AEW Five Fingers of Death 3/9 - 3/15 Part 1

ROH TV 3/13/36

Athena vs Maya World [Proving Ground]

MD: Studio wrestling stemming from recent events when Maya, with Hyan and Deonna, stood up to Athena/Billie/Diamante back during the collaborative Metroplex show. Maya being an Athena protégé has not necessarily been a key part of her presentation so far in AEW/ROH up until this point, but I'd argue that she and Hyan don't necessarily have a clear, defined presentation relative to some others.

Who are they? Where do they come from? Why are they tagging? What brings them together past an opportunity taken when others did not? What do they want out of life? What are their similarities? What are their differences? Etc. So far, it hasn't been super clear.

This helped though.

In some ways, Maya feels like even more of a "minion" to Athena than even Billie, because Billie was romping up and down the indies for a couple of years before arriving to AEW and finding her away under Athena's thumb. From a story perspective, one might wonder then why Billie was on TV with her and Maya was watching from the sidelines and then, once she arrived, left to her own devices.

Maya seems pretty happy with her lot in life though and doesn't care to ask those questions. Athena, on the other hand, in wonderfully hypocritical fashion, takes offense at Maya opposing her, complains about Maya crossing a line that Athena herself never truly drew.

Which brings them to this, a chance to make an example out of Maya, to teach her a lesson as she'd taught Billie lessons before, at the end of a forearm. But to show that Maya was even more beneath her notice (even as she was obviously getting under her skin), this was instead a proving ground match.

And Athena meant to prove her point right from the get go. Left hand extended. Her usual dainty code of honor handshake. Right into the magic forearm. Athena stomped Maya in the corner and started in on the ref, the crowd, Maya, the world. She wanted it too badly, however, showing that vulnerability which makes her stand out as much as the intensity. It's a give and take with her and once Maya got just a bit of distance between them, she took, forcing Athena to run into a very clever rope-assisted spin kick.

Now it was Maya's turn to take advantage of Athena's mistake. She had caused it by getting under Athena's skin and now she pressed the issue and reaped the benefits. She hit a series of moves, including doing damage on the floor. The problem was, in the micro, time was against her. She could keep Athena on her toes, but it was too early in the match for her to keep Athena down.

Athena got up. She reversed a whip, caught a kick, snuck in a knee, and then jammed both knees right into Maya's face in the corner. She would then, of course, lean on Maya. Maya's hope spots were solid and believable and tended to come not because of any mistake Athena made (she had already made her mistake at the start of the match and wouldn't make it again), but because she had such familiarity with Athena's offense.

Eventually that let her dodge just enough moves to come back all the way and things went back and forth with bombs, blocks, and roll-ups down the stretch. Maya managed to dodge the O-Face and position around to hook in a Reinera slam just as the bell rang. We were meant to wonder if maybe she could have snuck a win there; all it takes is three and this was deep into the match. But we have seen Athena survive far more than that. No, instead, this was a moral victory, a draw in a Proving Ground match, something unheard of in all of Athena's forever reign, and an opportunity for more. Phantom pin or no, what we're actually left wondering is if Athena would learn from her mistake or if her fury would overwhelm her all the more in their next encounter.

ROH TV Special Friday Episode 3/13/26

RUSH vs BEEF

MD: Two wrestlers. All Caps. You know what you're getting. Look, I have been fairly hard on Dralistico in specific situations when he's up against a babyface and playing a heel, not even a de facto heel, an outright heel, and he tries to steal the clap up and the cheers, not in a jeering way like, let's say, Yuta does, but to really get the crowd behind him. 

And yes, to some degree, Rush does this too, he does. He eats guys up. He takes the air out of the room. But unlike Dralistico or just about anyone else, he's beyond the realm of such expectations. He draws the eye that much. He turns the head. He locks you in so that you can do nothing but hang on and go for the ride. He's Ultimate Warrior and he's Goldberg and he's Buzz Sawyer. There are so few wrestlers in 2026 that can carry that sort of energy. He is an attraction. 

He's not treated like an attraction. He's not used like one. But he is one. Sometimes, I get the sense because of how he's presented, the fans don't really have any idea what they're getting into until that bell rings and the power takes them. 

