Updated Cancellations & Changes During State Of Emergency Including May Sumo Basho; Shameless Plug For Article About Keiji Muto On FanFyte
Some more updates on other promotions cancelling in light of the state of emergency, as well as an update about another form of wrestling in Japan:
The biggest news is that advance ticket sales for the May sumo basho, due to start on 5/9/2021 running until 5/23/2021, have been halted. This basho, like every other one since lockdown started last year, will be at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan. The Sumo Association has held several bashos as empty-arena, and they will likely do that in this case, at least untl the current state of emergency ends on 5/15/2021. As I keep reiterating, this could get extended. If nothing else, this might stop creepy sumo fans posting about a certain fan in the audience. And if you don’t know whom or what I am referring to, you’re better off.
GAEAISM, a revival of the mid-1990s joshi promotion GAEA Japan by Chigusa Nagayo, has postponed its show on this Thursday 4/29/2021 at Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium. No word as to any rescheduling or ticket refund information on that as yet.
Pro Wrestling ZERO-1 has cancelled its show on 5/8/2021 in Kumamoto, which has declared its own state of emergency outside of the government’s. ZERO-1 is heading for its own tournament, the Fire Festival, and there may be some disruption to it as well. Between them, AJPW and BJW, not a good year to run a tournament so far it would seem.
More news when I get it.
Meanwhile, I’ve now debuted as a pro writer about pro wrestling. FanFyte has an article written by me ostensibly about Keiji Muto’s extraordinary 2001, and how it compares to his 2021 so far. It’s a topic I’ve thought a lot about over the years (I was trying to do this initially as a comic strip for a long time and never got it off the ground), and to be a new, PAID writer about wrestling, talking about my favorite year of my favorite wrestler of all time was something special, after having written about puroresu on the interwebz off and on since 1998 for free. My thanks to Colette Arrand of FanFyte for giving me the opportunity, and I’m hoping to do more for them.
In addition, it’s been fun writing about puroresu other than New Japan for once. Sure, this blog is ostensibly a NJPW blog (and trust me, the article talks a fair bit about historical NJPW!), but it isn’t all I watch, especially since 2021 has rolled around, and I’ve been trying to see more again besides NJPW and AEW. NOAH and Dragon Gate have been part of my viewing habits lately, for example. After 5+ years of concentrating on NJPW, maybe I’m just eager to branch out a bit.
If I ever get to do more of this sort of writing, I’ll be sure to let you all know. And thank you if you’ve read it!
