The Young Lions of Fale Dojo march on

14 Feb, 2026

Fale Dojo is moving forward, but with a different destination in mind.

2025's final NJ Tamashii show was held on October 25th at the Māngere Arts Centre. It had a couple of fun matches, ending festive and feel-good. But while Tamashii will be returning next year, the weekly Lion's Dens shows won't.

I watched the final Lion's Den on September 27th and it was as good a show as ever. I'm critical of Fale Dojo, but I really do enjoy watching its wrestlers. They're genuinely entertaining and I love seeing them give it their all, no matter how small their audience is. It was a total happy ever ending with all the good guys winning, finishing up with a thank you from Magic Mark, a Japanese speech and bow from Trent Hooper, accompanied by the other boys, and a "South Auckland-style" dance party.

What does the end of Lion's Den mean?

Lion's Den was never going to last. I don't think the wrestlers were even being paid in anything other than exposure but regardless, weekly shows for an audience of 10 is not worth it.

It was a good opportunity for the boys to get practice in front of real audience members, though. They never took the piss with the audience, and it was often just as entertaining as other wrestling shows with the limitations of the venue the only major issue—yet at the same time, the lack of space only added to how intimate and connected the Lion's Den shows felt.

But it's only fair for the boys to get their Saturday nights free, especially for other local wrestling shows with larger audiences. There's more room and energy for everyone to work on NJ Tamashii shows proper too.

Fale's wrestlers have now graduated from the trainee role. While the goal is still to go to Japan, winning a title match in NJ Tamashii is presented as a proper achievement in of itself, and with nearly every wrestler also fighting at other promos, they all feel like full-fledged professional wrestlers at last.

And the dojo in general?

Fale Dojo has moved to Manurewa, very close to the Homai train station and pretty walkable from my childhood home. Its general fitness classes have ended, so it's now focused on pro wrestling full-time with a 13-week intake model.

I was surprised. I thought the dojo was in the opposite situation where it needed all the casual gym-goers it could get. It's even attracting international students again. I watched a kid with one month of wrestling experience fight against a man dressed in a gimp mask in a dark match. Tony Kozina left as a trainer in May and Fale's only in the country for half the time, so I assume Magic Mark handles the training.¹

I got into New Zealand wrestling at the perfect time because it truly is at its biggest since the early 2000s on all accounts. Impact Pro Wrestling had a show at Aotea Square for the first time in a decade, Aotearoa Wrestling had a show at Due Drop Arena last year. Both have connections to local council—IPW's Rumble in the Square was supported by Auckland Council Events, while Aotearoa's Aotearoa Showdown was supported by the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board.

Fale Dojo is no exception. At the TAPAC show in Western Springs, they brought a local Mount Albert MP as a special guest. At the Māngere show, they brought a local Māngere MP.² All wrestling promos are involving themselves in council lately but Fale Dojo seems particularly intent on playing a part as a center of culture for South Auckland.

I was surprised they did a show at the TAPAC to begin with since it was so far away from the usual audience, but I think that they are probably gonna stick to southside afterall—they just make it such a big part of the affairs and I understand. I might not live in South Auckland at the moment, but it's something that sticks to you with pride.³

Building community through wrestling

My original goal in 2025 was to stop spending money on pro wrestling, outside of IPW, yet I've lost track of how many times I watched Lion's Den and NJ Tamashii. Before I knew it, Fale Dojo had become my comfort food.

The final Lion's Den show made me incredibly sentimental. It had been near a full year since I became so invested in the dojo and its boys. Watching Nikolai Anton-Bell for the first time at Hughes Academy as a stand-out heel, now be cheered on by so many at IPW as a face. It's like nugu idols for me seriously.

So I wrote a long message on my Instagram story and the dojo reposted it along with some of the guys that were there that night. One of them was Bruno Astro; I was glad that my feelings could reach him because he has truly been one of the most entertaining wrestlers of the past year for me. He's already signed onto a promo in Thailand (representing China for whatever reason) so while I'll never get to watch him again I'm grateful to be able to have witnessed his incredible skills so many times.

It seemed corny and silly but it felt pretty good to indulge in such sentiment again. It's different from singing praises about my favorite anime character because the wrestlers are real and I'm happy if I can let them know that there are people out here watching your progress and supporting you.

Maybe because Lion's Den gets so few viewers it helped me understand that what I was after was community. I began volunteering regularly late 2025 and the feeling was the same—having a space to see and talk to others consistently outside of work feels special!

