KUSHIDA's last dance in New Japan

NJPW Road to the New Beginning - Day 3: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KUSHIDA

KUSHIDA's selling was pretty awful. It's a shame, because other than that, this was super compelling. Loved all the matwork, the dueling limb work, Tana heeling it up a little & KUSHIDA answering to that by slapping the taste out of his mouth + the atmosphere was great throughout & they also played up the Jr. vs. Heavy dynamic real great with KUSHIDA not being able to put on a show on the mat as well as he usually does, because of the size difference. Some more leg selling by him & this could've and probably would've been a MOTYC. ***3/4

PROGRESS, EVOLVE, RAW

PROGRESS Chapter 83: Remove Child Before Ironing: Ilja Dragunov vs. Timothy Thatcher

This was the smackfest it promised to be on paper. Thatcher largely dominated things & Ilja fought from underneath. Both guys rocked their roles well - Ilja has that great passion to him when he fights from underneath, it's definitely a role he excels at. Thatcher of course ruled on top with his great strikes, and some neat little touches like grabbing Ilja by the NOSE to get him up. A very good match! ***1/2

EVOLVE 119: Eddie Kingston vs. JD Drake

GODDAMN Kingston RULES. This is the first match of his that I've seen in at least a year, and his performance was absolutely delightful. He brought some unique psychology into the thing with him being obsessed over Drake's EYES. He gets the first control of the match and goes to work on those EYES & generally just mauls Drake with his amazing strikes. LOVE those crossface shots. JD is pretty good from underneath, but the match definitely goes down a few levels once he makes his comeback & it becomes more 50/50. Still a really good one overall, because of THE MAD KING being insanely awesome. ***3/4

EVOLVE 119: Fabian Aichner vs. Darby Allin

The usual Darby formula of him getting his ass kicked & making awesome comebacks. Aichner was extremely generic & dull on the beatdown side of things, and it wasn't until they went outside & he started swinging Darby to the barricade, that the match got real good. Aichner hurt his knee by hitting it on the post, so Darby naturally goes to work on it once they're back inside the ring, and Aichner's selling of it is great; loved it giving out when he tried to set Darby up for a powerbomb. The finish was also really good & set up the re-match for the next night perfectly. It was definitely not a great match overall, as like I mentioned, Aichner's beatdown seg on Darby wasn't very interesting, but everything from the barricade-swinging on was pretty fantastic. ***

EVOLVE 120: Eddie Kingston vs. Montez Ford

The match vs. JD Drake already did it, but damn, I really need to watch more Eddie Kingston this year. Just like the night before, he was absolutely wonderful here. They went with the underdog formula of Ford fighting from underneath, as Eddie delivered a lovely beating to him. Ford was also really good on his role; loved the fire & intensity he showed after he got the better of Kingston outside the ring, early on in the match. This actually should've probably been A BIT longer for my liking, as the finish felt very sudden, but hey, I can't complain, because it was still absolutely awesome. ***1/2

EVOLVE 120: Fabian Aichner vs. Darby Allin

Their match the night before was good, but this was bordering on great. There's much more energy & intensity to this, and Aichner's performance was much better here. He showed some very nice swagger throughout & was way more charismatic and vicious too, overall. Great continuity of the knee psychology, good selling + a great beatdown by Aichner, and some really good comebacks by Darby. ***3/4

WWE RAW 01/28/19: Bayley vs. Ronda Rousey

This was just a lil' notch below the Sasha match. Nice continuity of the arm psychology from the night before, and some additional knee psychology. Ronda sells very well throughout. ***

RUMBLE

Akira Tozawa vs. Buddy Murphy vs. Hideo Itami vs. Kalisto

This was a good spotfest. Hideo kinda didn’t fit in there with the other 3, and during one of his control runs in the match, things slowed down & weren’t that interesting, but they thankfully kept that pretty quick, so it didn’t take much away from the match, and all of Hideo’s other times on the offense were solid. The boys were just spiking each other’s with ‘rana’s, and put nice, little touches to some usual multi-man spots. Tozawa in particular ruled all the way through - dude took some nutty bumps & showcased those awesome dives of his. I remember back in 2013 when I first discovered him thinking that he had one of the best suicide dives in the business & this match sure was a good reminder of that. ***

Asuka vs. Becky Lynch

Pretty disappointing. They went with the competitive, back & forth structure with Asuka & Becky trying to one-up each other all the way through. Certainly wasn't the most compelling story they could've told, and went a tad bit too long too. Didn't really click with me or grab me at any point. **

The Bar vs. Shane McMahon & The Miz

A match. *

Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks

The armwork by Sasha was the meat of the match, and it was very good throughout, and even great at points. Ronda’s selling was pretty great, and there was some great submission drama revolving around it - loved that whole Bank Statement bit w/ the STRAP & all; some great arm selling of her own by Sasha there, as Ronda had of course been busting out some big armbars to it. Good match with some real flashes of greatness to it, but it did feel a bit rushed & awkward at points. ***1/4

30-Woman Royal Rumble

There weren't many standout moments, but it flowed well from start to finish & didn't feel long even with it clocking at 72 minutes. Kairi, Candice, Io & Ripley were all very cool surprise entrants, and Cataranzo's Kofi spot was pretty fun. The Becky stuff was OK; the leg psychology I can appreciate. I did think that her trashtalk to Charlotte was very cringe though, but that's a minor complaint. If you're invested in her character, then the whole thing sure was pretty damn well booked. Nowhere near as awesome as last year's women's Rumble, but still pretty solid. **1/2

AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan

I think Daniel Bryan is the greatest wrestler of all-time & AJ Styles is not far off from that, so imagine my reaction to waking up & checking a few Rumble reviews & seeing 1-STAR & DUD ratings to this one. Very fascinating! I thought the match was fantastic myself, but the lack of heat from the crowd definitely hurt it quite a bit. The place made no noise for Bryan busting out Dragon Suplexes or vicious stomps, and most of all, it killed almost all of AJ's comebacks. The two Calf Killer spots & the headbutt-bit were something that should've got huge reactions, but instead got absolutely nothing. Those were still awesome comebacks, but they would've been so much more great if the place had actually reacted to them. Very unfortunate. The finish was also AWFUL w/ Rowan. Other than that though, yeah, the match was terrific. Great start with them being very cautious with each other, not making any mistakes, but still bringing the intensity & dislike of one another w/ some fantastic looking punches. Eventually AJ crashes into the ring post hard & starts clutching his arm - Bryan of course sees that & goes to town on AJ's arm immediately. It's a Bryan torture show & there's not many things better than that; he brutalizes AJ's arm, busts out vicious looking kicks, and then notices that AJ's nose is bleeding & goes to that immediately with some brutal punches. Some little touches I also liked such as Bryan trying to keep the Danielson Special Armbar locked in by delivering some calf kicks to AJ, crossfaces to the face & then working the nose to get LeBell Lock locked in, Bryan doing his vintage stomps to the face & his leg giving out due to the damage he received in the Calf Killer, and of course "I HAVE TILL 5!". A clinic on the offense by the man, and AJ was really good throughout too with his selling & comebacks, even if they did come off as somewhat underwhelming because of the crowd reactions. Definitely not their best match, but still a yet another banger between two of the greatest wrestlers in the world. ****

Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Bálor

Brock Lesnar is a goddamn legend. Finn's offense looks weak & soft as hell, but Brock does such a perfect job selling for him all the way through that the match couldn't be anything less than a banger. Loved the post-match attack on Finn by Lesnar too - that's some great character work there w/ Lesnar being mad about this little man pushing him to the limit by going after his mid-section. If Finn was more interesting on the offense, this would've been great, but it says something about the match when even though he wasn't interesting on the offense, the thing was still borderline great. ***3/4

30-Man Royal Rumble

Thought that this was an absolute bore. Nothing interesting about it - Ali eliminating Joe was treated as a big deal, and rightfully so, but damn, Nia just dumping Ali out like nothing undermined that moment. The Women's Rumble was definitely the better of two (once again) this year. *

Takeover Phoenix

The Undisputed Era vs. War Raiders
Let's get to the brief positives first: Roddy & Kyle sure excel at bumping their asses off for their babyface opponents' shine & comebacks. Hanson's hot tag with that cartwheel spot was also really good. Sadly the match just wasn't overall very interesting. It didn't have half the energy UE's matches vs. Burch & Oney + Moustache Mountain had. Neither did it have the laser focused psychology of their matches vs. AOP & MM. Also the Rowe FIP bit surprised me, because of how bland it was. So far I've LOVED every other heat segment by Roddy & Kyle, but my goodness were they just straight up dull as hell working the heat here. Kyle's offense looked super weak too - it's something that wasn't unusual for him pre-WWE, but I think he has kept it very nice & tight ever since the UE run started, so it surprised me quite a bit. Not a good match. **

Kassius Ohno vs. Matt Riddle
This was easily the best looking match up on the card, and it ended up being the best match of the night. 9 minutes was about the perfect length for it, and they packed one helluva match into those. Pretty damn snug action from start to finish - loved the opening with Riddle delivering those signature, scrappy, awesome open hand bodystrikes of his. The match quickly transitioned into Ohno on top & Riddle fighting from underneath, and it's a dynamic that works wonderfully with those two. Ohno's work on top was very good - a couple of absolutely fantastic moments there, in particular that ring skirt spot was so amazing. Riddle's comebacks were very good & loved the finish w/ him destroying Ohno with those Danielson elbows, and then continuing the attack when Ohno tapped out. Very good shit all around. ***1/2


Johnny Gargano vs. Ricochet
An overly long PWG-style spotfest. Some people like that kind of stuff, but I sure goddamn don't. And the thing about bad PWG spotfests is that they usually never go 2 fuggen' 5 minutes. My least favorite match of 2018 was Gargano's match vs. Black from Takeover, and this was a couple of storytelling!!1 dialogues away from being on the level of that. Jeeeezuz! *


Bianca Belair vs. Shayna Baszler
Somewhat awkward at times & the flow wasn't there for most of it, but there were some, very nice positives about it. I thought that Belair's selling was pretty good throughout, the big hairwhip spot was extremely well done, and the choke drama is something that could've been very corny, but it actually was done fantastically here. I could see them having a real banger in their next meeting, because while this wasn't good, it wasn't bad either, and there were some real flashes of greatness there. **1/4

Aleister Black vs. Tommaso Ciampa

A long leg psychology match, but a long leg psychology match done right! Ciampa was like a man possessed targeting that leg, and Aleister's selling was pretty great throughout. Even when he did his comebacks that required him doing something with his leg, he always made sure to let the people know that it's killing him. Good stuff. ***1/4

A couple of ROH bangers

ROH Road to G1 Supercard - Dallas: Bandido vs. Silas Young

A grizzled, grumpy no-nonsense veteran in his late 30's taking on a young luchador who dresses up like a BANDIT. What a funky, charming match up! Who would've thought Bandido & Silas Young would work so well together in a lengthy singles match, too? I for one didn't know what to expect when I started watching it, but my goodness, they had an absolute rock solid banger here. Most of it is with Silas on top, and he's pretty darn good with his work - the main focus of his attack goes towards Bandido's back. It's pretty vicious & I very much liked it. Bandido is really good from underneath, too - he actually quite surprised me with how good his selling was throughout; loved that moment when his back gave out as he had Silas set up for a powerbomb. They built for all of his explosive comeback moves very well too - in particular that finish w/ his 21-Plex was pretty wonderful. ***1/2

ROH Road to G1 Supercard - Dallas: Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams

Haskins is nowhere near on the level of the other guys in this, and he dragged the match down with his thigh slap heavy, shitty offense, but fortunately he got the least time to shine out of the wrestlers involved, so this was very enjoyable & good overall. Hot Sauce was a very good FIP, and while after I first watched this I thought his selling of the knee was very spotty, after thinking about it, it was actually pretty damn creative & good. At first he isn't showing the damage Gresham & Lethal had done to it too much - he is still running at pretty much full speed, doing knee & leg drops, but then Gresham & Lethal go to work on it some more, and he starts selling it more dramatically, not being able to do big moves that require knee strength & all. Very good performance by him, and same can be said for those of Gresham's & Lethal's - both were absolutely awesome on the offense. ***1/4

WWE Weeklies + Stardom

WWE SmackDown 01/22/19: Andrade (still not Cien Almas) vs. Rey Mysterio

The first fall was great, explosive action w/ the highlights being that picture perfect RANA w/ Rey jumping from the top rope to Andrade on the outside & then the absolutely crazy finish. Perfect, pretty execution, but also with a superb impact to 'em. The 2nd fall was quick, but also perfectly executed; Rey survives the first, brutal powerbomb Andrade throws, so Andrade gets frustrated & caught up by that goddamn amazing Destroyer by Rey. The final fall is one big finishing stretch, and it's just outstanding - that sliding sunset flip powerbomb into the barricade & DRAGONRANA though. There was quite a bit of moments that stood out in this one, but maybe my favorite out of all of them was when Andrade had been doing some brief work over Rey's arm, he then kinda drops that gameplan & does his signature Hammerlock DDT - only for Rey to survive it by putting his foot on the ropes. What does Andrade do next? He goes to the arm he had been softening up right away & does a very nice, vicious looking Fujiwara Armbar! Great stuff there. They recovered from the botch perfectly too, and it didn't feel out of place in the match at all. Definitely liked this a tad bit better than their bout from last week. ***1/2

WWE 205 Live 01/22/19: Gran Metalik vs. Humberto Carrillo

Gran Metalik is one of the best highflying wrestlers around, and here he got to showcase exactly that, and so did Humberto who hang with him all the way through. Smooth as silk execution & great impact to everything they did. On par w/ the Andrade vs. Rey match that it had to follow. ***1/2

WWE NXT 01/23/19: Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel

This was exactly what it promised to be on paper - the four lads involved beating the piss out of each other in a banging sprint. Hell yea. ***1/2

WWE NXT 01/23/19: Bobby Fish vs. The Velveteen Dream

This had somewhat of a rough & rugged feel to it. It was very lovely. The early back & forth is great, and showcases the differences in their in-ring characters tremendously. Then Fish goes chopping on Dream's knee, and that becomes the focus of the match. Fish is pretty vicious doing work over it, and Dream's selling is excellent; loved how he sold the damage after he did the dropkick from the 2nd rope, and then during the Death Valley Driver roll through set-up-attempt. Then he gets one last adrenaline rush & delivers the elbow to get the W. It can be argued that it was a bit too much given the work over the knee by Fish, but I indeed saw it as Dream getting that one last rush of adrenaline & maximizing that to the fullest. Awesome match. ***1/2

