wXw Inner Circle 9: Chris Ridgeway & Daniel Makabe vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Yuki Ishikawa
This was exactly what you'd expect from them. There's the awesome dynamic of two younger dudes taking on two absolute veterans of the game -- Makabe & Ishikawa bring some extremely nice mat work in their exchanges, as expected, and then Ridgeway & Ikeda bring the heavy hits in their strikes. It's really fun, good stuff from start to finish. ***1/2
wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 - Day 1: Daniel Makabe vs. Eddie Kingston
This was absolutely banging, to no one's surprise. At least it shouldn't be a surprise if you know both guys, because you just know their styles would click immediately, and they sure did here. Makabe goes to town with them submissions while Kingston chops, lariats & drops him. Makabe also throws a couple of HELLACIOUS German Suplexes, and then there is the sweet finishing sequence with him first avoiding Eddie's back fist, only for Eddie to spin again & do it. Hell yea this was a good time. ***3/4
AMBITION 12: Ethan Allen vs. Luke Jacobs
Going into this match, I had no idea who these dudes were, but that's what made this match even better. It's two young, hungry wrestlers wrestling like two young n' hungry wrestlers should. They grapple like they mean it w/ nice urgency, and every strike looks pretty darn great too! Fit the AMBITION card like a glove. ***1/2
AMBITION 12: Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa
Two 50+ year old mad men from Japan might just come to Germany to beat the absolute piss out of each other. What a WILD effin' time this match was. Brutal kicks, slaps, forearms, punches, headbutts galore. And then throw some viciously tight looking submissions in there as well. A Super Fight, indeed. ****1/4
AMBITION 12: Chris Ridgeway vs. Daniel Makabe
Right from the get go they establish Ridgeway's strikes as something to fear w/ him delivering some leg kicks, which Makabe sells big. It's not long after when he starts to just kick the shit out of Makabe, to put it bluntly. And it's great. Really, really great. All of his kicks look super lethal, and as Makabe annoys him w/ a lil' slap, he changes it up & delivers a much more brutal looking n' sounding slap of his own, and then quickly after that, he just destroys poor Makabe with some absolutely devastating forearms to the mid-section. Absolutely LOVED his work as on the offense here, as he came off as a complete killer. At least 50% of that is of course due to Makabe's superb underdog performance -- he really sold every strike he got hit with amazingly, and he just truly FELT like a true scrappy underdog throughout. Both guys delivered big time in their roles to say the least. Greatttttt match. ****
wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 - Day 2: Eddie Kingston vs. The Rotation
Eddie just straight up bullies The Rotation throughout, and it's awesome. I won't get tired of watching him smack & throw people around, that's for sure. The Rotation also gets a very good big comeback run towards the end, and then ultimately the match ends w/ Kingston destroying him in lovely fashion. ***1/2
wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 - Day 3: Daisuke Ikeda & WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher & Yuki IshikawaSuch a badass match on paper, and it didn't disappoint. Every interaction in the match is awesome, and the whole energy surrounding the thing was very nice with it being billed as Thatcher's last wXw hurrah before going to the E. Like I said, every exchange was some GOOD STUFF, but if I had to point out my favorite bits, I'd go for the ones between the Ringkampf fellas in Thatcher & WALTER. Then there's the post-match which is genuinely pretty touching. All in all, an extremely fitting wXw farewell for Thatcher. ***3/4
No comments:
Post a Comment