MY FAVOURITE MATCH OF RIGHT NOW: DEVITT V. IBUSHI - IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Maybe you haven't watched Japanese wrestling in a while. Maybe you never have. Maybe you don't know who Kota Ibushi and Prince Devitt are. Maybe you are among those that believe that puroesu doesn't have enough "storytelling or "psychology" or "selling" or other words you don't fully understand the meaning of. Maybe you're an idiot.

Or maybe you're just a fan of wrestling who wants to see a fun match between two of the most athletically gifted, fresh, young professional wrestlers in the world today because hey, wrestling is fun to watch.

If you aren't familiar with Japanese wrestling (have no fear, my knowledge of puro is very limited), these two guys are fighting for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, a belt that's been held by some of the greatest North American wrestlers of all-time, such as Owen Hart, Chris Benoit and Low Ki - so you can tell that Devitt (and Ibushi for that matter) are among pretty elite company.

It had been a while since I'd watched anything from Japan. This was a great reintroduction.

Feel free to skip the opening video package, but I found that to be pretty awesome to watch too.

NJPW "WRESTLE KINGDOM V" IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

PRINCE DEVITT (C) V. KOTA IBUSHI - 01/04/11

MY FAVOURITE MATCH OF RIGHT NOW: KINGS OF WRESTLING V. TAKAYAMA/ SANO

Normally I leave the puro stuff to my buddy Steve over at Burning Spirit, but since he's taken an indefinite leave of absence from blogging about Japanese wrestling in a non-elitist "KENTA sucks because he doesn't sell DERP" kind of way, I'm going to take the reins on this one.

I just finished watching Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli pretty much DOMINATE the GHC Tag Champs for three quarters of this match. There are a ton of highlights, from a running, diving, corner moonsault from Hero, to pretty much every exchange between Takayama and Claudio (that Ricola bomb will give you a hernia just from watching it - and don't even get me started on the knee Claudio takes to the stomach. I barfed.).

Even if you're strictly a fan of North American style wrestling, or just WWE, or even just TNA (those people can't exist for real, can they) you should give this match a peek and see what you're missing.

GHC HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

KINGS OF WRESTLING V. YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA & TAKUMA SANO

MY FAVOURITE MATCH OF RIGHT NOW: FLAIR V. STEAMBOAT - CHI-TOWN RUMBLE '89

I just watched this one again a couple nights ago and HOLY DAMNIT does it ever hold up as being one of the greatest of all time. The crowd is hot as blazes, the wrestling is perfect (obvs) and I just love the overall presentation and style of it all, mainly because it looks like a sport.

If you have this on DVD (Rise and Fall of WCW + I could've sworn it was on the Ultimate Ric Flair Collection, but it's got their WrestleWar '89 match, also one of the greatest) you should definitely put it on and give it another go.

If not, here's the match in it's entirety:

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP - CHI-TOWN RUMBLE '89

"NATURE BOY" RIC FLAIR VS. RICKY "THE DRAGON" STEAMBOAT