A cuppa of Shin Nihon Classics

NJPW 04/29/96: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shinya Hashimoto

This represents everything that is great about "big fight feel" w/ 65,000 fans going crazy for their ace beating the shoot style invader to restore the honor of the biggest prize in the company, IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Masterclass of a performance by Hashimoto - I think Takada could've done a bit of a better job in selling & some of his "big" submissions could've been executed better emotionally, but Hash more than made those work with his amazing selling, emotion & perfect work on the offense. Those damn comebacks. Those. DAMN. COMEBACKS! One of the best Dome matches ever. ****3/4

NJPW 09/23/81: Andre The Giant vs. Stan Hansen

I've always thought of this match as a response to the question of "what would happen if King Kong met Godzilla?" - such a wild one, it was; the psychology of Andre trying to completely neutralize Hansen's lariat-arm was fantastic - he worked it over precisely & viciously, and Hansen's selling was superb. Hansen's overall fighting from underneath performance was just terrific stuff. Both men were simply on point & produced magic to the maximum w/ their pairing. ****1/2

NJPW 06/11/96: Black Tiger vs. Wild Pegasus

This has always been one of my favorite NJPW junior heavyweight matches, but as of this, the latest watching of it, it is THE favorite of mine. Some very good, very grounded work to start off things - after the first third, what would become the big story of the match kicks in; Benoit's tight Sleeperhold. He makes it look about as vicious as a Sleeperhold can look in a pro wrestling match - Eddie's hope spots get the crowd going, and the way Benoit cuts him off just at the perfect times to get heat on him is simply masterful. My favorite part of the match is when Eddie gets his first somewhat extended comeback in after the Sleeperhold festival began, and just when the crowd is going crazy for his energetic, highflying offense, Benoit cuts him off & puts on that tight ass sleeper once again to big time boos by the crowd. Absolutely brilliant. Eddie's selling of the whole thing is rock solid, too; he would look all dizzy & tired while getting his stuff in. They bring out the big bombs in the finishing stretch, and there's some really great storytelling in there, too with Benoit kicking out of all of Eddie's signature moves (Frog Splash, Black Tiger Bomb) - which meant Eddie had to bust out something real big to get the job done, and that he sure did with that Super Brainbuster. A masterpiece. *****

Joe/Styles, Bryan/Shelton

WWE Super Show-Down: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

This was painfully unenergetic. Joe can be very good in that kind of situations though - I usually really enjoy watching him on top, but here for whatever reason, he wasn't doing it for me. AJ was straight up cringy as the BABYFACE FIGHTING FOR HIS HONOR™ - he's such a natural babyface w/ his in ring work, but when he tries too hard with the character stuff in the ring, it just doesn't work. Just a real miss in almost every department, this one was. The Emerald Flowsion was cool tho. *3/4

WWE SmackDown 10/02/18: Daniel Bryan vs. Shelton Benjamin

Not as good as their borderline great match from a few months back, but still really good. These two have such good chemistry w/ one another; Shelton was ruthless with his targeting of Bryan's ribs, and Bryan of course rocked his role fighting from underneath. ***1/4

Gresham/Lethal Iron Man

ROH TV 09/07/18: Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham

This was such a massive disappointment. Far from a bad match - it was actually pretty good, but hearing the hype & reading the rave reviews for it, I badly wanted it to be the classic many thought it was. I also really liked both of their previous matches against one another, so that adds to that as well. I felt absolutely nothing watching this one, until the first fall, after which there was a very nice sense of urgency & drama; in particular the 5-minute overtime was very, very good. Sadly the first 27 or so minutes of the match were super dull. **3/4

HIAC

Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton
Jeff inside the Cell means he's gonna go crazy, and that's what he did (that ending spot, holy shit!) + you got Randy delivering the most vicious & sadistic beatdown he has done in a looooong time. That stuff w/ the screwdriver was legitimately disturbing. Awesome violence. Certainly one of the most memorable HIAC matches of the PG Era. ***1/2

Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch
This was a very solid match match, with some very good storytelling; it was all about Becky proving that she can hang with Charlotte in a straight up rasslin' match, and that's exactly what happened. ***1/4

Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre vs. The Shield
Very good tag team wrestling! Very good structure, pacing & energetic performances from all involved - in particular Dean Ambrose was on absolute fire. The finishing stretch was very exciting & the finish w/ the Claymore Kick was legitimately very creative & awesome. ***3/4

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

I actually liked this a tad bit more than their SummerSlam match. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles just doesn't go wrong; they put something everything to everything when they face off against one another; stiff strikes, amazing selling & bumping + one of the things I love the most is how brutal Joe's submission look on AJ, because of their size difference. Awesome stuff. ***3/4

Brie Bella & Daniel Bryan vs. Maryse & The Miz

This was laid out in the best way possible. They made the absolute best out of the brief Brie vs. Maryse interactions; by the end, as Brie got the hot tag & then ran wild on Maryse, I was really into it. The only really sloppy thing about their stuff was the ending pinning sequence, but other than that, both of them did really well. And of course Bryan & Miz rocked when they were against one another. Very fun match. ***3/4

Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss

Ronda's just too good, man. Another amazing big match performance by her, and a completely different one from the previous 2 - here the match started off with her giving Bliss a wonderful asskicking, just throwing her around, much like in their SummerSlam bout. But then via some heel shenanigans, Bliss gets the control & starts targeting Ronda's ribs in relentless fashion. Ronda's selling of this is borderline perfect - she didn't drop the selling at any point, and the hulk up towards the end was maybe the best example of it; she gets the adrenaline going because of Bliss' extended trashtalk segment, but right after she drops her w/ a big slam, she sells the damage perfectly. Just an outstanding performance. Best match of the night. ****