I don't talk to people at professional wrestling events, but it's usually the same audience. Wrestling ritualizes excitement that's usually only found in rowdy parties and festival concerts. I can't feel comfortable dancing at the club, but when it's time to cheer for a wrestler or boo a bad guy, I'll put all my energy into it.

I think the dojo itself is after community too. It wants to establish itself as a cultural staple of South Auckland, again, going to the lengths of inviting local MPs even if just for exposure.

Before Netflix, WWE only aired at 11 PM, so wrestling as a whole isn't very popular here. I wouldn't be surprised if many peoples' first interaction with the sport came from local indy wrestling—which makes the dojo's attempts to become a community icon kind of beautiful in a way.⁴

Why do you want to go to Japan?

I'm sure that many of the international wrestlers want to go to Japan because they genuinely love NJPW. The promo isn't well known here at all, though, so I wonder how many of the dojo boys actually care that much about wrestling there specifically. I mean, it's probably every wrestler's dream to make it big enough to go overseas regardless—if you want to make it big, you can't stay in New Zealand. There's just no opportunity for full-time work here.

Jado briefly came to New Zealand to watch the wrestlers and train them. The dojo hasn't shuttered down yet, so I guess that means whatever the boys are doing is fine. Alumni Oskar Leube and Yuto Nakashima (Yuto-ICE), the Knock Out Brothers, also came back to New Zealand to fight in a few matches on their world tour. They were tough! Very cool to watch.

Most of the NZ dojo team took a trip to Japan over the new years too. There they debuted in World Underground Wrestling EXIT and met up with Johta again.⁵ Some of the boys have found strong fanbases within New Zealand, so I wonder if that would affect their goals of going higher to NJPW proper.

But even if they decide to stay in NZ, I don't think that 'giving up' is bad. Rather than stopping, it'd be changing directions.

It's taken seven years to get here from behind the scenes. Now that they're out of the den, I'm looking forward to seeing New Zealand's Young Lions grow.

2026's first NJ Tamashii event takes place on the same date as IPW's Collision Course again. But for once I don't think that matters—Tamashii's finally found its own audience in the South.⁶⁷

Appendix I. Fale Dojo staff

I did actually talk to Bad Luck Fale himself at the TAPAC event, so now it feels awkward to basically gossip about him online. I don't think any wrestlers are living at his mother's house anymore at least. Fale has such an imposing level of seniority that he truly is cool on stage. I'm fond of the mafia boss and corrupt lawyer gimmick he has going on with Maximillion.

I really like Isoa Kavakimotu, Fale Dojo's resident commentator. He's inexperienced and unprofessional as hell but a funny as guy who connects with the audience. His banter creates a uniquely South Auckland atmosphere that distinguishes Tamashii from other promos, and he's always entertaining and fun without making things feel childish.

Writer to writer, I'm always glad to see Ite Lemalu at Fale Dojo's events. He's truly passionate and knowledgeable about wrestling and even released a book on the legacy of Pacific Island wrestlers. His D-List article, Bright lights and Bushwhackers, strongly resonated with me—my vision impairment is just nearsightedness, but I struggle with focusing, so wrestling being so coordinated and focused makes it much more entertaining to watch than other sports.

I don't know much about Lloyd Morgan but he definitely deserves the title of that one referee. And a ref you can describe as that one referee is the best kind!

I'm surprised they kept the character of El Chanko around, even giving him a title screen and win... the Brazillian guy you originally had play him has already buggered off to China!

El Chanko has more budget for his title card than most indy pro wrestlers.

Appendix II. Fale Kava

The cherry flavor was godawful, but I liked apple. Pineapple flavor is a legitimately good drink. Is it worth $20? I've been watering it down for the past 4 months to justify the cost. I'm scared to open the bottle now because it's probably gone moldy but that's my fault.

Fale is still using the white boys to promote his drink and he's still making them eat horse meat on camera (including the horse meat pie that was in the news)! His audience is 90% Polynesian guys in New Zealand and 10% Japanese culture fans from worldwide, so while most of the comments are basically 😂😂😂 making fun of the white boys, you also have people commenting about how they're eating Special Week from Uma Musume.

Appendix III. My brain

I found this chart from 2021 or so that I made during my King of Fighters era. I think university me would go insane if he knew that the conclusion of this is that NJPW is now following me on my personal IRL account with 28 followers.

Notice how I don't make connections like this anymore ever since I started going outside?

Fale-san, I'll glaze you on social media, so can I convince you to get the NJPW marketing team to do a collab with The iDOLM@STER SideM too?

#2026 #japan #new zealand #pro wrestling #rant