NJPW New Japan Cup - Day 5: Taichi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
There are some very silly things in this like Taichi no selling a
piledriver, but overall it was a good match that told a good story.
Taichi at first is looking to be the cheating scumbag that he is, but as
Ishii keeps on talking shit & challenging him, something changes
& he drops the cheating shtick to show that he can hang with Ishii
& his bulldozer style. They trade a lot of strikes throughout;
Taichi with his kicks & Ishii with his chops. It's all pretty brutal
stuff. Then as Ishii isn't going down to Taichi's signature bombs, the
Dangerous T goes back to his cheating ways, as he realizes he probably
can't beat the man, straight up. As I said, indeed a good match overall
w/ some solid storytelling throughout. ***1/4
NJPW New Japan Cup - Day 6: Lance Archer vs. Will Ospreay
Definitely one of the most memorable matches Lance Archer has been involved in. Ospreay bumps like a madman for him from start to finish, and makes every power move of his look extra brutal by getting insane height on them. It's a good one. ***1/4
wXw Inner Circle 7: Shigehiro Irie & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Timothy Thatcher & WALTER
The grappling between Thatcher & Ishikawa is definitely the highlight of the match for me; great teaser for the singles match that happened a few days later & overall just great, great stuff. Thatcher puts all of Ishikawa's holds over big time with his fantastic facial expressions, and Ishikawa of course looks like a killer just schooling both Thatcher & WALTER on the mat. And just when I was thinking that Irie had been left kind of in the background of the match, out he comes & does some real compelling work on the mat against the Ringkampf lads. A really good match; maybe a bit too lengthy, but they filled like 99% of it with some real good wrestling. ***1/2
wXw AMBITION 10: Timothy Thatcher vs. Yuki Ishikawa
This was absolutely fantastic. There's a fun "dad vs. son" dynamic to the thing, with Thatcher taking on the man he idolizes & someone who he has trained under a bit. The matwork is fantastic as expected, and they tell the story of Ishikawa pretty much owning Thatcher there, which then lead to Thatcher having to resort to some brutal strikes to try and get the advantage. Much like in the Inner Circle tag, Thatchman puts all of Ishikawa's work over big time by selling every hold like they're killing him. It of course helps that all of Ishikawa's holds look uncomfortable & brutal as hell. ****1/4
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