Podcast
Wrestling Omakase
Hosted by Wrestling Omakase · EN
Omakase means, literally, "I'll leave it up to you". It's a term primarily used in modern Japanese in sushi restaurants, where you allow the chef to prepare their own personal favorites, leaving your meal completely in their hands. Wrestling Omakase, therefore, is a show where we place each episode into the hands of one or two passionate fans, from all across the wrestling spectrum. Our regular host John Carroll has over 20 years of diverse wrestling fandom to draw upon, and they will be joined by a revolving door of guests who will share their knowledge and passion for particular promotions or time periods. While our primary focus will be on modern Japanese wrestling, we will also at least touch on wrestling from all over the world, in addition to the occasional episode covering historical periods of various promotions. This is a journey with wrestling fans around the world, bringing you the promotions they know and love the best, and we hope you will join us!
This podcast is a member of the Voices of Wrestling Podcast Network.
Learn more about the Voices of Wrestling Podcast Network at voicesofwrestling.com.
32episodes
Episodes
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Wrestling Omakase #297: STARDOM Queens Dynasty, NJPW BOSJ Nights 4-7, Marigold Shine Forever & TJPW 5/22 Shinjuku w/ Arametha
1w ago04:07:11Tap to summarizeJohn is joined once again by Arametha, the man of many pronunciations, as they discuss mostly absolute nonsense for 45 minutes before finally getting into STARDOM's Queen Dynasty show! They break down another strong showing for the World Wonder Ring at the box office, a fun undercard, and then very notable first title defenses for Sayaka Kurara & Hanan! After that it's over to New Japan for continuing coverage of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, covering night 4 from Korakuen Hall (the final true dual block show for a while) before heading into single block nights from Osaka, Hyogo & Kyoto! Who's been standing out so far, and who's been disappointing?Then it's back to joshi with Marigold's Shine Forever, their annual anniversary show from Ota Ward Gym. We discuss a difficult time for the embattled young promotion due to a mix of injuries and departures, and talk about where they might be able to go from here. Finally, we wrap things up with Tokyo Joshi's 5/22 Shinjuku FACE show, a delightful little event on their road to their next Korakuen show next month.Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #296: NJPW BOSJ Nights 1-3 (5/14, 5/16 & 5/17), AJPW Champion Carnival Finals (5/17), STARDOM 5/17 & Marigold 5/16 Korakuens w/ Velkej
2w ago03:43:44Tap to summarizeJohn is back alongside returning guest Velkej Bracha as they open things up with the start of NJPW's annual Best of the Super Juniors tournament! They discuss all the tournament action from nights 1 through 3 all around Tokyo, breaking down which performances have been entertaining and which ones have been grating so far (and there's been plenty of both!). Then they head back to AJPW to wrap up their surprisingly good 2026 Champion Carnival, in front of one of their biggest crowds in years at Ota, before looking ahead to some big upcoming shows next month.Next up it's back to the World Wonder Ring, as John & Velkej discuss another solid Korakuen Hall show from STARDOM, celebrate the long-awaited return of the Artist six-woman belts (and talk a little about why they've been so important to the promotion historically), and then preview this coming weekend's Queen's Dynasty PPV from Aichi. Finally, they wrap up the episode with a review of Marigold's most recent Korakuen, including some surprisingly frank English commentary on everything surrounding Utami Hayashishita's departure, the promotion's current struggles but also the young talent we think can help them turn things around in the future. There's also a few very brief notes on NOAH's latest Korakuen, which we meant to review more in full but ran out of time this week.Follow Velkej on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Velkej_BrachaFollow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #295: NOAH 5/2 Ryogoku & 5/5 Korakuen, Marvelous 10th Anniversary Show, AJPW Champion Carnival Nights 8/9, Sendai Girls 5/10, King of DDT 2nd Round, ICE 5/10 & DG 5/8 w/ Chris & John
3w ago05:15:19Tap to summarizeJohn is back on the air for a special split episode! They start things out with returning guest Chris from Social Suplex, making his first appearance since the MOTY episode a few months back. After much complaining about broken phones and Apple bullshit they reminisce a little about being in Vegas for the Marvelous & West Coast shows, which is an excellent transition into the review of Marvelous' huge 10th Anniversary Show from Yokohama Buntai! They discuss a divisive main event and a ton of other huge matches. Then it's over to Sendai Girls for a typically low key but enjoyable 5/10 Shin Kiba show, featuring another great performance from Chihiro Hashimoto (but what else is new this year). To wrap up the joshi talk, John then goes solo to discuss the back half of Ice Ribbon's 5/10 show featuring a great world title match.Then John is joined by John Bivins, making his second straight