Stardom 8th Anniversary: Utami Hayashishita vs. Viper

A real good David vs. Goliath match. Utami rocks the fighting-from-underneath role in very good fashion - LOVED those takedowns. Viper also delivered w/ her monstrous offense; loved how it first started off w/ her tying Utami up on the mat, but then it built to her just trying to bulldoze her w/ her monstrous offense. ***1/2

Stardom 8th Anniversary: Momo Watanabe vs. Tam Nakano

Great feel of urgency to this from start to finish. They brought the violence in the form of big bombs all the way through w/ an intense pace. It's awesome, and loved the brief shoulder targeting by Momo, as Tam had it taped up. Those kicks & stomps to it were pretty nasty. And talking about kicks, Tam sure can throw some pretty damn vicious looking ones! Loved this from bell to bell. ***3/4

Stardom 8th Anniversary: Jungle Kyona vs. Kagetsu

This started off pretty amazingly with that lock-up. Very intense, and low-key unique way to start off a match in 2019. Kagetsu of course still has her neck all taped up, so after that amazing lock-up, Jungle goes to that - she grinds Kagetsu down with a cravate, and then twists that neck & starts pummeling it w/ strikes. Absolutely awesome stuff there, and the awesomeness continued once Kagetsu took over w/ a couple of shots to the body with the KNUCKLES - she then takes off Jungle's elbow pad, revealing her taped up elbow. Kagetsu naturally goes to work on it in an awesome fashion, and she takes things to the outside & does quite a number on the arm in the Korakuen crowd; that armbar was vicious & her just banging that arm on the wall was very brutal looking & sounding. After they go back to the ring, that is when the match starts losing me. I didn't like how quickly Jungle got the control back, but what I did like was her sick looking backbreaker-thing & the necklock leg scissors hold. They very much drop the selling after that though, and it gets kind of generic with them just busting out bombs. It's not interesting, but during that I did like the one last go at the arm by Kagetsu as she counters Jungle's pin attempt into a Kimura. Overall a good match, but this was heading towards something GREAT right up until they dropped the selling of the neck & arm completely & went with the bombs instead, so that makes it also a bit disappointing. ***1/4

5-STAR RE-WATCH: Chasing The Magic

ROH Unified: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness


The wrestling is competitive & amazing throughout - both guys, especially Bryan, really brought it on the offense (as always). Loved how good his STOMPS looked. They bring some very neat callbacks to their previous meetings & play up the Pure rules brilliantly. Then of course during the last 6-7 minutes of the match, the drama kicks off into legendary atmosphere with the infamous ring post spot, and Nigel then delivers some of the most magical babyface work I've ever seen in a pro wrestling ring. It's the perfect match. The ring post spot & the headbutts afterwards always make me cringe, but oh man, these two sure were willing to do some brutal stuff for the sake of the art, and I would be straight up lying if I said it didn't add a ton to the already-classic match. *****




 
ROH Driven: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness


This is an all-timer. The early mat work is tremendous - loved Danielson just grinding Nigel's ear with his fist while Nigel had him in guard. So simple, yet so amazing. He also busts out some brutal strikes to Nigel's nose later on in the match, and it's just so good. It's a clinic of Bryan on the offense - he also works over Nigel's back quite a bit, and while Nigel's selling is fine, I do think that it could've been better, and it's something that ultimately makes this a 4.75* match instead of the full fiver. ****3/4

ROH 6th Anniversary Show: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness


I could just say that this is the greatest match of all-time and leave it at that. It's to me what Austin vs. Bret is to many people - the absolute apex of American professional wrestling. They go into it w/ a special agreement that Danielson won't target Nigel's head, because of the concussion Nigel suffered a few months earlier vs. Austin Aries. The fans had been slowly turning on Nigel in his time as the champ, and here the crowd was at least 95% on Danielson's side, with a few chants of "NIGEL!" here & there. The whole atmosphere is something special; the random yells of "you fucking PUSSY!" & "BITCH!" to Nigel throughout are amazing, and add to the whole package of the match. The match starts w/ your usual competitive wrestling between the two; Bryan does a great job doing his usual offense, but instead of targeting the head, he goes for the body instead. The turning point comes when Bryan hits a belly-to-back suplex & Nigel complains to the ref that he wants Bryan to be DQ'd, because he hit the back of his head there. The ref doesn't do that, so Nigel hits him to get the DQ he wanted. He leaves, but is greeted by Aries & other ROH wrestlers who are not letting Nigel disrespect the championship like that. I thought that added fantastically to the whole Anniversary Show atmosphere, and it was perfectly executed. The match gets restarted, and Nigel is angry & intense as hell, even more so than before; he does quite the number on Bryan's arm, which is vintage Nigel, but this truly was some of the best arm work he did during this run. Bryan's comebacks are absolutely terrific w/ him going after Nigel's mid-section, and the big one where he puts him down w/ punches to the body, teasing the 10-count KO finish was amazing. Nigel is starting to get desperate - he has done everything in his power to try & defeat the challenger, so what does he do next? He fucking HEADBUTTS Bryan! Maybe my favorite single match moment of all-time. Bryan's reaction to it is superb; not over the top in the slightest, he just sells the shock perfectly. Nigel keeps on headbutting Bryan - it's essentially the biggest dick move of all-time because of the "Bryan will not target Nigel's head because of the concussions he has suffered" clause, but also because of Bryan's bad eye, which Prazak & Lenny brought up brilliantly. The finish is simply perfect too w/ Nigel first killing Bryan with a brutal lariat & then busting out Danielson's own signature elbows against him - at that point Bryan is out of it, but Nigel in a true egomaniac moment still has to put him in the London Dungeon to get his first non-count out 1-on-1 victory over his greatest rival. It's perfection from start to finish; like I said, the greatest match of all-time in my eyes. *****

ROH Rising Above 2008: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness

Bryan is coming into this match w/ a bum knee, and while it's not the target of Nigel's initial attack, it sure becomes it very quickly. They start the match off w/ their usual competitive, technical wrestling, and as Bryan wins those exchanges, Nigel gets frustrated & starts going after the knee. I thought that was some great, subtle character work by Nigel; it's like he doesn't want to go after the easy target in the knee, but he has no other choice since Danielson keeps on beating him in the non-knee related, competitive, technical exchanges. He does great work over the knee throughout, Danielson's selling is great too & the interference deals by Claudio & Sugarfoot are done very well. Bryan's last comeback w/ those fiery slaps & the elbow is one of my all-time favorites; he showed such perfect amount of fire & soul in that one. It's a yet another classic between my favorite pairing in wrestling history. ****1/2

Violent Giants vs. Strong BJ

BJW To Was Gat Early: Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama

Not quite feeling the MOTYC hype on this one, but it's four large men doing violent things to one another, so I can't help but to really like it. Daisuke's FIP work was solid - Suwama & Big Shuji were pretty damn glorious working over him, truly living up to their tag name there. Yuji's hot tag was good, and I loved the commentator chuckling at the double clothesline he delivered to the GIANTS. I do think that the match started to drag a bit when they essentially kicked it into it's bomb section - that went a tad bit too long, but it still wasn't bad or anything. Overall I enjoyed this thing a lot, but I would be lying if I said I didn't want it to be more given the hype & the two great teams involved. ***1/2

ZSJ/PAC, Rey/Andrade

RevPro Live At The Cockpit 37: PAC vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

