Jump to content

BornToFail

Members
  • Posts

    63
  • Joined

About BornToFail

  • Birthday 05/08/1995

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

BornToFail's Achievements

Rookie

Rookie (2/14)

  • First Post
  • Collaborator Rare
  • Week One Done
  • One Month Later
  • One Year In

Recent Badges

22

Reputation

  1. I wander to the GDS forums far less than some years back, so it was a great surprise to see a new CGC diary from you! What a great reason to check the site more often, as the writeups have been as great as they always were, packing a lot of character punch in just a few lines. Black Sheep especially has become a new favourite for me. after just a few shows. Keep up the great work! Projects like these simultaneously make me want to try writing something of my own (outside of stupidly long and dry PGHW updates in the company thread) and absolutely terrified of my perfectionist brain trying to live up to the level of yourself and other legends.
  2. A near 4 000 strong audience has packed themselves in a sweaty Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo in the middle of the summer. A chatter fills the air as wrestling fans prepare for the first stop of the HONOUR Tour. First days of tours are always exciting, as new rivalries and title programs begin. This night, however, feels special. The events of the previous week in the Japanese professional wrestling scene have set the internet ablaze. Murmurs, whispers, even bold predictions are shared in the arena between friends and families. "It can't happen, can it?" "It was truly out of nowhere, wasn't it?" "Mom, when does the wrestling start?" The lights dim, as the show is finally about to start. The crowd politely claps as the opening video plays, highlighting all the stars of PRIDE, GLORY and HONOR, ending with a snappily edited montage of all the champions raising their hard earned gold to the sky. Instead of the familiar sound of the ring bell marking the introduction of the first match of the night, the crowd gasps and quickly cheers as a living PGHW legend and the now CEO of the company, Nobuatsu Tatsuko, climbs to the ring. Despite his stiff knees and a bad back, the former Glory Crown champion still exudes confidence everywhere he goes. "Thank you for attending our event tonight. Before we get started, we have a special announcement." The lights dim again as the crowd wait with baited breath. The video screen comes to life with one single word. The crowd explodes in a cacophony of sound. Some cheer, some are flabbergasted, some even boo. One word is enough: BURNING Then, the spotlight hits the entranceway, as a grandiose music begins to blare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-2Yq_wZlXA Then, a man in a suit appears. And the crowd goes ballistic. He's not alone. Two more men enter the frame. The crowd can't believe their eyes. Two more. The decibel level rises to a dangerous level. And two more men appear as well. These seven men stand in a row, just for a moment, to soak it all in. The cameras shake as the crowd try to chant seven different names at the same time. The group walk to the ring in an orderly fashion, get in and one at a time, shake the hand of Tatsuko. The crowd remains electric. A ringside attendee hands over a document for each of the wrestlers in the ring. One at a time, they sign on a dotted line. Tatsuko speaks once again. "I, on behalf of the entire PGHW organization, am proud to announce the signing of these seven men to PGHW contracts, starting this very evening." SEVEN TIME BHOTWG WORLD CHAMPION, KINNOJO HORRI FOUR TIME BHOTWG WORLD CHAMPION, "THE BULLDOZER" YASUHIKO TAIRA AND FOUR TIME BHOTWG WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPION YASUNOBU MASUNO, BLACK MAGIC FORMER BHOTWG WORLD CHAMPION, HEIHACHIRO SAKAI FORMER TWO TIME GCG WORLD CHAMPION, SUKI FORMER BHOTWG WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS ATSUMORI TAKEMURA AND RYUSHI SATO The world of PGHW might never be the same again. _________ First of all, big thanks to gazwefc83 for the AI generated worker images! So, wanted to do an "in-universe" post since, uhhhhhh, that happened. So, BHOTWG appointed a new head booker, Tadiyuki Kikkawa, a legendary figure of the past. I had just won a bidding war over reigning world champion Heihachi Sakai and was currently bidding for SUKI. Then Kikkawa overracted and cut his roster to pieces. Mostly young lions and dojo graduates from the past six years, but six big names got the axe without a warning. This happened in between my tours, so I jumped at the bait immediately. Despite the fact that these guys are all quite old and quite battered, I couldn't resist the temptation to bring in a whole god damn BHOTWG FACTION in with one big swoop. It also gives me the chance, for the first time ever in my TEW saves, to do the "once in a lifetime" match aim with Ugaki and Horri, to definite future inductees to the Hall of Immortals. The coming months will tell me if this is a giant waste of money on a group of has-beens or the angle for the ages.
  3. It’s 2026 and Night of GLORY is in the books! And that calls for the Somewhat Yearly PGHW Update For Those Interested… or SYPGHWUFTI for short. It’s going to be a big one this time. Instead of just going through the big changes, title changes and whatnots, I want to cover everyone in the roster at least in some capacity. Since it’s been a six year save (I think it’s my longest in TEW 2020?), it’s as good a moment as any to reflect on the past and the present state of PGHW. And as always, I want to have something to read back on whenever my laptop bites the dust (it was close this summer, as a cooling fan issue kept the thing on the shelf for two months). I will be covering all of my wrestlers in some way or the other, often going into some details from past years as well. (writer’s note: After writing through the first unit and a bit of the second, I realized that there’s a lot that I want to cover, since I want to go into cover ground from the past six years… so it’s going to be a long one.) (also, shout-out to all the great re-renderers right here on the GDS forums, as some of the wrestler images are their handiwork!) Let’s get started! Departures: Hammer Hadley, Gonnohyoe Gada*, Takayuki 2000, Noriyori Sanda*, Hiroaki Nakasawa*, William Hayes *finishing up dates in developmental Not that many surprises here. Hammer Hadley is the biggest and youngest departee of the bunch. At times Hadley seemed like a sure bet for the next big gaijin star. Unfortunately three suspensions and a trip to rehab did nothing to stop his painkiller abuse. And as I finally grew tired of that and started to use him to put over young undercard talent he almost immediately asked for his release, which I granted. Hadley is yet to find new work and is stuck working a small handful of independent shows. William Hayes was brought in after he was released from BHOTWG for a short three month run, as he was planning on retiring after that. Just a little farewell run for all the years of service from 2004 to 2020 and a chance to retire alongside another PGHW great. Hayes’ BHOTWG run was unremarkable with no title matches and an overall losing record working the undercards. Gonnohyoe Kada had been a steady but extremely unremarkable presence in the undercard for years. Despite a decent win/loss record, Kada was very much used as a low card stepping stone for everyone. After suffering a morale hit after getting fined for painkiller use, he was shunted to developmental to finish off his dates. He is still frequently used by SAISHO and will probably wrap up his career there. Noriyori Sanda was the first wrestler out of the original 2020 core to hit the decline big time. Last time he was a serious tag contender was in 2021 and after that he slipped further and further down the card. Sanda’s claim to fame is being the first Glory Crown challenger of this save. He had his few moments during his last years, notably participating in an emotional Koryusai Kitoaji Memorial Match just a few days after the Immortal legend had passed away in October 2025. Tears were shed as the one night only reformation of KitoGuchi took on the two elder statesmen Kwakami and Sanda, who had had the honor of competing against the late Kitoaji in their early years in the company. The 95 rated tag bout remains the crowning achievement of Sanda’s career. He was shuffled to finish off his contract in developmental shortly after, but got the call-up to work one last retirement match at Night of PRIDE, but more on that in a moment. Takayuki 2000 and Hiroaki Nakasawa were both pegged to be major acquisitions after their contracts with BHOTWG ran out. What PGHW got were two men very much past their prime. 2000 got a strong-ish push out the gate, challenging for the International title and feuding with top-line stars, but was quickly dropped to a midcard role leading the ill-fated Golden Army unit. After the end of Golden Army he found good chemistry teaming with Washi Heat as Project 2000 and the two stayed as a solid undercard tag team until 2000’s contract ran out and decided to retire in early 2026. Nakasawa was already deep in decline and was mostly used to siphon off overness into our pushed acts. I was more than willing to let his initial deal just run out, as he was our worst performing wrestler every night, but PGHW owner Nobuatsu Tatsuko decided to renew the deal himself. Nakasawa was shuttled to developmental, where he requests a call-up on a monthly basis. ______________ Arrivals: Aaron Andrews, Assassin*, Chill*, Harvey Robbinfield*, Joshua Taylor, Kazunori Yamura, Masafumi Torii*, SPEED D, Suguru Emoto*, Taheiji Konoe *called up from developmental We’ll go over the arrivals/call-ups in a bit more detail in just a little bit. But first, let’s talk about a key PGHW wrestler whose career came to an end. End of Team Veteran RETURNS and the Retirement of Kozue Kawashima Team Veteran RETURNS was not meant to last for a long time. Most of the crew was in decline and they were just filling time in the undercards, rarely snapping up victories. Bringing the band back together was not working as the hands of time had ravaged each member, some more than others. Kozue Kawashima could keep going, slide down the card and work low card matches for another three to five years, make way for the next generation and slowly become a husk of his former glory. That was not the Kawashima way. Seeing his wife Yuma Maruya retire in 2025 after two major injuries cut her final in-ring years tragically short, Kawashima made the decision to end his in-ring career at his 25th anniversary at Night of PRIDE. That meant that for the last few months of 2025 and the start of 2026 Kawashima would go for PRIDE, GLORY and HONOR for one last time. Team Veterans' run in the trios tournament ended at the quarterfinals at the hands of former allies in Warriors. Elite Tag Series with Veteran partner Magnum Kobe ended in a bitter mid table finish with only broken ribs to show for the effort. One more title challenge for the International championship, the final truly great match of his career, ended in a crushing defeat. The match against Logan Wolfsbaine wasn’t particularly close, as the true elite of PGHW had passed him by years ago. The Elite Series is not for those on the downswing as the sixteen spots are reserved for the absolute best wrestlers in the company. An exception was made for the last dance of a living PGHW legend. And Kawashima dragged every last bit of heart, guts and grit out of himself to go out at the top. Shocking upsets against Wolfsbaine and Mabuchi Furusawa left Kawashima battered, but those wins kept him in the race for a finals appearance until the very last day. But time waits for no man. Kawashima’s protege Shuga Amano had the honor to end Kawashima’s last Elite Series in a defeat. Kawashima’s last match would feature the oldest tenured PGHW true borns left in the company. Kawashima would team with the original Warriors unit mates and his fellow Team Veteran partners Akinori Kwakami, Noriyori Sanda and Kazushige Matsuki. Facing them would be the HONOR Bound trio of Masaru Ugaki, Ryoma Muruyama and Eien Miyamoto, joined by Tsurayuki Kamachi. It wasn’t the in-ring masterpiece that these four could have produced ten, or hell, even five years ago. But the 75 000 strong audience in Osaka appreciated every last moment they had left to spend with Kawashima. One final face-off with career-rival Ugaki. One final lock-up. One final dropkick. One final Double K Killer. One final Kawashima Driver 2000. But even the biggest star of his generation, the man who carried PGHW after the Golden Era, goes out on his back. Miyamoto got the honor to pin Kawashima for the final time. After the handshakes, after the flowers, after the messages and thank yous, after a surprise induction to the PGHW Hall of Fame and after the final ring of the ten bell salute had echoed around the stadium, the career of Kozue Kawashima was over. With that, Team Veteran RETURNS was no more as the few remaining members headed towards their own retirement or found new goals in other units. Kawashima is only 43, but had been in time decline for years. I could have used him for a couple more years, but I wanted a legend to go out in style, while he could still somewhat go. Kawashima remains in the company as a road agent, joining the legends of the previous generation in guiding the direction of the company forward. In this save Kawashima really got the rough deal. His decline started pretty much during his short 2021 Glory Crown run and was used less and less as a priority attraction as the months rolled by. He had title challenges here and there, but was mostly kept away from any major matches. He could not even break into the Elite series after 2021. Thankfully for me he wasn’t irreplaceable as wrestlers like KitoGuchi, Wolfsbaine, Furusawa, Glenn, Whitlock, Kobayashi and SATO stepped up at the top of the card. ________ Now that we got the big retirement out of the way, let’s go one unit at a time, starting with the newest and least important. But before that, a quick mention about our only wrestler not in any unit. Newgen Ippei Hatoyama has worked nearly 400 matches in his five year career. He has won three. One of those was in an independent show. He has solid basics, but has never once shown anything that would warrant any sort of push from the eternal loss post status. Once it is all said and done, he might become a legend in the art of jobbing, unless SAISHO comes calling one beautiful day. Held the prestigious Mr. Irrelevant position of #500 in Power 500 in 2025. GUNS For Hire Members: Aaron Andrews, Akinori Kwakami, Kazunori Yamura, Kazushige Matsuki, Masafumi Torii, Park Myung-Seop, SPEED D, Suguru Emoto, Taheiji Konoe The new unit GUNS consists of mostly lower midcarders with no clear leader. Formed right after the PRIDE tour to fill the void left by Team Veteran RETURNS. As the name suggest, a bunch of mercenaries, fading veterans, old and new hopefuls trying to find a way back to the limelight. This is pretty much the reason I didn’t go into greater detail in the arrivals bit, as most of that crew was slotted in GUNS. Aaron “Ace” Andrews might be a name that caught your attention. The former TCW star managed to rack five World title reigns before being poached by SWF in January 2024, dealing the final blow to TCW as a relevant competitor. His SWF run got to great start with a North American title run and he formed a true TCW legacy team with Wolf Hawkins in late 2024, challenging the reformed Amazing Bumfholes in a pair of great tag title matches. Then an injury sidetracked Andrews for a few months, but was kept strong through the year teaming with Hawkins. His deal wasn’t renewed at the start of 2026 so I swooped in to sign him. As you might have guessed, he is in deep time decline. Of course, an elite worker wouldn’t drop on my lap just like that! (I do have to note that I had an owner goal for two years that prevented me from signing anyone already working in a Medium or above sized company. Fun times not bidding for anyone). It’s pretty sad seeing once a world level worker struggling to keep up with the lowest level guys in PGHW. He also doesn’t have the popularity in Japan to coast him into big time matches. His Japan chapter will probably end up being a minor footnote in an otherwise excellent and Hall of Immortals guaranteed career. Other veterans facing time decline are Akinori Kwakami and Kazushige Matsuki. Former Warriors and Veteran unit mates were among those who decided that the end of Veteran was not the end of them. The two quickly jumped to GUNS, giving the group some well needed familiar faces. Matsuki has very little to give, but Kwakami can still perform well enough at PPV events. Matsuki has been a frequent challenger for the midcard belts, but never became even an occasional main eventer (Glory Crown challenge at Night of PRIDE 2020 was his closest shot). He has been a reliable, but an unremarkable fixture in trio and tag competition over the years. The midcard workhorse has a couple of more years to give, mostly putting over younger talent. While Kwakami hasn’t had any addition to his sizable trophy cabinet, he was the number two for Kawashima in Warriors for the first two years of the save. Those years included a instant classic match against KitoGuchi alongside Kawashima and a