TEW 20: Pride, Glory, Honor in 2025

[DeToxRox]

So I am just going to come right out and say that this is going to be passive at best. What I mean is that I hadn't picked up TEW 16 in years, but was intrigued enough with TEW 20 that I bought it after booking maybe three shows with the demo. As a result, I am using this save to better learn the nuances of the new game. This also buys me time for some of the real world mods I enjoy to be fine tuned. To compound the issue of learning the new game, I am also doing something a bit different by taking over a Japanese touring company, which I almost never do. I follow NJPW from a far, so I get the gist of how those promotions ought to be booked, but I am sure I'll screw it up, and that's okay. Lastly, I've never once played a game within any iteration of the Cornellverse, which is the world Adam Ryland created within the game. Ryland provides very in depth backgrounds of the world he's created, but I find more immersion in actually the game run for a while before jumping in, as a result, I have simmed five years of game time to build an actual world to exist in. My plan is to cover Japan specifically, but if anyone reading (god help you) wants to know what is going on in the game world, don't hesitate to ask. As far as how I'll cover my specific promotion, I intend to do summaries of my monthly tours, because the actual tour shows are usually filled wit six man tags to help keep people fresh. Those tours then culminate with large monthly events for each tour, which I'll make sure to go over in detail.

[DeToxRox]

Pride Glory Honor Wrestling (Kansai Region)
Size: Medium
World Rank: 18th
Japan Rank: 4th
Cash: $54,175,619
Style: Physically intense Puro

While still a cash cow, PGHW has fallen in relevancy (along with many of the other Japanese companies) as American giants like USPW and SWF have further expanded their worldwide reach. Yet, despite their further expansion, BHOTWG still reigns supreme as the benchmark of Japanese wrestling.

Meanwhile, PGHW has barely inched ahead of similar Medium sized companies like WLW, EX2010, BCG & SAISHO. Thankfully for us, we have 3x the money of those companies, and we're going to need it if we're ever to compete with Burning Hammer.

So what has lead to PGHW's stagnation? It's simple really: it's the inability to create new stars. For the last five years, it's been the same handful of guys putting on great matches, but crowds are bored and audiences continue to decline. That is why owner Nobuatsu Tatusko hired American vet Bulldozer Brandon Smith to come to town as the booker. He realized it was time for an outsider to try to build the next generation of stars. and that is what Smith intends to do.

So what is Smith's plan exactly? Well, to start, he opened Mr. Tatusko's checkbook to bring in a dozen or so wrestlers from across the world. The most important of these hires were Bunrakuken Torii, Masa Kurata & Razan Okamoto. All three men had handshake deals with SAISHO, but the allure of contracts in the range of 65-85k a month was too much to pass up on. Now these outsiders are going to be expected to shake up the roster.

Beyond that, Smith pored even more money into the PGHW Dojo, maxing out both the facilities and training. He also put pen to paper with several recent graduates that will be sent to Europe to two year excursions to further their careers.

With the FORTITUDE tour just days away from beginning, the building blocks are hopefully in place for a successful future.

[DeToxRox]

PGHW Tours

January: RESPECT Tour
February: DESTINY Tour
March: PRIDE Tour (Biggest tour of the year, home of the Elite Series singles tournament)
April: FORTITUDE Tour
May: GLORY Tour
June: STRENGTH Tour
July: WARRIORS Tour
August: HONOUR Tour
September: LEGACY Tour
October: KINGS Tour
November: COURAGE Tour (Home of the Elite Series Tag Team Tournament)
December: WRESTLING Tour

Titles

PGHW Glory Crown: Chojiro Kitoaji (81 Prestige)
PGHW Glory Tag Crowns: Shinji Mihara & Shoraku Ibata (64 Prestige)
PGHW International Kazu Uemura (70 Prestige)

Stables

Stables are a large part of Japanese wrestling, but PGHW had no such groups prior to Smith's arrival. As a result, Smith has been putting into place groups that will set the stage for what's to come. Currently, there are four groups:

BROKEN CAREER GANG

Bunrakuken Torii
Masa Kurata
Razan Okamoto

The three new hires have banded together to destroy PGHW from within. All three men go way back to being brought up within the BCG family. That familiarity will make a formidable foe for the rest of the company. It certainly helps that all three guys are on the cusp of stardom in Japan.

DEFIANCE

Kazu Uemura
Shinji Mihara
Shoraku Ibata
Yoriyoshi Yoshihara

This is the next wave of homegrown PGHW stars, featuring Uemura (most recent Elite Series winner and current International Champion) as their leader. At only 24 years old, with two years of experience, he could be the front runner to be the next Ace of the company. He's joined by the tag champs in Mihara and Ibata, and the 22 year old high flyer Yoshihara.