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

The clusterfuckery in the ending was what it was, but even before that, this was extremely meh by Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns standards. **

WAAAALTEEERRRR

Defiant Stacked 2018: WALTER vs. Will Ospreay

This was great, unsurprisingly. WALTER beat the shit out of Ospreay & Ospreay bumped his ass off for him. Just great David vs. Goliath action throughout - lots of great moments, but my favorite one has to be when Ospreay started bleeding, WALTER lived up to his nickname & started targeting that cut right away. Great stuff. ****

OTT Wrestlerama 2: Jordan Devlin vs. WALTER

This was just a perfect storm of Devlin having been the ace of Irish Wrestling & building his legacy there for quite a while going against WALTER, who has become an absolute star in just a few years, tearing through the indy scene w/ his fantastic monster work. It's rare to see WALTER get booed, but my goodness did it add SO MUCH to this match - Devlin got the full on ace treatment from the fans & the commentators, while WALTER was the invading monster, who had given the champ his first pinfall loss in a long ass time. You could feel the emotion every time Devlin managed to kick out of WALTER's big bombs; one of my favorite things of the whole thing was seeing fans hug each other after one of his big kickouts. So masterfully laid out - every kickout was milked to the max, and all of Devlin's brief comebacks were done perfectly, especially during the finishing stretch of the match. A masterpiece of David vs. Goliath wrestling, storytelling & drama. ****1/2

ALL IN

Matt Cross vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman


An awesome opener. MJF impressed with his work on top - some very nice shoulder/arm targeting by him, and Cross' selling was fine throughout, as well as his flippy comebacks were very good. Good match. ***
 

Christopher Daniels vs. Stephen Amell

A pretty hard match to rate, but I thought Amell (just like at SummerSlam a few years back) looked impressive, and he clearly wanted to give the fans a show, so you just gotta respect that. Daniels is a stud inside the ring, that is for sure. **


Britt Baker vs. Chelsea Green vs. Madison Rayne vs. Tessa Blanchard


Pretty awkward in it's pacing & structure for the most part, but there were a few good sequences here & there. Tessa was clearly the best performer. An OK match. **



Nick Aldis vs. Cody
Cody winning the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is one of the coolest moments in all of wrestling in 2018. Loved all the pageantry - in particular those MMA style walkouts popped me big time. The actual match was really good, too. Aldis did most of the work on top, as Cody was 200% the babyface here in this setting, and it worked. Aldis was really good working the heat, specifically targeting the back, which Cody sold greatly. His overall babyface performance was pretty damn awesome. Very good match. ***1/2

Hangman Page vs. Joey Janela
Some absolutely insane spots in this one - Joey Janela sure is one crazy ass mofo. Overall a good one, with a bit of an awkward pacing for the first half or so. ***

Jay Lethal vs. Flip Gordon

This sure wasn't good. Seeing the Black Machismo back in action was fun & all, but as the match went on, the gimmick took away from the flow of it. Not that there was much of that without it either, though. Flip was just absolutely awful in this one. *1/2

Kenny Omega vs. Penta El Zero

A very generic back & forth stuff, with both guys doing their shtick & "greatest hits". Wasn't much of a good match, never really clicked for me. It certainly was far from a bad match though. **1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll

This had it's moments of dullness, but overall I thought it was a good match that told the story of Marty having something to prove against THE Heavyweight in Kazuchika Okada very well. The ending was pretty badass. ***

The Golden Elite vs. Bandido, Rey Fenix & Rey Mysterio

After reading the reports of this one being cut short due to a few matches before going overtime, it truly was clear as I was watching it. Started off pretty rough w/ stuff that felt overly choreographed & there wasn't much of a flow. Once the Ibushi vs. Mysterio standoff happened though, that's when things got good. Flips, flips & some more flips. While the match being cut short did bring out a few negatives in the match, it also had a good effect in it, as in it helped to give it a nice sense of urgency when they started to go crazy with all the dives. Very good match! ***1/2

Darby/Riddle, WALTER/Ishii, 205 Tornado Tag

EVOLVE 110: Darby Allin vs. Matt Riddle
I haven't watched a Matt Riddle match since the OTT one vs. Ospreay - he has picked up some annoying indy tendencies in the last 1.5 years or so & that was a match that highlighted that, but here he was 100% THE Matt Riddle that instantly became one of my favorites in 2016. He's on his way out of the independents, but before that he wanted to make sure that Darby Allin will never forget his name - he gave Darby a vicious beating, that only got more & more brutal as Darby kept on surviving. There's nobody in wrestling who takes a beating like Darby, so Matt Riddle in his most vicious form vs. him is an instant hit. ****

RevPro Summer Sizzler 2018: Tomohiro Ishii vs. WALTER
They went with the Ishii underdog formula & it worked very well, with WALTER on top for majority of the match. He chopped the shit out of Ishii & Ishii's selling was glorious as usual. Very good stuff. Badass post-match moment too with WALTER wanting a handshake, but Ishii refusing to give him one & asking for a chop instead, and even after receiving one, a very deadly one from WALTER, still refusing to shake his hand. ***1/2

WWE 205 Live 08/21/18: Buddy Murphy & Tony Nese vs. Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado

Very good stuff here. Really fun dynamic with Murphy & Nese dominating w/ their power advantage, doing some nasty work over the Lucha House Party, and then the Lucha lads, in particular Gran Metalik, busting out some really awesome, flippy comebacks. ***1/2