challenge against Makiguchi for the Glory Crown, which was the greatest Glory Crown match up to that point (97 in December 2021, surpassed over the years only by about ten GC matches rated higher) Injury cost him a major chunk of 2022 and 2023 and was never quite the same, even if he had some banger matches for the International championship. Kwakami is already a PGHW Hall of Famer thanks to his team with Mito Miwa, but his later career does have its share of remarkable moments as well. GUNS run will likely be his swansong, as he has the thankless job of carrying the unit alongside Myong-Seop and Yamura. Backstage Kwakami is the rug that ties the room together, having the most positive relationships amongst the entire roster. Kazunori Yamura, SPEED D and Taheiji Konoe all share pretty much the same story. All three have failed to find employment over a number of years and I thought that bringing a bunch of people who had been failed by the system despite their skills would form a fine core for GUNS. Yamura, despite being one half of the critically acclaimed PUNK Nasty Club tag team, was not renewed by BHOTWG at the end of 2023. SPEED D walked out on WLW in 2022. Konoe has remained unemployed the entire save. Who knows EX2010 didn’t go for Yamura and D and why no one made a bid for Konoe. (I probably should have, way earlier). None of three are in time decline but aren’t exactly youngsters at this point and will serve as usable midcard pieces. Yamura and D are paired together as SPEED FORCE (I should have gone with SPEED Club, now thinking about it) and are set to challenge for the Glory Tag Crown this year and are most certainly going to be involved in the Elite Tag Series. I have had a developmental company, WARRIOR, going since 2022. It’s mostly been a place for the young and the unemployed to gather a steady (if low) paycheck, since the AI companies rarely tend to hire you if you don’t already work somewhere. Suguru Emoto and Masafumi Torii are two such guys. Emoto walked out on BCG in 2020 and didn’t find any takers before I set up WARRIOR. Both had lengthy title runs down there and since they were pretty much the longest tenured and most over people there, they got the call up to join the gang. Both are severely lacking in overness, but might end up as decent midcarders a year or two down the road. Park Myung-Seop is the current ace of the group as well as a champion. The former kickboxer was brought to the PGHW roster in late 2024 as a new member of HONOR Bound. However, he never quite fit in. While Mabuchi Furusawa quickly integrated himself, Myung-Seop always felt like an outsider. His first year was capped off by winning the vacant Historical Japan championship, defeating the renowned veteran (and stablemate) Joshua Taylor for the honor. Myung-Seop would prove to be everything but an honorable champion for the next few months, turning even more cocky than before. In other words, the piss rose to his head. While the Elite series was going on, Myung-Seop made his moves in the undercard, slowly moseying up with newcomers SPEED Force and Andrews. It wasn’t a big shock when he trotted out in new gear and in a new unit right at the start of FORTITUDE Tour. At the moment Myung-Seop is in his prime, but his potential caps him somewhere around the midcard. GUNS is a much bigger opportunity than being just a body in HONOR Bound, so at least there is upwards momentum. Warriors of PRIDE Members: Chojiro Kitoaji (leader), Haranobu Kobayashi, BISON Yano, BRUTE Kikuchi, Kyuichi Matsumoto, Minoru Nakahata, Shuga Amano, Yuri Yoshihara, Yuta Isono Despite the introduction of GUNS and the somewhat strengthened DOA, Warriors of PRIDE are still our top heel unit by a mile. The unit might just have the widest top shelf material in the company and despite me nervously checking if Kitoaji will begin his time decline way too soon, are still very much in their primes or just getting there. The leader is the best place to start. Chojiro Kitoaji might not spiritually be The Ace (mind you, I don’t use Figureheads, but I’d consider The Ace to be more of a face figure, so in my case it’s Ugaki and/or Makiguchi), but damn sure is the ace in the ring. Four consecutive years as my overall best performer and might still make it to five in a row. He was always groomed for stardom as the son of the legendary Koryusai Kitoaji, but no one could have guessed what he would go on to accomplish. After a 2020 spent alongside tag partner Makiguchi and losing in the Elite Tag Series final to BISON & BRUTE, 2021 was the beginning of the final elevation. Winning the Elite Series, defeating Makiguchi in the finals and coming just a bit short against Kawashima for the Glory Crown set Kitoaji for a pathway towards redemption. Kitoaji’s frustrations grew for the remainder of the year as two losses against rising star SATO and even a rematch defeat to Makiguchi would claw away his chances for another shot at the Glory Crown. Kawashima would often be there, whether on the opposite side in a match or throwing an offhand comment in backstage interviews, egging him on, feeding his ego and telling him to embrace the Prideful side of himself. Kitoaji is a name of PGHW royalty after all, have some PRIDE in that. And then Makiguchi did what he couldn’t: won the Glory Crown, conquering Kawashima at Night of COURAGE, while Kitoaji sat on the sidelines injured (injury that kept KitoGuchi out of the Elite Tag Series, opening a door for Makiguchi to gun for the Glory Crown in the first place). As Kitoaji celebrated with his tag partner and the rest of the home army, the final seeds of jealousy were sown. Elite Series 2022 marked a more noticeable change after a few months of build-up. Kitoaji was more ruthless, less forgiving and more importantly, more effective. Another trip to the finals, this time against Masaru Ugaki. Kitoaji stood tall after a brutal war, winning his second Elite Series in a row. Same feat had only been accomplished by two people before him: legacy rival Seiji Jimbo and his father Koryusai at the very beginning of PGHW. A date with destiny, a match against Makiguchi for the Glory Crown would follow shortly. However, this would not be a brotherly fight. Very first stop of the FORTITUDE Tour would be main evented by a huge rematch. The previous encounter between KitoGuchi and Warriors duo of Kawashima and Kwakami at last year's Night of FORTITUDE had resulted in an instant classic (still standing as the greatest match of the save). Back then KitoGuchi stood tall and together, united to prepare for Kitoaji’s Glory Crown challenge. The cohesion had eroded over the past year as the two men set to face each other for the biggest prize in this sport (bahgawd) looked like two strangers teaming up. Then, in the closing moments, Kitoaji tagged in after a long heat segment of Makiguchi and blasted his partner away with a roaring Kitoaji Lariat. Stunned Osaka crowd would come alive with boos as Kitoaji shook hands with Kawashima, finally joining Warriors in the first truly big unit jump in the save. One year after the greatest match in company history, Kitoaji and Makiguchi faced each other and it was Kitoaji who would come out on top. Planting his foot on his former comrade, Kitoaji would begin The Run. Over the next two years, Kitoaji would etch his name in the history books with a legendary title run spanning a whopping 27 successful defenses. SATO, Glenn, Yasuda, Hikichi, Jimbo, Takimoto, Whitlock, Mihara, Muruyama, Takano, Kobayashi, Wolfsbaine, Suzuki, Satou, Makiguchi, Kamachi, Kobe, Kawashima, Ugaki, Miyamoto and Watoga would all try to shove the man off the mountain top and all of them would fail. Some got closer than others. Sterling Whitlock’s first challenge was stopped by the time limit. Ugaki’s only shot was in a rare three-way match and could only watch on as SATO lost the match. Rivals Jimbo and Makiguchi came close, but it wasn’t quite enough. Kitoaji stood tall as the best wrestler in the world. (Those bloody marks at the Observer disagreed, as Kitoaji only broke through to the top 10 of Power 500 once, placing ninth in 2024. Those same nimrods will also deny Kitoaji his rightful place in the Hall of Immortals, as his record breaking run happened while PGHW was still Medium sized. I’ll show you medium, dammit!) (Side note for those interested in the Power 500, Wolf Hawkins took the top spot three years in a row (2020-2022), followed by Atom Smasher(?), Nicky Champion and Brooke Tyler. Only four PGHW guys have broken through to the top ten over the years: Kitoaji, Glenn (#8 in 2023), Orange Tsuchie (#9 in 2023) and Ugaki (#10 in 2025)). Even The Run had to come to an end eventually and Kitoaji did the honors for surging KC Glenn at Night of Glory 2024. Kitoaji wasn’t idle for long as he started his fourth Glory Tag Crown reign just a few months later, this time with Kyichi Matsumoto. The reign resulted in the greatest Glory Tag Crown match of the save (victory over Muruyama & Ugaki at Night of WRESTLING 2024), but didn’t expand to the ludicrous lengths of Kitoaji’s previous title reign. After dropping the belts to The Ring Generals, Kitoaji has spent the following year mostly in a supporting role. Sure, he helped kick off Makiguchi’s second Glory Crown reign by putting him over at Night of GLORY 2025 and having the emotional KitoGuchi reunion a few days after his fathers passing, but Kitoaji mostly focused on giving the spotlight to his second-in-command. Kitoaji will surely rise back to the top again, but giving him another BIG run is not really in my mind after him really being the focal point of the company for two years straight. His reign at the top is the stuff of legends with that amount of defenses and will stay as such. Even if his career ended tomorrow, he would be a guaranteed PGHW Hall of Famer, but we all know his name should go right next to his father in the Hall of Immortals. So that second-in-command is Haranobu Kobayashi, fresh off a run with the Glory Crown. If you look at the match averages, it might just be the greatest Glory Crown yet. But how did he get there? Kobayashi was always earmarked for success, it was just a slow burn to get there. While SATO (and later Orange Tsuchie and KC Glenn) were the guys to really make Death or GLORY a unit filled with firepower, Kobayashi stuck in his lane as a tag specialist alongside Tsurayuki Kamachi. He had his challenges for the Historical and International belts and a few Glory Tag Crown shots as well, but it wasn’t his time quite yet. Then 2023 hit and it was time to give him an elevation. While his first Glory Crown challenge was nothing to write home about (actually the second worst title match of Kitoaji’s run, 82), he did leave an impact on the reigning champion. He and Kamachi left DoG during the summer as new members shook their faith in their roles within it, joining the home army and actively feuding with their old unit mates. This culminated with Kobayashi and Kamachi felling the dream team of Glenn & Tsuchie to capture their first Glory Tag Crown. Make no mistake about it, Kamachi was mostly along for the ride, this was all about getting Kobayashi up a level or two. And while his performances in big events were getting better and better, he was still below the true greats when asked to be counted upon during the actual tours. Nevertheless, the tag title run went well, even when asked to deal with some low-level challengers. Eight months later the dynamic duo dropped the belts to Kitoaji and Matsumoto. Kobayashi was left hanging, as a failed Glory Crown challenge left him aimless in a crowded home army. Then, in fall 2024 Kitoaji finalized his coup of Warriors as he kicked out Kawashima and the rest of the olds, bringing Kobayashi in as his new right hand man as Kamachi was left behind. Kobayashi did not look back as he was almost unstoppable coming into 2025, taking wins left and right. Elite Series success evaded him and an instant classic challenge for the International title ended in a heartbreak, but Kobayashi would not be stopped. Much like Kitoaji before him, Kobayashi captured his first Glory Crown title by defeating Bussho Makiguchi at Night of HONOUR 2025. While his reign got an iffy start (having poor chemistry in his very first defense against Wolfsbaine), things picked up considerably in the following months. He finally rose up to match the true top level workers in the company (after spending the previous years as a perennial number ten) and recorded whopping four 99 rated title matches (for comparison, the previous reigns had two in total), including the match where he dropped the belt at my final event before this post, that being Night of GLORY 2026. Still only 33, Kobayashi has bright years ahead as one of my main events ahead of him. I already had to throw an ungodly amount of money towards him so BHOTWG didn’t steal him away during his title reign. Well, that’s 1500 words on two guys, hopefully the rest of the Warriors won’t take that long. Wait, I’m already artificially expanding the word count by including this little passage! Uhhhh, BISON Yano and BRUTE Kikuchi! (I know Kikuchi’s first name isn’t written in full caps, but I like the unity between the tag partners so all caps it is!) Yano and Kikuchi have been the bedrock of our tag division, even if they haven’t touched the tag belts since early 2021. That first year the duo pretty much carried the division. After dropping the belts to Jimbo and Yasuda, they rallied to defeat KitoGuchi in the Elite Tag Series final and would go on to recapture the titles just a month later. Unfortunately that second reign was more of a transitional reign to get the belts to The Ring Generals. Yano and Kikuchi jumped to Warriors in 2022 alongside Kitoaji and quickly became the bruising hearts of the heel unit, giving much needed backup to Kitoaji as the rest of the unit started to age next to them. The two would remain constant challengers for the next two years, Kikuchi even netting himself a Glory Crown challenge along the way and were granted with a “thank you” Elite Tag Series win in 2025, making them the first repeat winners during my save. Neither guy ever really showed potential to become a singles star and with BISON closing on to his forties, that ship has pretty much sailed. Trusted members of the roster until the end, the hulking bruisers are always ready to stand alongside Kitoaji and Kobayashi against the other units. Kyichi Matsumoto might just be the most surprising “outsider” success of the save. Brought in to fill up the ranks in Golden Army (by being the only guy in the unit without any GCG ties, but fitting the image by, uh, being bald and hard) and was probably the most unremarkable man in an unremarkable midcard unit (Hiroyasu Gakusha and later Takayuki 2000 were too deep in decline to pull the group out of abyss). But some voice in the back of my head whispered sweet nothings about his potential. With SAISHO hiring him as well, Matsumoto’s rise began by winning the Historical Japan championship in late 2022. That and a concurrent run with SAISHO’s Destiny title made Matsumoto. With the Golden Army breaking up right after Matsumoto won the title, Matsumoto was headhunted to join Warriors at the start of 2023. Matsumoto was given the honor of becoming the frequent tag partner of the new leader Kitoaji and the two would go on to achieve greatness together by becoming Glory Tag Crown winners in 2024. Not bad for a guy brought in to eat pins in 2020. Matsumoto can bring it in the big events and has even challenged for the International title on occasion. A future Glory Crown challenge might just be in the books and the regular team with Kitoaji might even spell success in future Elite Tag Series… While Shuga Amano isn’t a PGHW dojo graduate, he has been treated as such after being hired very early in 2020 from the independent circuit. And he has been the most successful out of all of them, giving a great grudge to pull from for all his contemporaries. After a year of eating pins, he and Isono were sent to RIPW on an excursion for a year (I made multiple excursion deals after TCW snubbed me almost immediately in 2020). After an expectedly unremarkable year, it was time to come back. While he didn’t get a hero’s welcome (can’t exactly Rainmaker Shock a guy without massive blowback), he had a place secured in Warriors as Kawashima’s protege. The first few years were spent slowly cooking as the heir apparent to Kawashima, losing a few Historical Japan title match along the way. Much like Matsumoto, his fortunes started changing when SAISHO picked him up as well. Amano won the Historical Japan title in 2024 and had a respectable six month run. In SAISHO, he ended up winning their Tag Team Grand Prix and tag titles with Yuri Yoshihara. The Warriors coup was the bigger story, as Amano betrayed his mentor Kawashima to remain in the unit, leaving the men as bitter enemies. He even defeated him in a big International title match in early 2025. Oh yeah, Amano won that in January 2025. While the reign was more solid than great, it was highlighted by an amazing 99 rated barnburner against Orange Tsuchie out of nowhere. After losing the International title Amano has focused more on the tag ranks, even leading BISON & BRUTE to the first Trios champions tournament finals (more on that later), with the SAISHO born team with Yoshihara being brought over to PGHW as well. And as written earlier, Amano