NJPW Battle In The Valley; Mercedes/KAIRI, Tana/Okada, Switchblade/Kingston

NJPW BATTLE IN THE VALLEY

Eddie Kingston vs. Jay White
This was an awesome, mean-fight between two stubborn ass dudes. Some really good bits of character work, selling & overall a nice slight rugged feel to the battle. Could've done without the melodramatic stuff at the end, but I understand it given the result & the stipulation. ***1/4

KAIRI vs. Mercedes Mone
Yeah, this rocked. An epic that built organically & featured two great wrestlers delivering great performances. Great armwork throughout by Mercedes, some awesome moments of that signature explosive offense by KAIRI, great big moments. A really good match. ***1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
In some ways, this reminded of a house show version of the big Tanahashi vs. Okada epic. Gave it quite the charming vibe, and I mean of course it was good. Obviously not an upper echelon match in the legendary rivalry, but a yet another good addition. ***

ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2023

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2023

Asuka vs. Carmella vs. Liv Morgan vs. Natalya vs. Nikki Cross vs. Raquel Rodriquez
This was alright. Some awkward moments here & there, and really not much to remember the match by, but I did think Liv Morgan had a pretty good overall performance, taking some big bumps & having the most interesting moments of big offense. Asuka was solid as always too, unsurprisingly. **

Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar
Ehh. The most uninteresting Brock Lesnar type of match possible. *1/2

Austin Theory vs. Bronson Reed vs. Damian Priest vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Montez Ford vs. Seth Rollins
This was actually quite a fun Chamber match! Every man involved got plenty of moments to shine & things flowed nicely from start to finish. A good one. ***

Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn
This had a lot of the Roman Reigns main event match features that suck: you get him controlling things way too much w/ spotty (in regards to how interesting it is) work on top, melodramatic dialogue of course (even though it wasn't actually THAT bad this time - still annoying tho), Bloodline run-ins, a super lame, energy-sucking finish, but goddamn it, there was still that magic in the air that this match was bound to have. There was close to zero fucking chance that Sami Zayn was gonna win the World Championship here, especially right before WrestleMania, but he still made me believe. One of the best, man. One of the very best. ***3/4

A CERTIFIED HOOD CLASSIC

 

AEW DYNAMITE 02/08/23


Bryan Danielson vs. Rush
ROOSH gets to be the best nasty, violent, charismatic motherfucker that he is possible as he delivers an absolutely lovely & brutal pummeling. A pummeling which Danielson sells absolutely perfectly throughout. Perfeeeeectly. Just a motherfucking badass match, man.  ****3/4

DYNAMITE: Mox/Hangman, BRYAN/THATCHER, JOE/Darby

 

AEW DYNAMITE 02/01/23


Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley
Quite a generic big match formula in play here, but it was fine. Didn't feel it as much as I did their previous bout, but both Mox & Hangman have such good arsenals that there is plenty of moments that I liked. Big moves, blood, big moments. A big TV-match, that's how I would describe it. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it was still alright. **3/4

Bryan Danielson vs. Timothy Thatcher
Now THIS is what I am here for. Can't think of many more appealing-looking match-ups on paper than the American Dragon vs. Dirty Tim, and hell yeah it ruled. It was exactly what it promised to be with Thatcher torturing Bryan, just wringing on that arm, hitting it hard & stretching it with holds. Bryan's selling is class. Obviously it's not the blow-out amazing match they could easily have, but it's an absolute TV-banger & more than fitting first meeting between these two exceptional wrestlers. ***1/4

Darby Allin vs. Samoa Joe
This was fucking awesome. Exactly what a No Holds Barred match between these two should look like. Memorable spots & visuals throughout. Joe gets to be the best Samoa Joe-in-2023 possible because of Darby's willingness to get completely ragdolled. Fuck yes. ***3/4