ROH DO OR DIE

 

ROH DO OR DIE 05/31/20

Matt Stryker vs. Tom Carter
This is hyped up as a technical rasslin' masterclass of some kind, and while there eventually is some nice work in the match, it really isn't very interesting at all, for the most part. As implied though, the action gets more interesting as the match progresses, and I feel like it ended at the exact right time, given that the last few minutes leading up to the finish were easily the hottest moments of the bout. So yes, pretty good stuff by the end, but more than half of the match wasn't interesting, so it was just pretty solid at best, all in all. **1/2

Homicide vs. Samoa Joe
Oh hell yeeeeah. These two brutalize each other in very compelling fashion from bell-to-bell. Joe's beatdown of Homicide is absolutely joyous in all of its viciousness -- Joe obviously brings it, but much of it is also of course thanks to Homicide's nutty bumping; my man made those signature suplexes of Joe look so much more terrifying than they already do. Bless that man. He also totally delivers when on the offense himself, especially towards the end after Ki comes out to fire him up, leading up to his last big rally, which was some truly exciting pro-wrestling. I do think they could've trimmed some minutes from that point on though, as it feels like the match doesn't maintain its kick-ass high all the way through after that, but it does pick up pretty quickly & ends in badass fashion, so that's a minor, minor complaint. Joe is the man & a helluva underdog performance from 'cide. ***3/4

FWA/ROH FRONTIERS OF HONOR

FWA/ROH FRONTIERS OF HONOR 05/17/03


James Tighe vs. Paul London
This was a very nice opener with some exciting sequences & offense in general by both men. In particular London as usual delivered THE GOODS & probably was the main reason why I enjoyed the match as much as I did, but Tighe also does hang in there w/ him and has a few nice moments. ***

Samoa Joe vs. Zebra Kid
Kind of a famous match when it comes to the ROH lore. And it's a good one. It's a beatdown by Samoa Joe for the most part, so of course it's good, but he also sells big when it comes time to do that during Zebra Kid's comebacks. Kid's comebacks aren't all that exciting when you lay them out on paper, but I thought they worked well within the context of the match, and Joe's selling of those + cut-offs were truly on point, so I enjoyed it all. ***

Flash Barker vs. Low Ki
This had some solid moments - Barker had some nice strikes w/ his punches, open hand ones, kicks, lariats etc, and then Low Ki is Low Ki, so that section of the match was def good. All in all I thought that the match was pretty damn boring though, and even after just watching it, I have a hard time mentioning anything else that happened in it. Some super forgettable work on the mat, and while the strikes they busted out were indeed nice, for most of the time the journeys into those striking sequences were just extremely boring here. **1/2

NXT UK makes SOME NOISE w/ WALTER & Ilja

WWE NXT UK 10/29/20: Ilja Dragunov vs. WALTER
 This is one of those matches that obviously was great. It's one of those matches that obviously was great, but for whatever reason(s) that I can't even name, I just didn't enjoy it on a level that I enjoy matches that I would call certified great ones. It feels super weird & stupid to type that out, but that's how I felt when this match was going & once it was over. Maybe it's because I've seen them do this match quite a few times already, and I feel like WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov hit their peak at wXw Superstars of Wrestling 2018 when it comes to my enjoyment of the pairing, but yeah. It was great, but it really was "just" very good to me. That is not a complaint at all, because I am still rating this pretty high, but I also recognize that it definitely was better than what my personal rating suggests. A true war in the style of Ilja & WALTER, a match that should be watched. ***3/4

SAKURABA in 2020! (vs. Go Shiozaki)

NOAH N-1 Victory 2020 - Day 3: Go Shiozaki vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
A very solid sub-10 minute bout. Saku wrecks Go's arm for most of it, and it's of course some good stuff. Especially those kicks to the arm looked pretty deadly. And even when he wasn't attacking the arm, Saku still brought the goods - for an example with them knee-drops to the mid-section, which actually imo were the best offense he delivered in the match alongside those said kicks to the arm. Go's selling was pretty solid for the most part. Not the best selling I've seen from him, but solid enough for this match, and him going to town on Saku's face/head at the end to put him down was vvvery nice. Good match! Some awkwardness sure, but that was kind of to be expected, and while some of it was just plain awkward, some of it also brought some unique charm into the thing. Definitely had a solid time watching the match, all in all. ***