And it rang here. He kicked away the code of honor. The great thing about this is that Beef, himself, can be sort of an attraction, an everyman. Is he more Hillbilly Jim than Dusty Rhodes? I don't know. Ask me again in five years, but also don't downplay the connection a guy like Jim had with the crowd. Beef has it too. They went off the ropes to start, Beef crashing into Rush, Rush holding his ground. That's the thing about Rush. When push comes to shove (no pun intended), he does give, he does show ass, he does falter. He just makes his opponent work for it and then he takes twice as much back as wrathfully as possible. Here he won that exchange by taking Beef out on a leapfrog allowing him to land an explosive dropkick, but then he ate a bunch of BEEF's fun pokey punches, stooging around the ring for him.

That stooging was short-lived; because he is Rush, he started to fire back. Look, I am not a strike exchange sort of guy. But the strikes being exchanged aren't generally these strikes and not from these two. There was something rough and raw and wild here, something completely out of control. It wasn't pretty. It was far more about the throwing of the strikes than the withstanding of them, and as much about hyping the crowd up and getting into it as anything else. Rush would take a shot and then channel it right into the crowd as he waved his hands to try to rechannel the pain. It went from Beef's hand into his chest, into his arms, into the crowd, back through the crowd, into Rush's body, and then back at Beef. If that's not pro wrestling, I have no idea what is. And it all built to Beef just slapping hands one after the other, an out of control dynamo that wan't to lash back at what had been hurting him. 

It worked until it didn't. Rush caught him, thrashed him one last time with a forearm, sent him spiraling down to the corner. He teased the Horns, rolled back into the Tranquilo pose, and really never looked back from there. Beef had put up a good fight, a noble fight, an admirable fight, but there was a big hierarchy difference here, and all he could do was to try to catch his breath, to keep alive, to roll to the floor to recover. That's the last place you want to be against Rush though, and the end had already begun. The fans knew it too. They embraced Rush, let him lean back into a flag and bask. 

And in a different setting against a different opponent with different stakes on a different stage, maybe it would have frustrated me, but here, on an episode of ROH on YouTube in front of a crowd that just wanted to feel something, anything, no matter what, what can I do but throw up my hands and grin along. He's an attraction being an attraction. Hang on, ride the wave. He comes. He goes. He gets injured. He gets suspended. He gets grumpy. Let's enjoy him while we have him. Now and again we're allowed nice things.

Top Flight/Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs MxM/RPG Vice

MD: We talk about moments. Usually we talk about moments negatively when it comes to WWE because they fabricate unnatural ones and put them above and beyond matches, right? But moments are an important part of wrestling because they're an important part of wrestling matches, just like they're important in any other form of fiction. They should stem from the characters within the match naturally. They should be built to and they should pay off. One of the great fallacies of wrestling discussion of this decade is that it's either/or. It's not. It's all organic. That's true with promos and angles and matches and it's true with moments around and within matches.

And here, they did a great job of building to character-driven moments which had meaning within the match. Part of the joy of a match like this is to see the weird interactions. You have Top Flight interacting with Ortiz and Kingston. I was as interested in how Eddie would interact with Daniels post-match during the hand-raising as anything else in the match. That doesn't mean I don't love action. It just means that I find these characters and their history and all that they carry behind them fascinating as well. It's not either/or. It's additive. And Eddie looked as happy as I've seen him in ages post match celebrating with these guys, and I loved to see it.

There were big spots. Of course there were. Top Flight was in there. But my favorite moment in this whole thing was when MXM got Trent to pose (after trying to do so earlier in the match). He lingered too long and it ended up a transition allowing the babyfaces to take back over. That was very lucha-coded to me (though a lot of people wouldn't think of it that way because of the way lucha has been minimized in the States over the years), cocky heels doing cocky things either too many times or for too long and paying for it. What's great about it is that if the babyfaces did it, it'd be a big culminating moment, like Brody King finally doing the macarena but because it was the heels, it was them getting stooged. 

This was a lot of fun and it's always great to see Kingston in the mix with younger and contrasting talent. That's the strength of him. Yes, he can trade chops with Minoru Suzuki or whatever, but it's so much more interesting when you put him in there against a Lee Moriarty or Soberano, Jr. or, I don't know, Doink and see what happens.

AEW Dynamite 3/11/26

Dogs (David Finlay/Gabe Kidd) vs Orange Cassidy/Darby Allin

MD: This match was a cog in the storyline machine, a set up to the Roddy turn (or non-turn or whatever you'd call it) and setting up the six-man for the PPV, but it was also a way to really debut Finlay and make a statement about just who and what the Dogs were. They had that pretty amazing enhancement match on Collision, but this punctuated that real well in an actual match.

