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

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.

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.

After having recently started following NJPW I was really interested in finding out some more of the history of the company that I might've missed. This book does a great great job of providing details for a lot of points in the NJPW history and getting an idea how the course that the company went through. Unexpectedly though, this book has become a terrific supplemental resource for the NJPW World streaming service. It has really helped me get the most out of the subscription and giving context to older wrestlers and matches that were a part of the history of NJPW that you might otherwise miss when you are only watching the most current events in NJPW.

So so good

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.

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 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.

The author tackles quite an ambitious project for one book- the history of the 2nd largest wrestling organization in the world- and one that hasn't been covered extensively by the American market. After reading the book, I received a fairly good overview of the history of New Japan and the major players. It was interesting to follow the peaks and valleys from afar. As the book covers so much subject matter, the emphasis on details can be a bit light. Just as you want to learn more, the author is on to the next subject. There is an awkward flow to the book, as a chronological chaper on history may be followed by a top ten list, touching upon many areas. It is important that this book is out there and the information is presented as accessible to even "rookies" to the world of NJPW. All but the most hardcore of NJPW fans will probably learn something- and the hardcore fans will probably enjoy the review. The author obviously loves the subject matter so kudos to him on this literary addition.

A must have for anyone interested or veteran of watching Japanese wrestling

If you’re interested in NJPW’s history it’s a pretty good read.

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.

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