ROYAL RUMBLE 2022

 

ROYAL RUMBLE 2022

Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
This was a good match. They told a good narrative of Seth having Reigns' number early on, which is what the build to this has suggested too. I thought that Seth did a surprisingly nice job doing his thing; most of his offense looked nice, and there were a couple of legitimately really cool moments such as that whole sequence that started with the Hero elbows & ended with the great Curb Stomp nearfall. Reigns was also awesome smashing him around when it was time for that - this was thankfully no boring headlock dialogue Reigns, and well, well, well, he was really good. Just wrecking Rollins with his smashmouth-strikes & throwing him around with his power. Awesome shiz. Now I don't know what to truly make of Seth's cringeworthy Joker-inspired character work, but it's certainly nothing positive, and holy shit did I hate the whole ending melodrama shit. It's a pretty damn respectable sized stain on an otherwise really fine title bout. "HE WON'T ALLOW ME TO LET GO!!1" -- for FUCKS SAKES. ***1/4

30-Woman Royal Rumble
This was not a top-tier Royal Rumble or anything close to that, but as with most Rumbles, it was still solid fun to watch from bell-to-bell. Ronda was a great surprise. **1/2

Becky Lynch vs. Doudrop
One of those filler title matches with no heat whatsoever. Absolutely nothing to it. I guess they went for the classic physically bigger challenger going against the smaller heel champ dynamic, but absolutely none of it was any compelling here whatsoever. *

Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley
This sadly wasn't much at all. Felt almost like the least interesting Brock Lesnar match possible. Definitely just about the most uninteresting Brock vs. Bobby match possible. Obviously the biggest focus was in the finish of the thing. *3/4

Beth Phoenix & Edge vs. Maryse & The Miz
Completely nothing. *

30-Man Royal Rumble
This had its moments; I thought that Ridge Holland's little run was a complete joy with his terrific offense left n' right to everyone + Omos had a nice stay in there as well with him doing big monster things as guys like Ricochet bumped their asses off. There were some weird booking decisions though, such as some of the people I thought would be more of a key players in the match being dumped out unceremoniously (Styles, Priest, Theory..), and while I love Brock, him winning fell very flat. Extremely predictable after he lost the title & the way we got there was uninspiring at best. **1/2

RANDOM PURO RE-VIEWINGS

NOAH GREAT VOYAGE 2013 IN YOKOHAMA VOL. 2

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. KENTA
Going over 30 minutes is very long for any wrestlers, but I think it especially stands out with wrestlers like the two we have here. KENTA & Katsuhiko Nakajima simply don't have the material to work a compelling 30+ minute match against one another, but there's still plenty of stuff to like in this one here n' there. In particular the kicks are deadly, unsurprisingly. The sequences where they're just kicking the shit out of one another are very enjoyable, and there's quite a bit of other neat offense in there too, it's just that with the runtime & them being who they are, there's just too much dead periods of time where it feels like complete filler to pad the time. Oh well, I still enjoyed watching it! **3/4

NJPW KING OF PRO-WRESTLING 2016

Kazuchika Okada vs. Naomichi Marufuji
The first & only time (before this) I watched this back when it happened in 2016, I didn't like it at all. Now though, the 2022-me got goosebumps during the finishing stretch when Okada busted out the Emerald Flowsion. It is quite possibly the single coolest & coldest thing he has ever done. I goddamn loooove it. It certainly helps that everything leading to that insanely amazing finishing stretch was simply phenomenal as well; Marufuji was just firing on all cylinders, he laid all of his shit in, upping the brutality w/ all of his offense, in particular those chops. The damn chops. Chops are so overdone in wrestling these days, but hot damn I can watch Marufuji chop fools all day long-- especially if one of those fools happen to be the ace & king of his rival company. There's also plenty of legitimately awesome counters here as one would expect in a big Okada match, and with all praise I've given to Marufuji, I must say that Okada also definitely brought the heat. The story they went out to tell was told perfectly via his output. It's a really special match. I am glad I finally decided to re-watch it. That Emerald Flowsion, man. ****1/2

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 13

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega
Been wanting to re-watch this for a good while, and finally decided to do so. I've always been fascinated by the whole story of this match. The battle of two vastly different pro-wrestling ideologies-- it's a classic tale, and here Tanahashi & Omega did a hell of a job with it. You can feel the dislike & pettiness through their work right from the get go, in particular with Kenny who was just a total dickhead to Tana throughout. It really sold the storyline, and the nastily brutal output by both guys certainly helped as well; I love Kenny going after Tana's back, and while Tanahashi's selling certainly could've been better, I do think he does a pretty great job being the face-in-peril overall. Omega is a monster on the offense delivering the vicious punishment. The big moments where they go for each others signature-things with Tanahashi trying to splash Omega through a table, but instead crashing & burning for it, and then later on Tana kicking out at one after Omega went for a big "fuck you" by using the slingblade & the HFF-- I thought those 2 great, great moments really encapsulated the whole story they were out there telling very beautifully & effectively, as well as the differences between the Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenny Omega characters. It's some mighty great stuff. And it's a mighty great match too, the almost-40 minutes it goes just flies by. Sure there's some periods where it isn't as compelling as it is for the majority of it, and as already mentioned I thought Tanahashi could've sold his back better, but it's still one helluva match to say the least. ****