ROH ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE II

ROH RETRIBUTION: ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE II 04/26/03


Christopher Daniels vs. Paul London
It's probably unfair to compare this to the finals of the OG ROH Round Robin Challenge finals, but yeah, it doesn't even come close. It's still a really nice match though. Maybe the hottest heel in the company going against the hottest babyface in the company was always gonna be appealing on at least some level, and since they both indeed are studs in that ring, they did deliver a good outing. London's selling was once again on point, and the best moments of the thing centered around him selling the damage Daniels had done to his mid-section. ***

Doug Williams vs. Samoa Joe 

Holy hell what a gem. They pack so much compelling, excellent wrestling into the 12-minutes or so that they go. Williams' focus on Joe's arm was really fantastic; he was like a snake with the ways he targeted that bodypart, always going after it any & every chance he got. Joe sold being in trouble brilliantly throughout, as any time he was on the offense himself busting out some sweet stuff, he never forgot to sell the damage Williams had done to his arm. And talking bout that sweet stuff, the finish w/ him countering Doug's Chaos Theory attempt into some GENERAL SAMOA JOE BADASSERY was aaaawesome & a truly superb way to cap off a great match. Everything about this ruled. ****

WWE HELL IN A CELL 2020

WWE HELL IN A CELL 2020

Jey Uso vs. Roman Reigns
I thought that this was better than their previous match, but not by much. I wasn't a fan of how dialogue-heavy the last match was with its cheesy acting & cringe lines, and in the last 10 or something minutes, THIS match sure went off the rails w/ that stuff, to say the least. It was actually pretty hard to watch with all the super cringe lines, using shoot names n' all + Roman's absolutely cringe acting/whole shtick. Everything after the Guillotine to Jey was just not for me. Before that though, I can appreciate the physicality they brought into the thing, and while there still was some TALKING! in-between them beating each other up, it wasn't as bad as it would be a few moments later. It wasn't the most compelling action, or very compelling at all to be honest, but I thought it was an upgrade from that said previous match of theirs, where I thought the actual action was straight-up really boring for the majority of it. It was better here, but it still wasn't very interesting, and the TALKING~! ACTING~! DRAMA~!~! bring it down a lot for me, so yessir. Safe to say I didn't like this much at all. *3/4

Bayley vs. Sasha Banks
I felt like this was kind of like Sasha's HIAC match vs. Becky, in the sense of, while I obviously think it was a good & a solid one, it didn't provoke much other emotions or thoughts out of me. Just solid action all around with them making nice use of some gimmicks. Pretty neat callback to their TakeOver match at the end too. ***

RANDOM REWATCH: SAKU vs NAKA

 

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 7: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
They start it off with some nice grappling stuff -- it's certainly not the best grappling ever seen in a pro-wrestling ring or anything close to that, but it's slick n' nice, aaaaand it also comes with a GREAT sense of caution & danger, which help make it all extremely enjoyable. The match really explodes once Nakamura decides to deliver a lil' disrespectful slap to Sakuraba, to which Saku answers accordingly by going on a huge strike-flurry. It was a great way to transition into the 2nd stage of the match I thought, and everything that followed was just superb. Everything Sakuraba does has such a fantastic feeling of danger to it, Nakamura sells his ass off & they make every bigger move and submission truly feel BIG. It's some terrific Tokyo Dome worthy drama, but with its own, unique charm. I love it. Saku vs. Naka is such a beautiful match that holds up on every single viewing of it. ****

Last Matches of the G1: KENTA/Naito, THE finals

 

