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NJPW tamashii lion's den: hybrid edition review

bad luck fale is back in new zealand so i finally went to watch a fale dojo lion's den event!

i was mostly looking forward to the initial lineup, which had local tiktokers included in a tag team match with the pretty boys against fale and nikolai anton bell. i don't give a fuck about tiktok but i figured their presence meant there'd be a decently large audience (i heard prior that some lion's den events only get 10 attendees).

i hadn't watched the pretty boys before, but their appearance intrigued me— especially pretty richie, who has a great smile and wears signature tiny sunglasses that leaves for very memorable visuals. i watched nikolai anton bell in last month's hughes academy match and found him to be a super fun heel with a distinctive face that stands out. of course, fale is the international superstar who i wanted to see the most!

anyway i found out before the day of the event that the tiktokers wouldn't be there, half of the pretty boys wouldn't there, and that it was now also a boxing event.

it seems that in addition to being one of three official NJPW dojos in the world, fale dojo hosts the youth boxing school desire 4 greatness, run by former K-1 and MMA champion fighter sigi pesaleli.

i don't have anything against watching legitimate boxing in a wrestling event. it's just funny to bill it as a hybrid edition when the last lion's den event was also a D4G crossover event!

fale dojo is a two-story building located on the cusp of otahuhu's industrial zone. the exterior is decorated with a spraypainted image of the bullet club and there's two small signs that mention it's "the only official NJPW-affiliated dojo in the world", but aside from that, you wouldn't be able to tell that it's related to one of biggest wrestling promotions internationally.

inside, the first floor is around 6×15m, with the stage taking up a little under half of the space and the seats/walkway taking up the other. because of the space, everyone was seated on one end of the stage.

the audience turnout was really good— probably around 60 people. however, 90% of the attendees were definitely just family members visiting for D4G rather than the lion's den event. additionally, because fale dojo is in otahuhu, the audience demographic was completely different from other pro wrestling events in auckland (despite venues only being a 15-minute difference by car). but again, most of the audience wasn't there for the pro wrestling to begin with.

the match lineup was like so:

all of the D4G sections included two matches, each with 3× 2-minute rounds (excluding the final kickboxing section, which only had one match). the boxing was pretty exciting to watch, but i really felt like i was just attending the sports event of a school i didn't go to, surrounded by parents cheering their kids on.

as for the pro wrestling...

it started with the match i was anticipating the most (minus the tiktokers and with magic mark replaced by uce leeroy).

fale and nikolai entered first. i was really caught off-guard because fale was playing some completely different mafioso character called don faleone with a trenchcoat, wide-brimmed hat, and cigar. it was really funny though— nikolai played a henchman to back him up and fit the role perfectly. fuhgeddaboudit!

meanwhile, pretty richie hit all my expectations of being a fun and silly wrestler who gets the crowd pumped up. his gimmick is basically talking about how hot and sexy the other guys are. i'm not sure what uce leeroy's usual gimmick is, but whatever he was doing that night (dressing in gi and acting like a japanese student, essentially) was definitely different from what i expected based on the poster.

one of the primary reasons i wanted to go to fale dojo was to see how different the wrestling culture would be since it was based in japanese pro wrestling rather than american pro wrestling. my assumption was that japanese wrestling was much more serious (with the exception of DDT, which i went to while i was in japan because i was told it was more humorous like american wrestling).

however, this match was super funny! it was genuinely so enjoyable to watch with laughs every minute. it helped a lot that every wrestler in the ring had such a distinct gimmick from each other (and even within the event as a whole). i even felt at the time that it was scripted so well that it was probably even better presented than matches from other local promotions.

i guess they started off with the strongest though, because i don't have much to say on the others. they were both fine matches, but i felt like they were limited by the setting.

first of all, the ceiling was way too low and there was a giant concrete bar sticking out from the top, so none of the guys could do any sort of aerial attacks. this was a bit disappointing because bruno astro had some pretty impressive lightweight moves that could've been even better if he had more room to do them. i figured it was probably fine because they were being taught in fale's "new zealand strong style", but even fale seems to have signature moves that involve jumping from the ropes.

secondly, the limited viewing angle made the amount of action in the tag team matches feel a bit difficult to follow. it seems normal for tag team matches to devolve into chaos as heels find any way to cheat or fight with the audience, and it's something i love about watching live pro wrestling— you can focus on different parts of the fight depending on where you're sitting. but in this case, there was a lot of chaos on-stage and i wasn't sure where to watch because no one thing was in focus for 'my side' (the only side).

additionally, i heard that fale dojo uses a boxing ring, not a wrestling ring. i'm not sure how much this hampers the wrestlers' performances but it's gotta hurt more!

aside from maximillion and bobby wisheart, the wrestlers didn't have a strong gimmick beyond being a heel or face in general. nothing wrong with that, it just reflects the difference in puroresu culture where things are more serious and realistic i suppose. one of the guys even did a stint in another puroresu promo for a year.

but 'ordinary' pro wrestlers don't really draw crowds in new zealand— after all, you may as well go watch a real MMA event with a much bigger audience. so i can see why few people choose to watch lion's den even when it's so close to other venues by car. 1

i just wish i took more photos! i'll be absent on the day of the NJPW oceania cup finals, so i really wanted to see fale while i still could. during intermission and after the event, he was just hanging around the entry selling food and talking to parents, and i could've just directly asked for a pic then— but unlike other pro wrestling events where it's full of kids (and adults) there to take photos with the stars they admire, the whole vibe felt super casual so i'd definitely be the odd one out.

it's a bit of a strange feeling because fale might be the most prominent new zealand pro wrestler currently signed to a major promotion aside from henare and jay white. he's one of the biggest stars in the scene. but here he was so normal and approachable that i felt even more awkward to talk to him LOL.

anyway i don't think bushiroad has any clue WTF fale is doing down here at his official NJPW-affiliated dojo.

  1. the other reason is that otahuhu is considered a fairly unsafe suburb— i personally think it's fine and the reports of danger in south auckland are really overblown. but fale dojo itself doesn't have much parking and when the event ends at 9:30 pm it's probably too much of a bother to take the kids out.↩

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