It's 30 years since the monumental Big Egg Wrestling Universe show at the Tokyo Dome, so it's time for Statto, Sarah and David to do a little retrospective. In this special bonus episode, the trio look back at the show and their painstaking deep dive podcast about it, revisit the debate about whether a modern-day joshi show at the Dome is possible …

The crew have been off on their travels again, and that means it's time for another PPP Holiday Special! David and Statto are joined by returning guest Sarah Parkin for a rundown of their recent sojourns abroad. Find out what happened when David went to Las Vegas, risked it all ($80) with the high rollers and ate the worst fish and chips of his lif…

After a hiatus that has been described as "extended even for us", the PPP is back! David and Statto are here to kick off a new multi-part series looking at the impact on the Japanese pro wrestling industry of possibly the greatest grappling dynasty of all time: the Funks!Kirjoittanut The Puro Pourri Podcast

It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid. At Christmas time, we let in the most demented wrestling audio of 2023. The PPP boys are here to bring you a solid hit of black tar festive cheer, as we answer your fan questions, look back on the last twelve months, pay tribute to one of the greats, once again lay bare our complete lack of contemp…

The long-awaited sequel to our most self-indulgent and mystifyingly well-liked episode ever is finally here! Statto and Sarah talk about their recent trip to Japan, where they took in live shows by Prominence, DIANA, Gatoh Move and TJPW. Hear how Sarah was so eager to meet one of her heroes that she spent £35 on a towel, Statto accidentally told Ch…

The Big Egg has hatched. In the final episode of Big Egg Podcasting Universe David, Sarah and George reflect on the legacy and influence of the biggest women’s wrestling show ever and ask whether it could ever happen again. And because we had to make it weird, each host and some very committed listeners share their own dream match card for a Big Eg…

It’s here, folks. We’ve seen idols, rookies, minis, shootboxers, interpromotional political shenanigans and some all-time classic matches. And here we are, with our final three matches from Big Egg Wrestling Universe. Join David, George and Sarah to run through three very different matches which collectively achieve what we thought impossible: maki…

David and George welcome back special guest Zoë Boyd, who has been cursed by a malevolent transphobic god to come on this podcast once per year and talk about some of the worst MMA of all time. In this edition, we talk about a couple of occasions upon which combat athletes from the former USSR were brought in to face pro wrestlers in mixed martial …

God made the Devil just for fun. When he wanted the real thing, he made Aja Kong the WWWA Champion for three years and put her in the V*TOP tournament. David, Sarah and George are rounding out the first round of the tournament with JWP’s Dynamite Kansai taking on homegrown Kyoko Inoue, and the small matter of Manami Toyota taking on Kong in one of …

You heard about the shootboxing, the minis, the rookies, the juniors. Now, after a lengthy hiatus, David, Sarah and George are back to dive into the main draw of Big Egg Wrestling Universe: the 8-woman V*TOP tournament. Featuring Yumiko Hotta’s ill-advised return to MMA against Gabi Garcia, the soothing properties of Eagle Sawai’s feathers, Combat …

Tanahashi vs. Okada. Nakamura vs. Sakuraba. Inoki vs. Vader. Fuyuki vs. Anjo. These are just some of the classic contests that have graced January 4th, that most hallowed day in the puroresu calendar. Having decided to finally give up on the pretence that they might actually watch NJPW Wrestle Kingdom (don't worry, we're still reviewing the Rambo!)…

It's December, and you know what that means! Warm your toes by the fire and luxuriate in the warm glow of the Christmas special critics are calling "reprehensible even by your standards". We'll answer our fans' questions (which are just as demented as ever), reflect upon the very normal year 2022 has been, and visit the beautiful progressive city o…

Having dispensed with NJPW and UWFI's dealings with the now-former Soviet Union, the PPP crew turn their attention to the adventures of Eastern Bloc combat athletes in two other Japanese wrestling companies: FMW and RINGS. Marvel in wonder as David finally gets to wax lyrical about carny par excellence Atsushi Onita, a fascist gets kicked, one of t…

We couldn’t get through it without them, could we? In the cooldown spot just before we get into the main event that is the V*TOP tournament, we appropriately position the people that everyone has forgotten from Big Egg. No, not the shootboxers - the blokes. Why did men’s wrestling promotion Michinoku Pro get a showcase match at the biggest joshi sh…

We're back in the USSR! Fresh off the heels of their special on the Tokyo Dome show featuring Comrades Hashimikov, Zangiev, Berkovich et al., the boys now take a look at what the Red Bull Army did next. We kick off with NJPW's 1989 New Year's Eve extravaganza in Moscow (yes, really), before getting our teeth into what happened when those Soviet sho…

2022 is upon us, sure to be a year of magic and wonder like its predeccesors, and what better way to ring in the new year than with the PPP's takes on the traditional big January 4th wrestling show in the great city of Tokyo? Special guest Luke Healey (@oystersearrings) joins David and Statto for the second year in a row to run the rule over the pr…