Day 18: KENTA vs. Tetsuya Naito
I guess I could call this disappointing, because I actually really liked their IWGP Heavyweight Title from earlier on in the year. This sure wasn't good. Long & slow as hell -- I usually don't want to use "slow" as an insult or in a negative manner, but it just stood out here how slow the match progressed. There wasn't really any compelling catch or hook to it, it was just KENTA doing boring work on top & Naito doing his usual generic comeback bits. One nice knee-shot in the entire thing, but as far as the positives go, that's just about it. *1/4

THE FINALS: Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA
This was a match that certainly happened. 'twas such a generic NJPW house style match, without nothing interesting happening for 99% of it. The 1-percent that was somewhat interesting was basically the one pretty great nearfall by SANADA. It felt like it never hit the "epic" gear that NJPW main events usually always do, which is pretty weird considering this was the G1 finals after all. I think that helped somehow with the pacing of the thing though, as while this went a LOOOOONG time, it really never dragged, even with nothing being really interesting. As sad as it might sound, it was very consistent in that regard. It's probably the main factor why I wouldn't call it a bad match, but it definitely is the weakest & the most forgettable G1 finals outing in a long, long, looong time. **

G1 Day 17 is simply amazing

NJPW G1 CLIMAX 30 - DAY 17


Minoru Suzuki vs. Shingo Takagi
Very much a slugfest for the most of it, and these two sure hit each other in compelling fashion, but then there's also some very nice arm targeting in the thing by Minoru, combined with some equally very nice selling of the said targeted bodypart by Shingo! It's actually somewhat almost shocking at how rock-solid his selling was all the way through. MiSu was of course indeed great with the attack too; he was persistent & torturous with the ways he found openings to continue the assault. The whole match was full of some badass stuff. It was a joy to watch it all unfold. ****

Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay
I didn't like their previous G1 meeting at all, so I didn't have any high hopes for this one, but I am pleasantly surprised. I liked this a lot. It's not as "crazy" as that said previous G1 match of theirs, but there's still plenty of cool stuff -- but this time it actually feels like everything has a deeper meaning to them than usually in Ospreay matches, and every bigger move gets proper time to breathe, giving them a bigger impact. That's how I viewed it anyway, and I thought it was some really good stuff. The whole narrative of Ospreay wanting to finally get one over his mentor/leader/big bro/whatever you wanna call him, was told quite well throughout w/ the urgency & desperation showing in his output. The swerve that lead to the finish was done well too. Vvvvery good match. ***1/2

Kota Ibushi vs. Taichi
This match rocked my world. I cannot believe how unique it was, while also being so goddamn simple at the same time. They literally just trade kicks willingly for the whole duration of it, and it's amazing. It's the most glorious dick-measuring contest I've seen in ages. My instant reaction is that it felt like a Tokyo Dome level spectacle, just a truly epic battle for the every lasting second of it. Very much up there as one of my absolute favorite matches of the year up to this point. ****1/2

Jay White vs. Tomohiro Ishii
About on par with their previous G1 meeting. White vs. Ishii is just about a perfect pairing, because Ishii is the perfect man to shut that overly confident asshole up. It happened here, and the way we got to that conclusion was pretty damn great. White's overall work with his always superb facial expressions, trash talk & then that focus on the knee was really good stuff. Ishii's bursts of violent attacks also ruled, as did his selling -- and I loved the surprising twist when he himself turned the tables on Jay by going after HIS knee! Awesome, awesome match. That ending was simply beautiful too. ***3/4

G1 Day 15 STUFF

Day 15: Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi
Uhm, I guess this was fine? This didn't provoke any emotions out of me, good or bad, but the "saving factor" (so to say) of the thing is that Shingo & Taichi are very good even when they're just beating each other up with their basic move-sets -- even without a bigger agenda to the thing. This was a solid little exhibition. **

Day 15: Jay White vs. Minoru Suzuki
I loved this. Suzuki was the perfect boogeyman here, always putting White in trouble & not letting him dictate the dance, and White's selling of it all was superb. The gameplan to attack the knee in the latter stages of the match was done great, and I also thought that Gedo's whole involvement was done well here, with it playing to the story of the bout pretty much perfectly. ***3/4

Day 15: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Can't name many matches this year more disappointing than this one right here. Ishii vs. Okada has been an instant hit each time they have faced each other in the past few years or so, but what they did here wasn't IT, to say the least. A couple of neat counters by Ishii here n' there, but even those weren't anything that I will remember, and all in all, this was just a complete bore. Felt like nothing of note happened for 99% of it, and goddamn was Okada straight up boring as hell when controlling things. **

G1 Day 13!

