We're back for another episode of Wrestling Omakase, and this time around John is joined by three recent guests for the return of an old favorite: the Mid-Year Awards! We present our picks for the best & worst of Japanese wrestling so far in 2025 in a ton of Wrestling Observer-style year end awards, along with some analysis on how likely these winners are to stand as full year award contenders by the time 2025 comes to an end. John's guests include: Paul Volsch from the Emerald FlowShow (@EmeraldFlowShow on Twitter & Bsky), Velkej Bracha from the ActWres Stage podcast (here's their most recent episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqIHVjqO6_8), and Arametha! Together the four seasoned Japanese wrestling watchers break down the best and worst of the year of Japanese wrestling. But before they get into the actual awards, as a bonus we provide some breaking news audio on the major title change that happened earlier today (being purposefully vague in case anyone is trying to avoid spoilers on that very weirdly aired show!) as well as the news that Syuri is taking a hiatus from STARDOM and what that might mean for the upcoming 5STAR GP, among other things.
Then it's awards time, and here's a full list of all the categories we covered in the order they appeared on the episode:
-Best Rookie
-Best Tag Team
-Best Feud
-Most Improved
-Most Overrated/Overpushed
-Most Underrated/Underpushed
-Best Unit
-Worst Unit
-Best Major Show
-Worst Major Show
-Most Outstanding Wrestler (in ring only)
-Best Promotion
-Worst Promotion
-Match of the (Half) Year
-Worst Match of the (Half Year)
-Flair/Thesz Award (in ring + drawing, basically MVP)
For most of the best categories we each give a top 3, while we only give one pick each for the worst....mostly so we don't have to stew in negativity for very long, haha. So come hear all of our picks for the best & worst of Japanese wrestling halfway through 2025, as we discuss all the major promotions- NJPW, STARDOM, NOAH, AJPW, DDT, Dragongate, Marigold, Sendai Girls, and of course since Velkej is here we discuss Actwres Girlz as well! A packed show!
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