appearance, as they cover all the men's wrestling together for the week. It starts out with Pro Wrestling NOAH, who we haven't covered in a while on this show and as it turns out for good reason, as they bury a mostly quite bad major show from Ryogoku, discuss a better effort from Korakuen Hall a few days later, and just generally talk about the current state of the once-proud green ring. Then it's back to AJPW to wrap up the Champion Carnival's last two block nights, which continued the trend of a quite enjoyable tournament. Speaking of enjoyable tournaments, it's the second round of the King of DDT from Shinjuku FACE! And finally, John goes solo again for a review of Dragongate's 5/8 Korakuen, as they talk the directions (and lack thereof) coming out of the big Nagoya event and some really weird booking in general, even if the show was mostly pretty good in ring wise. An absolutely packed show!---Social Suplex newsletter: https://www.socialsuplex.com/newsletter/John Bivins' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/punkrock.darkroast/Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #294: NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Nights 1 & 2, TJPW Yes! Wonderland, King of DDT 1st Round & AJPW Champion Carnival Night 7 w/ John Bivins
4w ago03:01:47Tap to summarizeThe John & John connection is back on the airwaves as John is once again joined by John Bivins to break down, well, fewer wrestling shows than they originally planned! John (Classic) is sorry for the bad mood they were in at the start of this podcast, but at least they cheered themselves up by accidentally doxxing someone! Which they edited out, don't worry. Anyway! NJPW put on two Wrestling Dontaku shows that weren't very good, and John & John take you through all of it. Then it's over to Tokyo Joshi for a Korakuen show that absolutely ruled, followed by the first round of the King of DDT tournament, which was also very good. Finally, it's Night 7 of AJPW's Champion Carnival from Tochigi, another good show in a surprisingly good tournament. Everything was pretty damn good here *except* for the King of Sports, actually!John Bivins' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/punkrock.darkroast/Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #293: STARDOM All Star Grand Queendom, NJPW Redzone in Hiroshima, DG Golden Colosseum, AJPW Champion Carnival Nights 4-6, Marigold 4/25 Korakuen w/ Paul
Apr 2905:07:04Tap to summarizeJohn is back on the air with Paul from the Emerald Flowshow for an absolutely jam packed episode! First, it's a long and detailed review of STARDOM's biggest show of the year, All Star Grand Queendom, which for the second year in a row did their biggest attendance in company history at the Yokohama Arena! They break down each and every match, all the major title changes and where things might be going heading into May, and a whole lot more! Then it's over to NJPW for Redzone in Hiroshima featuring two title matches, as well as a look ahead at next week's Wrestling Dontaku shows from Fukuoka. And the big shows aren't done yet, as we talk Dragongate trying to bounce back from a rough start to their year with Golden Colosseum from Nagoya, including the big six-way cage match that featured a unit disbanding.After that it's over to the land of All Japan for continuing coverage of the Champion Carnival tournament, covering nights 4 through 6 (4/23, 4/25 & 4/26). John and Paul break down why this tournament has been quite a bit better than last year's and review every tournament match. Finally, they wrap things up with Marigold's 4/25 Korakuen which featured a truly shocking announcement at the end of the show, but was a pretty damn good little show before that too! A fun show packed to the brim with pre-Golden Week festivities!Check out the Emerald FlowShow: https://redcircle.com/shows/the-emerald-flowshowFollow Wrestling Omakase's Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on Bluesky: http://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.social"Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #292: Wrestlemania Week Live Report (STARDOM, TJPW, Marvelous, DG, West Coast & More), All Star Grand Queendom Preview, AJPW Champion Carnival Nights 2/3 & SEAdLINNNG 4/17 Korakuen w/ Snazzy
Apr 2303:32:27Tap to summarizeJohn is back from Las Vegas where they only lost SOME money! Yeah!! They're joined by Eric aka Snazzy from the Joshi-ing Around podcast & Social Suplex newsletter, who is in fact about to leave for a big trip himself- Japan for ASGQ, Marvelous' 10th anniversary show and more! They talk a bit about that before transitioning to a long recap of John's entire Vegas trip, including reviews of eight different wrestling shows- many of them from Japanese promotions- and a ton of random anecdotes on just what things were like on the ground. Then John & Snazzy do a full preview of STARDOM's biggest show of the year from Yokohama Arena, discuss the chances of Sayaka Kurara actually winning the red belt, compare the show to last year on paper and more.After that it's time to talk about some shows that actually happened in Japan, starting with nights 2 & 3 of the AJPW Champion Carnival. John was apparently lower on some of this than consensus and shares some thoughts. Then they discuss SEAdLINNNG for maybe the first time ever on Omakase, as they break down their big Korakuen Hall show that featured two outstanding matches. Eric does a great job introducing their young roster if you'd like a good place to jump in, and the two of them discuss just how great the joshi scene is right now in general as well.Joshi-ing Around podcast: https://redcircle.com/shows/1309343e-3781-4750-9209-4efbc9976ab6Social Suplex newsletter: https://www.socialsuplex.com/newsletter/Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #291: AJPW Champion Carnival Night 1, STARDOM 4/8 & 4/11 Korakuens, Sendai Girl 4/12 Korakuen, GLEAT 4/8 Shinjuku FACE & TJPW 4/11 & 4/12 Vancouver w/ John DK