A tad bit better than PAC's snoozefest vs. David Starr. This one at least had somewhat of a low-key tight story w/ PAC's strength vs. Zack's technical wizardry. For that I can't say this was bad, as by the end, I appreciated the psychology of it, but sadly the match was just so damn boring. ZSJ has for my money been one of the best wrestlers of this decade & the most consistent guy in the past few years, so having such a mediocre match w/ him is quite the accomplishment. PAC just isn't any interesting in long ass matches like this. He's SO dull with his super generic "heel work". Bleh. **1/4

WWE SmackDown 01/15/19: Andrade (not Almas) vs. Rey Mysterio

Loved how this started off with them trying to outswagger each other. Also loved the headlock & hammerlock stuff. Eventually the big MOVEZ & counters become the focus of the match, with them busting out all kinds of cool stuff, and it's good. It's not the kind of wrestling that I go "holy shit this is amazing" to, but Rey & Almas did it much, much, much better than many others, and I enjoyed it a ton. Almas has some very solid viciousness to everything he does & Rey is still as explosive as ever. ***1/4

Lethal & Castle kill it again

ROH Honor Reigns Supreme 2019: Dalton Castle vs. Jay Lethal

On par w/ their meeting for the title from the year before. Loved Dalton going at it w/ a frantic pace right from the get go, bringing the fight right at Lethal, throwing him around w/ a very nice sense of urgency to it. Lethal is overwhelmed by Castle's onslaught, but he does eventually get back into things. Loved him running Castle to the barricade outside in his first real offense of the match. It set the tone for what was about to come; he gets the control & starts punishing that taped up mid-section of Castle's. Lethal is really great on top w/ nice looking forearms & knees to that mid-section as well as holds that put great pressure on the back. I LOVE Dalton from underneath - he has this awesome scrappy spirit to him as he sells his ass off & tries to fight back. Terrific moment in when Dalton finally got a brief little comeback going, Lethal just RAMS him, back first, to the barricade viciously. Great psychology through & through - started off super hot w/ Castle changing up from the usual main event World Title formula, but then getting punished big time by it w/ Lethal slowing things up as he works the crap out of his mid-section. Great, great stuff. Between this & their 16th Anniversary Show match, Castle & Lethal have proved to be one helluva pairing. ****

Daisuke/Hama, PAC/Starr

BJW 01/02/19: Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Ryota Hama

Ryota Hama is an absolute unit, a very large man, so this naturally followed the classic David vs. Goliath formula, and it was a real good time. Daisuke milked the most out of his big hope spots - all of them came off as dramatic in a very good way. Very good overall work from underneath by him. ***

Defiant Loaded 01/13/19: David Starr vs. PAC

First time watching PAC after his WWE departure. This was not good. These slow paced, generic WWE style heel performances do not suit him too well, especially not if his opponent isn't doing some crazy explosive shit on his comebacks. Boring work on top by PAC & while Starr can be one helluva babyface (see his 16 Carat Gold finals vs. Absolute Andy for a prime example), he sure wasn't very interesting here w/ his comebacks. Some generic indy sequences to boot as well. Bleh. At least the first 3 to 4 minutes of it were legitimately very fun w/ them disrespecting each other, but sadly that went nowhere & after that it was all generic action from there. **

NXT UK - at least one match ruled

James Drake & Zack Gibson vs. Moustache Mountain

They clearly wanted to have the MOTY here, and as a result, this came off as a really dull workrate-movez match. Way too long, too. All the four guys were super generic on the offense; your typical "big" moves & shitty transitions. I give them credit for trying something w/ the Trent FIP segment though; such a shame that it was so damn soulless. Same goes for Tyler's hot tag. I did like the 450 Splash nearfall though, that was legitimately great. Also having watched some Nigel McGuinness matches in the past few days leading up to this event, I must say that the London Dungeon that both Drake & Gibson did looked so goddamn weak. *

Finn Bálor vs. Jordan Devlin

Loved the start with Devlin delivering a disrespectful slap, which Bálor then answered to by completely overwhelming him w/ his signature offense - he runs wild for a while w/ a solid house of fire, but then Devlin catches him with a kick to the ribs. That is when the dynamic changes, and it's Devlin on top w/ Bálor making comeback bursts. Devlin is very focused on the attack - he targets the mid-section in a pretty awesome fashion, and even when it looks like he might be dropping the gameplan, he always goes back to it w/ kicks, abdominal stretches, etc. Bálor's selling in between the moves is pretty damn great, and his comebacks rule. Also an awesome subtle teacher vs. student dynamic to boot. Real good match. ***1/2

Dave Mastiff vs. Eddie Dennis

A really generic big lads no DQ brawl. It wasn't actively bad, but it was slow & plodding as hell, and straight up super forgettable. *1/4

Rhea Ripley vs. Toni Storm

This followed a simple formula of the cocky champ dominating things on top, while the babyface challenger fought from underneath. It's a dynamic that works most of the times, but my goodness was this match dull. Never seemed to kick into the second gear, the finish was REALLY sudden & Toni Storm's overall performance was pretty disappointing; thought that she looked heavily choreographed in parts, and that is literally the worst thing that can be said about a performance in a pro wrestling match, in my opinion. Her comebacks lacked soul, came off as super generic. A very dull performance, certainly not her finest hour. Ripley on the other hand came off as a total rockstar; great charisma & swagger throughout. Solid work on top, too. Sadly her opponent brought things down. *1/2

Joe Coffey vs. Pete Dunne

This was kind of a mess. The structure felt all over the place; one moment they're having Coffey doing work over the back of Dunne, and then the next thing I know they're having generic indy sequences. I did like a few things about it, namely I thought that some of Coffey's back work was very solid - the sequence with him first ramming Dunne to the ring post while they're on the apron, and then powerbombing him off it to the floor was very good. Sadly the back work was complete filler, as Dunne didn't bother to sell it at all. The finish was also pretty awesome - they told the story of Dunne trying to go for the fingers throughout, but Coffey blocked it every time till the finish; once he finally got to do what he wanted to the fingers, he got the win. That's some solid single match long term storytelling. But yeah, sadly the negatives are far bigger than the positives - the match went on WAY too long. I say that about many matches, but this is one of the best/worst examples of it in recent memory; if they had a tight 15 to MAYBE 20 min match w/ the back work & finger stuff, this could've been great, but they wanted to have an epic instead. I understand it, but I ain't a fan of it. The nearfalls were getting pretty comedic by the end, was wondering would it ever end. Oh & of course I gotta mention Coffey's overall performance - I mentioned the back work being solid, and it was, but everything other than that? Pretty goddamn awful. Some of the worst punches in wrestling, and then he outdoes himself with those stomps that were even worse than his punches. This was my first time watching him wrestle, and let me tell ya, certainly not the best first impression of the man inside that ring. Dunne wasn't much better either w/ his bad selling, but at least his offense looked better than Coffey's, even if that's not saying much. *3/4

WALTER's debut

He's the fucking boss *******1/4

Otani vs. Hino is uniquely awesome!