 

NJPW G1 CLIMAX 30 - DAY 13


Jeff Cobb vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Well holy shit, this was all kinds of epic. You see, Jeff Cobb's whole thing is that he is extremely powerful. And then there is one Tomohiro Ishii, who is THE toughest son of a gun out there. Putting that out there, out loud, you can already imagine how beautiful it could possibly be. And when it comes to Jeff Cobb vs. Tomohiro Ishii, they delivered just about the best match possible here. Such a great bout all the way through. Cobb looked like a million (& then some) bucks & Ishii's performance was simply masterful with the way he put everything Cobb had to offer over. ****

Taichi vs. Will Ospreay
Felt like a total Ospreay wankfest for the majority of it. I just don't care about those flashy movez he busts out seconds after Taichi hits him with something awesome like his lariat or those kicks. A total yawn, this one was. To sum it up & put it simply, I'd say that there was simply way too much Ospreay on the offense, totally taking me out of the match. I do think the sequence leading up to that OsCutter was legitimately very neat though, and really should've been the finish. But yeah, the true highlight of the overall thing was Milano confessing his love for Ospreay after the match was done. *1/4

Kota Ibushi vs. Minoru Suzuki
They beat the crap out of one another & smiled about it. Extremely enjoyable match. Some nice new ideas to the usual match type, but the highlights of the thing indeed were them just battering each other relentlessly & refusing to go down for another. Good shit. I didn't care for ALL of the forearm trading, because it's such a tired _thing_ in the grand scheme of things, but for the most part, these two were SO nasty with 'em, I couldn't help but to like what I was seeing. ***1/4

Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi
I haven't followed this Okada "story" fully (as in I've skipped quite a few of his matches along the way), but this felt like somewhat of a return to form for the man, as this was a very generic, typical Okada big match main event. Extremely forgettable first half or so, with them then kicking the thing into the next gear & having some helluva closing minutes. I thought it was perfectly fine & pretty good, but yeah, nothing standout. Seen the same ol' song n' dance so many times. Thankfully Shingo is a stud of an opponent for Okada so everything in the match at least looked good & the last third or so was indeed some pretty good stuff. Also it didn't feel like it dragged on for eternity, which can be a thing in this kind of matches for most of the time. Okada's submission finish still falls a bit flat, but Shingo's selling of it here was awesome at least. **1/2

AEW DYNAMITE w/ FTR/Hybrid2 + Cody/Brodie DOG COLLAR

AEW DYNAMITE 10/07/20

Angelico & Jack Evans vs. Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood
A very tasty looking match-up on paper, and while it didn't reach its full potential, it was still a good time. Wheeler & Harwood were extremely compelling brutalizing Evans during his lengthy FIP segment -- their main focus went into his leg once he seemingly hurt it, and unsurprisingly the FTR lads did quite a lovely number on that said bodypart. Evans was great at taking the beating, but once after Angelico's brief hot tag was done & he got back into the ring, it was like his leg was never worked over, and that is what I meant by this match not reaching its full potential. If he had sold the leg, this could've been something seriously great, because all the other factors in the match were absolutely awesome. ***

Cody vs. Mr. Brodie Lee
Hmm, I thought this for sure was real good, but also kind of disappointing because these two in a gimmick setting like this could've produced something much more memorable. It kind of felt like an ordinary match w/ some juice & the dog collar gimmick slapped on it. It was certainly good though, but yeah, nothing blow away. ***1/4

Moar G1; the first ****+ match of the tourney!

