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