They're different than almost every team on the roster because they're dogged, just incessant energy. They have big spots for down the stretch, but for a lot of the body of the match, they just stay on their opponents. If you put Connors in there as well, then he's just throwing himself at people. With these two, it's more catching, like Finlay caught Darby on his dive with a forearm in order to really take over after the initial ambush and fire back. I liked how much they made Cassidy work for literally every inch when he was fighting from underneath. There were one or two times I thought he was about to make the hot tag but they dragged him back like their namesake and it really worked for me. 

And of course, Darby and Orange are the secret main character team of AEW, an odd couple that feed into one another in perfect, subtle ways. To make a very dated comic book reference, they're the Defenders of AEW, a non-team that absolutely work. I get there's mileage out of Roddy and Cassidy (a similar if less subtle team-up) right now, but I'd love to see Darby/Cassidy against FTR or hell even the Bucks (and for me to say that..). They're the TV workmen of the company and I'd be really interested to see a fighting champions run at some point. 

Anyway, this really got the job done and I hope that Finlay, Kidd, Connors get the freedom to keep working matches like this. So much of it was still all action but it was stifling and oppressive in the best way at the same time.

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Found Footage Friday: FINLAY RETIREMENT TOUR~! GRIZZLY!~! BROOKSIDE~! FINLAY, JR~! LAWLER~! SID~!

Fit Finlay vs. Cannonball Grizzly 10/6/12

MD: This was Finlay's last singles match. I hadn't realized that Grizzly was still active this late into the 21st century. He more or less cracked the code by the mid 90s and while you weren't going to get a ton of movement out of these two at this point necessarily, this was buoyed by the advantages of the rounds system, Grizzly's presence and size, and Finlay's selling and ability to strike from underneath.

Watching a rounds match now and again feels like good medicine for your pro wrestling viewing brain. I don't know if it's a sign of getting older myself but I gravitate more towards entry points than finishing stretches and with a rounds match, you get a number of different entry points, which when used smartly and organically, can create different narrative beats. Likewise with the bell at the end of each round. This started with Finlay locking in a few holds and transitioning between one and the next with his usual moments of violence. Grizzly had the size and the strength however, so he took over pretty quickly. The first two rounds had the bell ring with Finlay finally punching out of a hold.

For a meaningful momentum shift to occur, one of two things were necessary: either Finlay would have to turn things around earlier in the round or Grizzly would have to control deeper into the round. The latter occurred as the third round had a long bearhug and when Finlay tried to get out, Grizzly stayed on the back. That meant he could control starting in the fourth as well, but Finlay fought his way out and started to chip away at Grizzly. He pressed forward with that chipping in the fifth, charging right in and working on the arm, with the sixth having Grizzly desperate and charging right in only to have it turned around on him after he made a mistake. So there's a clear narrative through the rounds created by each round playing off of what happened before. It was building to Finlay pressing his advantage and overcoming (which included Grizzly missing a big flip off the turnbuckles) until his second, Brookside, pulled the ropes down and then started unloading on him. That said up the match to come. They still filled a lot of time with the actual match here and they managed it, broken up by the round breaks, primarily with simple holds and hard shots. It's more of what I might expected from 1982 than 2012, but it worked for the crowd due to the skills at play.

ER: I thought this was excellent. I imagine most people will be surprised to learn that PN News was involved in something this good over 13 years after his ECW run. It turns out that Finlay in his mid-50s vs. Cannonball Grizzly in his mid-40s is one of the best Finlay Retirement Tour matches we have. We don't have enough Finlay matches against big fat guys. One of Jerry Lawler's best match types is against big fat guys, and after seeing this it's easy to see Finlay having 4 star matches with Plowboy Frazier. You think of all the big fat men who we never got to see get roughed up by Finlay before flattening him, and it just breaks your heart. Finlay vs. Mabel, Finlay vs. Tenta, Finlay vs. Vader; these are the images that flash like stars behind my eyelids as I pass into slumber. Cannonball Grizzly makes his entrance to the 1992 sounds of Ugly Kid Joe, in 2012, and I easily picture a world where Ugly Kid Joe is a band who successfully tour Europe in the 2010s. I like this idea of Cannonball Grizzly being forever frozen in time in 1992, the peak of his US success. 