had his very first Elite Series run as well, ending Kawashima’s dream for one last finals appearance. Out of the original young boy crew, Amano is one of the two leading candidates to reach the Glory Crown first. Yuri Yoshihara, Minoru Nakahata and Yuta Isono round out the Warriors line-up, with all of them really still waiting for their moments in the sun. Yoshihara started on excursion over at TCW, where his two years were spent losing to Hawkins and Andrews almost nonstop. Unfortunately very little of the abilities of those two legends were imprinted on the stocky brawler (those matches did however carry him to a Young Wrestler of the Year award in 2021). His first two years after his return were spent in a low card role in the home army, highlighted by a Elite Tag Series run with Strong PRIDE tag partner Nakahata in 2023. In 2024 the duo joined Warriors, but have remained a low card team as Yoshihara has had his biggest successes in SAISHO with Amano. He has slowly grown to be a decent midcard talent. Yoshihara and Amano might be due a Glory Tag Crown reign in the not too distant future. Unfortunately Nakahata hasn’t grown as much as his partner. His excursion years in VWA were not great and he remains one of our worst guys. The potential is there, my emails keep yelling at me, so a future Historical Japan run might be needed to see what he can actually do. Unfortunately, Isono is ahead of him in the “Historical Japan run needed” line. Isono had his excursion in RIPW and much like Isono joined his own mentor, Magnum Kobe, upon his return at Death or GLORY. When DoG was disbanded in late 2024, the cocky Isono was quick to jump to Warriors on the recommendation of former DoG colleague Kobayashi and is their latest addition. The perennial Historical Japan challenger has the charisma, but his in-ring skills just aren’t quite there. At this point, he is waiting for something to really give him a boost up the card. DOA Members: Starling Whitlock (leader), Assassin (new, injured), Chill (new), Dean Waldorf, Harvey Robbinfield (new), Jimmy Chipotala (injured), Marv Statler, Matt Blackburn, Simon Flemmingway DOA, the gaijin unit where half the members are usually injured. I exaggerate, but just a bit. Whitlock missed a year, Hadley was in and out of rehab (now out of the company as well), Chipotala is just about to come back from his year-long injury, Assassin is missing a few months with a concussion, Statler might have the longest list of injuries in the entire roster and the rest haven’t survived without their fair share of bruises. Despite never being at full strength, the unit remains a major threat for every champion. DOA’s “new” image after the original crew of bruisers left due to various reasons, Sterling Whitlock took the reins and made the group truly his. Whitlock joined the company after USPW let him go in late 2021 and received a lightning quick push to capture the International championship at Night of COURAGE 2021. His record-breaking reign would last all the way to February 2023. In that timespan he took the reigning Glory Crown champion Kitoaji to a time limit draw and overtook Bulldozer Brandon Smith’s position as the old hand was slowing down at a rapid pace and eager to let the next generation handle things. His teams with Bulldozer and Wolfsbaine would get opportunities for the Glory Tag Crown, but they were unsuccessful. 2025 would see Whitlock sidelined for most of the year thanks to a torn rotator cuff, but would immediately return to the title picture, leading The Ring Generals to a trios championship. The reign was short lived, as the trios titles have proved to be extremely hard to hold on to for long, but Whitlock bounced back for another Glory Crown challenge. Whitlock is without a doubt one of our very best, rarely having any off days. His unit isn’t the strongest, but Whitlock can beat anyone at any time. The Ring Generals, Dean Waldorf and Marv Statler, act as the deputies of DOA, always ready to punish anyone they face with unparalleled teamwork and grim limb work. The dynamic duo represented HONOR Bound for a number of years before jumping to DOA in a major angle back at Night of COURAGE 2025, stemming over issues of perceived lack of respect among the newer members of the unit. But all before that, Waldorf and Statler were loyal soldiers. Statler has had seven different injuries over the years and while none of them took him out for any major time, those moments still derailed his momentum and performance. Thus, Waldorf was the one who got his chances to shine. He was the surprise hit of 2020, challenging Seiji Jimbo in a shockingly great Glory Crown match, our best at the time. He was rewarded with a Historical Japan reign, while Statler sat on the sidelines or got the honor of being the unit loss post for a while. Things took a turn for the better with a Glory Tag reign in 2021, which ended in a shocking fashion. Ring Generals entered the Elite Tag Series and ran the table, going to the finals undefeated (only undefeated block run of the save). The champions decided to go all or nothing, putting their tag titles on the line with the Elite Tag trophies. Predictably, hubris punished the tag veterans, as Hirobumi Takimoto and Tetsunori Yasuda shocked the reigning champions and triumphed. Ring Generals never quite recovered from the humiliating defeat, as the next two years remained quite uneventful, featuring only a few challenges. The DOA jump gave them their groove back, as 2025 saw Generals back at the top of the heap. Unfortunately, history has a bad habit of repeating itself, as another V7 defense reign ended at the familiar hands of Yasuda and Takimoto. Thankfully the Elite Tag Series wasn’t the stage this time. The rebound was quick, as The Ring Generals added another piece of metal to the trophy cabinet with a quick Trios title reign. Both men have hit forty and the near two decades of tag team excellence might be coming to an end in the coming years. They have won everything there is to win and aren’t getting any younger. Still, the two should remain important depth pieces for the time being. Simon Flemmingway is the important veteran piece holding the DOA fort together. The heel unit stalwart was a frequent title challenger in the early years. While he was never at the Glory Crown level, Flemmingway could challenge for every other title. Flemmingway has the questionable honor of challenging for the Glory Tag Crown with three different partners and failing with each of them, highest count in the roster (hey he can still challenge with Whitlock, what a great idea). He was ousted from Warriors when Kitoaji fully took over and wasted no time finding himself with DOA in 2024. Age and injuries are starting to wreck Flemmingway, but much like The Generals, there’s still something left in the tank. Overtaking Flemmingway (and basically Waldorf and Statler as well), is the only foreigner to ever graduate from the PGHW dojo, Matt Blackburn. Much like his contemporaries, Blackburn jobbed his way to the hearts of men before heading off to ACPW for a year with Daigo Goya. In his return, he joined DOA as the big undercard project. That’s where he stayed for a couple of years, slowly growing under the wings of Bulldozer and Whitlock. His development was noted with a Elite Tag Series run with Whitlock in 2024 (thanks to Flemmingway getting injured and Hadley once again suspended due to pain killers), and he rose to the occasion. Blackburn’s 2025 was spent crafting a record-breaking (maybe?) 12 defense reign with the Historical Japan championship (there’s a major theme with the belt acting as a major stepping stone for young wrestlers, as you might have noticed). The future remains bright, as the brawler has developed quite nicely to a potential main event player somewhere down the line. He also has an unbroken bond with Masatochi Kamimura, his tag team partner from the young boy days. Units always tag with their own members, but Blackburn and Kamimura are different. Despite repping DOA and HONOR Bound respectively, there is almost no animosity between the two and they tag together every once in a while. This partnership blossomed into a career first Glory Tag Crown defense for the two of them. Perhaps one day they will stand as enemies across the ring with the Glory Crown at stake. Maybe they will one day lead a unit together. Maybe that Glory Tag Crown run will become a reality. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Along with Blackburn, the future of DOA lies with Jimmy Chipotala, Assassin, Harvey Robbinfield and Chill. With Bulldozer retiring, American Wolves jumping to Nextream, The Lions leaving and Hadley getting shitcanned, DOA needed bodies to keep up with the other units. Jimmy Chipotala was the first man in. The former USPW prospect never prospered back home and was scouted quickly after his release in 2024. Much like Whitlock, he had the starting popularity to not be a job guy at the start. Unfortunately, his run only lasted for six months before he broke his neck. Chipotle is only now just making his comeback after a year out of the action, so it remains to be seen where he slots in the group. The other three newcomers also share the same faith of being former prospects in their respective companies, who never really got the chance to show what they got. All three also spent a few years in my developmental, waiting for a spot to open. Despite their low popularity, I see good things in their future… if injuries leave them alone. Chill is the freshest addition, only joining DOA a few months back. Robbinfield has been hit with awful tag chemistry with THREE of his unit mates thus far. HONOR Bound Members: Masaru Ugaki (leader), Azunamaro Shimizu, Eien Miyamoto, Joshua Taylor (new, injured), Mabuchi Furusawa, Masashi Urogataya, Masatochi Kamimura, Ryoma Muruyama, Washi Heat (new) The beating heart of the company, despite the unit not being “the home army.” The crew has had it’s changes, as only three of its original six members is left, but that’s hell of a lot more than any other unit can say that has been around as long as they have (Death or GLORY being, uh, dead, home army splitting in two, Warriors changing their entire roster over the years). In the center of it all is the GOAT, the MVP, the one and only Masaru Ugaki. Our only guaranteed Hall of Immortals inductee. The bedrock of quality. When everything else fails, Ugaki is there to pick up the pieces. Even if Kitoaji surged past him in the performance department, Ugaki has been in the top three in every year, being really the only one of the three major names at the start (him, Kawashima and Jimbo) who has lived up to that standard. His first injury in the save just kept him out for two months after the Elite Series and he was immediately missed (also because Kitoaji and Jimbo were both out as well at the same time). The record speaks for itself: Elite Series win in 2020 (and more stunningly, three finals losses after that), Elite Tag Series win with Ryoma Muruyama in 2024, Glory Crown run from 2020 to early 2021, Glory Tag Crown run in 2022 with Muruyama, a stunning series of matches against KC Glenn (a rivalry reborn most years during the Elite Series) and the most 99 rated matches out of the roster (six). While he hasn’t dominated the singles ranks after his Glory Crown reign and has only challenged once afterwards (three-way with Kitoaji and SATO), Ugaki still remains one of our top acts. His “lack” of singles title matches is really due to me being extremely gun-shy with top level pairings, booking long title reigns and generally avoiding multiple challenges a year and multi time champions. You get your run and that’s it! Still, Ugaki is the face of this era of PGHW and whenever his decline begins, it will indeed be a sad day. If things work out perfectly, he will be going as strong as his tag partner Ryoma Muruyama, who still hasn’t hit decline at 46 years old. Muruyama’s career is very closely knit to Ugaki’s, being by his side in almost every match, when healthy. He got his Elite Tag Series and Glory Tag Crowns, but he isn’t just some carry-on luggage for Ugaki but a capable wrestler on his own. Muruyama seldom goes for singles glory and is satisfied by being the ever reliable and honorable cornerstone of the company. Despite Muruyama’s skills, he wasn’t (and isn’t) quite the top line wrestler HONOR Bound needs as a number two. Enter the second biggest coup from BHOTWG, Mabuchi Furusawa. Furusawa was a BCG for the first year of the save, winning the Yoshifusa Maeda Grand Prix and even popping over to SAISHO to conquer their Tag Grand Prix. In 2021 BHOTWG came in with a big offer which Furusawa gladly took. Might not have been the best career move as the next three years of his life were spent challenging The God Butchers (Gargantuan and Prometheus) with Shingen Miyazaki for the tag team titles over and over and over again, losing every single time. In 2024 he finally got his first shot for a singles title, but no triggers were pulled. It’s no surprise then that he agreed to join PGHW in 2024, even if a bit of a bidding war was required. Furusawa was immediately slotted in to HONOR Bound (fueling the Ring Generals exit later in the year) and despite having zero chemistry with Ugaki (a major bummer), he quickly hit his stride. While 2024 was still filled with failed title challenges, 2025 was a career year with a tremendous International title reign, capped with a magnificent Glory Crown challenge against new rival Haranobu Kobayashi (good old 99) and a career high Power 500 spot at #17. His 2026 might be even better, as things have gotten to a flying start with a Glory Tag Crown reign. Despite closing in on 40, Furusawa is a major part of the present and the near future of PGHW. For the longest time, Eien Miyamoto was the biggest disappointment in PGHW. Sure, he had his International title reign in 2020, had a mildly popular tag team with Avalanche Takano and had his challenges for every title in the company. But he could have been so much more. Despite his skills, he never seemed to take that next step. For a few months, he would be on fire. For the next two, he would underperform on a nightly basis. Furusawa was brought in to HONOR Bound because Miyamoto could not be trusted in a high profile spot on a regular basis. Paradoxically, Furusawa’s arrival might have been the best thing to happen to Miyamoto, as the two quickly found a groove as a tag team. After spending the previous five years more as a upper midcard gatekeeper, Miyamoto finally got another shot at the spotlight with his first Glory Tag Crown run in 2026. Age is creeping up to him as well, he will probably never quite live up to that Glory Crown potential of his younger years, but his career resurgence might just be leading him to a career year. Behind the top four is the youngest member of HONOR Bound, Masatochi Kamimura. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Jobs, excursion at CZCW, return to company in a unit under a mentor, cook for a while, work for SAISHO, Historical Japan run, profit. God, these patterns are way more obvious when I actually write them up. Despite going through a road well traveled, Kamimura has shown tremendous upside during his years with the company. Despite a torn ACL very early on, Kamimura has recovered and become one of the brightest prospects in the company. The partnership with Blackburn is set up to give plenty of hooks for the coming years. Currently he is one of the four “young guns” most likely to reach that Glory Crown level, even if that is still quite a distant dream. When HONOR Bound inevitably falls or transforms into something different, Kamimura is sure to be a centerpiece of that change. Reliable, but unspectacular, The Golden Disciples of Azumamaro Shimizu and Masashi Urogataya (or “those GCG baldies”) were originally brought in as part of The Golden Army. The golden boys were never anything but midcard fodder and things haven’t really changed in HONOR Bound. Urogataya has been plagued with injuries, scoring TWO major injuries that kept him out of the ring for about a year. This has resulted in him being mostly used as the regular fall guy of the group. Shimuz has fared a bit better, resulting in a bit more title challenges over the years, but the team is content in staying in the undercard, Shimizu sometimes being relied upon to fill the numbers in bigger tag matches. Most of their success has come in SAISHO, where they are currently in the midst of a tag title reign and Shimizu has been a regular Ride the Tiger challenger and even a one time Grand Prix finalist. The new additions, plugging the minor hole left behind by Myung-Seop leaving, are Washi Heat and Joshua Taylor. Heat was brought back in 2020 to bring an important lower card veteran for the rookies to work with and has remained in that role over the years. This run is mostly remembered from his “comedy” team with Takayuki 2000, a solid undercard unit for a few years. He’s starting to slow down and his drug issues keep him strictly in undercard action. Why HONOR Bound? Well, the crew needed a familiar pin eater to round up the numbers with Veterans ending and GUNS entering the scene. Joshua Taylor is a different story. As a young man Taylor made his name working with PGHW until jumping over to TCW to become one of the bigger names in that company. This eventually led to a world title run from 2020 to 2021. Taylor then became one of the many to jump over to SWF for a bigger payday. The four years were mostly spent in a tag team with Xtinction and a quick North American title reign. The end of 2025 marked return to “home” as the veterans SWF contract ended and I gave him a one year contract to ride into the time decline sunset with. Naturally he had no chemistry with Ugaki (despite the headcanon reason for joining was the two sharing a unit back in the days) and was deep in decline without that much popularity to speak of. Then a major back injury took him out for pretty much the remainder of his deal as his contract most likely won’t be renewed. A sad end to a good career. With Taylor’s impending exit, HONOR Bound is likely to get one or two additions from wrestlers returning from excursion and/or developmental guys. NEVER DIE Members: KC Glenn (leader), Seiji Jimbo (leader, rehab), Hirobumi Takimoto, Hitomaru Suzuki, Kaz Kikkawa, Mitsuo Kikkawa, Orange Tsuchie, Tetsunori Yasuda, Tsurayuki Kamachi The reformed home army became NEVER DIE, but some things were lost in transition, namely unparalleled unit depth. As the leaders had their own setbacks, the unit isn’t looking quite as formidable as just a year ago. KC Glenn is the best hire I have made in the save. Once the biggest prospect in wrestling and the future of the BHOTWG junior division, Glenn decided to take my contract offer in late 2020. Slotted quickly into Death or GLORY, the unit became an instant highlight of most PGHW shows. Glenn, SATO, Tsuchie, Kobe, Kobayashi and Kamachi (and Reaver for a while) were in charge of stealing the show on most nights. Glenn quickly found a groove with EX2010 alumni Orange Tsuchie and the two formed a formidable tag team. The following year started the feud with Masaru Ugaki, with the duo's first singles match ending in a draw at Night of GLORY 2021. Glenn would quickly rise up the card and was a main eventer from 2022 onwards, highlighted by Elite Tag Series win alongside Orange Tsuchie and the following tag title win from Muruyama and Ugaki, furthering the flames in the Glenn/Ugaki rivalry. The reign that followed saw Glenn gain worldwide acclaim with two straight Tag Team of the Year awards and a top ten finish in Power 500 in 2023. At this point, Glenn was built up to be the one finally dethrone Kitoaji. After three time limit draws, Glenn finally overcame Ugaki in the Elite Series final in 2024, becoming only the second gaijin after Raymond Diaz to achieve that prize. Night of GLORY was the big crowning moment, as Glenn finally overcame Kitoaji after a monster two year reign in front of 60 000 fans in Tokyo. His ten-month reign at the the top would continue the excellence set by Kitoaji. After dropping the title to Makiguchi at Night of PRIDE 2025, it would be Glenn’s time to take a bit of a backseat. He’s actually been surprisingly low-key in his performances and has actually dropped out of main eventer range. He is still very much one of our best and young enough to be our top gaijin alongside Whitlock and Wolfsbaine for the years to come. The co-leader of NEVER DIE Seiji Jimbo is not the man who he once was. Jimbo started 2020 as the ace apparent and the reigning Glory Crown champion, but the company quickly pivoted to Masaru Ugaki as the Glory Crown champion. Jimbo would find great chemistry with Tetsunori Yasuda, as the two became the Glory Tag Crown champions for the second half of 2020, winning the belts and dropping them to BISON & BRUTE. And after that… not much happened. Sure, he remained as the leader of the home army and commanded massive respect from his peers, but success avoided him. He would be a frequent challenger for the Glory Crown, make the Elite Tag Series final with Yasuda and in general be one of our best when it came to big events. Unfortunately he was often overtaken by newer and younger names, and it seemed that the world was passing him by. However, when tensions with Bussho Makiguchi boiled over about the direction of the home army, he took most of the crew with him to form NEVER DIE with KC Glenn in late 2024. Reformed unit gave Jimbo a new boost of momentum, leading him to glory once again, winning the Elite Series for the third time, overcoming rival Ugaki in the final, making him only the third man to win the prestigious tournament three times (others being legends PRIDE Koiso and Yoshimi Musashibo). The title challenge afterwards did not go as planned, as newly crowned Makiguchi defeated him, cementing the existence of his own unit TRUE BORN. Jimbo would enter a downward spiral, failing to win at a major event until the Night of LEGACY. But that was not the story that night would be remembered for. PGHW held an emergency press conference the night after Night of LEGACY 2025. A somber Jimbo took the stage alongside PGHW brass and announced he would be heading to rehab to recover from a painkiller addiction. The announcement came as a shock to everyone, as no one had noticed any signs of heavy drug use and it was almost unheard of for a top guy to announce such a thing. No one knows how long Jimbo had been struggling with addiction, but he vowed to beat his demons, return and win the fans back over. It has now been eight months and Jimbo is ready to return for the STRENGTH Tour. Will he be the same? How will fans respond? And more importantly, how will his fellow wrestlers. Masaru Ugaki has already taken to the press, throwing jabs in Jimbo’s direction, setting up a return feud between the two returning stars. The unit as a whole has felt the absence of their co-leader, as the killer top five was reduced to four and suddenly the depth of the unit didn’t seem so strong. Two guys on the brink of the main event, but both with their own flaws preventing them from getting there, are the excellent tag team of Hirobumi Takimoto and Tetsunori Yasuda. Despite Yasuda finding success alongside Jimbo (and splitting the Elite Tag Series appearances three times with each partner), the red headed menaces are mostly associated as a pairing. Takimoto started off struggling, lacking in most departments and seemed like a lost cause for half of 2020. Then, slowly but surely, he started stepping up. Middling Historical Japan challenges turned around to stellar tag work alongside Yasuda, culminating in a shocking Elite Tag Series win over The Ring Generals in 2021 with the Glory Tag Crown on the line as well. The tag title reign made Takimoto the monster he is today, as his 2021 would see the single greatest improvement in performances over the entire save. His stamina will never be quite good enough to run with as a Glory Crown champion, but he is still just 32 years old, so there might be an outside chance. Still, he has been reliable as a challenger every once in a while, and was rewarded with another Glory Tag Crown run in 2025, which just ended a few months back. Now Takimoto is set to be one of our first challengers for our newest Glory Crown champion. Yasuda, on the other hand, has always been the better of the two and the more protected. Mostly because he is almost always more or less pissed if asked to lose to someone of even the same stature. At this point, he is just a bit too old and a bit too inconsistent to ever be considered for a Glory Crown run, but he might still get a thank you singles run at some point. As it stands, he is one of the best tag workers the company has, bringing the best out of his two frequent partners. Orange Tsuchie is the unsung hero of the roster. Leaving EX2010 very early in 2020, I brought him in hopes to insert some much needed talent in the midcard. At first it took the crowd a while to really catch on to the smaller wrestler, but the PGHW fans have caught on over the years, especially thanks to the award-winning team with undersized partner in crime KC Glenn. Highlights are the Elite Tag Series win and the following Glory Tag Crown run, but Tsuchie is the go to guy to measure a new champion’s worth in any division. If you need a great defense to get your reign started, call Tsuchie. Ask Shuga Amano, who got carried to his career best match pretty much out of nowhere (99 rated match for the International championship). Always performs better than his push warrants, Tsuchie is the exact sort of guy any roster needs. Despite other great wrestlers having great years in PGHW, only three other guys have got that top ten slot in Power 500 in addition to Tsuchie. He will never be a main eventer, but he has a great place as Glenn’s main man. Tsurayuki Kamachi and Hitomaru Suzuki are the old midcard workhorses of NEVER DIE. Both have had their moments in the sun, Kamachi with his Glory Tag Crown reign (and winning the SAISHO A-1 Grand Prix, as well as being their reigning Destiny champion) and Suzuki as a reliable Historical Japan challenger (plus one time Glory Crown challenge on a tour show). Both had their best moments as tag workers, Kamachi with Kobayashi and Suzuki with Hirotsugu Satou. While neither is declining yet, Kamachi and Suzuki are unlikely to rise much further up the card, acting as filler defenses and filling the numbers when needed in bigger tag matches. NEVER DIE is really missing the men of the next generation, even if the team of K2, Mitsuo Kikkawa and Kaz Kikkawa, show some flashes here and there. Mitsuo is the son of BHOTWG legend Takayuki Kikkawa, I believe a part of one of the expansion sets. Kaz is a newgen from the PGHW dojo, but since he randomly got the famous last name, a tag team was the simplest thing in the world to do. Kaz worked the main roster for the first year after his graduation, but was sent to developmental in 2022 to join his newly hired kayfabe-cousin. The two got brought up in late 2024 to fill the ranks of the fresh NEVER DIE. Both are brawlers with decent psychology, but Mitsuo is definitely the one with any potential. Nextream Members: Avalanche Takano (leader), Logan Wolfsbaine (leader), Chomei Sugiyama, Daigo Goya, Hirotsugu Satou, James Diaz (injured), Nobuyo Hikichi, Shogun Watoga (injured), Takenori Doi The leaders of the next generation should soon be the leaders of THIS generation. Despite things looking a bit sunnier than a year ago, Nextream still faces some hurdles. Namely, injuries at the worst possible time and underperforming when it counts. The entire group was formed around Avalance Takano, at the time primed for a make it or break it run as a unit leader. And he has been broken. Not in a wacky Matt Hardy way, more in the way that he has failed to take that next step forward. Takano started off 2020 as the Historical Japan champion and the young gun of HONOR Bound. A respectable run with the title made Takano seem like a possible top line guy for the future. A tag team with Eien Miyamoto would keep him as an appreciated midcard worker, netting himself a number of title challenges over the next couple of years, slowly cooking and developing. The next step was taken with an International title reign from 2023 to 2024, during which he found himself a potentially generational rival in Shinji Mihara, the two producing two shockingly great title matches together (98 rated draw and a 97 rated title change). Takano was deemed “ready”, and was hastily given his own unit to lead in 2023, focusing on the promising youth of the roster. Unfortunately Takano seemed like a bad call to actually be the leader. While he was still great when it came to bigger events, he could not be relied on to be consistent on tour shows. It didn’t take long for Logan Wolfsbaine to overtake him and become a co-leader and really the focal point of the entire unit. Takano did, however, lead the first ever trios champions team of himself, Shogun Watoga and Takenori Doi. I have mentioned the trios tournament a few times already, but I wanted to create another belt for the midcard that could be defended on tour shows more often and could easily be slotted as the Steal the Show match on PPV events. Anyways, a 16 team knockout tournament was held during the HONOUR Tour of 2025, the story of the tournament being big favourites getting knocked out early and Nextream and Warriors teams knocking each other out, culminating in a final at Night of HONOUR where Takano/Shogun/Doi defeated the Warriors trio of Amano/BISON/BRUTE. The reign was short-lived and now Takano is back at the drawing board. He has to impress, not only the fans, but his unit as well or his time as the head of Nextream might come to an end. Logan Wolfsbaine has taken full advantage of the situation. Originally brought in with James Diaz as The American Wolves (originality is not my forte) as part of the original DOA formation, Wolfsbaine was quickly slotted as a future key piece. Despite his low popularity, he would quickly impress the booking team with his performances. He shared his time with his home company PSW for a few years, until I had to lock him down on a written deal to prevent a BHOTWG raid in 2023. A Historical Japan title reign shot him up the card in 2022 and it seemed like the sky was the limit. Unfortunately for Wolfsbaine, he had rotten luck with injuries. Planned as a breakthrough star in Elite Series tournaments in 2024 and 2025, he was taken out with an injury the previous tour twice in a row, keeping him out. Despite those, Wolfsbaine has climbed up to one of our key wrestlers at the top of the card, currently in the midst of an excellent run with the International title and fresh off a career first finals appearance at Elite Series. While he is not the leading candidate to grab the next Glory Crown, he should be considered a frontrunner favourite in most tournaments in the coming years. Elite Tag Series wins with either Takano or Diaz are very much a possibility. With Takano underperforming and the rest of Nextream consistently failing to impress, Wolfsbaine is the beating heart of the unit and the leading gaijin for the years to come. The third top gun of Nextream is Shogun Watoga, who shares much of the same issues as Takano. The former WLW star was very quickly hired by BHOTWG in 2020, but his three year run there was much like every other WLW star's run in the big leagues (excluding Emerald Angel), a flop. As his contract wasn’t renewed and WLW didn’t show any major interest, Watoga was brought to PGHW in 2023 to give a boost to Death or GLORY, quickly replacing the departing Kobayashi as the next big singles star. He would stay in the unit until it disbanded in 2024 and would quickly shuffle himself to Nextream. The next year did include a run with the trios title, but otherwise Watoga looked just as inconsistent as Takano. The start of 2026 seemed like a changing of fortunes, with an all-timer challenge against Kobayashi, which set up Watoga for a possibly big run at the Elite Series. Unfortunately foir him, the Wolfsbaine curse needed to find a new host, as Watoga tore his quad during the DESTINY Tour. He will be out until the end of summer, hoping to regain momentum lost. Hirotsugu Satou and Takenori Doi form the midcard tag team of the unit. The other looks like a future singles champion and the other looks like a lost cause. Let’s start with the lost cause, Satou. Starting off as a prospect in 2020, he quickly found chemistry tagging with Hitomaru Suzuki. The two would remain as midcard stalwarts until Satou made the jump top Nextream. Those first few years did have Satou have a run with the Historical Japan belt, but that run did very little for him. He also was one of the challengers during Kitoaji’s massive reign, a career highlight, but he was only there to lose. In the meanwhile, Satou went to SAISHO and became one of their top stars, seemingly choosing to focus his best efforts there and mailing it in with us. He has had his morale issues over the years, also penalizing his performances for large chunks of time. Perennial challenger has earned a place on my personal shitlist, despite my efforts to make something out of him. On the other hand, Takenori Doi has responded well to his very minor push and is slowly creeping up to challenge Watoga and Takano for their spots. Doi decided to leave his home company BCG in late 2023 despite a steady push up the card and was very quickly snapped from under the nose of BHOTWG to join PGHW and Nextream. Doi found partnership with Satou and has remained a steady hand in the midcard and a true rising star of the unit. There was a reason he was picked to be the third man (and the star) of that Nextream trios team ahead of Satou or Hikichi. Big things are in Doi’s future. Who knows, maybe he will challenge for one of the big belts during this coming year? Nobuyo Hikichi and Daigo Goya started teaming as young boys and have remained a tight knit unit ever since. Hikichi is the only one of the original young boy crew who never had his excursion, he just… kind of creeped up the card and didn’t really need the trip. For a moment he was so hot that he was considered a main event player. He would quickly fall out of favor as better talent rose up the card. While Hikichi has proven himself to be a solid midcard hand, his technical skills and psychology have capped in the 70s range, preventing him from ever really hitting the big time. Some inconsistency issues have also plagues him over the years, but 2026 has been his most solid yet. His tag partner might also be solid, but also pretty bad. Goya is the bad apple of the original young boy crew, stuck as a pin eater for the rest of his days. He can be