The Briscoes vs. Rush & Dragon Lee

ROH on SBG #410: Dragon Lee & Rush vs. The Briscoes

They go at it at a frantic pace right from the start with Rush bringing the fight to Dem Boys immediately, and that pace pretty much never lets up. All four men bring so much badass offense into the thing, and especially The Briscoes & Rush have their own unique swagger to them, making the already superb action all the more charming. FANTASTIC bout. Definitely one of the top tag matches of 2019. Kicked SO MUCH ass. ****1/4

The interesting stuff from Clash of Champions

The New Day vs. The Revival

This is all about The Revival showcasing their tag team smarts & superiority. They dominate most of the match, isolating both Big E & Xavier any & every chance they get to do so. It's very good & compelling stuff. Some good ol' body part psychology as well in Xavier's bum knee coming into play heavily throughout. ***1/2

Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks

A quality time from start to finish -- also including everything after the chair is introduced. The whole brawl all over the place was pretty damn fantastic, and the match that came before it was also awesome. Heated, intense action that played well off of their hot storyline leading to it. ***1/4

Braun Strowman vs. Seth Rollins

On paper this looked like an intriguing styles clash, and thankfully it was exactly that. 11-minutes of Braun being a fantastic monster bulldozer & Seth fighting against that with his high impact, speedy moves + aerial attacks. It's absolutely awesome -- a real tight & compact World Championship match, perfectly suit for a PPV like this. Best match on the show out of the three that I watched. ***3/4

WWE SD 09/24: Bryan Is Back

Daniel Bryan vs. Erick Rowan

HEY, The Big Red has his first name again! Neat. Also how damn good it feels to watch Bryan wrestle again? Feels like ages since I last saw him do that. And it definitely has been over a month since he had a match on TV. Anyways, this was an absolute banger. One of Rowan's finest, most spirited performances. He was such a good monster, full of energy + intensity, and he brought a great amount of meanness into his dominance over Bryan. And oh man, absolutely magical to see Bryan go full babyface with his wrestling, having the crowd in the palm of his hand w/ every bit of it. ***3/4

KENTA vs Ibushi II

NJPW Destruction in Kagoshima: KENTA vs. Kota Ibushi

Not as tight as their Dallas meeting, but still very good. KENTA heels it up big time here with his pre-match attack, and it right away sets up the natural dynamic of him, as the heel, doing most of the work on top while Ibushi has to come from underneath. Some of KENTA's work falls a bit flat because the crowd doesn't react to it that much (same problem I found in his G1 match vs. Okada), but all in all I enjoyed watching him be an asshole & kick Ibushi's ass for the majority of the match, very much. Ibushi is terrific from underneath, with the hometown Kagoshima fans giving that special extra something to every bit of offense he gets. Popped big for him busting out the V-Trigger during the finishing stretch, too. Quality match. ***1/2

NXT LIVE TV Debut!

Bianca Belair vs. Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai vs. Mia Yim

A very good match to kick off the show (& this new era of NXT as a whole) with. They only went just a bit over 10 minutes, which made sure there wasn't any truly boring moments in the thing. Everybody got to get some of their shit in & looked good. Fun spotfest. ***

Roderick Strong vs. Velveteen Dream

I think a more fast paced, "high impact" match would've suited them better, but this sure was still good. Roddy was good on top, working over Dream's mid-section w/ some brief holds, but mostly just slamming him down and lightning him up with those chops. Definitely brought the classic Roddy physicality into the thing there, and Dream was a solid babyface all the way through. Good match. ***

Lio Rush vs. Oney Lorcan

Out of the recommended matches from this show, this was quite easily the best one. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest either, because Lio & Oney going at it for the perfect length of just over 10 minutes sounds absolutely beautiful. Lio is one helluva babyface fighting from underneath with his ninja-like comebacks, and Oney is a joy to watch as he smacks n' slams him down any & every chance he gets. ***1/2

ROYAL QUEST: KENTA/Ishii, Tana/ZSJ, Okada/MiSu

KENTA vs. Tomohiro Ishii

This was actually so great up until the German Suplex moment where it became clear that KENTA was completely out of it. So uncomfortable to watch KENTA try & do (& blow) his spots at maybe half-speed (if even that) & then all the strikes to the face + that damn brainbuster... Damn. EXTREMELY uncomfortable stuff. I will still rate it high because I truly loved everything when KENTA was still operating without showing signs of being badly concussed, but goddamn do I feel dirty about it. ***1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Tana & Zack do their thing against one another -- it's always a good time, and such was the case here. Not as good as their most recent G1 outing, but still good. ***

Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki

Not their best match, but definitely not their worst either. This was good. Minoru works a mean control seg early on, putting Okada down with his deadly strikes & locking in some nasty holds, in particular targeting the Rainmaker arm. Thankfully he doesn't work over it too much, because of course when it's time for Okada to get back into things, he doesn't sell it at all. But thankfully indeed the big focus of the match wasn't about that; the meat of the bout was the ego-clash between the two very different characters in Kazuchika Okada & Minoru Suzuki. They constantly try to one-up each other & this best comes to show in the lengthy forearm battle where Okada refuses to go down easily to Minoru's dead-blows. It's hard to make a forearm battle like that interesting these days when they're so common, but Okada & MiSu certainly did it here. Good shit. Didn't care at all for the actual finishing sequence though, which came shortly after - very paint-by-the-numbers Okada stuff there to end the match with. A little trimming and this would've been great. ***1/4

