WHEELER YUTA IS FORGED IN COMBAT

 

AEW RAMPAGE 04/08/22

Bryan Danielson vs. Trent Beretta
A couple of WWE Superstars 2011 heroes going at it. You love to see it. This was a classic very-giving heel Danielson performance - if I had to describe how my ideal Trent vs. Dragon match would look like, it would probably be very one-sided, but this was certainly extremely good as well, with Trent dishing out some very nice explosive n' mean offense & Danielson being Danielson, aka the best. It was a good one. The finish was beautiful in its violence. ***

Jon Moxley vs. Wheeler Yuta
This kicked so much ass. I've been loving this whole little story between the BCC & Yuta. It's been an absolute home run, and this match was perfect for it. Sure you could argue that by the end they went into the overkill zone with the 2nd Paradigm Shift kickout, but I thought it fit the match well, because Wheeler motherfuckin' Yuta went into Terminator mode & was not going into that good night. The blood was an incredible addition, Yuta kicked ass right from the get go & Moxley was wonderful dishing out punishment to the kid. A hit in every way imaginable. This in some & many ways reminded me of the famous Nigel vs. Tyler match from 2008, where you could feel that a new star was born out of a youngster by having him go toe-to-toe (& some more) with an established ace-level star. Just terrific stuff, man. ****1/4

WRASSSLEMANIA NIGHT 2

 

WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38 - NIGHT 2

Street Profits vs. Chad Gable & Otis vs. Randy Orton & Riddle
On paper this looks like a low-key perfect opener. And it sure was quite a lot of fun! RK-Bro has their shtick down wonderfully, with Riddle taking most of the match getting the heat on by the other participants, and then Randy comes in as the hot tag, a true house of fire. Good shit. I also like what Gable & especially Otis are doing, and the Street Profits work extremely well in matches like this with their explosive & exciting arsenals as well. ***

Bobby Lashley vs. Omos
This reminds me of Kane vs. Khali from Mania 23. I thought it was solid for what it was; Omos did his basic dominant giant-thing and Bob Lashley was a solid little badass underdog. So a pretty solid little number with a fulfilling finish is how I would describe the entire thing as. **

Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn
This was AMAZING. Perfect for what it was always gonna be. Sami fucking Zayn, man. What a damn professional wrestler. One of the very best & the exact dude to perfectly do a match of this kind. ****

Carmella & Queen Zelina vs. Liv Morgan & Rhea Ripley vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks vs. Natalya & Shayna Baszler
This was honestly way better than I would've expected. Everyone involved were out there to deliver clear big match efforts, and we got some really neat spots in there with Rhea & Sasha in particular being consistently really good from bell-to-bell. **3/4

AJ Styles vs. Edge
I thought that for the most part, this was very good. A hell of a match, really. It was a slow-burner, which was to be expected given the participants, and I thought it worked extremely well between 'em. Styles is a helluva babyface & Edge looked very good being the heel working on top, focusing his attack on two particular body-parts. AJ sells like he does, which is excellently, and overall his babyface work between that great selling of his & the comeback bits, it was awesome. Now with matches that build like this one, it usually ends with a nail-biting finishing gear where they go all out, and they clearly tried to go for that here too, but that's where the match fell a bit flat. There was a cool sequence/spot or two in there, but ultimately, it just didn't feel juicy. So yeah, with a better last third this easily could've been great, because even without it, it was pretty damn close. ***1/4

Austin Theory vs. Pat McAfee
Holy hell, this BANGED. The whole presentation w/ the Seven Nation Army setting the tone, Cole going crazy on commentary all match long, Theory's wonderful selling & bumping for McAfee, McAfee's genuine holy-shit superplex, the upset victory. Everything that happened afterwards was simply gold as well. Joyous! ***1/2

Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns
This match oozed importance with its billing, video package, the entrances, the aura & demeanor by both men. This could've & should've been something so damn special... but it just wasn't. It was the usual post-WM31 Brock vs. Roman match. Signature moves galore. Suplex, suplex, suplex, Superman Punch, Spear, F5, F5, Spear, Spear. I still enjoyed it though; I would actually say that it's one of the better versions of the match, as watching 2022 Cowboy Babyface Brock do his thing, throw bombs, sell his ass off, you know the deal, it's extremely fun & feels fresh + Reigns definitely can throw bombs as well, but MAN, this really should've been something so much more. The ending in particular was so damn cold. ***1/4

WRESTLEMANIA 38 NIGHT 1

 

WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38 - NIGHT 1

The Usos vs. Rick Boogs & Shinsuke Nakamura
I actually thought that this was very solid. It was essentially tag wrestling 101; you got a good starting shine by Nakamura, followed by an okay heat seg, and then a solid hot tag by Boogs. The finishing stretch with Nakamura fighting alone was really good, definitely a very strong way to finish the match off, as it was probably my favorite section of the thing. A pretty good opener! **3/4

