DANCING SKELETOR

MLW Fusion Episode 28: LA Park vs. PCO

It's exactly what it promises to be on paper - two crazy old men having a crazy old men battle. Their combined age is over 100 years old, and here they beat the absolute crap out of each other w/ some ridiculous spots. Hell yea! ***3/4

MLW Fusion Episode 25: LA Park vs. Pentagon Jr.

It takes them about minute & a half to get to the mask ripping, and then it's just awesome brawling w/ them using every weapon they can find in the arena. Insert some more classic lucha sleaze in it, and it would've been a classic MOTYC. ***3/4

WWE Evolution

20-Woman Battle Royal

Ember Moon's booking in this was really good, but other than that, this was quite the sloppy mess until the final 5 or so. Ember really brought it up a notch w/ her stellar performance. **

Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm

Twas a great showcase for Io & a very good match. Was great seeing the crowd get more & more into it as it went on. Very fun, high impact sprint w/ very good pacing. Io is so, so smooth with everything she does. ***1/2

Bayley, Natalya & Sasha Banks vs. The Riott Squad

Some damn solid trios match psychology in this one - Sasha rocked her FIP segment, and the Riott Squad were absolutely awesome doing some brutal work over her. The finishing stretch was real good as well. ***1/4

Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler

The dynamic of the emotional, high impact offense, babyface Kairi going against the torturous limb destruction of Shayna just WORKS. On par with their Takeover title match & the best match of the night. ***1/2

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair

Boring pace, "epic" "big" spots, melodramatic "STAY DOWN! " yells, kendo sticks + chairs & a 1 hour runtime. Also known as every WWE Last (Wo)Man Standing match ever. You either like them or don't, and unfortunately, for most of the time I don't, (there are exceptions though - most recently AJ & Nakamura had a very good one even with those usual tropes that I mentioned + Asuka & Nikki Cross had one of the best ones in history last year) and here I just couldn't get into this. A couple of minor positives: the start with Becky & Charlotte trying to outswag each other was cool and the leg drop through the announce table was actually a really good spot. **1/2

Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella

Nikki wasn't any interesting in control, but at least they gave the control to her in the match in the best way possible, which was via Brie's interruptions. Really dug Ronda's bully antics, and she was a blast on the offense, as usual. Pretty good match. **3/4

WALTER/Bate + OTT greatness!

PROGRESS Chapter 76: Hello Wembley: WALTER vs. Tyler Bate


I am not seeing the MOTYC hype in this one, sadly. Went far too long for my taste; I feel like if they had shaven 1/3 off of it, it would've been a far better match. BUT with that being said, it was still a good one - WALTER delivered with his monster offense & Bate had a few very, very good babyface moments. *** 

OTT Fourth Year Anniversary: KUSHIDA vs. Tomohiro Ishii
This is a match I've been wanting to see for years, and I'm happy to report that KUSHIDA & Ishii meshed up very well together, just as I expected. KUSHIDA was great in the beginning w/ his cocky character work, getting a few over Ishii - that rock solid character work continued in the later stages of the match too w/ him becoming more desperate due to Ishii refusing to go down & becoming more dominant. Some very good targeting of the arm, and Ishii of course sold it very well. Would LOVE to see a re-match for the NEVER Openweight Title in Japan some day. ***1/2

OTT Fourth Year Anniversary: Minoru Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher
Two nasty hard hitting, master grappler bastards having a match w/ stiff strikes & great work on the mat. Gritty just like Timothy Thatcher vs. Minoru Suzuki should be. A dream match that totally delivered. ****

OTT Fourth Year Anniversary: WALTER vs. Will Ospreay

An absolutely epic David vs. Goliath bout w/ WALTER delivering a main event level mauling & Ospreay bumping like a madman. WALTER being even more brutal than usual, because of the dynamic between him & the OTT crowd was awesome - great monster heel work by the man. The restart deal was a bit silly & they went a little overboard with the nearfalls by the end, and those things did take a bit away from the overall greatness of the match, BUT it still kicked ass big time. ****1/4

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. **