WWE NXT 06/26/19: Io Shirai vs. Shayna Baszler
It's your usual Shayna dynamic of her being the bully on top, while her babyface opponent makes awesome comebacks. Shayna is of course really good at delivering a beatdown, and I actually thought that she changed her "usual" a little bit here, by not being so totally focused on one limb, but instead just kicking overall ass a lot. Io sells great - she made everything look very deadly, and I especially loved how vicious those throws into the cage looked due to her incredibly awesome sellin' n' bumpin'. Her comebacks rule in their fiery explosiveness too, and the two big spots (German Suplex, Moonsault) are great. All the Horsewomen & Candice stuff added to the thing too, and greatly raised the drama for the bout without coming off as too overbooked or/and clusterfuck-ish. Also loved the finishing stretch - it first looked & sounded that the heat for the match was dying as Shayna locked in her choke, but as Io showed that she is still in the thing, they got the crowd back big time, and then the whole door-slam thing happened, and I thought it was totally great. Amazing finish. Pretty great stuff all around! Really good, borderline great match, and then there's also a fantastic post-match angle, which makes the whole thing even more memorable. ***3/4
ZERO1 06/22/19: Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shinjiro Otani
The big story of the match begins almost immediately with Otani going for a leg submission - there's this awesome bit in the beginning with him trying to fully lock in his sub, but Daisuke keeps on fighting, just trying to boot Otani away, but Otani ain't giving up his hold very easily, as he himself answers to Daisuke's frantic fighting w/ a couple of slaps to the stomach. Fantastic, simple struggle that really put over Otani's leg submissions as something to be scared of. Otani sure continues to go for those leg holds, and everytime he gets one in, Daisuke's selling is just amazing. His visceral roars & facial expressions are SUPERB. I thought that overall his selling was pretty outstanding all the way through. Like I mentioned, he sold the submissions fantastically, and everytime he got the control, he moved way slower than usual. A perfect example of that would be the moment where he is delivering some stomps to Otani in the corner. He is selling the fatigue & the damage Otani had done to his leg brilliantly. And talking bout brilliant stuff, the moment that actually followed was absolutely awesome - Daisuke had FINALLY got the match under control, and as he is looking to do something to a grounded Otani, the crowd starts cheering & chanting very loudly for Otani, which Daisuke also sells in terrific fashion w/ a real look of confused disgust & anger, and then he also yells something to the crowd. Not only is the old fucker doing a real number on him, but the crowd is also not giving him any sympathy. More great moments from a match that was full of them was Otani's own comeback; he worked that crowd magic to perfection by milking them to the maximum, asking for their energy before washing Daisuke's face in. Him stopping Daisuke's running lariat attempt with a goddamn SLAP to the face was absolutely wonderful as well. Then there's small moments like him trying to lock in a full nelson, which Daisuke answers to quickly by not letting that happen as he rams Otani into the corner, but Otani refuses to have that be the end of his plan, as he wants that damn full nelson in, so he goes to do it again, which Daisuke answers again by ramming him into the corner. They repeat that a few times in a row & it just low-key blew my mind in its simplicity. That's also when it hit me that the whole match was pretty much an incredible, almost constant struggle for Daisuke, and he TRULY shined in that role. Now going back to the selling - I've read that some people thought that Daisuke's selling of the leg wasn't good, but really the only few moments that somewhat annoyed me were the bridging pin & then the top rope splash, but those didn't annoy me enough for this match to be anything other than absolute class in my eyes. ****1/2
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