carried in a Glory Tag Crown match, but will never be a singles star of any caliber. Hikichi and Goya are tied at the hip, destined to be a midcard team to be slotted with a low table finish when Elite Tag Series needs a filler team due to injuries. Chomei Sugiyama and James Diaz round out the crew, mostly used as pineaters and occasional Historical Japan challengers. Sugiyama had his uneventful BHOWTG run before joining Death or GLORY with Watoga. He has been out for large chunks of time with injuries, notably a shattered knee which kept him out of action for over a year. Diaz is still disgustingly young and quite good for his age. This year was supposed to be his elevation year, starting his own Historical Japan run and looking if it could fly him out of opening act status. Well, he managed to dethrone the record-breaking champion Blackburn at Night of COURAGE… and tore his quad three matches later, having to vacate the belt with 0 defenses, a first in the title’s history. Diaz still has a lot of recovery left and only time will tell if he can return to form and keep developing. TRUE BORN Members: Bussho Makiguchi (leader), Alyx Winters, Flip Simkins, Magnum Kobe (new), Sanemoto Sakata, SATO, Shinji Mihara, Shozo Furuta, Stone Yoshikawa Now at full strength, TRUE BORN is at the forefront of unit warfare. Featuring maybe the best top line-up of any unit, exciting young talent and also Stone Yoshikawa, the bright and colorful crew is tight knit and ready to make this era of the company theirs. Bussho Makiguchi was always the bright and young babyface that the fans could rally behind. His team with Chojiro Kitoaji pitted two future top stars together and created magic in the process. Coming to a new decade, that magic started to wane. While 2020 saw the duo spend most of their time together in tag action and even reached the Elite Tag Series final, it quickly became clear that it was time for both of them to try flying solo. On Makiguchi’s side, there were no hard feelings, even as KitoGuchi ended up facing each other at the Elite Series final in 2021. Kitoaji came out on top and Makiguchi stood by his partner as Kitoaji went after the reigning Glory Crown champion Kawashima. But as Kitoaji struggled after a heartbreaking loss to Kawashima, Makiguchi prospered, grabbing wins show after show. Dissension between the two grew even further, as Makiguchi won the pair’s second match together at Night of KINGS 2021. Kitoaji even suffered a mild injury in that very match, keeping KitoGuchi out of the Elite Tag Series (despite missing out on Elite Tag Series, KitoGuchi would be awarded their third Tag Team of the Year award in 2021). Makiguchi, naturally, felt bad that they couldn’t participate, but his attention was quickly whisked away as he was set up as the next Glory Crown challenger. And in a shock twist, Makiguchi would dethrone the living legend Kawashima, ending (what would eventually be) his last Glory Crown reign. Makiguchi was overjoyed, failing to sense the daggers that were stared to his back. As Kitoaji changed in the coming months, Makiguchi would notice the change, as the old tag formula didn’t quite work as it used to. Things would come to a head after Kitoaji won his second Elite Series and turned on Makiguchi right at the start of the FORTITUDE Tour. What was supposed to be Makiguchi’s time in the sun, proved to be nothing more than a transitional reign for The Run of a lifetime. Makiguchi would be shuffled back towards the midcard, as he found himself a tag partner that had suffered the same fate. Stone Yoshikawa was kicked out of Warriors pretty soon after Kitoaji joined, deemed “unfit” to be part of the “best” unit in all of pro wrestling. Yoshikawa returned to the home army hat in hand and was welcomed with open arms by Makiguchi, the two finding great chemistry working together, forming the tag team named Hearts of Stone. Makiguchi would rebound in early 2023, seeking to get vengeance on his former partner. Makiguchi would not change his ways to conquer the Elite Series and managed to overcome Sterling Whitlock in the final, setting himself up for a rematch against the still reigning Kitoaji. The confrontation, one year in the making, would main event Night of GLORY 2023. Despite Makiguchi’s best efforts, Kitoaji had reached a new level as champion and simply refused to surrender to his former partner. Kitoaji remained as champion and Makiguchi, once again, sank down the card, lending his assistance to any home army efforts in multiman tag matches. Tensions between Jimbo and Makiguchi would start building though all of 2024. Both home army leaders were considered among the best wrestlers in the company, but success had evaded both of them for a couple of years at this point. It didn’t help that Makiguchi failed to win the Elite Series and watched as KC Glenn ended The Run of Kitoaji and became the Glory Crown champion. Makiguchi had remained hopeful that it was his destiny to eventually dethrone Kitoaji, but that was not to be. It didn’t help that after Kitoaji almost immediately rebounded to a Glory Tag Crown win, Hearts of Stone failed in their challenge. The COURAGE Tour would also spell the end of home army, as Jimbo announced that the majority of the home army members would follow him to form NEVER DIE. Makiguchi was left almost alone. Yoshikawa had just suffered a major injury and would be out for a while and only the tag team of Lions of Japan remained by his side. Makiguchi didn’t swallow his pride and join another unit, instead forming TRUE BORN. Adding in young boy Sanemoto Sakata, fresh of an excursion, and the debuting Canadian team of Alyx Winters and Flip Simkins, the unit was ready, but severely underpowered. Makiguchi took that as a challenge. The year 2025 started with overcoming Kawashima once again in singles action, leading him into another Elite Series campaign. Two time limit draws would keep Makiguchi out of the finals as Masaru Ugaki advanced from his block, but he did manage to beat the reigning Glory Crown champion KC Glenn. There’s a saying that lightning doesn’t strike twice at the same point. Well, Night of PRIDE proved that is not the case, as Makiguchi once again defeated Glenn, this time with the Glory Crown on the line, in quite a shocker. Now Makiguchi was once again at the mountaintop, despite having half the support that other top guys have, and was seeking to take some names. First on the list, Elite Series winner Jimbo, beat him. Then eternal rival Kitoaji, three years after the turn and two years after their previous one on one match, beat him as well. This was Makiguchi’s time. Until it wasn’t, as he once again fell at his fifth defense, this time to a surging Kobayashi. So, despite being the only two time Glory Crown winner during the game, both of his runs were short and transitional in nature. Back in a smaller role, Makiguchi continues his efforts to drag his young unit mates up the card, dreaming of one day once again conquering the Glory Crown and this time having a run worth remembering. SATO has been groomed for success for years and unlike some of his contemporaries (coughMiyamotoandSatoucough) has almost always risen to the occasion (some disappointing Elite Series runs early on notwithstanding). Being part of Death or GLORY since the beginning, SATO had a great unit to grow into a bigger deal with. An early International run was solid enough and was used to put over the extremely hot Danny Cavanagh (for a moment almost my top gaijin), and it elevated SATO to a guaranteed great Glory Crown challenger. His team with unit leader Magnum Kobe also saw some success, reaching the Elite Tag Series final in 2022 (losing in an inter-unit final against Glenn & Tsuchie) and winning the damn thing next year (joint best Elite Tag Series final with a 99 rating). But title belts still eluded him. As KC Glenn beat Kitoaji for the Glory Crown, plans were put into place for SATO to be the next man up for the championship. But as usual, bad luck ruined those plans. Glory Tag Crown match against Kitoaji and Matsumoto at Night of KINGS 2024 ended in a sour note as SATO suffered a major concussion that would keep him out of action for over a year. SATO’s injury would be the domino that would very quickly disband Death or GLORY, as members went in their own directions, leaving SATO without a home whenever he would come back. WRESTLING Tour 2025 would see SATO finally return to action. TRUE BORN had struggled in its infancy with only two top line names (Makiguchi and Mihara) with the rest of the unit very much not ready to be anywhere near the top of the card. Then SATO returned and joined, bringing Kobe with him, the top four could suddenly stand up to any other unit. SATO started hot, picking up where he left off, leading to an impressive win streak to close out 2025. After all these years and a major injury, it was clear that it was going to be now or never to walk the Road of GLORY. SATO cleared the Elite Series in almost a shockingly dominating fashion, only losing once in the block phase, earning him a career first trip to the finals and beating another first-time finalist in Logan Wolfsbaine to win the Elite Series. So at Night of GLORY, SATO stood across the ring from the champion, Haranobu Kobayashi. After losing at this same exact point to Ugaki, Kawashima, Kitoaji (twice) and Glenn, this opportunity could not be wasted. Not again. After another 99 rated war, the referee counted the pinfall and the challenger had finally become the champion. Exhausted, SATO thanked the 80 000 strong crowd in Tokyo, promising to be on the level of the great lineage of Glory Crown champions that came before. Can SATO be on that level? That, only time will tell. For now, SATO is set to carry the Glory Crown for most of the rest of 2026. When I started the save, I had some very harsh words for Magnum Kobe, calling him a bum. Set up as a leader of his own unit, Death or GLORY, Kobe was set for success as one of my four main eventers set to define this era of PGHW (alongside other unit leaders in Kawashima, Jimbo and Ugaki). Well, Kobe was not anywhere near their level. In fact, he was outshone in his own unit by SATO and Glenn, with Kobayashi breathing right down his neck and Tsuchie just waiting to grow in popularity to outmatch him as well. Despite a great challenge against Ugaki in late 2020, Kobe was not what he made out to be. Then, in the final show of 2020, Kobe broke his neck. It would take over a year to see him return to action, and he was not quite the same. He was almost better. Now that he wasn’t thrust to a leading position (Glenn had taken over leadership duties), Kobe could prosper as a tag specialist with SATO and also challenge for a singles title every once in a while. This would see Kobe get his biggest moment in the sun in his PGHW, with back-to-back finals appearances in the Elite Tag Series with a win to cap it off in 2023. Heartbreakingly, Kobe had to watch as SATO got concussed in their tag challenge in 2024 and basically had to work most of the match by himself. The aftermath saw the disbanding of the unit he once started, with all of his unit mates moving on. Kobe, losing the will to stay at the cutting edge of the sport, decided to join Team Veteran RETURNS to start slowing down. But a peculiar thing happened. He couldn’t slow down. He wasn’t a physical mess like most of his unit mates. He even challenged Makiguchi for the Glory Crown and accompanied Kawashima in his final Elite Tag Series. As tag partner SATO returned from his year-long injury, the two decided to join forces once again, joining TRUE BORN in the process. Treated as the veteran of the unit, Kobe might have never become one of the biggest stars in the company that once expected out of him, but has quietly had a decent run for himself, currently elevating Generation Z with a trios title reign. Lions of Japan (Shinji Mihara and Shozo Furuta) started 2020 on their excursion over at VWA in Europe. Mihara returned in time in late 2021, but Furuta refused to return, enjoying the bratwurst just a bit too much. Mihara, without his tag partner, was quickly elevated through his first year back in the company. A few veterans took a liking to the young and promising star, as he found a partnership with Danny Cavanagh in a shockingly decent tag team and both Eien Miyamoto and Seiji Jimbo agreed to put him over. These wins lead to him challenging for the Glory Crown for the first time at just 23 years of age. He was unsuccessful, of course, but just a few months later he ended Sterling Whitlock’s long International reign. The spring also saw him win SAISHO's A-1 Grand Prix. Mihara’s title reign was cut short after just a few defenses, as a torn rotator cuff took him out of action for the rest of 2023. “Big Sho” (I see what you did there, Ryland) finally lumbered back from Europe and joined his tag partner in the home army in early 2024. Unlike his charismatic and talented tag partner, Furuta remained stuck in a low card position, mostly sniffing up bigger matches when Mihara needed a tag partner (Cavanagh had been hired by BHOTWG in the meantime). Anywho, Mihara went on to regain his International title just a few months after his return from injury and would hold it through 2024 and into early 2025. This time period would also mark the birth of TRUE BORN, as Lions of Japan were the only two active members of the home army that chose Makiguchi’s side. Mihara would be essential in getting the unit off the ground, accompanying Makiguchi in tag action almost every tour show. After losing the title, Mihara has remained as a main eventer, being a steady challenger for the big titles. Big things are surely in his future and he has to be considered the leading candidate of “the next generation” to conquer the Glory Crown first. Furuta, well, he’s almost the worst wrestler in the roster, carried to relevance (and infrequent Glory Tag Crown shots) on the wing of Mihara. Generation Z (Alyx Winters and Flip Simkins) were, at one point, the future of CWA’s tag team division. Then they were mostly used as fodder for Brothers of Cain and Montreal Mafia. They were not renewed at the end of 2023 and were brought into my developmental to see if they got what it took to succeed in Japan (in other 2020 saves, Generation Z had become players in the CWA tag division and I was hoping to repeat that success here). When TRUE BORN was put together and was in dire need of members, Generation Z were my first pick with the returning Sakata, fitting the vibes of the young babyface unit. And while they were decent, it took over a year for the two to start hitting their stride. Now enjoying their first “real” push as the trios champions with Kobe, I continue to have high hopes that I have the next Ring Generals in my hands. Simkins is currently the clear standout, even if Winters looks like the better fit on the paper. This reign will hopefully carry them up the card a bit and set them up as future Glory Tag Crown challengers and maybe even champions some years down the line. Sanemoto Sakata and Stone Yoshikawa round up the TRUE BORN crew. Sakata was the first decent newgen to come out of the PGHW in this save, impressing with his good psychology and decent flying skills (for some reasons, all the best rookies have been juniors). He spent a few years in undercards before being shipped off to CZCW for his two-year excursion, returning to the company just in time to join TRUE BORN. He is yet to show the potential he once flashed as a rookie, stuck as a pin eater of the unit. Maybe is SAISHO would hire him and give him a run, it has done wonders to a lot of my younger wrestlers! Yoshikawa is on the other end of the age scale, being the oldest member of the unit and the second oldest active wrestler in the entire roster at 45 years old. Yoshikawa lost his original tag partner, Torch Nakasawa, almost immediately to BHOTWG at the start of 2020 and spent the next two years as the pin eater in Warriors, until he got kicked out by Kitoaji in 2022. It looked like his career would be over at that point, but finding great chemistry with Bussho Makiguchi saved him. Now used as a trusty midcard partner for one of the key wrestlers in the company, Yoshikawa was safe. He wouldn’t exactly find success, barring a few Glory Tag Crown challenges and eating the pin in tour main events when needed. Then a major concussion took him out of action in 2024, keeping him out of action for over a year, making his return to join his Hearts of Stone partner in TRUE BORN. He is starting to decline, so Yoshikawa’s days as a somewhat relevant wrestler are numbered. What’s next? “What do you mean, “what’s next?” You just wrote god knows how many words about ones and zeros!” Well, I am a bad booker, so I only have a few big throughlines for the year, maybe a champion or two for the future, but a lot of the process consists of winging it. But I still want to have a Glory Crown reign for Jimbo, completing a dramatic comeback story after his rehab. I still want to get other guys than Ugaki to Hall of Immortal status. In the more distant future I want have someone out of my original young boys (Mihara/Hikichi/Goya/Furuta/Blackburn/Kamimura/Nakahata/Amano/Isono) as a successful Glory Crown champion. I want that 100 rated match! There’s still so much to go, but thankfully I’ve had a hell of a time already. Here’s for another five years! tl;dr: PGHW goes brrrrrrr.