 

Day 10: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA
These two had one of my favorite matches of 2019 at last years G1, so naturally this one was one of the most appealing looking matches for me in this years tourney. The starting dynamic is very different compared to that of the bout from last year -- now KENTA is a full-blown asshole who loves to be a prick any & every chance he gets. He largely was on top for majority of the match, and I thought his work doing that was really good; the legwork was awesome, especially with his always vicious looking & sounding kicks. Tana of course absolutely rules when he has to fight from underneath; his charisma shines so much with that pride & emotion showing in every comeback bit he gets. Really liked the Cloverleaf finish too! It was a very nice little "screw you" to KENTA whose main gameplan was to target Tana's knee, but in the end it was him who had to tap out to a submission targeted towards his legs. Made all the sense in the world too, since Tana's best flurries started with those Dragon Screws. A real good piece of business all around, and a highlight thus far in the tournament. ***3/4

Day 11: Minoru Suzuki vs. Will Ospreay
On paper this was one of the two genuinely somewhat interesting looking Will Ospreay matches in the entire tournament, and my goodness it delivered tremendously. Suzuki is just in complete torture mode the entire way through with his amazing, vicious work over the arm -- all the while throwing in some brutal strikes to Will's face here n' there for good measure. It's so compelling to watch, and I gotta give credit to Ospreay too, because this was a helluva selling performance from him. One of the great moments that comes to my mind instantly is when he blocked MiSu's PK with his hands up, but his right arm was so brutalized, he ended up eating shit anyways. Then there were a couple of absolutely lovely bits where Will went into a little forearm-flurry, but MiSu just ate them all & ended up killing him with some of his own. Lovely, lovely stuff. And of course then there's the goddamn La Mistica sequence. Hell. Yes. The definition of a G1 banger. ****

Day 11: Jay White vs. Taichi
The battle between two of the biggest scumbags in the company. That's already such a lovely starting dynamic, there was little to no chance that this wasn't gonna rule. And rule it did! Whenever they are actually going at it, it's of course awesome stuff since both of these guys are studs, but where this match truly stands out & shines is the clash of personalities between the Switchblade & Dangerous T. The beginning double-stalling, the "forearm"-battle, the Gedo involvement, all such good, FUN stuff. Loved the whole thing. ***1/2

More G1 Climax 2020 - Day 9 Edition!

 

Day 9: Jay White vs. Jeff Cobb
White was his usual solid self w/ nice slimy heel work, but Cobb was just a total robot of an opponent. I felt absolutely nothing when he was doing his stuff, maybe except for the corner suplex-throw-thingy, which to be fair is always sick. Definitely wouldn't call the match 'disappointing', because I had zero expectations going into it, but at the same time I definitely feel like it could've been more. *1/2

Day 9: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki
This clocks in at under 15-minutes, which is pretty incredible considering it's these two. They've always had an interesting chemistry with each other, and they had a very enjoyable, good "mini" version of their usual here. MiSu dominated most of the thing & he was pretty compelling with it; good work on Okada's arm, some nice n' tight submissions, and of course those always-brutal looking & sounding forearm shots rule. I enjoyed the finish as well since it was so surprising & different + it completed the narrative of Okada barely surviving Minoru's brutal onslaught on him. Good match. ***

Day 9: Taichi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
These two had an absolute banger at last year's G1, and they continued that trend here with a yet another awesome match to their names. They just beat the hell out of each other right from the get go with Taichi being the charming asshole that he is, and I just love how much disdain Ishii shows to him. It's a real lovely dynamic that makes for some compelling stuff when they're kicking & chopping it out. ***1/2

WWE NXT TakeOver: 31 O'O'O'O'REILLYYYYYYY

WWE NXT TAKEOVER: 31


Damian Priest vs. Johnny Gargano
Gargano may technically be a heel who does some cheap heel stuff now, but he really is still the same workrate geek that he has always been. And this was a yet another super generic, completely soulless & completely uninteresting workrate Gargano style match. Movez & kickouts. Felt like it was never gonna end too, which is also unsurprising. Priest also offered nothing interesting to the table, as he just essentially was one of the many dance partners of Gargano. *