But yes, this was excellent. At the time of this writing, it is the greatest Paul Neu match any of us have ever seen. It's also perfect that a German worker's last name is Neu. It makes me want to seek out the work of John Guru Guru or Tom Ash Ra Tempel. This goes 7 rounds and builds slowly and steadily through all of them. It's built around struggling out of convincing and simple holds, and it's done fantastically. Grizzly has really convincing knuckle locks, and is able to hang in and hold onto then even while Finlay is elbowing him from his back foot. Finlay squeezed Grizzly's traps and grabbed at his nose in the 1st round, Grizzly used the first opportunity he got to return the favor why doing it right back in the 2nd. Finlay ends the 2nd by punching Grizzly in the face and then hitting three hard lariats, the first and third especially rough, sending sweat mist exploding off both. Finlay knows that the shot that puts a big man down needs to look like the strongest one. 

Finlay twists his way through a Grizzly bearhug in the 3rd, trying to break it with a leveraged judo throw and getting Grizzly off his feet but not over, turning in the bearhug to try and find any way out, ending when he gets whipped hard into the buckles. I wish we had gotten a 20 minute Finlay/Andre match that was just Finlay trying to find ways out of a bearhug until Andre just fell on him. Grizzly builds off that bearhug and turnbuckle whip in the 4th, immediately throwing elbows into Finlay's kidneys and locking on the bearhug with his hands clasped over them. Finlay finally getting the headlock takeover out of the bearhug felt like a huge escalation and I love how it took a lot out of him, finally lifting Grizzly off his feet enough to turn him over but walking around after like it wasn't quite worth it. 

Finlay pounces on Grizzly's limbs in the 5th while the German commentary still talks about Ugly Kid Joe. Finlay keeps adjusting his leg positioning while working an arm lock, keeping a wide base that looked impossible to get away from. The ropes were Cannonball's only possible escape. When he gets back in the ring he throws two full arms into the side of Finlay's head that make him look like Vader, but more so like Fat Joe wrestling like Vader. I think it's because Vader never had hot dog neck. There's a memorable fist fight to start the 6th and Finlay in his mid-50s still takes the hardest bumps into the turnbuckles since Bret. Grizzly missing an elbowdrop feels like as big of a nearfall as any actual offense you could do to him. Finlay starts the 7th by finding a fourth (at least) new way to painfully run into the turnbuckles, the top buckle hitting underneath the side of his ribcage, staggering him out into a real shutdown clothesline. Finlay's bump to the floor - through the ropes because of a traitorous Brookside low bridge - was a real surprise. Finlay is the absolute master at taking bumps that look like something he was not expecting to take. Brookside's attack on Finlay and the ring crew might be the most violent I've ever seen him. Brookside was kicking at Finlay's ear like he wanted to send him into retirement equilibrium-free.  

Fit Finlay/David Finlay Jr. vs. Dan Collins/Robbie Brookside 12/22/12

MD: Cagematch says this is both Fit's last match and David Jr's first one, and Cagematch would know in this case, I imagine. It wasn't exactly what I expected after the challenges following Brookside's betrayal, but it probably meant a heck of a lot more to Fit than a straight one-on-one street fight would have. David was what you'd expect here given his first match and his pedigree: slight in frame, flopping about with his selling, some promise when it came to shots in the corner and inspiring sympathy in this very specific situation. He had Collins and Brookside to move him about the ring when he was taking a beating and most of his offense was tandem stuff with his dad. Likewise, the structure went how you'd figure, a cycle of Finlay controlling, of David losing the offense and eating a beatdown, of that beatdown creating a handicap situation that Finlay had to overcome and of Finlay first overcoming, second smashing people into things (the apron, a table, any hard surface he could find), and then letting his son join in until he was overtaken again. It was effective and they filled a decent amount of time with it, never losing the crowd despite David's inexperience. With ten years of retrospect and considering that Finlay, Jr.'s had a pretty successful career so far, you can hardly imagine a better end to Finlay's career than hitting stereo finishers with his son in the middle of a German ring against some old rivals in front of an appreciative crowd. It was nice that he got to smash some heads in the process. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Sid Vicious NWA Main Event 11/7/08 

MD: Phil and Eric had reviewed a Lawler vs Sid match from 07 which sounds like an all time great Lawler performance and an all time terrible Sid performance. This pulls more towards the middle for both, as it was a pretty good Sid performance and your standard solid Lawler one. This was on the show that celebrated Lawler's 35th year in the business so you imagine Sid was a little more inspired because of that. He had Jimmy Hart at ringside. Lawler had Jim White, his first tag team partner with him though he was a non factor. They worked a bunch of Sid slams early and a Lawler attempt which let Hart mock him on the house mic (and set up the big moment towards the end). Having Hart here probably made it a little more successful than a similar gambit the year prior. After eating a few Lawler punches with a snap of the head but no overall selling, Sid cut him off with a slam out of a side headlock which was simple but effective. Lawler was going to make Sid's stuff look amazing, of course, but the visual that comes from Sid's size makes that pretty easy. It's not like he has great punches, but when he comes down with more of an arc with them instead of poking forward, it gave Lawler plenty to work with. They moved from hold (or choke) into shots, into a move (like a side slam or legdrop) pretty steadily here, with Hart slipping in shots when he could. Lawler, despite it being his night, still used a low blow to start his comeback. Sid not registering the punches early meant it mattered more when he did register them on the comeback and between that, the slam paying off, and Hart's interference backfiring, everything built exactly as it ought to have. Sid was fairly inspired on this night but I'm not certain this would have worked quite so well with anyone but Lawler.