  4. Night of Glory 2025 is behind us and it is once again time for a (somewhat) quick update. Departures: Andrew Lee, Bulldozer Brandon Smith, Darin Flynn A short list this time. Smith was in deep decline and wasn't renewed at the start of the year. Smith never made too big of an impact after his first few appearances and being the founding father of our heel gaijin unit. He's retiring soon enough. With D.O.A. getting an overhaul in general, I also decided to part ways with Lee and Flynn. Lee never developed the way I hoped and Flynn keeps getting busted for pain killers and is not interested in changing his ways. Both got (PPA) offers from Europe, so their careers will hopefully continue in bigger roles than as opening match fodder with us. Arrivals: Jimmy Chipotala, Alyx Winters, Flip Simkins The list of arrivals is equally short, consisting of young and promising workers cut from the big boys of North America. Chipotala fills a role in D.O.A. while the team of Generation Z have great pressure on them, but more about that a bit later. Major topics / Unit landscape: The best way to cover the past year is to go through all the units. Major alliance shifts and new units have shaken things up quite a lot. So, let's get started. Warriors of PRIDE Leader: Chojiro Kitoaji Members: Haranobu Kobayashi (new), BRUTE Kikuchi, BISON Yano, Kyichi Matsumoto, Shuga Amano, Yuri Yoshihara (new), Minoru Nakahata (new), Yuta Isono The leading heel unit has went through a major youth movement. With old guns Matsuki and Flemmingway dropping more and more falls and Kawashima physically falling apart, Chojiro Kitoaji finally fully wrenched control of the unit to himself. The olds were gone in an instant as Kitoaji introduced his new right hand man Haranobu Kobayashi. Tag team of Yoshihara and Nakahata (Strong PRIDE) joined up as well. All of the original members might be gone, but the mission statement stays the same: old ways are the best ways and tradition will always overcome modernity. Kitoaji might have been dethroned from his throne after a massive two year Glory Crown reign, but he almost immediately followed up with an eight month Glory Tag reign with Kyuichi Matsumoto. Matsumoto has come a long way from the fall guy of Golden Army, now solidly the number three of a major player in PGHW. Kobayashi has truly come to his own and his own Glory Crown run should only be a matter of time. Kitoaji is still our best wrestler, even if his former tag partner (more on him later) is starting to breathe down his back. BISON & BRUTE are still a rock solid team, even if they'll never really go anywhere as singles guys. Filling that role is Shuga Amano, who has rocketed up the ranks, netting himself a brief International reign, that just came to an end. Meanwhile, Yoshihara is doing surprisingly well, while Isono and Nakahata serve as the loss posts, still slowly developing. Warriors have renewed energy and are ready to rule PGHW for the next decade with this young(-ish) group of killers. HONOR Bound Leader: Masaru Ugaki Members: Ryoma Muruyama, Mabuchi Furusawa, Eien Miyamoto, Masatochi Kamimura, Azumamaro Shimizu, Masashi Urogataya, Park Myong-Seop (new) HONOR Bound have really stayed as the most stable unit in PGHW. Minimal movement in and out, until late 2024. With Mabuchi Furusawa joining as a high level addition and Masatochi Kamimura getting "preferential treatment" as Ugaki's protege, The Ring Generals had enough what they perceived as "lack of respect" in a group formed around all of it's members being equals. Night of Courage might have ended with a feel good Elite Tag Series win by Ugaki and Muruyama, but the headlines were with the Generals as they jumped their unit mates and joined up with D.O.A. earlier in the night. Former kickboxer Park Myong-Seop was brought in to fill up the ranks. After a disappointing 2024, Masaru Ugaki has come back with a vengeance and is once again the same reliable superstar that he was for the first four years of the save. He's a definite Hall of Immortals inductee (only one of our roster) and is only looking to add to his case. Furusawa has been on fire and has been rewarded with an International title reign. Miyamoto has been more consistent than ever for the past year. He's too old to ever be a true main eventer, but he's a super solid upper midcarder for the rest of his prime. Kamimura had a shockingly fast rise in his performance but has taken some unfortunate setbacks since. Amano might have leapforgged him, but Iäm still bullish on him as a future star. Muruyama is also starting to show first signs of slowing down. Shimizu, Urogataya and Myong-Seop are a solid backbone for the midcard. HONOR Bound are the one constant in PGHW, always ready to deliver even if they are not in the brightest spotlight. NEVER DIE Leader: Seiji Jimbo Members: KC Glenn, Orange Tsuchie, Tetsunori Yasuda, Hirobumi Takimoto, Tsurayuki Kamachi, Hitomaru Suzuki, Mitsuo Kikkawa, Kaz Kikkawa (newgen) The MAJOR shakeup to the status quo is this. Death or GLORY is, well, dead. Long live NEVER DIE. Night of KINGS in October 2024 ended with a major injury. SATO suffered a major concussion during the main event tag title bout against the Warriors duo of Kitoaji and Matsumoto. Despite the injury, Kobe took the blame for the loss and left Death or Glory after the show. Now with SATO and Chomei Sugiyama injured long term and Kobe gone, then-reigning Glory Crown champion KC Glenn made the radical decision to disband the group right before the COURAGE tour. Around the same time, tensions between the home army joint leaders Seiji Jimbo and Bussho Makiguchi was growing. Jimbo gave each member a choice who to follow. The vast majority chose the man, whose bloodline IS PGHW. Joining forces with Glenn and Tsuchie, Jimbo declared that the spirit of home army will live on with him, in NEVER DIE. Two young lads from developmental were headhunted to join the crew, as Mitsuo "son of Tadiyuki" Kikkawa and Kaz "worked cousin" Kikkawa joined up as well. KC Glenn's big defining Glory Crown reign has just recently ended, but the man is still one of the brightest talents PGHW has to offer. His partner in crime Tsuchie is a step behind the true pillars of the company, but still delivers in a major way when called upon (case in point, a staggering 99 rated challenge against Amano. Still missing that legendary 100...) Jimbo has been rock solid and was awarded with his third Elite Series win, becoming the third man after PRIDE Koiso and Yoshimi Mushashibo to reach such accomplishment. Takimoto and Yasuda are one of my top tag teams, with their own issues in singles (stamina for Takimoto, age/inconsistency for Yasuda). Kamachi and Suzuki form the veteran midcard part of the unit, while the Kikkawas (tagging together as K2) slowly develop to hopefully something useful. The heart and soul of PGHW might look a bit different, but it will truly NEVER DIE. Nextream Leader: Avalanche Takano Members: Logan Wolfsbaine, Shogun Watoga (new), Nobuyo Hikichi, Hirotsugu Satou, Takenori Doi, Chomei Sugiyama (injured), James Diaz, Daigo Goya Leaders of the next generation... or are they? Formed as a group of young killers, Nextream hasn't taken the world exactly by storm. The addition of Shogun Watoga after the death of Death or Glory, the group was injected with another high level talent... who proceeded to underperform woefully during Elite Series. Wolfsbaine, prepped for a big run through the same tournament, was once again injured just prior, missing the Series tow years in a row. Takano is solid, but in his leadership role hasn't been able to step up to that next level quite yet. That last big moment seems to elude the group, as Avalanche Takano is the only one who has managed a title reign of any sort, International reign born out of Mihara's injury back in 2023. Takano might be the leader, but Wolfsbaine is the machine that keeps the unit running, being an absolute monster of a wrestler (when healthy). Takano and Watoga offer support, even if I keep expecting development from both of them. Hikichi has solidified his place as a reliable midcard workhorse, while Doi flashes potential to be a breakout star out of this crew. Satou has usurped the title of "biggest disappointment" from Miyamoto. Morale issues continue to tank his performances as he continues to focus his best efforts in SAISHO. Diaz is still disgustingly young and slowly cooking, while I have resigned to the fate that Goya will never be anything else but Hikichi tag partner and low card fall post. The future is not as bright as it once seemed, but Nextream are still a group that should be taken seriously. TRUE BORN Leader: Bussho Makiguchi Members: SATO (injured), Shinji Mihara, Stone Yoshikawa (injured), Shozo Furuta, Sanemoto Sakata (newgen), Alyx Winters, Flip Simkins When the home army splintered, Bussho Makiguchi was dealt the dead man's hand. Given the choice who should lead the home army troops, Jimbo won the hearts of the majority. Makiguchi was left with his injured tag partner Stone Yoshikawa and The Lions of Japan (Mihara & Furuta) while the rest joined up with Jimbo, forming NEVER DIE. Makiguchi weighted his options, unwilling to give up and join up with one of the other factions, and stood his ground. TRUE BORN was founded on unstable footing, with only three men active at the start. Reinforcements were brought in from abroad, as newgen Sanemoto Sakata returned from his excursion and brought the Canadian team of Generation Z with him. Young, exciting, but featuring fairly unknown talent, no one believed that TRUE BORN would be a force in 2025. Then Makiguchi shocked the world, not only beating KC Glenn on the final block day of PRIDE tour, but also repreating the process and winning the Glory Crown for a second time at Night of PRIDE. Having already defended the title successfully against Elite Series winner Jimbo and then against former partner Kitoaji (three years after their previous title bout ended Makiguchi's first reign and started Kitoaji's two year reign), Makiguchi is looking to lead his band of brothers to glory. Makiguchi is having a career year, upping his game to chase Kitoaji as the true top dog of the company. Mihara has quickly ascended to star status and is holding up the fort as second in command. After the two, the drop in quality is steep. Sakata, Winters and Simkins are solid, but severely lacking in overness to truly support the top stars in upper card matches. Furuta is a big project, here only because of tag chemistry and experience with Mihara, but otherwise clearly the worst of the original young boy/excusion crew. SATO, while not "officially" a part of the group, is set to join whenever he can return from his injury. SATO's injury came at the exact wrong time, as the man had finally stepped up to a true top star status and was primed for a title run in 2025 (likely being the one to actually topple Glenn). Thin at the top, but featuring some exciting young talent, TRUE BORN will continue the legacy of the home army in their own way. D.O.A. Leader: Sterling Whitlock (injured) Members: Dean Waldorf, Marv Statler, Matt Blackburn, Simon Flemmingway, Hammer Hadley (rehab), Jimmy Chipotala (injured) D.O.A. have went through quite a rebranding. Originally consisting of bunch of hard-nosed brawlers and brutes, the group has shifted to more of a technical sort of brutality. None of the original five members remain, but Whitlock and Hadley remain as the longest tenured members. The gaijin heel unit reinforced it's ranks when The Ring Generals left HONOR Bound due to perceived lack of respect, Flemmingway found a new home after the big Warriors coup and Chipotala was brought in from overseas as a somewhat popular and a young prospect. Currently D.O.A. is in a bit of a hard place. The unit might hold two titles (Glory Tag and Historical Japan), but injuries have kneecapped the unit as a whole. Hadley refuses to budge on his pain killer abuse and thus is sent frequently to rehab every time he gets caught. He also has simmering tension with around seven different guys in the locker room. Chipotala broke his neck and is out until 2026. But the worst sting was Whitlock tearing his rotator cuff during GLORY tour. Whitlock is the only one of the group really on an elite level and losing yet another of my very top guys can't help but hurt. Waldorf and Statler are good, Blackburn has grown and Flemmingway is still solid enough, but Whitlock leaves a massive hole in the reputation and status of the crew. Hadley's return (for a short while before the next rehab) will fire the unit up for a moment, but the four man skeleton crew will be facing major hurdles for the rest of the year. I don't see any of the other big gaijins jumping in and there's no major free agents to speak of, so I would have to bolster the unit with low popularity guys from my developmental. Changes are coming, I just don't know what those changes are quite yet. Team Veteran RETURNS Leader: Kozue Kawashima Members: Magnum Kobe, Akinori Kwakami, Noriyori Sanda, Kazushige Matsuki, Washi Heat, Takayuki 2000, Gonnohyoe Kada, Hiroaki Nakasawa And here's the rest of the crew! With a name shamelessly stolen from Dragongate, Team Veteran RETURNS is the last haven for our veterans with no more hunger for PRIDE, GLORY and HONOR as they had in days gone. That is the nice way to say that this group is for time decline only. They might be aging, but still willing (and able) to beat some respect into the young guns. Kobe is the one that can still hang, Kwakami and Heat have their good days, but the rest are slowly but surely getting worse. Time waits for no man, as in 2020 this surely would have been a top tier unit. In 2025, not so much. Funnily enough, the core is basically the original Warriors lineup with Kawashima/Kwakami/Sanda/Matsuki. Don't really have a long term plan for this unit, maybe they'll get more members as some of the old guns start to leave their units or maybe some of these guys will find places for one last run. Champions: Glory Crown: Bussho Makiguchi (V2), second reign Makiguchi is on fire right now, as I plan for him to go through a killers row of challengers, knocking off every other top star one by one, before Kobayashi finally gets his moment in the sun... as I tremble at the thought of giving the title to someone who isn't top level on tour shows. Title history: Bussho Makiguchi (2), V2 (3/2025 - current) KC Glenn, V8 (5/2024 - 3/2025) Chojiro Kitoaji, V27 (not a typo) (4/2022 - 5/2024) Bussho Makiguchi, V4 (11/2021 - 4/2022) Kozue Kawashima (4), V8 (1/2021 - 11/2021) Masaru Ugaki (3), V7 (5/2020 - 1/2021) Seiji Jimbo, V5 (10/2019 - 5/2020) Greatest title match: KC Glenn vs SATO (Night of HONOUR 2024) & KC Glenn vs Bussho Makiguchi (Night of PRIDE 2025), 99 Glory Tag Crown: The Ring Generals (V3), third reign The Glory Tag Crown has seen many of our greatest matches of all time, usually being one of the reasons why our actual main events over the Glory Crown get dinged just a bit and miss out on that glorious 100 rating! The Generals are solid champions, even if they are not quite on the level of previous champion teams. They serve the purpose of shuffling the championship back towards the midcard, away