New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 12 Workrate Report

1. Alex Koslov & Rocky Romero vs. The Young Bucks (5/3/14)

We only get about 1/3 of this due to clipping and really that's probably for the best. What's shown is good and amusing, but I'm having a hard time imagining 15 minutes of this. Even in the 5 minutes shown we get Romero and Koslov showing off their comedy chops which was insufferable enough as it was. Still this was plenty entertaining. I really liked the Bucks here as they hit all their marks. NJ crowd seemed into them, all their double team offense was on point, they made Romero's offense look good which is a true talent, etc. Their stuff tombstone still looks devastating and yet is still more of a transition move, but their finisher looked great with Matt doing a Finlay roll to set up a Nick 450, to set up a Matt moonsault. Speaking of comedy chops, Barnett was really ramping up the yuks during this one. Coulda done without that.

Oh and to tally up the Matt D v. Young Bucks count, we'll go ahead and go

MATT D: 1
YOUNG BUCKS: 2

I liked the Bucks here, what can I say.

2. Kota Ibushi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi (5/3/14)

Well...not really sure what the point of showing this was. They clipped it all to hell, maybe showing 3 minutes of it? But again instead of showing just the "good parts" they showed stuff like opening headlock takeovers and other test of strength type exchanges. If you know that you only have a few minutes to put over a match, do we really need to set the mood by showing us "in case you were wondering, this match started like almost every New Japan match you've ever seen". After some pointless feel out stuff we eventually cut to Taguchi's bad offense (I do a sit out powerbomb and you kinda maybe fall chin first into my knees?!) and eventually Ibushi wins it. Ibushi is a guy I really like, Taguchi showed next to nothing here, and really this show had a really fun Ishii match that isn't getting shown so that instead we can watch 3 minutes of Taguchi and 5 minutes of Rocky Romero. Priorities?

3. Kazuchika Okada vs. AJ Styles (5/3/14)

Okada has a great sit down interview pre match, going over how he was caught off guard by Styles, saying he really wasn't *that* great in the U.S., and was in his decline. Then put over the Styles Clash by saying that he had taken it from Tanahashi before and thought it was no big deal, but taking it from Styles was a whole other level because Styles "must adjust his weight differently". That's so damn awesome.

And the match itself works about like I thought it would, with enough good stuff to make it enjoyable. Still it was structured like a lot of Okada matches, with his opponent doing lots of stuff with the sense of "Okada's going to take a bunch of offense and then at some point just start going for Rainmaker lariats". And that most definitely happened. And we also had tons of limp dick Bullet Club interference. Boy is that lame. Interference is one thing, but Bullet Club's interference rarely even looks good. Okada gets dumped to the floor and we get just bad stomps from Anderson. That's the brutal interference? Stomps that don't make contact? I'm sure plenty of NJPW purists were tickled at Yujiro interference leading directly to an IWGP title change. The end of match interference was handled embarrassingly as well, with Anderson just grabbing and holding Red Shoes so he couldn't see the interference, and then the run ins. Just lazy and it came off really poor. Styles looked really good throughout, my favorite spot being a nasty springboard loaded up punch. Styles worked great opposite Okada and really knew how to feed into everything; reversals from Okada's signature stuff all came off natural and logical, especially uncoiling from the Rainmaker to hit the Pele kick. But damn all the Bullet Club stuff just comes off so forced, really took what could have fun a fun match into "whatever" territory.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 2/28/15

This week we get a match from their 10/4/14 show at the King City fairgrounds. What's odd is this was the main event of the show, and usually this promotion milks every single match on their cards, showing just one per week and making a 2 hour card last two months. But they almost always show the main event last, going through all the undercard matches first. So it's curious that the first King City match we get is the main.

1. Juventud Guerrera & Alex Koslov vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre)

As expected, this was a customary Juventud indy match, where he is on the apron for 80% of the match, doesn't get involved in any situations where he has to sell, just comes in to hit his stuff and pop the crowd, then gets back out. That was expected. The match was odd as there were no real heat segments, yet Los Luchas were supposed to be the rudos (despite not really doing anything rudo-ish). So Koslov was the FIP but was never really in that much danger, and worked fairly even with Los Luchas. Juvy tagged himself in and at this point he kind of works like Rey after his 14th knee surgery, except without taking bumps. His stuff in ring looked good, threw some really nice kicks and ran some quick exchanges, but it was clear and at times pretty obvious he didn't really want to bump or practically leave his feet. At one point he hip tosses one of Los Luchas over the top to the floor, then does the same to the other, tossing him into his partner. Then he teases a dive, but doesn't dive. Then he gets out onto the apron, but doesn't dive. He did do a really great crossbody off the top in ring, but it did seem like most of the time he was actively trying to not leave his feet. It's an interesting workaround and a testament to the skills he still has, that he can still be engaging while also being lazy. Alex Koslov was fine enough here, although not doing tons to stand out. His forearms were much tighter than Los Luchas, which again made the FIP section not great since he seemed to regularly overpower LL. This was pretty much the match you would expect.

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