NXT UK TAKEOVER: CARDIFF

Noam Dar vs. Travis Banks

This wasn't bad or anything close to that, but it just basically happened. Nothing memorable or standout moments to it. The only real highlight actually came in the form of commentary with Nigel saying "..seen Daniel Bryan turn inside out with a clothesline like that before" as Dar delivered one off the 2nd rope w/ Travis seated on top of the ropes. Something like this:

D-Bry sure has felt that before indeed, Nigel. **

Cesaro vs. Ilja Dragunov

A lovely smackfest with such great energy to it. Great urgency too. Cesaro was a joy to watch, and the story with Ilja elevating himself & pushing himself to Cesaro's level was told very well through the awesome action between the two. Tied for the MOTN honors. ***1/2

Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews vs. Gallus vs. Grizzled Young Veterans

Felt like by the end this was a bit too lengthy, but all in all it was good fun for sure. Webster & Mandrews were very solid babyfaces, and the two heel teams served well in their roles, especially Gibson & Drake. ***

Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey

It's between this & Cesaro/Dragunov when it comes down to being the best match of the night. This was such a good time with two beefy heavyweights clobbering each other just like two beefy heavyweights should. Very good & fun use of the stipulation too + all the wacky weapons were used in awesome fashion. ***1/2

Kay Lee Ray vs. Toni Storm

Extremely boring. Toni is such an awful babyface, or at least was here. The crying (???) bit was cringe as hell. *

Tyler Bate vs. WALTER

This sure was long as shit. And not in a good way. It felt like they went 42 minutes just for the sake of it, as it didn't add anything to the struggle or urgency of the match. Both guys sure had some great moments in their roles -- WALTER with a few AWESOME monster moments & Tyler with some nice fiery, explosive comeback moves, but overall the work by the two wasn't nowhere near good enough to warrant it going so long, in my eyes anyway. Not bad, but much like their PROGRESS match, pretty disappointing. **3/4

ALL OUT

Jurassic Express vs. SoCal Uncensored

A real solid opener. They told the narrative of SCU being the more experienced singles & tag wrestlers very well w/ Jungle Boy's lengthy FIP bit, and it was pretty good stuff for sure. Nothing blow-away, but definitely fun 12 or so minutes. **3/4

Kenny Omega vs. PAC

Kenny Omega & PAC sounds like a pairing that should click immediately, and that they sure did here. Both guys have great, vicious looking offense & the match was just really damn good overall. Got more competitive by the minute & they told the story of Kenny not being focused enough and making some small mistakes real well + that said story was also put over by the commentators (especially Excalibur) greatly, which made it all the more enjoyable. ***1/2

Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Joey Janela

A bit of an awkward beginning flow wise, but my goodness did these guys go crazy or what. Emerald Flowsion on the apron, the papercuts, the skateboard, the crackel barrel stuff -- BRUTAL stuff all around. Fun match. ***

Best Friends vs. The Dark Order

I love Best Friends, I've always liked SSB/Dark Order & I can always appreciate a good ol' classic tag formula, but this was a complete miss. Most of the match was dominated by the Dark Order, and they were extremely uninteresting doing the work on top, and as a result there wasn't much heat at all. A complete miss, like I said. At least the post-match Orange Cassidy moment ruled. *1/2

Hikaru Shida vs. Riho

Good, solid stuff w/ the natural dynamic of Riho fighting from underneath as Shida largely dominated things, locking in some awesome looking holds & blasting some very nice looking strikes. ***

Cody vs. Shawn Spears

Hahaa, this was so damn awesome. The presentation during the entrances is amazing (except for poor Pharaoh getting scared shitless by the pyro), the beginning of the match is FANTASTIC w/ Cody going right at Spears with that suicide dive & then kicking his ass all over the place, pumping up the crowd & slapping hands with kids -- hell yeah I say, that's some classic babyface stuff right there. Spears is very solid dishing out the punishment too, and the great atmosphere added so much to it + of course it helps that Cody's overall babyface work was absolutely on point. Him getting FIRED UP by those beltshots & then booting Spears' face was awesome. Also loved the inclusions of MJF & Tully -- when Tully was stomping MJF & then fucking DOUBLE A comes out and delivers his signature Spinebuster (which was as gorgeous as ever), I got the biggest smile on my face. So much FUN all around w/ Cody's amazing babyface act, the red-hot atmosphere, MJF & Tully being awesome ringside + the goddamn Enforcer coming out. Easy MOTN. ****

The Lucha Brothers vs. The Young Bucks

This was 'the usual' between the two teams, but with some added ladder spots, naturally. It was solid & I think one of the biggest compliments you could give it is to say it didn't feel very long at all even with its 24-minute runtime. ***

Adam Page vs. Chris Jericho

Sluggish pace all the way through, and while it's not the most compelling stuff in the beginning, it eventually gets more interesting & remains good till the end. ***