New Japan, card by card, no hand-holding.
Super J-Cast covers New Japan Pro Wrestling card by card, from New Japan Cup opening rounds through finals and New Beginning. Joel and Damon McDonald talk fast, argue positions, and let a Mexico vacation story or a birthday tangent run before snapping back to the match.
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Super J-Cast is a New Japan Pro Wrestling review podcast that treats its audience as already fluent. Joel and Damon McDonald open by checking in with each other — a trip, a birthday, a Super Bowl nobody quite watched — and then get to the card. The reviews follow the promotion's calendar closely. A New Japan Cup preview, then the opening round, then the finals. New Beginning and the Road To shows leading into it. Episodes are numbered and sequential, sitting in the high 300s and low 400s across recent months, with a back catalogue past 500 entries. The wrestling analysis is detailed rather than broad. The Young Lion Cup final between Katsuya Murashima and Shoma Kato gets real attention, as does Murashima's send-off match against Toru Yano and Togi Makabe under a twenty-minute limit. From there the hosts widen out into what those matches mean structurally — whether a genuine power junior is missing from the division, whether New Japan is actually restocking the junior heavyweight ranks, and what the learning-tree system produces next. That last thread came out of research shared with Voices of Wrestling, the network the show belongs to. Takes get floated and sometimes softened a sentence later. Enthusiasm and skepticism sit close together. One host will call a tournament great and immediately wish the promotion ran more of them. Language is blunt and unfiltered, closer to two fans in a group chat than a broadcast recap. Subscribers get bonus content — extra shows dropped between tournament rounds when someone's opinions couldn't wait for the next scheduled recording, plus subscriber-selected deep dives into archival matches like Tetsuya Naito against Kenny Omega from the 2016 G1 Climax. Guests appear occasionally on those bonus episodes. The Voices of Wrestling network is present throughout, with promos for sibling shows covering Dragon Gate, AEW and the wider Japanese wrestling scene stitched around the main conversation. The show does not explain who anyone is. Names, promotions, and past storylines arrive without introduction, and the pace never slows to accommodate a newcomer. For anyone tracking New Japan week to week, that's the appeal. The result is a long-running, unhurried conversation between two people who watch everything, remember most of it, and are happy to linger on a wrestler's likely trajectory well down the line.
Made for: Committed New Japan Pro Wrestling followers who watch the tournaments as they air and want a review that skips the recap-for-newcomers. Best suited to listeners comfortable with promotion shorthand and roster history.
What sets it apart: Rather than surveying wrestling broadly, it stays locked on New Japan's calendar and goes deep on undercard and developmental matches — Young Lion Cup finals, junior heavyweight division depth — that most review shows skip past.
Discussion, analysis, and commentary about all things from the world of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Joel and Damon turn New Japan results into pointed arguments about booking, character development, faction movement, and the difference between symbolism and storytelling.
Super J-Cast keeps returning to the decisions behind New Japan Pro Wrestling: how a match advances a character, how booking creates momentum, and what a roster move might signal.
A Young Lion turns heel; Joel and Damon make you care how the angle was built.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Murashima's win is framed as a meaningful step toward a possible Australian excursion.
The conversation is at its strongest when it settles on Katsuya Murashima, tying his Young Lion Cup final win over Shoma Kato and the send-off with Toriyano and Togi Makabe to the larger question of what comes next.
Loose New Japan discussion that turns an Okada management move into a fan level conversation.
Super J Cast episode 397 opens with weather grumbling, then settles into New Japan management news centered on Taro Okada, the president of Stardom, who is set to lead the new management strategy headquarters.
A focused Young Lion Cup discussion tracks Zane Jay's heel turn and Callum Newman's corrupting pull.
Super J-Cast 396 treats the Road to the New Beginning stop at Coral Queen Hall as a clear look at New Japan's young-wrestler tensions. The Young Lion Cup gives the episode its strongest thread, with Zane Jay using a chair on Daiki Nogai after Callum Newman gets involved, taking…
A loose but sharp read on Oiwa, Umino, and New Japan's post-New Year Dash tag-team questions.
Episode 395 uses New Year Dash as a way into the larger question of which New Japan wrestlers look ready to fill the space opening around them.
A BOSJ finals review about whether New Japan's symbols have enough visible history behind them.
The Super J-Cast episode frames its BOSJ finals review around a sharper question: how much history a wrestling gesture needs before it can land.
A loose New Japan Cup review uses a borrowed move and a setback to probe where the character goes next.
The New Japan Cup review turns on what happens when a bright, eager persona runs into a tournament setback. Its focus is a performer framed as a golden retriever type, then gently pushes for more emotional range, more friction, and a clearer sense of what adversity might do to…
Joel and David McDonald review the 2025 Best of the Super Juniors final between Kosei Fujita and YOH.
The hosts introduce their wrestling podcast's return and discuss football and New Japan Pro-Wrestling updates in a casual, conversational style.
Joel and Damon review the 2026 New Japan Cup finals on a special Saturday episode.
This bonus episode features a subscriber-selected discussion of the Tetsuya Naito vs.
This episode reviews the New Japan Cup finals and discusses wrestling news, including New Japan's restocking of the junior heavyweight division.
This episode reviews the opening round of the New Japan Cup while discussing the hosts' recent experiences with pro wrestling, including a trip to Mexico and exposure to AEW.
This episode previews the New Japan Cup wrestling tournament while discussing AEW's impact on the wrestling industry and its competition with WWE.
This episode announces the return of the original hosts of Shake Them Ropes to discuss wrestling on the Voices of Wrestling Podcasting Network, followed by casual conversation about birthdays and the Super Bowl.
The show opens on Katsuya Murashima.
Joel and Damon start with miserable weather and their usual quick back-and-forth, then move into New Japan's new management strategy headquarters and Taro Okada's bigger role.
Gray weather and the usual opening nonsense roll into New Japan's Road to the New Beginning shows at Coral Queen Hall.
Episode 395 turns from New Year Dash toward the question of who is ready to step forward.
This episode introduces the new format of Music of the Mat Remix, a wrestling music podcast where the host brings on guests to discuss songs related to wrestling themes, while also promoting the Voices of Wrestling network.
This episode previews a podcast that discusses AEW wrestling, including matches, storylines, and its impact on the industry compared to WWE and historical events like WCW.
The hosts of Super J Cast discuss a humorous question about who has the best thighs in New Japan wrestling, marking the return of their show with casual banter.
This episode previews wrestling content and promotes the Open the Voicegate podcast, which covers Drangate and other wrestling topics.