Drew McIntyre vs. Happy Corbin
Not bad, but about as memorable as one would expect. A passable little number, but certainly nothing anyone will remember for a long time. I will say that it was probably better than I would've expected, clearly a bigger-match effort by both McIntyre & Corbin, and it showed. **1/2

Dominik & Rey Mysterio vs. Logan Paul & The Miz
Haha, this ruled! You could see how Logan got more & more comfortable as the match went on. Him hitting the 3 Amigos & Frog Splash was so awesome. I also thought that Dominik had one of his best individual showings so far, and of course Rey was great. ***1/4

Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair
Yeah, this was damn great. They wrestled it like a Big Title Match, which is more than fitting, because that's exactly what it was. Excellent flow, big time feel, both women upped the intensity & violence + busted out stuff that you would in a match of this caliber. I loved it. Excellent performances by both Becky & Bianca in an excellent match. ****

Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins
Cody's entrance & the reaction he got gave me goosebumps, thinking about how everything after his exit from the company in 2016 has lead to this. Then the bell rang. It was exactly the kind of a "worst case scenario" between Cody & Rollins, except that it's kind of what I would expect from them. Plodding, uninteresting action w/ no interesting hook or any soul to the thing whatsoever. *1/2

Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey
Wow, what an anti-climatic finish. Other than that, I thought that this was good. Sure it had its share of outright awkward & rough moments, but in some ways some of those added to the rugged feel of the bout. Ronda always brings something unique to these big singles matches, and such was the case here. ***

Kevin Owens vs. Steve Austin
This whole thing was just a shitload of fun. Austin's still a master at his profession, and KO was a brilliant foil for him. A more-than feel-good end to this show.

FTR vs the BRISCOES is fucking AMAZING

 

ROH SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2022

FTR vs. The Briscoes
This was a pure tag team masterclass. That's the simple way to put it. No cute smarkbait stuff a la FTR vs. The Bucks, but a straight-up, tag team warfare. Intense, perfect, naturally flowing professional goddamned wrestling. Bless. ****1/2

WM WEEKEND INDY STUFF: BLOODSPORT, WRESTLECON

 

GCW JOSH BARNETT'S BLOODSPORT 8

JR Kratos vs. Timothy Thatcher
So good to see Thatcher back in action. And this was some classic Dirty Tim storytelling all the way thru. Simple & perfectly executed. He manages to smother & suffocate Kratos w/ his grappling game, but he makes little mistakes like trying to suplex him or challenge him to a strike-off. I loved it. Thatcher is always compelling to me, and I thought that Kratos was great against him here as well. ***3/4

Biff Busick vs. Jon Moxley
The juice of this match, no pun intended, is in Biff's crimson mask. It created for some incredible visuals & definitely boosted what was otherwise a pretty good match. It kind of took it from that pretty-good territory into the really-good waters. ***1/4

 

WRESTLECON MARK HITCHCOCK MEMORIAL SUPER SHOW

Timothy Thatcher vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Thatcher tried to make this different from the usual Ishii outing, but by the end, this was the usual Ishii outing. And it was that with Ishii giving an understandable not-so big match effort. I thought it was solid, but it definitely could've been much more given the wrestlers involved. **1/4

Biff Busick vs. Minoru Suzuki
Much like the Moxley match, this was a yet another example of Biff bleeding enhancing a match. This was a touring Suzuki slow-beatdown style bout, but Biff rocks the FIP role well, and the visuals with his great facial expressions under that bloody face were very nice. A pretty good match, I'd say. **3/4

AEW Dynamite: Latest from Punker & Dragon

AEW DYNAMITE 03/30/22

CM Punk vs. Max Caster
This was a serviceable match all in all, but ultimately it was pretty much nothing. One of those TV-matches that totally happened & were there, but offered nothing TRULY interesting. And that's ok. Fun to watch Punk have a little sub-10 minute tv outing like that regardless of how I felt about it being interesting. *1/2

Jay Lethal vs. Jon Moxley
This was solid. The classic TV formula of them nicely teasing that this guy who is isn't featured on TV very much, but is respected as an in-ring threat, could actually beat Mox, as he put him in some pretty real peril. The legwork was solid for sure & Moxley's selling of it was nice. Nothing to truly write home about, but a welcomed enough addition to a weekly show. **

Bryan Danielson vs. Wheeler Yuta
These two were featured in a great tag match a few weeks ago where they set this match up perfectly. A 10-minute match which was all about young Wheeler Yuta standing up & showing fire against the greatest professional wrestler to ever live. It's a classic story to tell, and I usually love it every single damn time. Bryan was obviously fucking great at his role, dishing out punishment & being a little extra-dickish to his opponent. Yuta was also awesome, rocking his role pretty damn excellently; he showed just the right amount of emotion for a match of this kind. Him stealing the Danielson elbows & then spitting at Danielson before getting his head stomped in = such good shit, my god. What a banger of a TV-match, a brilliant little angle. ***3/4