40) Angelico & Jack Evans vs. Chuck Taylor & Trent - AEW 05/25
I was just smiling from ear-to-ear watching this. Jack Evans was his timeless self w/ that freaky athleticism & swagger, and the man sure doesn't stop running his mouth, and I LOVE him for it. And while his tag partner Angelico has never really done anything for me, I was quite surprised by how GREAT he was here -- all of his strikes looked viciously awesome, and he busted out some neat submissions too. Excalibur informing the viewers that he has done some training under Negro Navarro certainly made those even more neat. Best Friends were excellent as well, especially Trent who gave a casual reminder to why he is one of the current FIP greats in wrestling. EVERYBODY WAS ON POINT. SO MUCH FUN!
I was just smiling from ear-to-ear watching this. Jack Evans was his timeless self w/ that freaky athleticism & swagger, and the man sure doesn't stop running his mouth, and I LOVE him for it. And while his tag partner Angelico has never really done anything for me, I was quite surprised by how GREAT he was here -- all of his strikes looked viciously awesome, and he busted out some neat submissions too. Excalibur informing the viewers that he has done some training under Negro Navarro certainly made those even more neat. Best Friends were excellent as well, especially Trent who gave a casual reminder to why he is one of the current FIP greats in wrestling. EVERYBODY WAS ON POINT. SO MUCH FUN!
39) Hideki Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher - GCW 04/04
A legit dream match that delivered. Great back & forth grappling throughout, with lots of little things to love, as I've come to expect by both guys. The slugfest portions of the thing rule big time too, and I especially loved Hideki's disrespectful little STOMPS & KICKS.
A legit dream match that delivered. Great back & forth grappling throughout, with lots of little things to love, as I've come to expect by both guys. The slugfest portions of the thing rule big time too, and I especially loved Hideki's disrespectful little STOMPS & KICKS.
38) El Barbaro Cavernario vs. Titan - CMLL 02/22
This builds so fantastically from fall to fall. Barbaro makes quick work of Titan to get the first one, and then in the 2nd fall, he delivers a vicious beatdown to Titan throughout, but Titan makes a wonderful comeback to even things out. The first two falls were already great, but then in the 3rd one, they go all out; Titan is a house of fire to start it off, and there's plenty of awesomely impactful & vicious looking dives. Barbaro in particular makes everything look nasty from suplexes to dropkicks to those aforementioned DIVES. His cutoffs of Titan's offense bursts were great. So was the match overall.
This builds so fantastically from fall to fall. Barbaro makes quick work of Titan to get the first one, and then in the 2nd fall, he delivers a vicious beatdown to Titan throughout, but Titan makes a wonderful comeback to even things out. The first two falls were already great, but then in the 3rd one, they go all out; Titan is a house of fire to start it off, and there's plenty of awesomely impactful & vicious looking dives. Barbaro in particular makes everything look nasty from suplexes to dropkicks to those aforementioned DIVES. His cutoffs of Titan's offense bursts were great. So was the match overall.
37) Eddie Kingston vs. Thomas Shire - HMW 03/01
This is Eddie doing his Kings Road tribute shtick, and it's fucking
awesome. His opponent captivates too in my first time watching him;
Thomas Shire is a tall, lanky dude, who is apparently trained by Dory
Funk Jr. He does a lot of sweet suplexes + uppercuts, sells well &
overall puts on a pretty great fighting from underneath performance, as
Eddie just keeps on brutalizing him in an EXTREMELY compelling fashion.
Badass scrap.
36) Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston - WWE 05/06
Bryan's return to the ring after a one month absence, after he had lost the title to Kofi at Mania. It's an absolute banger with him delivering great punishment to Kofi's arm throughout, which Kofi sells greatly throughout, with some truly excellent "single-selling-moments" in there. Loved the finishing stretch too in all of its simplicity & low-key ruggedness.
36) Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston - WWE 05/06
Bryan's return to the ring after a one month absence, after he had lost the title to Kofi at Mania. It's an absolute banger with him delivering great punishment to Kofi's arm throughout, which Kofi sells greatly throughout, with some truly excellent "single-selling-moments" in there. Loved the finishing stretch too in all of its simplicity & low-key ruggedness.
35) Daniel Bryan vs. Kevin Owens vs. Mustafa Ali - WWE 03/10
This was a great three way dance. Just great spotfest action, with some great bursts of 1-on-1 action, especially by Bryan, in between the big spots. Bryan was great with everything he did, receiving & giving an asskicking, Ali was in his element bumping like a maniac & busting out those gorgeously vicious dives of his & these kind of matches definitely fit Owens' move-set & wrestling style very well. And of course -- dat finish!