Kushida vs. Velveteen Dream
Kushidaaaaaa, fuck yeah. That man was completely on point here with his relentless assault on Dream throughout -- he was nasty, he was punishing, he was focused. Absolutely lovely stuff by him on the offense, and while Dream's lil' heat segment wasn't all that interesting, I thought his brief answers to Kushida's onslaught were good & his selling (of the arm, and overall too) was great stuff. ***1/2

Isaiah Scott vs. Santos Escobar
I think this might be the first time I'm watching Santos Escobar in NXT, and the dude definitely left somewhat of an impression. Charismatic fella. Him & Swerve had kind of an epic here, and while I didn't care for the absolute majority of it, I thought there were a few good bits here n' there. I liked some of Scott's arm targeting, and Santos busted out a few brutal looking maneuvers as well. An okay match all around. Super forgettable, but not bad. **

Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai
The kind of a pairing that you can always trust to have a rock solid, strong match. They did exactly that here -- had a good match with everything looking good. Candice's big heat segment was solid, as she made every move look great, and Io's eventual big comeback & the more 50-50 that followed was solid stuff, as well. SOLID really is the keyword here, because that's what this match truly was. Rock solid. ***

Finn Bálor vs. Kyle O'Reilly
The video package for this match was goddamn fantastic. Between it & the one for Reigns/Uso, WWE has been knocking it out of the park with 'em lately. I've been a pretty big Kyle O'Reilly fan since 2013, so seeing him in a big main event spot like this warms my heart. The match itself was really, really good. I thought Finn & Kyle brought a very nice amount of grit & struggle into the bout, which is something the NXT main events haven't seen in a while. Some very solid technical wrasslin' in the beginning stages, and once Bálor delivers that big spinning kick to Kyle's mid-section, the big story kicks in. Kyle sells the ribs really well throughout I thought, especially in those big knockdown moments, and Bálor was pretty damn good with his work over those said ribs. There were a few moments where he was busting out some real lame looking stomps, but then he totally made up for them a few moments later with a big irish whip chest-first into the corner or a big boot to the mid-section. All in all, it was probably some of the most compelling work he's done on the offense in his WWE run thus far. Kyle finding an opening with that low dropkick to the knee was awesome, and him continuing that attack to counter Bálor's ruthless destruction of his mid-section ruled -- there was quite a few great singular moments in the match, and one of them that stood out for me was when Kyle grabbed that leg, he was desperately looking to go for _something_, Bálor counters it into an abdominal stretch & we briefly get an awesome image of Kyle in big trouble, bloody mouth and all. Now Kyle got out of the hold very quickly, but I thought the whole little sequence there ruled. Great sense of struggle, despair & tenacity. The "big" leg-drama towards the end with the dragon screws on the ropes, and the leglock stuff was solid, even though I do think that the leglock-part of it fell a bit flat -- funny enough, I've always thought that Kyle's leglocks look a bit weak, and such was the case here. The rest of that stretch was pretty great though, and the actual finish w/ the Coup De Grace was awesome, and made all the more sweet because Bálor finished him off by delivering the deathblow to the bodypart he had been targeting for most of the match. REALLY GOOD SHIT ALL AROUND. Did I want it to be even better given the hype? Yes, but I am also satisfied with what we got, because it was indeed awesome. ***3/4

The G1 Catch Up CONTINUES

 

Day 1: Jay White vs. Shingo Takagi
Man, Jay White was just so good in this match. His attack on Shingo's back in the early going, his selling, his facial expressions & his timing on all those things -- so, so good & compelling to watch. Shingo was awesome as well; I always like to call him a "bulldozer" when he is on the offense, and I got that feeling here again when he was just running through Switchblade with his STUFF. Talking about running, I do think the match ran too long by the end of it - they could’ve wrapped it earlier and it would’ve been a tighter package, but like 95% or more of the overall thing was absolutely lovely, so yeah, I loved it. ***1/2

