2014 Ongoing Match of the Year...Or IS It!? YOU Decide!

So, Phil and I recently watched a 2014 pro wrestling match. I really enjoyed it. Phil enjoyed it, but (rightly) felt that one of the participants brought nothing to the table and the match as a whole wasn't good enough to make our 2014 MOTY list. I thought it should definitely be on our list. Since this is a partnership, we both have to turn our keys on a match for it to make it on the list. We don't often disagree on pro wrestling, so this situation hasn't come up much. So we spoke, and decided that we would let you, the readers, decide whether or not the following match is indeed worthy of inclusion on our 2014 MOTY list. Watch the match, read my fair review, leave a comment saying why you think I'm correct or why you think Phil is correct and how dare I step out of line by disagreeing with him. If you think it goes on, it will be our new gatekeeper at the bottom of the list. If you think it stinks, then at least we all got to watch an awesome fat guy performance. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!


Akebono v. Go Shiozaki AJPW 2/23

I've been out of the puro scene for a couple years. Out of the All Japan scene. Out of the Triple Crown scene. If there was any sort of scene centered around this match, your author was not a part of it. But, I saw Akebono had won the Triple Crown at some point, and was interested. As an unabashed fan of giant wrestling fatsos, in additition to my equally unabashed love of wrestling sumos, my interest was piqued. I am a big fan of the 80s AJPW sumo-on-sumo singles and tags, a huge fan of WAR sumo alumni, even a fake sumo like Yokozuna was one of my favorite WWF wrestlers of the 90s. Sumos in pro wrestling are great. They're lumpy, grouchy, and have cool specific body strength that no other pro wrestlers have. And this ended up being a really cool match, and could have been a great match had Go Shizaki brought much of anything to the table. He wasn't bad, but turned in just about the most nondescript  performance I've seen in some time. Just a total 0 WAR (Wins Above Replacement or Tenryu's fed, you choose) performance out there. He could have been worse, as he was not bad. He ended up in the spots where he was supposed to end up, and was there to move the match along as the underdog.

But this was all about the Akebono show. Akebono was completely awesome here, showing nice vulnerability and eventually insurmountable power. The story was laid out nicely as Shiozaki already had an uphill battle against a larger, tougher opponent, but also eventually beat himself by getting too greedy. When he felled Akebono early and began working on his leg he finally started to make some headway, but he got so obsessed with trying to hit the Go Flasher that even when he finally did, it didn't matter. He had the blinders on and that wasn't going to be the way to beat Akebono. The damage he did by hitting it didn't come close to make up for the damage he took from trying the move multiple times and having Akebono squash him. I loved Akebono's offense in this, as he's mastered a fat guy move set that is so simple you wonder why you don't see it more often. When you're this large simply falling on a guy is enough to turn things in your favor, and here he falls on Shiozaki in plenty of cool ways. He has a cool splash and killer elbow drops, and turns a Go Flasher into a mean crossbody. But the sumo elements he incorporates were the best, using his awesome short range quickness to regularly beat Go to the punch. Instead of resorting to derivative "I forearm you, you forearm me" puro exchanges, Go would try to hit a forearm and Akebono would just slap him across the face before Go's strike could even reach him. Akebono's a man who spent 15 years constantly training how to shove and smack somebody around in a phone booth, so it's not a great plan to stay in his wheelhouse. His short range quickness was super impressive in this, and he also had that really cool sumo shoving strength, bullying Go into corners at will. Some people had complaints with the way he sold Go's legwork but I liked it. It was nice and subtle, as it should be. Sumos take more of a beating on their joints than most other sports, I don't need to see a giant 500 lb. sumo doing "Ohhhhhh my kneeeeeee!" type over-emoting. These guys are trained to work through intense pain, no reason for him to be gripping his knee and screaming after a Go kneebar. This was a really fun match, and a great one man performance.