The Crash Squad

Brandon Smith
Matt Blackburn
James Diaz
William Hayes
Pavel Vanzycha

The gaijin of PGHW have banded together to form a brotherhood that has designs of showing the rest of the world's wrestling superiority. This group will only grow as Smith further makes hires.

The Watchmen

Chojiro Kitoaji
Bussho Makiguchi
Kozue Kawashima
Masaru Ugaki
Seiji Jimbo

The five pillars of the company, the men that have ruled the main event scene for the last several years, have banded together to protect the honor of the company from both internal and external threats.

[DeToxRox]

PGHW FORTITUDE Tour Review

Brandon Smith's first tour as booker of PGHW started rough, but when the smoke cleared, the tour could be considered nothing short of a success.

The tour started off in front of 1637 people in Osaka, headlined by Brandon Smith defeating Masaru Ugaki in a good match (74). The show also saw the debut of the Broken Career Gang, who easily dispatched of their opponents in what was more of a statement than it was a match (62).

Night two took place in front of 1669 people in Kobe. This show as headlined by the most recent Glory champion, Seiji Jimbo getting back on track, defeating Akinori Kwakami in a very good match (78). We also had our first taste of the BCG taking on the Watchmen, as the BCG defeated The Watchmen team, consisting of the Glory Champion Kitoaji, Ugaki and Makiguchi in a good match (73). Though Kitoaji wasn't pinned, his team losing sent a murmur of shock through the Kobe crowd.

Night three of the tour was a home run (82) in front 1664 people in Kobe yet again. The Main Event saw a rematch of the BCG and the Watchmen, with this match going to a draw (86). Also on the show was Kazu Uemura beating Akinori Kwakami to retain the International title (73).

Night four was a step back, but still 1679 people in Kobe were treated to a very fun main event, as Razan Okamoto of the BCG defeated Kozue Kawashima of The Watchmen (78).

Nights five and six were the final nights of the tour, and they were nothing worth writing about. They weren't bad, but they also weren't discussing.

[DeToxRox]

PGHW FORTITUDE 2025
New Shiga Stadium (Kansai)
Attendance: 48,358
PPV Buys: 55,481

Goemon Komiya, Matsuki & Kada d. Hiraki, Takahama & Ko (64)

- A standard six man tag to get the crowd going.

Yoriyoshi Yoshihara d. Yuri Yoshihara (66)

- These are not brothers, and yes, it's very confusing. Yoriyoshi is the youngest member of DEFIANCE and he looked very good as he picked up his most important win to date.

The Broken Career Gang (Kurata & Okamoto) d. DEFIANCE (Mihara & Ibata) to win the PGHW Glory Tag Crowns (79) in 15:52.

- This was a great match went shorter than normal in an attempt to steal the show. Kurata and Okamoto were both excellent tonight, while Mihara did his best to match their game. Unfortunately, Ibata and his lack of psychology brought the match down a bit.

Kazu Uemura (DEFIANCE) d. Seiji Jimbo to retain the PGHW International Title (82) in 31:33.

- Uemura continues to be red hot, this time beating the former Glory Crown holder in an absolute war of attrition. Uemura is a brawler by trade, but he continues to round out his game and the crowd is taking notice.

Chojiro Kitoaji (The Watchmen) d. Bunrakuken Torii (BCG) to retain the PGHW Glory Crown (86) in 40:23. With the bar raised by the prior match, these two men delivered one of the best PGHW matches of 2025. While The Watchmen struggled to pick up wins on the FORTITUDE tour, Kitoaji ultimately picked up the win that mattered most.

Show Rating: 85

- This was a great show that lived up to the historic legacy of FORTITUDE shows. It's not easy to follow up Night of PRIDE, the premier PGHW tour/show, but these guys delivered.

- Of course, not everyone is happy. Namely, three members of The Watchmen. Specifically, Makiguchi, Kawashima & Ugaki. The losses piled up a bit for those guys on the last tour, and being older workers with a lot of miles on their bodies, Smith felt it would be a good idea to give all three the next tour off to heal up and get back on track mentally.

[tucking fypo]

I've always liked the TEW diaries on this site. I'm intrigued by the Japanese promotions but once the DOTT mod comes out, it will suck me back in. Interested to see where you go with this.

[SirFozzie]

I'm running a BCG booking committee thread (I did first three months, other person is two months into their three months, etcetera) over on DVDVR.

Okamoto, Torii are our stars. We're making sure to keep folks on written deals to try to prevent PGHW from poaching us.

[DeToxRox]

I haven’t given up. I just decided to do a few months of shows first and then compile everything to get some momentum on my side.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I'm running a BCG booking committee thread (I did first three months, other person is two months into their three months, etcetera) over on DVDVR.

Okamoto, Torii are our stars. We're making sure to keep folks on written deals to try to prevent PGHW from poaching us.

I think my biggest issue with 20 is that there aren’t enough exclusive written deals.