So I've seen a ton of hype for promotions like Stardom and TJPW, mostly on Twitter. Not even in the "this stuff is really good and you should watch it" kind of way, but flat out saying it's the best wrestling in the world right now, saying everything else is garbage, if you don't agree you're a moron who doesn't get wrestling or you have problems with Japanese women. And I see all these joshi wrestlers and promotions have insanely high ratings on Cagematch relative to the stuff I know I enjoy, so it just gets me wondering, you know? Being an open minded wrestling fan (I can name matches/shows I've loved from basically every mainstream promotion right now) who has enjoyed what I've seen from the joshi performers that WWE and AEW bring in, I decided I'd give them a shot. Nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

Well it didn't exactly work out for me. The wrestlers are certainly great in the ring, no doubt, but I can see great wrestlers anywhere. I just couldn't get invested in their characters, because they either didn't exist or they leaned too hard into the cutesy idol stuff that I'm just not a fan of. The in ring style didn't really grab me either although I can acknowledge that the performers are very skilled. Not saying that anything I watched was horrible, not at all, but it definitely didn't leave me with the impression of wanting to watch more. Maybe I'd enjoy these performers more with a different style of booking, or if the product surrounding them was more appealing to me.