Ho ho ho and a bottle of eggnog, and welcome to the PPP's annual festive extravaganza! Warm your toes by the fire as the boys once again answer your questions, Statto and David give the Faroe Islands Tourist Board the most comprehensive free advertising they will ever get, some more gasoline is poured on the embers of BritWres, puro-themed Christma…

Children are deadly creatures that should be avoided at all costs. This, we feel, is the key lesson from our latest episode, in which we look at the history of junior championships. Candy Okutsu and Rie Tamada lead Sarah, David and George to discussing their favourite violent joshi children, the endless potential of exciting rookies, and you’d bett…

здороваться, comrades! Those PPP boys are back with the first of a new multi-part series. In this episode we look at how a slew of Soviet amateur wrestlers ended up working New Japan's inaugural Tokyo Dome show in 1989: a group of men who paved the way for future grapplers from what would soon become the former USSR to make their mark in puro. Let …

Vincent Kennedy McMahon gets everywhere. Returning hero Bull Nakano and America’s sweetheart Alundra Blayze squared off for the WWF Women’s Championship in one of Big Egg Wrestling Universe’s more spectacular matches. David, Sarah and George take a look in the context of a broader feud that played out in multiple promotions on two continents for ne…

Zoë Boyd is back to help Sarah, George and David get to grips with the last two shoot fights from Big Egg Wrestling Universe. Listen for Japanese TV networks cancelling kickboxing for the sake of national pride, a desperate attempt to figure out what the hell is going on in shootboxing, and Anderson Silva’s “sock full of paté”.We don’t really get t…

Sarah, David and George are back to pick up where we left off examining Big Egg Wrestling Universe, with special guest martial arts fan Zoë Boyd. While you might think the title of this episode describes our approach to podcasting in general, it’s actually a tribute to one of the odder aspects of the Big Egg card - showcasing amateur wrestling in a…

David and George are joined by comrade Luke Healey to do the now traditional rundown of the big January 4th show we all know and love. It's the biggest day in the puro calendar, so sit back, relax as the guys give their views on a truly momentous event for everyone concerned.Kirjoittanut The Puro Pourri Podcast

Coming in too late for Christmas but just in time for Epiphany (that's what we get for sending it via Hermes), it's the belated 2020 PPP festive extravaganza! Join Daniel, David and a mojito-guzzling Statto as they answer fan questions, play some fun and now very much unseasonal Christmas games, take another trip to the wonderful world of Chinese w…

Welcome, one and all, to the Puro Pourri Podcast Black Friday Special - midnight opening, everything must go, and we have a limited time-only 3-for-2 deal on obscure Scottish football tangents. Join the lads for a look back at a 1995 show called Kendo Nagasaki's (no, not that one) Vale Tudo in Shotengai, in which the Big Japan roster do their bit f…

If you’re calling yourself Cuty Suzuki, you’d better be adorable as hell. Fortunately, she was, and a star was born. Joshi wrestlers have been developing ‘idol’ personas to cultivate their following for decades, and pro wrestling uses all sorts of other pop culture to build mainstream appeal. Episode 6 sees David, George and Sarah try to figure out…

In another edition of Match Microscope, the boys finally get to talking about the contest that is, in a roundabout way, responsible for the podcast's very existence (in that Statto and an extremely steaming Daniel bonded over it at a RevPro show back in 2015). Anti-Aging Hero Yuji Nagata takes on Akira Taue, "the ultimate mobile tree man" (copyrigh…

The Shoot. The Incident. The Split. If you love drama as much as we do, welcome to the episode where David, George and Sarah finally cover the messy history of Jackie Sato, Shinobu Kandori and the birth of LLPW from JWP. We also get to rave about some of the most violent matches on the card at Big Egg Wrestling Universe and compare Kandori’s hair w…

Episode IV: A New HopeA long time ago in a wrestling promotion far, far away, Chigusa Nagayo had to retire. She did not approve, and a few months before Big Egg Wrestling Universe she announced a company of her own that would eventually become the next big player in joshi. Welcome to GAEA, whose first few signees are in the early matches that David…

You’ve been waiting for two whole episodes now; finally, some wrestling. We start our deep dive into every match at Big Egg Wrestling Universe with some of the biggest drawing stars in Japanese history - Chigusa Nagayo, Lioness Asuka and Jaguar Yokota were some of the biggest names of the 1980s, and they all made a comeback in November 1994. Meanwh…

A show like Big Egg Wrestling Universe takes a lot of build-up and demands some pomp and ceremony, so here we are, with David, George and Sarah bringing the pomp as we talk about the opening ceremony. Like London 2012, but with less Brunel and more Bull Nakano.Find our sources, match recommendations and more in the show notes: http://www.imaintaint…

