy. NOPE.

Instead we find this hidden gem. As the old vet takes on the young Seki, a future great in his own right.

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25/11/2025

It’s been a minute Big Japan. So time to come back with a forgotten banger.

It’s July 2016 and Yuji Okabayashi is the dominant champion of the Big Japan Strongweight division, 370 days into his first (of four) title reigns. The man is near invincible at this point, putting on incredible matches and solidifying himself (imo anyway) as the greatest Big Japan wrestler they’ve ever had.

Hideyoshi Kamitani finds himself in a unique position as at only 24 years old and predominantly being used as a tag team wrestler ( his tag team Hamakami had only just dropped the tag belts the previous month) he’s given licence to challenge for the big Gold having rivalled Yuji’ tag team Strong BJ.

It’s funny that this match was actually put to a fan vote if it should main event or not. Fans instead voted for the Deathmatch between Ito & Hoshino, perhaps because they thought it was a forgone conclusion that Yuji would win. Oh how wrong they were. What plays out is a slow build match, which by the last 5 minutes turns into a Violence party as Kamitani does the unthinkable and dethrones the Big Japan legend.

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#2016

25/11/2025

On August 10th 2000, All Japan is desperately trying to rebuild itself following the Misawa led exodus from the company the previous month. While Tenryu has returned after his 10 year exile, Masanobu Fuchi, the most loyal wrestler of all time, is doing his best to steady the ship - and does so by walking into the New Japan ring and telling Riki Choshu of all people that he’s there to knock the walls down between both companies. It looks like a new dawn is on the horizon, and cross-promotional alliances begin to form.

But a certain other mainstay of New Japan takes issue with this “Alliance”. That’s the third Musketeer and leader of Team2000; Masahiro Chono. While the Summer Action Series nears its 10th and final day - Chono shocks the All Japan crowd by laying down the challenge to the former right hand man in Tsuruta-gun. And so, on the 2nd of September inside the Nippon Budokan, the home of All Japan, Black Charisma walks out to the 16,000 in attendance - ready for war.

Notice how he spits on the All Japan? The disrespect is real.

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25/11/2025

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while as we’re two days away from the 14th anniversary of Omega debuting one of the most iconic moves of all time: The One Winged Angel.

We all know its history. To date, only two people have kicked out of it. Omega himself of course and his Golden Lover teammate Kota Ibushi. But as protected moves go, it’s arguably the most protected there’s ever been in the modern era.

But it had to start somewhere and that somewhere was DDT. In 2011, through it’s working relationship with All Japan - Omega had gone over to Ryogoku as the invader and shocked the All Japan faithful by defeating KAI for the World Junior Heavyweight title. While the match was great, there were some inconsistencies with it; namely the use of Omega original finisher Croyts Wrath. With the right opponents it could be cool, but sometimes it could come off as sloppy (which in the KAI match, it did). So by the time of Omega first defence against (of all people - a junior legend) Minoru Tanaka - it was time to showcase something new. Enter OWA.

Now the match in the clip has been cut short slightly, a consequence of DDT allocating its broadcasting to the likes of Nippon TV for Dramatic Fantasia episodes. But it still nails the iconic moment perfectly.

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Sorry for the lack of responses to the comments and messages I’ve received over the last 24 hours. The East Coast of Aus...
24/11/2025

Sorry for the lack of responses to the comments and messages I’ve received over the last 24 hours. The East Coast of Australia, where I unfortunately am, was hit by an enormous biblical style storm last night which wiped out the power to hundreds of thousands all across the Queensland State. It was mental. Only lasted two hours but it was easily the most intense thunderstorm I’ve ever witnessed. Well in this country anyway.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled posting.

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As a fan of The Briscoes for over 15 years now - from FIP to ROH, to NOAH and even New Japan, all I can say is this:No o...
24/11/2025

As a fan of The Briscoes for over 15 years now - from FIP to ROH, to NOAH and even New Japan, all I can say is this:

No one deserves it more. Mark Briscoe is the fu***ng best.

Reach for the Sky ☝️

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23/11/2025

The biggest take away from this match, other than Hayabusa & Shinzaki push the greatest tag team of the Kings Road to the absolute limit, is the crowd. JUST LISTEN TO THAT NOISE. It’s unglued at times, as the FMW boys showcase their style, so different from what the All Japan faithful are used to. When Hayabusa hits the Firebird Splash on Taue, the noise is deafening as for a moment the almost 4,000 in Sendai think they’re witnessing the impossible, only for Kawada to make the save.

This is a truly special match and a clash of styles. Although the HDA finally get the win, Hayabusa and Shinzaki cemented themselves as special talents, completely over with the crowd (and hugely impressing Giant Baba - so much so that a couple month later, the boys would be invited back to take part in Baba tag matches)

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This is probably common sense booking. But in case it’s not, if I’m Tony Khan there’s only one person I’m booking to lea...
23/11/2025

This is probably common sense booking. But in case it’s not, if I’m Tony Khan there’s only one person I’m booking to lead the Death Riders turning on Jon Moxley.

The Problem Marina Shafir. Have her take over the group after she chokes out Mox.

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Muta Scale: Broken.Holy f**k Joe, what an image.-
23/11/2025

Muta Scale: Broken.

Holy f**k Joe, what an image.

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