Apr 1402:53:13Tap to summarizeNo exploding tooth or sudden new job could keep these two Johns off the air! Your humble host is having a slightly harder time talking than usual, but they gut through it for YOU, THE LISTENER, as they break down a surprisingly strong opening night of AJPW's 2026 Champion Carnival! Plus, full reviews of two STARDOM Korakuens back to back as the road to Yokohama Arena (finally) heats up, an enormous Sendai Girls Korakuen with a crazy woman almost breaking her face, THE FINAL GLEAT REVIEW IN THE HISTORY OF THIS PODCAST (maybe), and finally, two perfectly fine little Tokyo Joshi shows from Vancouver.Check out John DK's website here: https://dk1105.neocities.org/Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #290: NJPW Sakura Genesis, STARDOM 3/31, DG 4/6 & DDT 4/5 Korakuens, Sendai Girls 3/27 & Universe Magic 4/6 w/ Hal & Arametha
Apr 804:47:37Tap to summarizeIt's another episode of Wrestling Omakase, but this time around with a bit of a split format twist! First, John is joined by debuting guest Hal to discuss a very eventful (and apparently very divisive) NJPW Sakura Genesis show from Ryogoku (plus the two junior title matches from Korakuen a couple days earlier)! Why are people so stupid? We'll sure tell you! Then, Arametha comes back on to talk STARDOM's 3/31 Korakuen (and a surprisingly "meh" feeling about the Yokohama Arena build this year), DG's 4/6 Korakuen (their best show in god only knows how long), DDT's 4/5 Korakuen (feat. the incredibly sad Higuchi retirement), Sendai Girls' 3/27 show from Sendai PIT (with an awesome Big Hash vs. Manami title match), and finally the Universe Magic 4/6 show from Shinjuku FACE. A loaded episode!John's appearance on the Flagship Patreon discussing the Japanese promotions/wrestlers appearing during Wrestlemania week (can access with just a free sub- no payment required): https://www.patreon.com/posts/wrestlemania-w-154766906Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #289: TJPW Grand Princess Review, NJPW Sakura Genesis Preview, Sareee-ism Chapter X & STARDOM New Blood 30 w/ Arametha
Apr 103:42:24Tap to summarizeArametha is back with John and (for maybe the first time ever??) we're actually leading off with Tokyo Joshi! Wow! It's a long, detailed review of TJPW's biggest show of the year, Grand Princess from Ryogoku Kokugikan, featuring a legitimate match of the year contender, three big title changes, Super Sentai fights, idol singers with swords and a whole lot more! Then it's over to NJPW for a full and detailed preview of this weekend's Sakura Genesis show, with lots of baseless speculation on where the return of Will Ospreay might be going from here. Afterward we go right back to joshi with a full review of the 3/22 Sareee-ism X show from Yokohama Budokan, breaking down a ton of interesting names from all over the joshi world. Finally, they wrap things up with STARDOM's New Blood 30 show from Shin Kiba 1st Ring, a great show that may have gone under the radar for you but definitely shouldn't have!Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribe →Wrestling Omakase #288: New Japan Cup Nights 10, 11 & Finals, DDT Judgement, AJPW 3/20 Hachioji & Tokyo Joshi Texas Tour w/ John Bivins
Mar 2404:43:38Tap to summarizeIt's another John & John episode! John Bivins is back as the two of them break down an outstanding end to the New Japan Cup, talking the final two quarterfinal matches from night 10, both semifinals from night 11, and then the entire final night including of course the tournament final itself. Lots of talk about NJPW's young generation really stepping up, Shota Umino maybe forcing people to take some Ls (including at least one John!) and more, plus a look ahead to what the rest of the year might look like. Then it's over to DDT to talk an equally outstanding Judgement show from Korakuen Hall, a very deep card that showed off their huge bounty of young talent. We also discuss the very sad news of Kazusada Higuchi's sudden retirement.Afterward we break down AJPW's Hachioji show from 3/20, a weird card featuring a Triple Crown title match and not a whole lot else. Finally, we wrap things up with some of the highlights from all four TJPW shows down in Texas, and then a full preview of next weekend's big Grand Princess show!John Bivins' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/punkrock.darkroast/Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wrestleomakaseFollow John on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/justoneenby.bsky.socialAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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