ZERO1 Happy New Year: Shinjiro Otani vs. Yuji Hino

Overall I thought this was a great match w/ some pretty unique'ish storytelling to it. At first Hino isn't taking Otani seriously as a legit threat; the match starts off with him doing the sarcastic slapping to the chest after a clean break on the ropes, which then lead to a badass spot in Otani immediately going & getting the takedown on him. After Hino gets out of it, he starts effortlessly mauling Otani w/ chops & he even fucks with him a little bit by doing the facewash, but after a while of that, Otani gets FIRED UP & we get a tremendous bit w/ him eating Hino's chops, diving into them chest first - "AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE!", as one of the commentators put it. Hino, still not impressed by the old man, then offers Otani to get some free chops in by putting his hands behind his back. Otani is more than happy to oblige, and in a yet another brilliant bit, Otani had Hino sitting on the corner, Hino briefly gets up after receiving the OG FACEWASH, and puts his hands back behind his back, offering Otani to get some more free shots in. Still not impressed by him. Then things go outside, and in a major moment of the match, Hino, while trying to deliver a chop to Otani, hits his hand on the ring post instead, and Otani is of course immediately attacking the arm. That is when the urgency kicked into another gear & I feel like Hino went "oh shit, this old man is an OPPONENT after all". After that it's bomb/slug -heavy action as they kick it into it's finishing gear & one of the highlights include Otani's cool ass spinning kick to Hino's arm on the ground; very brutal looking & straight up awesome. Hino sure can throw a mean ass lariat to say the least, and the one he did throw after the slap by Otani was an absolute killer. Otani's selling of the FUCKING BOMB was a thing of beauty in the finish, too. No wasted motions whatsoever. Real tight package of badass action. ****

5-STAR RE-WATCH: WWE edition!

WWE WrestleMania 25: Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker

I adore the beginning with Michaels playing up the quickness vs. power -game perfectly. Shawn, overall, is absolutely tremendous w/ his character work throughout. From cockiness to desperation. Taker's character work is also really great w/ him getting visibly frustrated that this little rascal ain't going down to his big bombs easily. Of course the whole meat of the match is the incredible drama they create w/ the all-time great nearfalls, and it's truly amazing. It feels like a natural epic, because they built it up so well. Not on the level of Badd Blood '97, but not many matches are, and this sure still is a classic. ****1/2

WWE SummerSlam 2013: Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk

It's Punk's last real classic & Brock's last big match before he broke the streak & became the mayor of Suplex City, so it's pretty special. Both guys deliver in their roles - Brock manhandles Punk around wonderfully, sells big time when Punk is on the offense & Punk rocks the David role fantastically. It's two masters at work, and they sure ended up having one of the very best matches of 2013. I thought Heyman added quite a bit to the thing, too - especially in the finishing stretch, which was just terrific. ****1/2

WWE NXT ArRIVAL: Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn

Wooo boy, this still rules so much. A couple of great callbacks to their previous meetings, and a simple underdog formula of Cesaro on top & Zayn from underneath. Cesaro is absolutely VICIOUS; first going after Zayn's mid-section brutally, and then moving to the knee & tearing that apart brilliantly. Zayn's selling is absolutely tremendous & his hope spots are so great, as are Cesaro's cut-offs of those. It's a fantastic uphill-battle-story for Zayn, and both men truly proved why they are all-time talents in rasslin w/ their performances. Also bless William Regal. What a perfect job he did on commentary describing the story of the match perfectly as it went on. ****3/4

 

Stardom sprint BANGER

Stardom New Years Stars 2019 - Day 2: Starlight Kid vs. Utami Hayashishita

Clocking in at just under 10 minutes, this was an absolutely awesome sprint. Reminded me a bit of the great Eddie vs. Benoit match from Nitro, which was also about 8-9 minutes long, and much like this, it featured some great limb work & equally great selling. Starlight Kid's attack on the knee was terrific - that running dropkick to it was superb, and Utami's selling was fantastic all the way through. Even in the post-match. ****

New Japan classics + a great NXT squash!

WWE NXT 01/09/19: Fabian Aicher & Marcel Barthel vs. Hector Kunsman & Stanley Watts

An absolutely AWESOME sub-5 minute competitive squash. Barthel was such a delight on the offense; lovely, violent stuff on the ground - totally popped big time for him putting his foot on top of his opponents face during the beginning when he took him down by the wrist immediately. Gave me some Regal vibes. Aicher was very good w/ his power moves too, and the two jobbers were goddamn great with their short comeback bursts - such great, scrappy energy behind everything they did, in particular w/ Stanley Watts. They also bumped their asses off for Aicher & Barthel, and truly made them look like the most interesting tag going in their TV debut. Well worth the watch! ***1/2

NJPW G1 Climax 23: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii

A motherfuckin' slugfest & a half (to say the least) w/ an exceptionally explosive pace right from the get go - loved the crowd when Ishii & Shibata started pacing on their corners before the bell rang, and oh boy when that bell did rang, they just went at it w/ hard hit after hard hit, bomb after bomb, bomb after bomb. The strikes, the explosiveness, the length of the thing + the amazing timing of the 'can-be-corny'-Fighting Spirit stuff make this a real special deal. ****1/2

NJPW Battle Rush 1995: Lord Steven Regal vs. Shinya Hashimoto

The greatness starts right as the bell rings as Hashimoto immediately rushes Regal, only for Regal to evade & react to it amazingly. I think his reaction to that start really showcased the beauty of the differences in their in-ring styles. Then once they lock up, it doesn't take long for Regal to ground Hash, and then bust his nose open by brutally holding him down. After that it's mostly Regal on top, with Hash making a few explosive comebacks here & there, and it's just absolutely fantastic - Regal eventually decides to go after Hash's face because of the blood coming from his nose, and he does all kinds of mean, nasty & violent things to it. My goodness. The post-match w/ them showing respect to each other by hitting each other HARD is one of my things ever, too. Just about everything you could ask from a Regal vs. Hashimoto match, really. One of my favorite matches of all-time, and something I'll never get tired of watching, BUT still feels like it is missing something to get the full fiveski. ****3/4

Hideo vs Cedric

WWE 205 Live 01/09/19: Cedric Alexander vs. Hideo Itami

Cedric's thigh slapping offense annoys me, but here he wrestled the match from underneath, so it didn't take anything away from it. Solid comebacks by the man, and Hideo was pretty good on top as well; certainly an upgrade from the last 205 match of his that I watched (vs. Mustafa Ali) - his kicks looked real good, and his cut-offs of Cedric's comeback attempts were also cool. Dug the dynamic between the two from start to finish. The finishing stretch starting from DAT FALCON ARROW was excellent - loved the one last nearfall Cedric got w/ the roll-up, it was like his last sign of any hope left, but then as Hideo kicked out, he just gets destroyed by that basement dropkick again. Good match. ***

Shitty selling & great lucha!

AJPW 01/03/19: KAI vs. Kento Miyahara

Let's get to the very brief positives first: the match had a good energy to it, and the start of it was fine. Like the first 2 minutes or so. Then happens the major moment of the match w/ Kento hitting his knee hard in the ringpost. KAI goes to work on it for a few moves, they brawl in the crowd & Kento regains the control; Kento on top for a while, and then when they've been in the ring for a while, KAI does a dropkick in the knee that Kento hurt. How does Kento react? Well, immediately, and I mean IMMEDIATELY he catches KAI in a perfect Triangle Choke. Legs locked all the way through & all. Kento's selling is all-time bad - he makes Okada's worst selling performances look like the best ones of Kawada's, and Omega's spotty knee selling performance at the Dome the day after is some Terry Funk level selling after watching this shit. He no sells everything KAI does, and wins with his suplex, doing the BRIDGE on the pin perfectly without any problems. That was a real big turd on top of an already huge shitcake. DUD

