Apparently this week a big crew of wrestlers from Fighting Spirit Wrestling came down from Brooklyn, so we got to see some new faces and get in some new matchups. Trooper Audubon opened up his home to the Vatican for the Pope’s visit, and as such the Dojo Wars Grand Prix Trial Series Jack Tunney Memorial Invitational Open Challenge is currently suspended. Only in wrestling does that sentence make any sense.

So tonight seems to be the start of a new Wednesday Night War, what with NXT, Lucha Underground, Ring of Honor, and TNA all airing on the same night now, which is just awesome. Or would be if El Rey was available anywhere so I could watch Lucha Underground in English, but I digress. It’s a great time to be a wrestling fan. But I wont be partaking in any of those as they air, because I’ll be watching live wrestling. Tonight had a few good matches, and a few stinkers, but you can’t go wrong for just $5.

While not many people showed up at this the first weekly Dojo Wars that wasn’t part of the originally scheduled bi-weekly shows, that didn’t keep it from being jam packed. It featured seven intense matches, and may well have been the most intimate and entertaining night of Dojo Wars yet.

NXT wasn’t the only show in town this Wednesday. OK, so there were no title defenses, and there wasn’t anything as epic as Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch, and no massive swerves like the debut of Samoa Joe, but it was still a fun night of wrestling.

This past week was probably the biggest week in wrestling in Philadelphia history since WrestleMania 15. There was a CZW/WSU doubleheader, two Ring of Honor/New Japan Pro Wrestling shows, and two NXT shows. That’s a shit-ton a wrestling. In trying to get prepared for all of these shows, and get caught back up to what I missed while in Japan, I noticed something while doing my research. Sure, WWE has always kind of been at the forefront of reality TV, what with the Divas Searches, the original NXT, Legend’s House, and now the return of Tough Enough. But what I found was that a lot of wrestlers were involved in reality shows before they were ever on the WWE map. While I’m sure most people know that Chris Jericho and Stacy Keibler were on Dancing with the Stars, odds are you don’t know about the rest of these reality show appearances.

As any wrestling fan knows, history is loaded with gimmicks that failed for any number of reasons. I could easily sit here writing about them until my fingers fall off, so I’ll just stick with some of my personal, uh . . . “favorites.”

Sorry this took so long, but I’ve been sick since when this took place, plus I am leaving for Japan for 3 weeks on Monday. Therefore, the next installment and next new post will most likely be Dojo Wars 28, because starting in May, Dojo Wars is moving from biweekly to weekly! Good thing I prepaid for that VIP pass. Due to my sickness and the time gap between when I wrote this up, the details are a little scarcer than usual. Sorry about that. Funnily enough, even though I’ll be in Japan for three weeks, it isn’t until after I return that I get to see Japanese wrestling, in my hometown no less.