from teams with clear singles stars. One of the Nextream duos is due a tag reign at some point... Title history: The Ring Generals (3), V3 (2/2025 - current) Chojiro Kitoaji & Kyuichi Matsumoto, V7 (6/2024 - 2/2025) Haranobu Kobayashi & Tsurayuki Kamachi, V8 (9/2023 - 6/2024) KC Glenn & Orange Tsuchie, V9 (12/2022 - 9/2023) Masaru Ugaki & Ryuoma Muruyama (4), V5 (6/2022 - 12/2022) Tetsunori Yasuda & Hirobumi Takimoto, V6 (11/2021 - 6/2022) The Ring Generals (2), V7 (3/2021 - 11/2021) BISON Yano & BRUTE Kikuchi (3), V2 (12/2020 - 3/2021) Seiji Jimbo & Tetsunori Yasuda, V5 (7/2020 - 12/2020) BISON Yano & BRUTE Kikuchi (2), V9 (8/2019 - 7/2020) Greatest title match: Kobayashi & Kamachi vs Jimbo & Yasuda (Night of GLORY 2024) & Kitoaji & Matsumoto vs Muruyama & Ugaki (Night of WRESTLING 2024), 99 International: Mabuchi Furusawa (V0), first reign International title is all about delivering good matches and elevating it's holder, rocketing most of it's holders to bigger and better things. Furusawa just started his reign, with the clear potential of having the best reign of the save. Title history: Mabuchi Furusawa, V0 (5/2025 - current) Shuga Amano, V4 (1/2025 - 5/2025 Shinji Mihara (2), V9 (4/2024 - 1/2025) Avalanche Takano, V8 (7/2023 - 4/2024) (vacated due to Mihara's torn rotator cuff) Shinji Mihara, V4 (2/2023 - 7/2023) Sterling Whitlock, V13 (11/2021 - 2/2023) Danny Cavanagh, V9 (1/2021 - 11/2021) SATO, V8 (6/2020 - 1/2021) Eien Miyamoto, V4 (1/2020 - 6/2020) Reaver, V4 (9/2019 -1/2020) Greatest title match: Amano vs Tsuchie (Night of FORTITUDE 2025), 99 Historical Japan: Matt Blackburn (V5), first reign The historical belt has served it's purpose in elevating young talent from the bottom of the card to solid midcard status. Blackburn is the latest in the line getting his first push out of the lower card as his performances continue to develop steadily. Blackburn will probably the belt to one of the young Warriors, Diaz or even one of TRUE BORN. Title history: Matt Blackburn, V5 (3/2025 - current) Masatochi Kamimura, V7 (8/2024 - 3/2025) Shuga Amano, V8 (2/2024 - 8/2024) Hammer Hadley, V7 (8/2023 - 2/2024) Kyuichi Matsumoto, V11 (12/2022 - 8/2023) Logan Wolfsbaine, V9 (5/2022 - 12/2022) Nobuyo Hikichi, V7 (10/2021 - 5/2022) Hirotsugu Satou, V7 (2/2021 - 10/2021) Dean Waldorf, V6 (6/2020 - 2/2021) Avalanche Takano, V10 (9/2019 - 6/2020) Greatest title match: nine different matches over the years, all rated 80
  5. Necrobump! It's, uh, been a while. My PGHW save has reached May 2024 as I've been going slow and steady for the last year plus, so after not visiting GDS forums for six months or something, I thought I'd write something down before the inevitable computer crash takes it all away. Departures: Golden Scorpion, Timmy West, Danny Cavanagh, Hirokazu Yamanoue, Reaver Mostly older members of the roster leaving for smaller pastures (Yamanoue and Reaver) or retirement (West & Scorpion). Cavanagh was finally grabbed by BHOTWG with minimal fighting. While at one point Cavanagh was an important member of the upper midcard, some big hires and rising young stars were taking away his spotlight. At 40 years old I could let him go and have an unremarkable run with the big boys. In & Out (arrived and left during the past two years): Julian Watson, Namboku Makuda Declining Watson was let go by TCW and was brought in for a year as a solid hand in the generic evil gaijin stable. Wasn't good enough to hang around for longer. Makuda was let go by BHOTWG, had a short six month run with us before taking the big money offer to return. He was good, but in a stacked roster not good enough to seriously fight for. Arrivals: Andrew Lee, Bulldozer Brandon Smith, Chomei Sugiyama, Hammer Hadley, Hiroaki Nakasawa, James Diaz, Logan Wolfsbaine, Mabuchi Furusawa, Shogun Watoga, Sterling Whitlock, Takayuki 2000, Takenori Doi, returning/debuting Young Boys The hiring spree... has commenced. The Americans came in with one fell swoop. Bulldozer was let go from USPW, which gave me an idea to do a the generic foreign heel unit. Andrew Lee was brought in to tag with Darin Flynn and formed the original five with Bulldozer, James Diaz and Logan Wolfsbaine. Whitlock was brought in quickly when USPW let him go as well and Hammer Hadley rounded up the group. Takenori Doi left BCG and I hired him shortly after. The deals of Watoga, Sugiyama, 2000 and Nakasawa expired with BHOTWG and weren't renewed so I was happy to bring them in. Furusawa, who just arrived a month back, was the only one I had to really bid for, dealing another blow to my closest competitor. Major topics: - While Masaru Ugaki was the undisputed ace for the first two years, Chojiro Kitoaji started the run of his career in 2022 and hasn't stopped since. Joining Warriors of PRIDE, taking the leadership and winning the Glory Crown from (former) tag partner Bussho Makiguchi in April 2022 made Kitoaji the top dog. What followed was an amazing two year title reign filled with 90+ rated main events. And while I'm finally moving to other champions, I have no doubt in my mind that Kitoaji will stay as the best wrestler in the company until his decline starts. - KC Glenn is really good, to the surprise of nobody. A killer tag reign with Orange Tsuchie (leading to back to back Team of the Year awards in 2022 and 2023), on-and-off feud with Masaru Ugaki leading to three time limit draws before Glenn finally beat him to win Elite Series and finally dethroning Kitoaji for the Glory Crown have made Glenn a true top star despite his size. Him, Kitoaji and Ugaki are currently our only Major Stars and top performers. - Other top tier wrestlers include guys like SATO, despite him dropping the ball yearly in Elite Series, is the second best wrestler in the company behind Kitoaji. Logan Wolfsbaine is really good and outperforms most main eventers while being a midcarder. Makiguchi got his short but sweet Glory Crown reign but has kind of been spinning his wheels since. Sterling Whitlock is reliable in any spot he's put in. Seiji Jimbo is not the ace he should be, but can be counted on to deliver a big performance on the big stage, being responsible for two of our five 99 rated matches (the famous 100 still eludes me). - To anyone familiar with PGHW there's probably a name you're waiting to be mentioned. Kozue Kawashima is, unfortunately, cooked. While he is still popular, he is no longer the man he once was. His Glory Crown reign in 2021 was good, but notably still the worst of the big GC reigns we've had. Other veterans falling from grace are guys like Akinori Kwakami, who was out for a year with a broken neck and his tag partner Noriyori Sanda whose skills have eroded with time decline. Veterans hires like Gakusha and Nakasawa were also deep in decline coming in and have mostly been used to put over the younger guys. On the other hand we have Magnum Kobe, who came back from a serious neck injury and finally started to deliver in the ring. He's not a top tier guy, but can reliably main event a big show if the need rises. Tetsunori Yasuda will never be a top guy, but is still solid in the upper midcard. What is a bit worrying is that Ugaki hasn't been himself in 2024. He's not in decline... yet, but it's a terrible thought. - With this being the fifth year of the save, the "young" core from the start has had chances to step up and deliver. SATO is the big success story, and the rest... well, it's been a bumpy ride. Avalanche Takano is getting the push of his career, getting to lead his own stable. He can turn it up in the big shows, but is solid at best on tours. Hirobumi Takimoto is an excellent guy to have in the tag ranks. Haranobu Kobayashi screams future Glory Crown champion and his tag title reign looks like it will finally push him to that stratosphere... if he can handle singles matches. All three have struggled when put on the spot in the Elite Series. Yano & Kikuchi are solid in the tag division. Eien Miyamoto and Hirotsugu Satou are frustrating as they tend to go hot and cold in random intervals. - While the dojo's newgens haven't been anything special, the crop of young guys from the start of the save have had their successes and failures. Shinji Mihara is the big success, shooting up to star status after returning from excursion and becoming a two time International champion, the first reign being cut short with an injury. Delivering a staggering 98 rated match against Takano is a promising sign. Nobuyo Hikichi never got his excursion and just kind of slithered up the card. His Historical title reign briefly hoisted him up to a star level, but he quickly returned to the midcard. He's capped in technical skills and psychology in the low 70s, so he won't be the star of the next generation. The rest are a lot lower on the pecking order. Kamimura shows the most promise, Blackburn is getting there, Yoshihara might become a midcarder but Goya and Nakahata are spinning their wheels in the undercard. - Around the world things have definitely happened. PGHW might have won the Promotion of the Year in 2023 (woo!), but the eyes of the world are on the star battle between SWF, USPW and CWA. TCW has fallen flat on their face, losing Hawkins, Andrews, Gauge, Huggins and pretty much anyone else worth anything, main eventing with Running Wolf and... DUSTY DUCONT. Stables: Warriors of PRIDE: Chojiro Kitoaji (leader), Kozue Kawashima, BRUTE Kikuchi, BISON Yano, Kyuichi Matsumoto, Simon Flemmingway, Kazushige Matsuki, Shuga Amano The top heel(ish) group. Old school to the bone with some brutish strength mixed in. Went through a big shake-up when Kitoaji came in. Old farts Kawkami, Sanda and Stone Yoshikawa were kicked out and preplaced with Kikuchi & Yano. Matsumoto joined when Golden Army was disbanded and Amano joined as Kawashima's protege after returning from excursion. Kitoaji is the undisputed ace, but is missing a strong second. BRUTE and Flemmingway can, at times, be really good and Matsumoto has showed flashes of uppercard potential. HONOR Bound: Masaru Ugaki (leader), Mabuchi Furusawa, Ryoma Muruyama, Eien Miyamoto, Dean Waldorf, Marv Statler, Azunamaro Shimizu, Masashi Urogataya, Masatochi Kamimura Ugaki led face unit has stayed mostly static. The original six are still there. Ring Generals and Muruyama are still solid. Shimizu joined to freshen up the group, Urogataya joined him after returning from his year long injury and Kamimura was added coming back from excursion. Furusawa is the new addition as Ugaki's right hand man, as the unit really needed another top line wrestler. Death or GLORY: KC Glenn & SATO (leaders), Magnum Kobe, Orange Tsuchie, Shogun Watoga, Chomei Sugiyama, Yuta Isono Still stealing the show nearly ever night. Despite Kobe being out for over a year, his unit has continues to prosper as the natural landing point for flashier and high flying wrestlers. Reaver left pissed off about his booking and Kobayashi and Kamachi stepped away when the group added Watoga and Sugiyama, with Isono joining from his excursion. Best top three in any stable, with Glenn, SATO and Tsuchie all being extremely good. D.O.A: Bulldozer Brandon Smith & Sterling Whitlock (leaders), Hammer Hadley, Matt Blackburn, Andrew Lee, Darin Flynn The aforementioned evil foreign stable. The line-up is definitely the weakest of every group. Bulldozer was already declining when I brought him in, so the mere existence of Sterling Whitlock is the cog that keeps this machine running. Hadley is really good as long as he's not asked to wrestle over ten minutes. Flynn and Lee spin their wheels and don't really develope and Blackburn is still slowly cooking. I would have brought in Wolf Hawkins (TCW fired him after a toxic incident), but SWF sniped him from under me in one night, not even getting a chance to up my bid. Nextream: Avalanche Takano (leader), Logan Wolfsbaine, Nobuyo Hikichi, Hirotsugu Satou, Takenori Doi, James Diaz, Daigo Goya The newest unit in PGHW, forming at the start of 2024, formed out of young guys looking to jumpstart their careers. Lives and dies with Takano and Wolfsbaine. Might add Mihara as the third killer, but Home Army needs its young guns as well. Doi might develop, Hikichi is midcard for life, Satou saves his best performances for SAISHO, Diaz is terrifyingly good for is his age Goya is here to eat the pins and tag with Hikichi. Home Army: Seiji Jimbo (leader), Bussho Makiguchi, Haranobu Kobayashi, Tsurayuki Kamachi, Hirobumi Takimoto, Shinji Mihara + veterans & rookies Home Army is naturally the biggest group and the one with no clear identity. It's really top heavy, with guys like Jimbo, Makiguchi and Kobayashi, but doesn't really have any good hands on the midcard level, mostly aging veterans and rookies not ready to fill their boots. Champions: Glory Crown: KC Glenn V0 (Just defeated Kitoaji. Won't hold the belt for two years, but I'm hopeful to give SATO the next run. Ugakand Jimbo might deserve runs, as does Makiguchi. Don't want to forget the younger core either, but the main event is set to be rock solid for a few years) Glory Tag Crown: Kobayashi & Kamachi V8 (There hasn't really been a massive reign with the tag belts, but title matches have delivered the match of the night on multiple occasions. This reign is all about making Kobayashi, but the duo are about to drop the belts to some Warriors combination (probably Kitoahi/Matsumoto) as Kobayashi prepares to test himself in the main event) International: Shinji Mihara V1 (Mihara's second reign is just getting started. Whitlock had a year+ reign in 2022, but if thigns work out Mihara might do something similar.) Historical: Shuga Amano V4 (Historical has been used for younger guys trying to get out of the undercard and some midcard stalwarts. Now it's Amano's time to rise up the card) Elite Series history: Masaru Ugaki (2020), Chojiro Kitoaji (2021, 2022), Bussho Makiguchi (2023), KC Glenn (2024) Elite Tag Series history: Yano & Kikuchi (2020), Yasuda & Takimoto (2021), Glenn & Tsuchie (2022), Kobe & SATO (2023)
  6. PGHW Glory Tag Crown KitoGuchi vs Muruyama & Ugaki © Death From Above vs Kozue Kawashima & Rebel Run X PGHW Historical Japan Championship Greg Gauge © vs War Machine Hirotsugu Satou vs William Hayes The Ring Generals and Jack Marlowe vs Toshusai & Nagahama and SATO FUTURE Six Man Tag Team Championship Tournament semi-final Gonnohyoe Kada and Dojo Breakers vs Azumamaro Kita and Yano & Kikuchi FUTURE Six Man Tag Team Championship Tournament semi-final Omezo Shikietei and Kwakami & Sanda vs Shingen Miyazaki and Stone Avalanche The People's Team vs Daigo Goya and Seiji Jimbo