Look everyone, it’s another wrestling podcast! Sarah Parkin joins George and David for a special limited series focusing on Big Egg Wrestling Universe, the legendary all-day joshi extravaganza from November 1994. This first instalment whizzes through the story of Japanese women’s wrestling and traces the Road To Big Egg, where more than 30,000 peop…

George "Statto" Thompson: Vocals, Ukulele, Mandolin, PennywhistleKirjoittanut The Puro Pourri Podcast

Come one, come all and step right up to try your hand at the Puro Pourri Podcast's Big Puro Quiz. Join your fiendish quizmaster George "Statman's World" Thompson as he puts David and Daniel through their paces over five wild and wacky rounds. Give the old grey matter a workout worthy of the AJW dojo by playing along at home, or simply just listen a…

In the first of what will hopefully be a long-running series of interviews with luminaries of the grappling scene, mat maestro Daniel Makabe, in a chat recorded just before this year's Wrestlemania weekend, takes us through a hand-picked mixtape of his favourite puro matches, and tells us how they influenced his career and his thinking. With a dive…

George, Daniel (at least for the first half before having to attend to his new cats) and David turn their keen yet jaundiced eyes to WWE's annual extravaganza of grappling, glitz and godawful booking in the Triple P's Wrestlemania 36 special. It's a dizzying spiral of boneyards and bollocks as the lads debate who did more to earn a tag title shot o…

In these tough times, the good old Triple P is stepping up to the penalty spot, ready to ripple the back of your net with a Julian Dicks-style volley of content over the coming weeks. First up on the docket is an unreleased pilot from David’s in-stasis project Purotrash with Grand Exalted Viceroy of Channel Islands World Wrestling, Patrick W Reed (…

Join your host David Forrest for some highbrow literary chat as he introduces his guest George Twigg (who is in no way related to George Thompson of this podcast) to discuss his novel "The Rise and Fall of Rikidozan". In this, interview recorded last year and released now in its entirety for the first time, the author gives some insight into his cr…

Kirjoittanut The Puro Pourri Podcast

Kirjoittanut The Puro Pourri Podcast

Kirjoittanut The Puro Pourri Podcast

In this special bonus episode, George and David discuss last month's respective trips to New York and Tokyo, and recount the many wrestling shows they took in while abroad. Join your guides on an open-top bus tour that takes in Statto's incredibly unwise decision to go from JFK Airport straight to a Smackdown taping, lucha libre at MSG, David's ven…

Greetings grapple fans! In this episode, David and George (sans Daniel, who is off crowdfunding for his proposed 50-foot statue of Nicky Weaver) take a hiatus from the Match Microscope series to bring the first in a special two-part look at Japanese wrestlers in British wrestling. This edition covers three matches from the World of Sport era, in wh…

Join David and Statto for a special episode commemorating the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest wrestling matches of all time; the peerless pacing, the titanic strikes, the huge bumps, all of it. It's 06/03/94, what else can you say?Kirjoittanut The Puro Pourri Podcast

The boys are back for the first in a trio of Match Microscope episodes, our (relatively) quick and snappy deep dives into famous puro matches. First up, we discuss the legendary 1984 NWA title match between horse-faced hunk Kerry Von Erich and notorious country music mogul "Colonel" Jumbo Tsuruta, which sees Daniel, David and Statto cover a horrend…

Join Superstar DJ Rex Haberdasher (definitely not Statto doing a bad 1950s American accent) for a rundown of ten of the best CD singles ever released by pro wrestlers working in Japan. From J-Pop on acid to an Elvis cover to an MMA star's dope flows to about half a dozen songs that sound like 70s cop show themes, and a weirdly high amount of synth …

The tea is not so much cold as absolute zero, but you don't listen to this podcast for the timeliness of the things we cover, do you? And if you do, we really hope you at least got something out of that episode where we reviewed Nick Bockwinkel vs. Billy Robinson. Join George, Daniel and David as they spit their vitriol and spurt their sweet balm o…

NOTE: At present this is a rough cut of the audio, a refined version will be going live within the next few days. Listen at your own risk! (Although we could say that about any of our episodes to be honest.)It's the most wonderful time of the year, the ladgter is very much in the offing, and it's time once again for the Puro Pourri Podcast to celeb…

When a Michinoku Pro match involving The Undertaker isn't even the weirdest thing covered in an episode, you know we're in for some fun. The hosts conclude their side-eyed look at Hulkamania-era WWF wrestlers in Japan with a vast smorgasbord of delights including Hacksaw Jim Duggan embarking upon the worst reading of an audience since Michael Richa…

It's about to come crashing down, and by gum I believe it's about to hurt inside. In the first of a two-parter, the hosts finally leave PRIDE behind and dive into an underappreciated but very interesting aspect of the Hulkamania era - what its biggest stars were getting up to in Japan. Just like his best friend's wife, you'll have to wait for the H…