Day 6: KENTA vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
I have soured on Zack Sabre Jr. & his style of wrestling so much, and I don't even know the reason why. I just don't feel a thing when he is running through his quick transitions anymore, and in this match I felt like he could've done a lot more selling instead of just going to his cute submission stuff a second or two after KENTA had just booted him or something similar, you know. I probably would've loved this match a year or two ago, but now, I was left extremely cold by the action. A gentleman's **

Day 7: Kazuchika Okada vs. Taichi
I really liked the first half (or so) with the main focus of the match being Taichi's attack on Okada's taped up lower back. Taichi was focused on it, and his work over it was pretty vicious. Okada's selling was also on point, even in his initial comeback bits, but sadly as the match went on & he got more into it, it seemed like that the whole narrative got completely dropped, and that is when I lost much interest in the thing. **1/2

Day 7: Jay White vs. Will Ospreay
I have about 0% interest in watching a Will Ospreay match at this time, but decided to give this a shot since it was against the wonderful Jay White. Wasn't really a good match, certainly the worst of the now-three that I have watched where they go against one another. White got to dominate a lot of the thing, and as usual, his work doing that was really good, but Ospreay's phony selling disregarded most of that. He did the usual Ospreay thang where he sells for one second & the next second he is doing his super flipz and movez, which all were even more uninteresting than usually, btw. And even though I love to praise the Switchblade & I did mention that his work was really good, I do think that this one was one of his more "lesser" performances, as in his output wasn't as compelling as in some of his previous G1 outings. Of course it helps that his opponent had nothing interesting to offer. *1/4

The G1 Catch-Up

 

Day 2: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito
This was good. As always, the two top dogs brought the big time emotion & charisma into the match, and the match followed the familiar structure of Tanahashi weakening Naito's knee & Naito largely spending his time on top going after Tana's neck. It's good stuff & while I almost never expect good selling from Naito, I thought he did fine here. Of course it helps that Tana's focus on the leg wasn't ALL THAT much, but yeah, everything was fine from that point of view as well. Nothing great, special or memorable, but a good New Japan main event all in all. ***

Day 3: Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi
They had the NJPW MOTY 2019 & the Wrestle Kingdom re-match was very good -- this one is clearly the weakest out of the three, but it's still a very niiiice match. White is extremely dominant from start to finish - his usual arsenal of moves is a pleasure to watch, and the legwork was also pretty good here. I really liked how he used it as a way to gain the control back each time it started to look like Ibushi was gaining some momentum. Now Ibushi certainly isn't a very notorious limb-salesman, but here I thought that he didn't get enough time with his comeback bits to truly say "fuck you" to White's attack on the leg, which made the whole thing work. Some cold moments & periods of time here n' there make this feel a little spotty in its quality, but all in all I had a good time watching it. ***

Day 5: Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
You know what you're getting when these two step into the ring with one another. It's all about them letting those macho juices flow & refusing to acknowledge being hurt. That of course doesn't mean that there isn't selling, because both of them, especially Ishii, sell big when needed. Sadly though, I thought that this felt quite tired -- usually there's always some new spark & energy in their matches, but this felt like a very paint-by-the-numbers autopilot Ibushi vs. Ishii bout, and it definitely wasn't very interesting for the most part. **

Day 5: Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada
Another strong Jay White G1 main event. Not a high-level must-see banger or anything like that, but a rock-solid outing that told a fun narrative from start to finish. ***

Moxley vs Kingston

 

AEW Dynamite 09/23/20

Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley
One of the most appealing looking matches on paper that has happened in 2020. And it was exactly the kind of a lovely, badass fight that one would expect a match between Eddie Kingston & Jon Moxley to be. It didn't take long for them to just start laying it ON with them strikes & bigger stuff in suplexes and piledrivers, and it was all just awesome stuff. A pretty damn great TV main event. ***1/2