This was a great three way dance. Just great spotfest action, with some great bursts of 1-on-1 action, especially by Bryan, in between the big spots. Bryan was great with everything he did, receiving & giving an asskicking, Ali was in his element bumping like a maniac & busting out those gorgeously vicious dives of his & these kind of matches definitely fit Owens' move-set & wrestling style very well. And of course -- dat finish!
34) Dalton Castle vs. Jay Lethal - ROH 01/13
Great psychology through & through -- started off super hot w/ Castle
changing up from the usual main event World Title formula, but then
getting punished big time by it w/ Lethal slowing things up as he works
the crap out of his mid-section. Great, great stuff. Between this &
their 16th Anniversary Show match, Castle & Lethal have proved to be
one helluva pairing.
33) Shinjiro Otani vs. Yuji Hino - ZERO1 01/01
I thought this was a great match w/ some pretty unique'ish storytelling to it. At first Hino isn't taking Otani seriously as a legit threat; the match starts off with him doing the sarcastic slapping to the chest after a clean break on the ropes, which then lead to a badass spot in Otani immediately going & getting the takedown on him. After Hino gets out of it, he starts effortlessly mauling Otani w/ chops & he even fucks with him a little bit by doing the facewash, but after a while of that, Otani gets FIRED UP & we get a tremendous bit w/ him eating Hino's chops, diving into them chest first - "AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE!", as one of the commentators put it. Hino, still not impressed by the old man, then offers Otani to get some free chops in by putting his hands behind his back. Otani is more than happy to oblige, and in a yet another brilliant bit, Otani had Hino sitting on the corner, Hino briefly gets up after receiving the OG FACEWASH, and puts his hands back behind his back, offering Otani to get some more free shots in. Still not impressed by him. Then things go outside, and in a major moment of the match, Hino, while trying to deliver a chop to Otani, hits his hand on the ring post instead, and Otani is of course immediately attacking the arm. That is when the urgency kicked into another gear & I feel like Hino went "oh shit, this old man is an OPPONENT after all". After that it's bomb/slug -heavy action as they kick it into it's finishing gear & one of the highlights include Otani's cool ass spinning kick to Hino's arm on the ground; very brutal looking & straight up awesome. Hino sure can throw a mean ass lariat to say the least, and the one he did throw after the slap by Otani was an absolute killer. Otani's selling of the FUCKING BOMB was a thing of beauty in the finish, too. No wasted motions whatsoever. Real tight package of badass action.
I thought this was a great match w/ some pretty unique'ish storytelling to it. At first Hino isn't taking Otani seriously as a legit threat; the match starts off with him doing the sarcastic slapping to the chest after a clean break on the ropes, which then lead to a badass spot in Otani immediately going & getting the takedown on him. After Hino gets out of it, he starts effortlessly mauling Otani w/ chops & he even fucks with him a little bit by doing the facewash, but after a while of that, Otani gets FIRED UP & we get a tremendous bit w/ him eating Hino's chops, diving into them chest first - "AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE!", as one of the commentators put it. Hino, still not impressed by the old man, then offers Otani to get some free chops in by putting his hands behind his back. Otani is more than happy to oblige, and in a yet another brilliant bit, Otani had Hino sitting on the corner, Hino briefly gets up after receiving the OG FACEWASH, and puts his hands back behind his back, offering Otani to get some more free shots in. Still not impressed by him. Then things go outside, and in a major moment of the match, Hino, while trying to deliver a chop to Otani, hits his hand on the ring post instead, and Otani is of course immediately attacking the arm. That is when the urgency kicked into another gear & I feel like Hino went "oh shit, this old man is an OPPONENT after all". After that it's bomb/slug -heavy action as they kick it into it's finishing gear & one of the highlights include Otani's cool ass spinning kick to Hino's arm on the ground; very brutal looking & straight up awesome. Hino sure can throw a mean ass lariat to say the least, and the one he did throw after the slap by Otani was an absolute killer. Otani's selling of the FUCKING BOMB was a thing of beauty in the finish, too. No wasted motions whatsoever. Real tight package of badass action.
32) Starlight Kid vs. Utami Hayashishita - Stardom 01/03
Clocking in at just under 10 minutes, this was an absolutely awesome
sprint. Reminded me a bit of the great Eddie vs. Benoit match from
Nitro, which was also about 8-9 minutes long, and much like this,
it featured some great limb work & equally great selling. Starlight
Kid's attack on the knee was terrific -- that running dropkick to it was
superb, and Utami's selling was fantastic all the way through. Even in
the post-match.31) Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Ren Narita & Yuya Uemura - NJPW 01/03
If you love grumpy old men, and I mean WHO DOESN'T, then this one is a must watch. I LOVED IT SO MUCH AHHHH -- Tiger & Liger are such an epic old man duo beating the fuck out of these youngsters who think they're hot shit.
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