Bate vs. Devlin

WWE NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II: Jordan Devlin vs. Tyler Bate

I haven't been following the feud at all, but based on the video package, this was billed as the meeting of the two young aces of the brand, and I gotta say the match played out exactly like that. Bate & Devlin had a nice little epic, which didn't go into the overkill mode, as almost everything seemed to fit into the story of the bout very nicely & naturally. Quality match. ***1/2

EVIL & Shingo vs Ishii & Goto

NJPW New Year Dash !! 2020: EVIL & Shingo Takagi vs. Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii

For the absolute majority of this, it's your usual stuff & exactly what you'd expect from the four men involved. It doesn't do much of a thing for me, but after the double team assisted GTR (which was a fucking killer move btw) things pick up BIG TIME w/ them busting out a shitload of LARIATS to destroy one another. It rules so much, but sadly, like I said, most of the match is too much of your "paint-by-the-numbers" tag action featuring EVIL, Shingo, Goto & Ishii, and it's just not all that interesting. **3/4

NECRO BUTCHER & LOW KI goodness

ICW No Holds Barred - Vol. 1: Necro Butcher vs. SHLAK

We are only 8 days into the year & I already got a Necro Butcher match to watch. BLESSED. This was a total trash-fight-spectacle & I loved every second of it. Necro got busted open like one minute into the thing & overall he got the shit beaten out of him by the monster that is SHLAK. YEA YEA YEA! ***3/4

ICW No Holds Barred - Vol. 1: Low Ki vs. Masashi Takeda

Low Ki eats Takeda up for most of the match, and it's awesome. Good scraps on the mat & the strikes are hellacious throughout -- the finish is absolutely brutal too w/ Ki delivering the Warrior's Way to the back of the neck, with Takeda having his hand tied & all. Super enjoyable match. ***3/4

WRESTLE KINGDOM 14 DAY 2

Hiromu Takahashi & Ryu Lee vs. Jushin Liger & Naoki Sano

Unreal to think that this is Liger's last match ever. What a legend that man is. One of the very best pro-wrestlers we have ever had. This was a wonderful sendoff for him -- he got to play the hits & the youngsters in the opposing team, especially Hiromu, fired him the F up, making him showcase some of that vintage nasty-side of his. Thunder Forever! ***3/4

El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori vs. Roppongi 3K

Thought this was totally great. Classic tag match structure w/ the babyfaces getting a nice lil' shine in the beginning & then the heels taking over, leading into them working one helluva heat segment vs. SHO -- Ishimori & especially Phantasmo were SUCH compelling, athletic assholes there. The rest of the match is good too w/ the eventual YOH hot tag & the whole finishing stretch, but that whole SHO FIP segment was the easy highlight, because of the awesomely charismatic & compelling work by El Phantasmo & Ishimori. ****

SANADA vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Far from their best match against one another, but still a good one. They did the "usual", and what I mean with that is that the match was filled with smooth, competitive "technical" wrasslin' from start to finish. I can appreciate that, and the lads usually always make it somewhat interesting when they are facing off, so yea! Good match. ***

Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson

This was pretty heated; Moxley & Juice definitely put over their history from 2019 w/ the emotion shown here, and I really liked that. They sure beat the crap out of each other, too, and in very compelling fashion, at that! ***3/4

Hirooki Goto vs. KENTA

My pick for the best match of the night. As you'd expect, every strike looks & sounds pretty damn hellacious, and the overall dynamic of KENTA doing most of the work on top while Goto fought from underneath worked extremely well, I thought. Both guys definitely delivered in their roles. ****

Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi

These two had the best NJPW match of 2019, and while this, their 2nd singles meeting, was nowhere near that level, it was still VERY good. Simple & true, pure heel vs. pure babyface dynamic that works -- White was very good w/ his work on top & Ibushi was Ibushi; he took some mad bumps (unsurprisingly) & of course delivered on the offense. Will always love him entering THE ZONE. The highlight of the entire match was when he did that here & just straight up bullied young Switchblade. ***3/4

Chris Jericho vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

A rock-solid match between two veterans. Both guys have some presence for sure, and most of the match it was fun watching them play off of their charisma & personalities. ***

Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito

Wasn't feeling the first 10 to 15 minutes or so, but once the shit got going, it sure GOT GOING. Okada being a dick w/ his facial expressions & going after Naito's worked over knee was all kinds of awesome, and it made Naito's big nearfalls feel all the more bigger. On the same level as their previous Dome main event. ***3/4

WRESTLE KINGDOM 14 DAY 1

Team Liger vs. Team Sano

SO MUCH FUN! Everybody got time to shine, and everybody looked great. Was marking out all over the place. Liger is the best. ***3/4

Los Ingobernables de Japon vs. Suzuki-gun

A very paint-by-the-numbers multi-man tag. Things picked up when Shingo came to wreck some shit + ZSJ & SANADA looked good as well. **

Bullet Club vs. CHAOS

Better of the two usual faction vs. faction multi-man tags. Everybody looked pretty good with the exception of maybe Yujiro, but he didn't get to do much, so it's all good. Fale, Ishii, Chase & Goto were the 4 strongest performers I thought. **1/4

David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Guerrillas of Destiny

This was really good! Juice was a great hot tag, the 2-on-2 section w/ Finlay fighting against the Tongans ruled & so did the whole finishing stretch. Quality tag team rasslin. ***1/2

Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer

Fookin' loved this. A wild fight with Moxley fighting from beneath w/ some badass comeback attacks, and Archer was completely awesome brutalizing him on top. The big table spot was great & I loved the plastic bag suffocating + the spike-HELMET. The lads sure made sure to get good use of the Deathmatch gimmick. ****

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Will Ospreay

A couple of your usual silly Ospreay moments & a few too many nearfalls for my liking, but all in all, this was really damn good. Ospreay did a good, compelling job being the aggressor, targeting that neck of Hiromu & all. Hiromu was a real good babyface as well, with some very nice counters & that finishing move he busted out was terrific in all of its brutality. Good to have ya back, Time Bomb! Oh & the Sasuke Special sequence that is getting GIF'd to death was legit very, very cool too. ***3/4

Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito

Definitely a bit too lengthy for its own good, but I enjoyed most of it very much. White is very compelling on top, doing the damage & in particular targeting Naito's knee, and Naito, surprisingly, sold pretty damn great for most of it. ***1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi

My thoughts as of now are that this is the best Dome main event since the last Tana/Okada, and an instant classic. Slow build like in every big Okada match, but they make every headlock & all feel super compelling, and once the thing explodes & Ibushi goes into that fucking killer mode?? OH BOY. Those damn punches! That finishing stretch was something else too -- that V-Trigger got me good. What a goddamn match. ****1/2

2020 MOTYC (****+) LIST

★★★★★


★★★★¾


★★★★½

Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak (WWE, 05/11)
AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan (WWE, 06/12)

★★★★¼
Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa (wXw, 03/07)

Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak (WWE, 03/08)
Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher (WWE, 05/27)

Kota Ibushi vs. Taichi (NJPW, 10/16)

★★★★
Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer (NJPW, 01/04)

Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi (NJPW, 01/04)
Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews vs. Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne (WWE, 01/15)
Keith Lee vs. Roderick Strong (WWE, 01/22)
Daniel Bryan vs. The Fiend (WWE, 01/26)
Cesaro vs. Drew Gulak (WWE, 04/04)

Daniel Bryan vs. Sami Zayn (WWE, 04/04)
Cesaro vs. Daniel Bryan (WWE, 04/17)
Jon Moxley vs. Mr. Brodie Lee (AEW, 05/23)
Minoru Suzuki vs. Will Ospreay (NJPW, 10/07)
Jeff Cobb vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 10/10)
Minoru Suzuki vs. Shingo Takagi (NJPW, 10/16)

The Blade & The Butcher vs. Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall (AEW, 11/11)

Timothy Thatcher vs. Tommaso Ciampa (WWE, 12/06)

AJ Styles vs. Drew McIntyre vs. The Miz (WWE, 12/20)

Cody vs. Darby II -- first wrestling of the DECADE!

AEW Dynamite 01/01/20: Cody vs. Darby Allin

A good way to kick off 2020 when it comes to rasslin! This was about on par with their first singles meeting from last year. Darby gets put over pretty big in defeat & as usual, he looked real great out there w/ a very strong performance all around. ***