Lion's Pride: The Turbulent History of New Japan Pro Wrestling

I started following NJPW this past January when I became hooked by Okada-Omega at Wrestle Kingdom. As my fandom has grown over the past year, I've found myself searching for old matches on NJPW World and reading Wiki pages for any and all wrestlers.Chris' book, which I discovered after stumbling upon his Twitter account, is an incredible summation of the history of the company. Anything you need to know about every aspect of the company, why and how it's constructed as you see in the present, is answered.If you're a NJPW fan looking to learn more about the company, I could not recommend it highly enough.

Lion's Pride is the story of New Japan Pro Wrestling.As with a lot of guys my age who were wrestling fans during the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese wrestling always held some mystique. I didn't see a single Japanese wrestling match until the dawn of the internet made it much easier to get tapes and such. Lion's Pride lifts the veil and reveals the inner workings of one of Japan's biggest wrestling organizations.As with all talk of Japanese wrestling, the book starts with Rikidozan and the Japanese Wrestling Association. From there, it follows the career of Antonio Inoki and his formation of New Japan. The many exoduses of talent are covered and New Japans ups and downs are many. Antonio Inoki, like many owner-wrestlers, booked himself over the rest of the talent time and time again. It's a wonder New Japan survived long enough for him to retire.The book talked a lot of the creation of stars like Tatsumi Fujinami and Riki Choshu in the 1980s, Keiji Muto, Masa Chono, and Shinya Hashimoto in the 1990s, and Tanahashi and others for the new millennium. The book concludes in 2015, with the rise of Bullet Club and the launch of New Japan's streaming service.Lion's Pride was really informative, highlighting some backstage stuff I wasn't privy to and expanding on a lot of things I'd only read about on Wikipedia. The writing was pretty good for a book of this type. I did think the organization was a little weird, deviating from the main narrative to talk about completely unrelated things. For the most part, however, the book did what it set out to do.

I started getting into NJPW in 2017 when they really began their westward push to try and grab the America market. It was an incredible program, way different from the Pro Wrestling I grew up on. After watching for the last few years I became very passionate about the promotion.Over the years I felt like something was missing when I watched the promotion, and this book really helped fill in the gaps.The company's history is almost as fascinating as it's matches.

I’m an American who has always loved wrestling. I discovered Japanese wrestling in the early 90s and was hook. US wrestling just seemed so lame afterwards. Unfortunately tape trading was often frustrating and expensive, so I never got to watch as much as I would like until NJPW World came along. This book fills in a lot of the gaps I had in my NJPW knowledge and points out so,e banger matches to watch. Definitely worth a buy.

Page 50 - "(Inoki) would reemege to no small amount of controversy." Why? Is this referring to reality or kayfabe? Why was his return controversial? Did word get out he was traveling abroad? What happened?I'm loving it so far otherwise and will update this later, but that was a big "Unpack that" moment for me. Like, this sounds fascinating, but the story seems to have been placed on the cutting room floor.I recently read Ganbaru, and it was another book that was very educational and frustrating in this way. It seems to be slowly building to the split from AJPW, but instead, it just kind of, out of nowhere, says "And then one day, the top two stars left because they were not close with the new owner." Why? How long was this planned? Was there an inciting moment that caused the split? How about one that caused the initial fall-out? Have people not talked about it? If so, have they been asked why? Is it a cultural issue, and if so, what are the cultural norms that have led to this silence? Are there other instances of this occuring in Japanese wrestling history?Like, the questions seem obvious, but they were just walked away from without explanation or comment.Now don't get me wrong - I could make a list thrice as long about why I'm enjoying this book so far, but that was a record scratch for me. If anyone has the answer, I'd really love to hear it.

This book might be one of the easiest and funest reads I have had in a long time. Once I picked uo the book it was hard to out down. The author does a great job at telling the history of NJPW. As a new comer to NJPW I found this book very helpful. I recommend this to anyone looking to get into New Japan or any fan of wrestling in general. I love this book.

This is an excellent book for anyone wanting to know the deep history of wrestling in Japan, especially on the development of New Japan Pro Wrestling. The author does a great job laying the groundwork for what led to today's product. Without spoiling the book, there is attention given to failed experiments in the product, the positives and negatives of Antonio Inoki's approach as leader of the company, the various periods of success and failure of the company in general, and detail of information about the stars of the promotion (such as Inoki, Liger, Chono, Nakamura, Tanahashi, and many others). If you are a wrestling fan or are intrigued by the business practices that make or break a company, this is a great book. I just pre-ordered Charlton's new book Eggshells because of how great this book is.

Amazing ítem, Great Delivery

A great well researched read, I've followed this wrestling organization since the early 90's but the author shone a light on events and stories behind the scenes that were interesting and eye opening. From its inception and hey days of the 60's and 70's too the industry influencing 90's to its near collapse and sale, to a rise from ashes in a digital age, everything is here for the hardcore fan or someone with an interest in Japanese pro wrestling. I highly recommend this book.

After literally hundreds of books on the US wrestling scene there's finally a great history of New Japan. Bringing terrific insight as well as detailed history and what must have been exhaustive research, the author has captured perfectly the essence of what made NJPW so great in its first couple of decades before the slump in the early 2000s. With Japan again on the ascendant, let's hope the author can turn his hand and bring us equally good books on All Japan and the dominant women's era of the 90s. Terrific - highly recommended and a great purchase.

Wonderful job. The great history of NJPW was described in every detail. A MUST for every die-hard fan of the King of Sports

Compact, resourceful report on New Japan Pro Wrestling's tormented story that is a nice addition for puroresu enthusiasts.