  7. A year and a change is in the books and PGHW is still going strong... ish, heading into the Elite Series 2021. - While we are running on red on most months (still have the original PPV deal), last few months have been better, despite some "questionable" written deals. BHOWTG came gunning for almost EVERYONE not locked up and not loyal. This resulted in me having to kill the SAISHO no steal agreement to keep Avalanche Takano and they quickly responded by ending the talent trade deal. Only lost Goemon Komiya to this raid, but I definitely overpaid to keep guys like Flemmingway and Washi Heat... who then immediately got caught in drug tests. Twice. Third time will be the charm and he will be getting the boot. - The young midcard heroes have really started to hit their stride. SATO caught fire with a great International title run, Haranobu Kobayashi is being protected a lot and is usually one of the more reliable performers. Avalanche Takano has been good, Eien Miyamoto runs hot and cold and Hirobumi Takimoto was bad for six months, decent for four and now he's out of nowhere pretty good. - Out of the "big three" I did not expect Seiji Jimbo to start showing signs of wear and tear first. Ugaki and Kawashima are still going strong, so I'm not too worried. Also, KitoGuchi have been really good in both tags and singles. The top tier guys can carry almost anyone on the roster to a passable main event. - Some changes in the stables due to some arrivals and departures. William Hayes took off to BHOWTG, so Simon Flemmingway was slotted to Warriors of PRIDE. Orange Tsuchie was a perfect fit to Death or GLORY along with a big new hire. Gakusha formed another Golden Army to house the few GCG refugees in the roster. They're firmly midcard unlike the three big groups. - TCW ended the agreement to accept developmental workers for no reason. No other medium of higher company is willing to take the deal either. And VWA refuses to take any more workers until the crew out there end their stints. So the young boy crew is kind of spinning their wheels but gaining valuable experience. Nobuyo Hikichi is the best of the bunch, but has already capped his Psychology. He will be the first to go on excursion. Kamimura, Isono and Amano are neck to neck with the rest not ready for anything quite yet. Departures: William Hayes, Goemon Komiya, Mamoru Nagahama, Boom Boom Jamaica, Yasuhide Tayama, Yugoro Adachi - Hayes and Komiya went to BHOWTG, Nagahama retired as did Tayama who was brought in for a short three month run. Boom Boom Jamaica was let go by EILL so I grabbed him for a few months before OLLIE poached him with a monster deal. Our referee Yugoro Adachi sadly passed away. New arrivals: Kyichi Matsumoto, Washi Heat, Yasuhide Tayama, Boom Boom Jamaica, Darin Flynn, Golden Scorpion, Yoson Nakata (ref), KC Glenn(!) - Matsumoto and Scorpion fill space in the Golden Army, bolstering the midcard, Washi Heat brings his monster psychology to the table, Darin Flynn was let go by 21CW and I brought him in as a long term gaijin project. But the big fish here is KC Glenn. A lot of big BHOWTG expired at the end of 2020 and I tried to grab at least one of them. (I also could only afford maybe one). Couldn't get Matthew Keith so I had to settle with the second best blondie out of BHOWTG. Glenn fits in the "Magnum Kobe" slot just below the main eventers but still with serious room to grow. Was immediately slotted into Death or GLORY, unfortunately has zero chemistry tagging with SATO. We'll get to Kobe... Big injuries: Masashi Urogataya (Major Concussion, 1 year), Timmy West (Major Concussion, 1 year), Masatochi Kamimura (Torn ACL, 1 year, surgery reduced the time to three moths), TBA Champions: Glory Crown: Kozue Kawashima V1 (Dethroned Ugaki at the start of the year. Was mostly out of big feuds for most of 2020 so is fresh in the title scene. Might be his last big run. Not 100% sure who's getting the belt next. Kitoaji is winning the Elite Series but losing to Kawashima. Might get back to Jimbo or maybe Kitoaji succeeds later. Ugaki/Kawashima was a definite disappointment with a 82 rating, since their Elite Series final just under a year earlier scored a 93) Glory Tag Crown: Yano & Kikuchi V2 (Now on their third run with the belts after a successful Elite Tag Series campaign. Lost the titles briefly to dream team of Jimbo and Yasuda (great chemistry, baby). This run will be shorter as The Ring Generals are getting back to the title scene. It was supposed to be Kobe/SATO but... I'll get to it. ) International: Danny Cavanagh V1 (SATO's reign was a success with eight defenses, but I felt it was time to move on. Cavanagh had been good all through the year and with West gone for a year, it was a perfect time to run with him for a bit.) Historical: Hirotsugu Satou V0 (Takano dropped the belt to Waldorf, who had a decent but not great reign. Now the Historical belt finds a new holder in Satou. A perfect young guy to have short midcard bangers for a while. I really needed to get the belt off the hands of my Stars, so Satou was a good choice.) Morale effects are rough. Even with multiple positive effects stacking (big wins, post-show speeches, times off) the one negative effect lingered on and just dropped from "annoyed" to "irritated." (The other people injured in early 2020 are still irritated one year later.) After eleven months, Kobe finally started showing signs of life. Performances in the 70s. Not always getting overshadowed by SATO, Glenn and Kobayashi. Banger of a title match against Ugaki. He's earmarked to win the tag titles with SATO in 2021. So NATURALLY he breaks his neck in a random tour match December. Out for a year and three months. See you in 2022... maybe?
  8. ...Wait, I guessed a block winner correctly? And there's a 50/50 chance (at best) that I'll guess the winner of the whole tournament right? Anywho, predictions: ELITE Tag Team Series Final Muruyama & Ugaki vs Yasuda & Takimoto I know that the puro trope would be to tie the wins for the year 1-1 with this... but I want to believe! (Takimoto also probably isn't good enough to be a Elite Tag Series winner... yet?) Rebel Run X vs KitoGuchi vs Akio & Kobe Junior heavyweight teams beating The Future of PGHW? No? Kozue Kawashima vs Avalanche Takano Takano is good, but a win over the biggest star in the company would come completely out of the blue here. Try again in a few years, kid. Black Iron Corps vs Kwakami & Sanda I have no faith in a Black Iron Corps upset after going 0-6 in the Elite Tag Series... it's gonna be an upset after I've wrote this, isn't it? SATO & Dojo Breakers vs Gonnohyoe Kada and Yano & Kikuchi Push THE ARCHITECT, dammit! Kada can eat the pin. PGHW Historical Japan Championship Hirotsugu Satou vs Tsurayuki Kamachi © A coin flip, really. Satou might be on the cusp of being a Historical level title holder and would fit the picture than Kamachi, being the younger of the two. William Hayes vs Dark Wing Juniors? No? Unless Hayes just got poached. Jack Marlowe vs Danny Cavanagh Cavanagh is the one getting a push, even if Marlowe would probably need some big wins to establish himself as an upper card threat. Marlowe still might get the W, since there has been a build towards a SATO title match.
  9. Inspired by Dynamite Sid's excellent PGHW diary, I have finally gotten a PGHW save off the ground. Six months in and I have had a blast. Some notes: - To prevent myself from running completely random six man tags every show, I created three stables to separate people from the home army, each cheesily playing off the name of the company. Warriors of PRIDE (led by Kawashima, featuring Kwakami, Sanda, Matsuki, Yoshikawa and Hayes) are the most heel-leaning of the bunch, group of veterans fighting for the things they consider elemental in PGHW. HONOR Bound (led by Ugaki, featuring Muruyama, Miyamoto, Takano and The Ring Generals) have split from the home army after disagreements with Jimbo. Death or GLORY (led by Kobe, featuring SATO, Reaver, Kobayashi and Tsumachi) try to "modernize" the company to more benefit high speed wrestlers like Kobe. - Speaking of Kobe... the former WLW star has been a total bum. Well, bum compared to performances I had expected from him. An injury suffered early in January is still tanking his morale and SATO and Kobayashi are often the better wrestlers on tour shows. He might show up for a big show, but lacks behind the true top stars. - Dean Waldorf has been a revelation. One half of The Ring Generals has been great, even challenging Jimbo for the Glory Crown, netting me my second best match thus far (91). - I made sure to avoid the inevitable BHOTWG raid and locked up key talent with Written deals. While it certainly doesn't help my financial situation, I can rest easy knowing that my young cornerstones won't leave the nest quite yet. Still lost Munakata and will lose Hayes in a couple of weeks, both expendable members. - I haven't gone haywire on the hiring side... I think. Shuga Amano and Yuta Isono were brought in to bolster the young lion group with three (bad) graduates joining the ranks later. Free agents Washi Heat, Azunamaro Shimizu (the bald GCG guy), Masashi Urogataya (the other bald GCG guy), BHOTWG departee Hiroyashu Gakusha and Orange Tsuchie have come in to bolster the midcard. Champions: Glory Crown: Masaru Ugaki (V1) (beat Jimbo after winning the Elite Series, the most cliche move of any 2020 PGHW save. He's great and will probably hold the belt for a while. The plan is to get the belt to Kitoaji next, probably in 2021. Glory Tag Crown: Yano & Kikuchi V6 (Have been great all year, but will drop the belts soon to get some fresh title matches. Are still headed towards Elite Tag Series as the clear winning candidates.) International: SATO V0 (Just defeated Miyamoto for the belt. SATO was dissappointing in the Elite Series but often a highlight in his tag matches. Gets his chance to showcase his talents in big singles matches for the rest of the year.) Historical: Avalanche Takano V7 (still reigning. His banger defenses have outranked some International title matches (highlighted by a whopping 78 rated defense against Tsuchie). Will also drop the belt soonish and probably will head to tag team ranks for the time being.)
  10. A Block: On paper the A Block looks to be the stronger of the two blocks. Three strong winner candidates (Beast & West, Muruyama & Ugaki and KitoGuchi) with a wildcard pick in Kobe & Akio. The question is, are we going the modern NJPW way (reigning champs not winning their block) or not. My pick to win the block is KitoGuchi. B Block: Not as strong as the A block, but still a really interesting looking lineup. Three topline teams with Ring Generals, Sanda & Kwakami and Kikuchi & Yano. Machine and Kawashima might be the wildcard here, but maybe a recent combination of two singles wrestlers won't succeed in a team tournament environment. Going for the wild block winners Yasuda & Takimoto. Final: It's time to crown new winners for the Elite Tag Series. KitoGuchi won't get to four wins, so Yasuda and Takimoto it is. The People's Champion has earned it!
  11. Well this is a rather intriguing card on the whole. To me a lot of these matches can really go either way... or maybe it's me overthinking things. It's also a bit risky to predict before the Tour results, but hey, I like to live on the edge. PGHW Glory Crown Danny Cavanagh vs Seiji Jimbo © Cavanagh might be getting the contract and the push of his career... but he's not the man. Yet. As your preview states, it's a big test for the big man. Can he really hang in a singles environment? If you can't hang, you don't carry the Glory Crown. Jack Marlowe vs Kozue Kawashima A match I'm a bit torn about. If you want to give Marlowe a big time push right out of the gate, the play is to put him over strong here and head to a future Glory Crown shot. But Kawashima is still the face of PGHW (even if Jimbo is the ace) and probably shouldn't be losing to the formerly "semi-comedic midcard act" right after vanquishing Ugaki. The Ring Generals vs BISON Yano & Brute Kikuchi A coin toss, really. I see the winners of this (or the KitoGuchi match) to be the next challengers for Beast & West. Generals outsmart the brute force of the big boys here and suffer a return loss at Elite Tag Series... or the other way around. PGHW International Championship SATO © vs Akinori Kwakami Now this is an interesting matchup. Kwakami is a really accomplished challenger, a great wrestler and might still be above the pecking order. But SATO might have something with this title run and it would be a shame to see it end here... unless he's already headed towards bigger things. PGHW Historical Japan Championship Gonnohyoe Kada vs Tsurayuki Kamachi © Kada might have been solid for you but... no. Kazushige Matsuki vs Akio William Hayes might be "expendable" to Akio, but I don't feel the same about Matsuki, who (hopefully) is one of your more solid in-ring guys. Can't give everything to these damn juniors right off the gate! Muruyama & Ugaki vs KitoGuchi Ukagi might talk about "rediscovering his self belief" but I have my doubts about his return to tag action. The road back to Glory Tag Crown and the Elite Tag Series doesn't start with beating the #1 team in PGHW. A devastating loss here either starts the road to redemption... or creates a divide between Ugaki and Muruyama. Stone Avalanche vs Yasuda & Takimoto I don't see Yasuda and Takimoto suffering two high profile tag losses in a row at marquee events. And yes, I know I just predicted Ugaki to suffer that exact fate. Hijo del Relampago, Azumamaro Kita & Mamoru Nagahama vs War Machine, William Hayes & Hirotsugu Satou Another hard to predict low card tag. Relampago and Kita should be getting wins... but Nagahama is by far the clearest loss post here. The previous tour he was on the losing side of every match not featuring young lions. The War Machine train keeps rolling, with added momentum for Satou.
  12. Seeing a PGHW dynasty pop up always reminds me that I really should start a save with them at some point. PGHW Glory Crown Magnum Kobe vs Seiji Jimbo © Jimbo has all the tools to be the ace and should be a major focus of any PGHW player. One of these guys just drew 30 000 butts in seats and the other... didn't. Masaru Ugaki vs Kozue Kawashima Kawashima winning looks like the play here, but I go for the draw option. PGHW Glory Tag Crown Beast & West © vs Yasuda & Takimoto With Cavanaugh seemingly getting a big main event push, that belt is coming off the Beast & West duo sooner rather than later. Yasuda and Takimoto seems like a good combo to do the giant-killing, with a big win over Ukagi & Maruyama under their belts. Akinori Kwakami vs Hijo Del Relampago A junior heavyweight? In PGHW? Time to pay your dues! PGHW Historical Japan Championship Avalanche Takano vs Tsurayuki Kamachi © Will Takano recapture the belt here? Maybe not? Throwing a wild curve ball of a guess that he is one half of Stone Avalanche (with Stone Yoshikawa, of course) so his immediate future might be in the tag scene. PGHW International Championship SATO © vs Noriyori Sanda SATO is one of the hopes for the (near) future of PGHW so it would be great to keep a title run going. Sanda might be a tag legend, but a International run at this point of his career would seem a bit weird. Akio vs William Hayes New blood gets established here... maybe? Bussho Makiguchi, Chojiro Kitoaji, Azumamaro Kita & Gonnohyoe Kada vs Dean Waldorf, Marv Statler, BISON Yano & Brute Kikuchi Ryoma Muruyama, War Machine and Hitomaru Suzuki vs Goemon Komiya, Mamoru Nagahama & Kazushige Matsuki Undercard tag matches are always a bit hard to predict, but my wild guesses go like this. KitoGuchi side has the star power, but also the clear loss post in Goda. On the opener, War Machine is the pushed commodity and will get the pin over the aging Nagahama.
×
×
  • Create New...