HANGMAN vs DANIELSON II

 

AEW DYNAMITE 01/05/22

Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson
Yeah, make that two in a row for Hangman vs. Danielson, then. A yet another TV-wrestling classic with no hyperbole. Much like in the first meeting of theirs, Danielson was just a complete tour de force here; he was an absolute marvel bringing the big time punishment to the champ, and you couldn't ask for a better man to put you over than him here between his always-great selling & the way his whole AEW run thus far has built up to THIS. Hangman got to escape from every submission he has established as a match-ender as well as kickout of every move he has used as a finisher in the company leading up to this bout. And you know that Bryan doesn't let his big moves go to waste, so it's damn sure that every single one of those big kickouts & escapes by Hangman felt earned. None of it was cheap. It was all earned through this intense war that they put each other through. Danielson's strategies right from the start get me hooked, and his brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT onslaught on the offense keep me there, and then you have the blood; this match is the perfect example of blood upping the levels when it comes to a pro-wrestling match. Bryan's attack on Page's cut is wonderful, and then when he gets busted open himself, the intensity & overall urgency of the bout kicks up to another gear in lovely fashion. Not to mention the cool visuals it creates. A very early 2022 MOTYC, and I suspect it will stay pretty high up for me till the end of the year. It's a perfect sequel to their first match. ****1/2

Tanahashi & KENTA in the DOME

 

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 16 IN TOKYO DOME - NIGHT 2

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA
Eeh, not sure if I can call this disappointing, because my expectations for these two together in 2022 - under these circumstances in particular - aren't very high, but ayyye, this wasn't very good. Sure there's a few pretty cool spots here n' there, such as KENTA's signature dropkick featuring chairs + the finishing sequence is genuinely fucking sick in the best way possible, but most of this match is sadly a slow-ass moving hitting-each-other-with-weapons -stuff. Like a very generic big Triple H gimmick match, and that's no good. That finishing sequence though, amazing. **1/4

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 2022 N1: the somewhat interesting stuff!

 

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 16 IN TOKYO DOME - NIGHT 1

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Ren Narita
THE KING IS BACK. Man what a beautiful surprise it was to see this turned into a full-on no gimmicks pro-wrestling match. A true feel good moment. Narita was a good first opponent back for Shibata, as he matched his intensity & aggression very nicely in this cool little return bout. Shibata played his old Shibata hits & looked as sharp as he always did. So fucking awesome to see him back. Hell of a moment & a good match. ***

Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi
Off the top of my head I can't think of a Tokyo Dome main event that has felt less like a Tokyo Dome Main Event Match than this one between Okada & Shingo right here. Wow this shit was empty. Of course it was super long; 35+ minutes (which felt like an hour) where at least 25 of it was slow-paced wrestling that said absolutely NOTHING. No interesting narrative being told whatsoever-- okay, I'll give them the moment of Okada getting angry at Shingo mocking his signature taunt, because that was pretty neat, but other than that, what was there? Absolutely nothing. Usually when I don't like these generic New Japan house-style main events, there is still usually at least _a FEW_ things that I liked or found interesting in them, but here? Nothing. Noooothing. Sure they kicked it up to the "epic" gear in the last 5-10 minutes, but I've seen both of them, in particular Okada, do that a million times before & it offered nothing new + to be honest, it didn't even feel that epic by the standards of the wrestlers or the company. And of course more importantly, the build to that section of the match was so boring that it didn't provoke much of any feelings in me. Look, I can sum this up by saying that I have seen a LOT of NJPW main events that I didn't like, but I don't remember any of them being so absolutely-nothing like this one was. *1/4

WWE DAY 1: Usos/New Day, Bork

 

WWE DAY 1

The New Day vs. The Usos
This is a tag team match-up pairing that usually always works, so on paper it's certainly not a bad way to kick off the new year. I thought that this was one of the lesser matches of theirs that I've seen, though. It was a very basic tag match, with performances from both sides that I didn't find very interesting at all. The Usos weren't grabbing me with their work on top, and the New Day's comebacks weren't energetic or explosive enough to do anything for me either. Some soulless nearfalls in there as well of course, which also had no impact on me whatsoever due to the wrestling leading up to 'em being so meh. *3/4

Big E vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins
The addition of Brock definitely helped make this match better than it was probably gonna be. It was a solid sub-10 minute bombfest sprint with no filler at all. Good moments on the offense by Big E, Lashley & Lesnar + the little story w/ Owens & Rollins teaming up was nicely executed, as well. No-nonsense fun. ***