SD, 205, NJ Cup MOTYC

WWE SmackDown 03/19/19: Kofi Kingston vs. Sheamus, Cesaro, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton & Daniel Bryan

Kofi Kingston running the GAUNTLET for like 50 minutes & it not being boring at any point of it is something I wouldn't have expected to say a few months ago, but here we are. This current storyline with him vs. Bryan & Vince is absolutely fantastic, and the crowd is invested in it big time & that elevates his babyface work everytime he steps into the ring. All of the matches in this Gauntlet followed pretty much the same formula of Kofi getting beat up & making some comebacks - it's all solid TV-wrestling, nothing memorable for the most part to be honest, but nowhere near anything bad either. During the segment vs. Randy, there's a couple of pretty brilliant moments, such as his awesome "he ain't your guy, trust me!" & "stupid!" comments + I loved Kofi's Trouble in Paradise hope spot - the way he sold the exhaustion there was brilliant. Unsurprisingly the surprise Bryan segment is the best overall thing of the whole package, as the heat picks up there & Bryan is definitely the most compelling of Kofi's opponents when it came to delivering a beatdown to him. Kofi gets a few really good hope spots in too + a couple of great nearfalls & his selling of the exhaustion of wrestling almost 50 minutes was awesome. Really liked the finish too with Bryan recovering very well from what-looked-like-a-botch in the corner springboard deal. Definitely not as good as the Elimination Chamber Gauntlet, but still a really good hour of television rasslin' & killer build for the inevitable, red hot WrestleMania meeting between Bryan & Kofi. ***1/4

WWE 205 Live 03/19/19: Cedric Alexander vs. Tony Nese

They do some meaningless stuff in the first half, and then they kick it into the 2nd gear, and go all indy 50/50 "epic" with it. It's not interesting in the slightest and goes too long, too. It's kind of what I expected looking at the participants, but I still wanted to give it a shot given the hype. I'd say it's definitely worth a watch, because of that exact reason, but for me, this was far from what I like in wrestling. *1/4

NJPW New Japan Cup 2019 - Day 10: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

This felt kind of "all over the place" in the first half, but I enjoyed their work during it nonetheless. Some good dueling limb work, and then in the 2nd half things pick up & get pretty great with Zack being his awesome smug self, and Tana answering with his terrific comebacks. One thing I really liked was ZSJ subtly selling his neck from the damage he got from those Twists & Shouts. Real good stuff there & the finish with Tana basically out-ZSJ'ing ZSJ was great as well. Definitely the weakest of their singles meetings so far, but still really enjoyable. ***1/2

NJPW New Japan Cup 2019 - Day 11: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Holy FUCK! This was just absolutely amazing from start to finish. I already loved the opening lock-up, and then the match just quickly explodes. Okada being a dick is always great, and it's especially great when he does it against his grumpy stablemate in the STONE PITBULL himself. Ishii answering to that by doing those exact same playful little kicks to Okada's head was superb & then the whole punishment section of him chopping the shit out of Okada was just WONDERFUL. Okada getting things back to his side w/ that DDT was great, and my goodness Ishii sold that thing like a boss. That of course did big damage to Ishii's neck, and that immediately becomes a big target for Okada's attacks; LOOOVED the whole sequence of Ishii waking up, Okada reacting to that immediately, Ishii showing that his neck is hurting & Okada then caving his forearm into that thing. I really could just make a long-ass list of my favorite moments in the match, and for the rest of it I am actually going to do just that:

- the macho-battle with them both marching towards forearms, just eating them
- Okada with that signature neckbreaker on the knee of his, cementing his dominance by going after the hurt neck
- the great callback to their G1 '16 match w/ the Rainmaker pose -> Ishii popping up, but this time Okada was ready for it
- Ishii's goddamn BOMBS; lariats, headbutts, you name it
- Okada with one of the sickest German Suplexes I've EVER seen - dat damn height!
- Ishii with the Nakamura-esq Armbar counter!
- JOHN WOOOOO after Ishii's epic fiery pop-up no-sell moment!
- That finishing sequence w/ the spinning Tombstone & Rainmaker

What a BADASS match. ****1/2