CMLL 01/04/19: Dragon Lee vs. El Barbaro Cavernario

The first fall is all about Barbaro delivering a quick, vicious beatdown to Dragon Lee. It's awesome & continues right away in the 2nd fall, but then in the final fall Dragon gets back into things by busting out a fantastic comeback right as the fall starts. He has great intensity w/ his dives, and so does Barbaro w/ everything he does in this, really. Great urgency & brutality (that powerbomb on the apron, damn!) - truly feels like anyone's game in the last fall. They built well to Dragon's big comeback in the final fall w/ the first 2 being all about Barbaro being nasty & vicious. Intense pace & great urgency all the way through makes it a very good package of lucha. ***3/4

Kobashi/Joe, PWG HEADLOCK MATCH, 2019 TJP

ROH Joe vs. Kobashi: Kenta Kobashi vs. Samoa Joe

It gets mentioned literally everytime this match is discussed, but Kobashi's face as he walks through the curtain & hears the monster pop he received truly is something special. The match is still as magical as it was the first time I watched it - Joe & Kobashi beat the shit out of each other w/ a legendary atmosphere. Everybody knows about the hard hitting, amazing strikes in this one, but the story of Joe not showing any special-kind of respect to Kobashi, but instead showing him that Ring of Honor is Joe's house right from the get go is awesome. Loved him using Kawada's & Tenryu's signature moves, his facial expression during the Stretch Plum is priceless. Truly one of the most special, memorable matches of all-time, and simply one of the best. *****

PWG Enchantment Under the Sea: Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli

One of the most unique & ambitious matches to ever take place in the indies. It's a 15 minute match where over 10 minutes of it are spent in a HEADLOCK. The match starts off with some tight technical exchanges between the two, and then during a sunset flip pin attempt, Claudio counters that by ringing Bryan's bell, and Bryan immediately grabs his ear afterwards. Then the next time they lock up, Claudio gets the headlock in. Claudio has an awesome headlock, very tight & overall good looking. They tease Bryan getting out of it masterfully w/ him doing atomic drops & back bodydrops, only for Claudio to still keep a hold of that head. The PWG crowds reaction to it is pretty fascinating; they clearly are a little baffled by it, and there's even a few "we want wrestling!" chants by the non-headlock lovers, but overall as the match went on & Claudio kept that headlock locked in tightly while Bryan tried to fight out of it, the majority of the vocal crowd was very into it. The climax comes at the perfect time, and their reaction to Bryan FINALLY fighting his way out of the thing & getting the roll-up win is awesome. I think it's one of those "you'll either love it or you hate it" matches. I personally love it so much - as mentioned in the opening line of the review: it's unique, it's ambitious, it's ballsy, and it's a masterpiece of simple, old school storytelling. ****3/4

TJP Tokyo Joshi Pro '19: Meiko Satomura vs. Reika Saiki

This followed the classic joshi underdog formula, and it was a lot of fun. Meiko is a beast on the offense, and Reika shows solid fire in her very good comebacks. No better place for a match like this than the good ol' Korakuen Hall, too. ***1/2

Trevor Lee is the ACE

CWF Mid-Atlantic 01/05/19: Cain Justice vs. Trevor Lee

This is something that I've been wanting to see since I first discovered Cain Justice in early 2017. Since then I've thought that Cain Justice should be the one to end Trevor Lee's reign, and now after seeing them battle over it for the first time, that feeling is even stronger. This is at least 90% Trevor on top, working over Cain's arms, back + both legs - including the right one, which he apparently injured recently. Trevor of course delivers on top, and there's this awesome teacher vs. student dynamic to it, as Trevor trained Cain, and they play it borderline perfectly for my tastes. Cain gets a few hope spot submissions, but Trevor always finds a way out & continues giving maybe his most promising young student in CWF a beating. Fabulous ace performance by the man. I think there's so much potential in a trilogy for the title between the 2; I am not usually into fantasy booking shit, but I would 100% have Cain get a re-match in a few months after getting a few wins under his belt, have him lose again to Trevor, but get more offense in that one & then ultimately have him beat him for the STRAP in the 3rd one. Even if that doesn't end up happening though, I am very glad they finally faced off here, as the match sure was GREAT. ****

Suzuki-gun vs LIJ goodness

NJPW New Year Dash!! 2019: Los Ingobernables de Japon vs. Suzuki-gun

This was a lot of fun - great energy from start to finish w/ a great pace that never went down. Suzuki-gun brought the wild brawling element right from the get go. Taichi destroying Naito throughout was the obvious highlight, but all the interactions between everyone were awesome. ***1/2

WRESTLE KINGDOM 13

Beretta, Chuckie T & Hirooki Goto vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki vs. David Finlay, Jeff Cobb & Yuji Nagata vs. Hangman Page, Marty Scurll & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano

The gauntlet gimmick killed some of the flow, but it was an alright match overall. Highlights included CHUCKIE T wrestling in the TOKYO DOME, Nagata & Suzuki slugging it out & Taguchi’s great energy as he hit those funky hip attacks on Suzuki. **

Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay

These two brought the flippy stuff, sequences w/ shitload of counters & the hard hits. My personal favorite moments were Ibushi’s killer moments on the offense - in particular the Boma Ye spot was absolutely terrific. Some questionable selling, but that was to be expected, and it was nothing offensive. Could’ve done without the “dramatic” bits of Ospreay staring Ibushi when he had him on the tree of woe & then the same thing they did at that one Road To show w/ Ibushi being SHOCKED by Ospreay landing on his feet. But hey, they be telling stories™. Good match. ***

BUSHI & Shingo Takagi vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. SHO & YOH

Last year SHO & YOH had a wonderful match vs. The Young Bucks, but here they actually brought the match quality down - their offense, for whatever reason, looked really weak & shitty. Shingo destroying them with lariats in the ending sequence is the only memorable thing in an otherwise super forgettable match. *1/2

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

With this only going about 11-12 minutes, they didn’t have enough time to tell their story, so it felt like they just rushed through it. It was still good & very enjoyable, but definitely the weakest of the Ishii vs. ZSJ matches so far, and that makes it quite disappointing. Zack's limb destruction vs. Ishii's bombs commanded at least 20 minutes I feel - that is when this could've hit the level of their previous, brilliant meetings. ***

EVIL & SANADA vs. G.O.D. vs. The Young Bucks

This was a lot like the junior tag 3-way, in that there was one clear standout performer, and here that honor goes to SANADA. His dives were easily the highlight of this forgettable, rushed & generic spotfest. *1/2

Cody vs. Juice Robinson

The only saving grace of this match is both Cody & Juice throw some great looking punches. Other than that though, this was an absolute borefest. Brandi's interruptions were AWFUL & Cody's heel work was the most generic it has been in a while. *1/2

KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori

This suffered from the same fate Ishii vs. Zack did - it just felt way too rushed, and never kicked into the 2nd gear I am sure they could've kicked it to. They didn't get to showcase their explosiveness much at all, and what it ended up being was a very generic, movez showing by Ishimori. At least KUSHIDA was solid as always w/ his sneaky arm work throughout & that signature PUNCH of his. Not a good match at all though. *1/2

Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada

The pop Okada got for revealing his OG Rainmaker trunks made me smile. The match itself was very much how I imagined a match between the two would look like. Robotic & forgettable, and yet another match that never kicked into the 2nd gear because of the length. Okada going too long has been a real annoyance of mine for the past few years, but here the match actually could've done w/ 10 more minutes or so. Bleh. *1/4

Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito

“HEY CHONO, YOU LIKE THAT SHIT?” - when Jericho said that, I knew we were in for a banger tbh. Naito’s bumping was on top form to say the least - that one he took when Jericho gave him the DDT on top of the announcer table was absolutely sick. Jericho delivered a fun beatdown, and Naito’s comebacks ruled - he was very much on point w/ his work over Jericho's neck, as almost every move he dished out was targeted towards it. Him playing BASEBALL with the kendo stick was fun too & the kendo stick shots overall were pretty damn brutal in this one. Couple of very good nearfalls also. Thumbs up! ***1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega

This was pretty damn great apart from one thing - the selling. Kenny did the typical NJPW main event selling where he holds his leg a bit & then he can run full speed to deliver his knees and everything. Tana also didn't sell the back too much, but I'd say overall the positives overwhelm the negatives; the drama was great, I totally got sucked into the battle of ideologies story they told, and I loved Kenny's heel work throughout. His over the top facial expressions, and cockiness has annoyed me in his big matches as a babyface, but it works SO well when he's a heel. Such a flamboyant prick. His striking also looked some of the best it ever has - loved those slap combos he delivered. On par w/ the last two Dome main events (Naito/Okada, Omega/Okada) & the best match of the night. The selling is what prevents it from being a 4*+ one. ***3/4

5-STAR RE-WATCH: Dragon/London, KENTAFuji vs. MISAWA & OGAWA, Punk/Joe III

ROH The Epic Encounter: Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London

Love the unique character work that they lay out in the first fall to set the tone for the rest of the match; Danielson & London both have some respect for one another, but they clearly do not like each other. They tell that story pretty much perfectly throughout the first fall w/ great, competitive, tight work on the mat. The first real major moment comes when Danielson shoves London's face w/ his foot, and London has this expression that says "oh yeah? that's what we're doing?" - the match starts to get more intense by the minute, they're busting out strikes & putting forearms on each others' faces while having holds in & THEN in THE major moment of the first fall, as Danielson has London in the abdominal stretch, London yells to him "YOU'RE MY BITCH!", which Danielson then answers to accordingly by smacking the crap out of his FACE. That's when the tone REALLY changes & Dragon starts blasting London all around the ring; London is wonderful taking a beating from Danielson, as he makes every strike he receives look like million bucks. The finish to the first fall, with London reversing Bryan's back bodydrop off the top rope attempt into a pin, was brilliant too & Danielson's facial selling of that was superb. Then as the 2nd fall officially begins, London, in a great callback to the first fall banter between them, offers a handshake to Bryan in the name of HONOR & all, and Bryan accepts, but right after he had very quickly shook London's hand, he blasts him with a slap, followed by a barrage of forearms & chops. It's fairly even, awesome back & forth for a while - that is until Danielson dropkicks London's knee as he was on the top turnbuckle, trying to go for that SSP of his. The knee becomes an instant target for Dragon, as he goes to town on it. London's selling is terrific & I love, love, LOVED all of his comebacks after the knee comes to play; he becomes aggressive & super crappy. It's really great. Bryan eventually gets the 2nd fall w/ a half crab, and they bring that up a few times in the last fall w/ him trying to go for it - it created for some nice drama, and London's selling is still really great throughout the final fall. The finish with him basically sacrificing his knee in order to execute that SSP was superb. It's a real classic overall with terrific performances by both; fantastic, somewhat unique psychology w/ the character work + great limb work & great selling. ****3/4

NOAH 04/25/04: KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa

This has an awesome dynamic of two young juniors going against two established heavyweights. It plays out exactly how one would imagine w/ Misawa & Ogawa doing the work on the offense for most of the match, and then KENTAFuji busting out some really good, high energy, scrappy comebacks. KENTA using a couple of Kawada's signature moves to piss Misawa off >> ***3/4

ROH All-Star Extravaganza: CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe

This has always been my favorite of their legendary trilogy, and it's one of my favorite matches in general, ever. Amazing callbacks to their previous meetings, loved Punk's headlock strategy & then Joe getting pissed off because of that & delivering a hellacious beatdown to Punk. The whole sequence w/ Joe having Punk on the choke & the timekeeper almost ringing the bell, but Steamboat not letting that happen as he saw that Punk had some fight left him is just classic stuff, man. *****

 

THE FIRST BANGER OF '19 HAS ARRIVED

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom Fan Fest: Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Ren Narita & Yuya Uemura

OH YES BABY. I love me some young lion vs. established wrestlers matches, and this one delivered in SPADES. Right from the get go during introductions when Liger threw his mighty cape at Narita, I knew this was gonna be GOOD. The two have some neat technical exchanges to start the match off - Narita gets some time to shine, but it's mostly Liger, and it's goddamn awesome. Liger still wrestles on the mat with such sense of REALNESS & tightness, it's amazing. He just stretches the poor young lad, and after a while of that, Tiger & Uemura get the tags, and fucking TIGER JUST STARTS KICKING THE CRAP OUT OF UEMURA. Uemura has some great young lion-fire & some really well timed I-AM-FIRED-UP-roars, but even though he keeps trying to fight back, TIGER JUST KEEPS ON GODDAMN KICKING & SLAPPING HIM. It's SO great. Uemura gets a little comeback in, but that is shut down pretty quickly as TIGER DELIVERS A GODDAMN DEVASTATING KICK TO THE LIVER. Uemura sells it amazingly, and Tiger delivers another one just for the fun of it before tagging in Liger. Liger comes in & immediately throws Uemura out of the ring so he can start whipping him into the guardrail. It looks brutal as hell & Uemura's selling is really great, once again. When they're back inside the ring, Uemura gets to make the hot tag to Narita - Narita runs wild for a sec, and then puts Liger on the young lion classic, the Boston Crab. Liger's selling of this is so outstanding - he gave Narita so much and made it look like he barely survived by reaching the ropes. Bless that man. Liger then tags to Tiger, still selling his back like the legend he is, and Tiger comes & starts SLAPPING the taste out of Narita's mouth. Narita makes the tag to Uemura, who looks pretty rough during the hot tag, but those elbows he delivered to grounded Tiger Mask were AWESOME. The youngsters run wild on the grumpy old veterans for a while, but then Tiger catches Uemura w/ a leglock, and it looks like he is really trying to rip his leg off, aka exactly how submission holds should look like! Tiger kicks the soul out of Uemura some more, and there's some great facial expressions by him as it goes on; in particular the look he had on his face after Uemura kicked out of his big headkick was amazing - "this piece of shit youngster just kicked out of THAT? What the fuck?" & then he goes & delivers the Tiger Driver for the pinfall victory, and his facial expression was so great as he does that; he's like "can't believe this goddamn teenager made me use THIS to finish him". SO good. If you love grumpy old men, and I mean WHO DOESN'T, then this one is a must watch. Tiger & Liger for tag champs 2K19. ****

Bock/Tsuruta, Dragon/Ki, Funaki/Nakano

Big Time Wrestling 02/14/79: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Nick Bockwinkel

Every single time I watch a Nick Bockwinkel match, he amazes me. This was a clinic in pacing, selling & making every moment matter. Bock's performance is all kinds of great & Jumbo's babyface work is terrific. Awesome limb targeting, superb selling, fantastic strikes. Issa classic! Thank you my friend shoedate for recommending it to me. ****1/2

