Battle In The Valley 2025

Hello everyone!

 

Coming off an amazing and memorable weekend of wrestling whether it was in Japan or America or anywhere else, 2025 has started out with a bang.

 

A couple of years ago, after a Battle In The Valley show in San Jose, California, this blogger thought about not ever attending another NJPW show.

 

It wasn't because the show was bad....actually, it was pretty good.

 

The problem was with NJPW officials.  I took some photos from the rafters of the San Jose Civic Auditorium and was not only harassed by NJPW officials, but was escorted out of the building.  They thought I was taking videos though I proved to them it wasn't.

 

Well, it's about two years later.  San Jose is very fortunate to have two wrestling shows in the next week.

 

On Monday, January 13th, WWE RAW will take place at the SAP Center.  It will be the second RAW that will be on Netflix.

 

On Saturday (this coming), I just secured a ticket for New Japan Pro Wrestling's Battle In The Valley.  It will be my first wrestling show since last August when I attended the first PUSO Wrestling show in Quezon City, Philippines.

 

When this blogger saw who was appearing on the show, the decision to go to this event was a lot easier.  Here is the show lineup.....

 

Gabe Kidd (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the Strong Openweight Championship.

Zach Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero.

West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) (c) vs. Roppongi Revice (Rocky Romero & ROH) for the Strong Openweight Championship.

Sumai Sakai Retirement Match featuring Team Sakai (Sumai Sakai, Evil and SHO) vs. Team Hiromu (Hiromu Takahashi, Mayu Iwatani and Yuka Sakazaki).

TDMK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) vs. Fred Rosser & Matt Vandagriff.

 

I'm told that the Main Event has yet to be announced with a few days to go until the show.  Could we possibly see an appearance by Kazuchika Okada or Will Ospreay?  Their battle a couple of years ago was one of the best matches I've eve seen!

 

Looking forward to seeing ZSJ again (2018 was the last time at the G1 Special).

 

I'll have a recap on my blog within 24 hours after the show.

Hammerlock Pure Wrestling

Some of you are wondering about the title of this post, Hammerlock Pure Wrestling.

 

Certainly, it's not a Southeast Asia wrestling promotion.  It's not in Australia either.  It happens to be in Ontario, Canada, northeast of where this blogger lives.

 

Though this blogger focuses on Southeast Asia, Asia and Australia wrestling, I wanted to share something new.   Here is what is leading to this post.

 

Back in December 2022, I attended my first wrestling show in Southeast Asia and in the Philippines.  The show was called Noche Buena that was promoted by the Manila Wrestling Federation.

 

One of the wrestlers in the show, Ken Warren, would win back the SETUP Thailand 24/7 wrestling championship in a handicap match in which he defeated three wrestlers.

 

After the show, along with future Filipino Pro Wrestling's LegenDarius, we had the opportunity to meet Ken following a post show press conference.  

 

Ken was not only gracious and professional, but spent time with both of us.  We talked about pro wrestling both on the major scale and independent levels.  Also, we talked about the Philippines great beaches.  It was a memorable moment since he was only the second pro wrestler to AWA legend, Nick Bockwinkel that I met.

 

Early in 2023, Ken decided to move to Canada and over time, would begin wrestling in a North American promotion called Hammerlock Pure Wrestling.  The promotion is based out of London, Ontario.  If you look at a map, the city is nearly between Detroit, Michigan and Toronto, Ontario, two major metropolitan areas.  

 

Hammerlock Pure Wrestling was founded in 2022 with their first show, a year later in February 2023.  Looking at Cagematch, Ken wrestled in his first Hammerlock show in November.

 

As I was preparing to do this, Ken has done a couple of promos.  What I found was the fact that he did wrestle for three promotions in 2024.

 

I'm going to share the latest promo that he did which is the link below.  In the meantime, all the best to Ken in his future endeavors in North America.  I'll post any of his future shows on this blog.

 

   https://fb.watch/wWNAAGdQDj/

Dexcon / WUW Philippines Announcement

Hello everyone!

 

Dexcon and World Underground Wrestling - Philippines have just announced two shows this coming spring.

 

The Dexcon event, DXCN Wrestlestorm 2 will take place on Sunday, March 16th.

 

A few weeks later, on Saturday, April 5th, WUW Philippines will host an event, Master Clash.

 

Both shows will take place at the Brawl Pit Bulusan in Quezon City, Philippines.

 

Details regarding both shows will be happening in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, please visit both the Dexcon and World Underground Wrestling Philippines - WUW Philippines Facebook pages.  Both pages will have information on the show and tickets.  Thank you.   

New Taiwan Wrestling First Show

Haven't written about New Taiwan Wrestling in a little while.  

 

NTW will be hosting their first pro wrestling show in 2025 on Saturday, January 25th.  The venue is the  Zhongguang Dojo :No. 20, Lane 20, Sec. 1, Xingren Road, Zhongli District, Taoyuan City (A 5-minute walk from Neiang Railway Station).  The doors will open at 1:30pm with the first match at 2pm.

 

This blogger will have more information on future matches in the days to come.

 

For more information, including tickets, please visit the NTW Facebook page.  New Taiwan Wrestling can also be found on Facebook.  Thank you.