ROH Round Robin Challenge: American Dragon vs. Low Ki

Danielson is 20 YEARS OLD & Low Ki is 22 YEARS OLD in this one. That's absolutely unbelievable considering how good this match & they were already. There were a couple of moments where I thought some sections of the match dragged a bit, but that's just a minor complaint, and really just something that makes it a 4.75* match rather than the full 5-dog. Some of the best mat work seen in the US in this one with a great touch of grittiness and fantastic intensity to it. Superb psychology throughout, too; Danielson gets the better of Ki on the mat throughout, so Ki gets frustrated & starts doing Low Ki things aka kicking the crap out of his opponent & throwing big bombs. Love how Danielson's match vs. Daniels from earlier in the night comes into play as well w/ his eye & neck injuries - LOVED the moment when Low Ki just said "fuck this shit" & blasted Dragon's eye with those stiff kicks. Absolutely brutal stuff. He also works the neck throughout w/ nasty bombs. It's a classic. ****3/4

JAPW Smarts Only: American Dragon vs. Low Ki

It's been WAY too long since I've watched this, and I originally wasn't planning on watching it as a part of this project (hadn't rated this 5* before), but boy oh boy am I glad I did. It's just as good as their ROH classic, and in some ways even better. Once again, like in that ROH match, this features some of the best mat work ever seen in the States; Danielson delivers an incredible performance on the offense, showing great grit as every hold he puts looks violent as hell. It helps that Low Ki's body bends like a motherfucker. Those damn crosshair shots before Bryan locked in the choke - so good! His selling in the closing stretch is absolutely wonderful too, and caps off a tremendous performance by him. Low Ki of course brings it as well in every department - especially in the last third or so when they get off the mat, but it's Danielson who brings the match to that next level w/ his incredible overall performance. ****3/4

UWF 07/24/89: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano

Much credit once again to shoedate, who recommended me this match. This was just an all-out, crazy, shoot style brawl. The crowd is one of the hottest I've ever heard & that helps create an amazing dynamic between Funaki & Nakano - it becomes a classic underdog tale w/ the crowd fully behind Nakano, as he tries to kick Funaki's ass. Both guys deliver on the offense BIG TIME, to say the least, and the selling by both is also really great. ****1/2

5-STAR RE-WATCH: SHAAADOOOOOW, Kobashi/BIGTAKx2

AJPW 02/27/00: Jun Akiyama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa

Alright, after this viewing, I feel confident in saying that this is the best AJPW match of all-time. It's such a beautiful storytelling masterpiece that in many ways feels like the end of an era for the golden 4 Pillars era of All Japan. Misawa gets a little control segment in the beginning, but soon after Akiyama evades a top rope attack from him, which leads to Misawa dropping on the mat hard & grabbing his neck immediately afterwards. Akiyama goes after the neck like a shark that's smelling blood; he brutalizes the neck throughout the match w/ the stuff with the guardrail being especially nasty & vicious. Young Jun is laser focused on the neck w/ literally every move he does being done with the intent to unleash more damage to it. It's arguably best bodypart targeting there has ever been in any match ever. Misawa's selling is simply fantastic & his eventual comeback w/ the elbows & that awesome dropkick to the face rules - his facial expression when he has that facelock on is perfect; he's like "this kid is something, man" while still showing how much pain he's in. His overall performance as the ace who's getting bested by this younger, former tag partner of his is simply perfect. The match gets capped off with what might just be the best finishing stretch of all-time - that Exploder sequence w/ Misawa popping up after the first one, but then getting blasted with another one, only for him to try & pop up again, but ultimately crumbling to the mat was PERFECT. The storytelling was perfect, the lay-out was as compelling as a match can be, the performances by both men were perfect - I already praised Misawa's work in this big time, but Jun Akiyama delivers an all-time performance as well w/ him executing the neck psychology to perfection, as well as having some tremendous character work in the finishing stretch when Misawa wasn't going down as easily as he would've wanted. It's a perfect match. Pro Wrestling at it's very best. *****

AJPW 05/26/00: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

The match has one of the best starts ever w/ Takayama headkicking Kobashi as the ref is checking them before the bell rings, the bell then ringing & Takayama immediately hitting Kobashi w/ a PK for a nearfall. Kobashi is pissed off at this & as he quickly gets the brief control, he starts chopping Takayama's FACE. Big Tak gets the control back quickly, and works quite a mean segment on Kobashi w/ the stand out moment being the armbar; Kobashi sold that big time & while that didn't play into the thing immediately, they brought it up later on in the match w/ Takayama eventually focusing his onslaught towards that arm of Kobashi's. Kobashi of course sells excellently, has terrific facial expressions, showcases the perfect amount of fire & his comebacks are goddamn wonderful w/ him just chopping & punching away at Takayama's FACE. Just a notch below their 04 GHC Heavyweight Title classic, but this really is one of the best Triple Crown bouts there has been. ****3/4

NOAH 04/25/04: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

After watching their Triple Crown classic, I just had to watch this right after. As mentioned above, this is a level above that match. Kobashi delivers a performance that makes me go "that man is the best babyface of all-time" and Takayama is even bigger, badder, better & meaner than he was four years before, as he gives Kobashi a menacing beating throughout. It's one of the best matches of all-time, to put it simply. *****

 

5-STAR RE-WATCH: Tana/Okada, Kenny/Okada III

NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2013: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada

Tanahashi puts on an absolute masterclass in this one; quite possibly one of my favorite single match performances ever. Even before the match officially begins, his greatness shines - him looking up when the coin drops as Okada's long ass special intro in his theme ends was so great. Then the match starts & the real first big control section of it is by Tanahashi; he wears Okada down with HEADLOCKS. Okada slips up out of it a couple of times, but Tana always puts it back on. Absolutely loved that. Then as Okada has finally gained some momentum, starting to work a bit on Tana's neck, Tana swifts momentum back to him by faking a goddamn leg injury. It's one of my favorite things ever as he plays air guitar while showing that his leg works perfectly after dropkicking Okada on the knee. Then he goes to work on Okada's arm w/ a super focus - that continues to be the big story of the match, and Tana is seriously wonderful working the arm. Him just viciously STOMPING & HEADBUTTING it rules so much. Okada is pretty solid selling it too - thought that after Tana's first segment working the arm he could've shown the damage of Tana's work a bit more, but he wasn't no-selling it, so I can't complain. Okada's neck work is also really good & Tana's selling is great throughout - just a real masterclass of a performance by the man w/ the headlock stuff, the fake injury, amazing attack on the arm & selling. Go Ace! ****3/4

NJPW G1 Climax 2017: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega

This does not hold up at all on a re-watch. I understand why they played it like they did, but the whole narrative annoyed me big time - Okada comes into the match w/ an effed up neck & all, Omega works on it quite a bit, but still gets his ass kicked big time. It's a classic pro-wrestling "he won.. but did he really?" narrative, and it works for most cases, but here it flat out annoyed me watching it back. Okada's overall performance was pretty great - he sold well, his facial expressions were on point & all of his offense looked really good, gotta give credit to him for that, but the match structure is also just annoying in my eyes - Okada gets too much offense in for my liking & Kenny looks like a bitch for most of it. Kenny's overall performance is also really 50/50; the finishing stretch of the match w/ him just murdering Okada's neck with all kinds of vicious power moves, piledrivers & knees is WONDERFUL & comes with a great sense of urgency, but everything before that? Not good. Kenny's just too damn goofy w/ his over the top facial expressions & you can't escapes. So, so disappointed in this match. I actually had it as my #2 MOTY for 2017 when that year was over, so it's quite sad not seeing it at that level, or even close to it, anymore. **1/2