ER: Sid felt really uninspired working in front of that 2007 NEW crowd, and while he doesn't "do a lot" here, it at minimum felt like he and Lawler were at least having the same match. In 2007 it felt like Lawler was having his own epic while Sid was fulfilling an obligation that he regretted. The only real difference between Sid here and Sid there, was his presence here always felt like it was building to the match's climax, easily controlling Lawler with his size in a way that was clear we were always building to a fired up Lawler finish. There is so little actual offense in this match, just a handful of bodyslams, some clubbing strikes, a big side slam, and a smothering hold, but they both knew how to milk the thriftiness of it all. Sid's bodyslams looked big and Lawler knows how to expertly sell a large man's bodyslam as well as he knows how to breathe air. 

Lawler tries punching Sid early and gets nowhere, but gets much farther when he punches and kicks Sid in the balls before punching face. The camera crew doesn't know how to film Lawler's fistdrop and they shoot his kneeling punches from his back, but the energy is there. The strap lowering into a dropkick was great, and the bodyslam payoff was real. I love heel Jimmy Hart getting involved. Hart mastered the old man big bump/non-bump, knowing exactly how to get up on an apron and get knocked off it without actually doing anything super dangerous. It's just another example of how everyone in this knew how to do the most without actually dying. How many of the Lawler/Sid USWA matches do we have? Any? It feels like mid 90s Lawler/Sid would have been the best version of their crossed paths.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling: Strong Style Evolved 3/25/18

I'm planning on doing an Segunda Caida X00 this year, whether that number be 100, 200, 300, or what. So I have to watch a lot of wrestling, including stuff that I don't think I'll like a lot. I need to keep an open mind and look for names that might eek onto the list. This is a show New Japan is running in Long Beach, and while I'm not a big modern NJ fan, I like the idea of a non-WWE fed coming into America now and again. It can only be a good thing for wrestling. So the show is on TV, baseball season hasn't started yet, and I forgot about WWE Fastlane (thus no love blog), so I may as well make up a Sunday.

Christopher Daniels/Scorpio Sky/Frankie Kazarian vs. Rocky Romero/Sho/Yoh

ER: Well this write up is looking like a dumb fucking choice. I don't like a lot of guys in this match, but I guess I relate to it. All the Americans are people that I first started watching and seeing live in 2000/2001, going on road trips with friends to Southern CA. They're all older, balder, still doing the same thing they were doing nearly 20 years ago. So I am them. Older, balder, still writing about pro wrestling, still seeing the same guys. Life is a straight line. All guys do something I like, some things I don't. Kazarian doesn't shortchange stomach kicks and gets great height on a legdrop. Sadly he majorly botched a springboard legdrop off the freaking bottom rope. Once he slipped he just hopped on one leg to finish the spot. He at least sold a knee injury on the apron for a bit, so that was a decent bounceback. Yoh is a decent face in peril, Scorpio throws a better right hand than I remember, Daniels is still doing the same offense he did in '99, but he hits a nutty split legged moonsault to the floor, throwing himself into the barrier. This was kept short, and was fine.

Juice Robinson/David Finlay vs. Gedo/Hirooki Goto

ER: This was a fun one. Juice is a mean dude who would be the best possible member of a Breezango trios. His kicks land, he's got good punches, a high senton, and he always surprises with stiff shots. Here he busts open Goto's mouth with a hard back elbow. Goto shows more personality than I have maybe ever seen from him, after he gets his mouth busted. Something snaps and he is suddenly intense. Finlay is never the wrestler I want him to be, and with that last name he won't ever be, but he's a good fired up babyface. His hot tag was great, tons of energy, great flying back elbow, good presence on that pasty bod. Gedo is always a favorite of mine, and we get typical great Gedo punches and a superkick that looks like it still matters. This was quick and fiery, I dug it.

Davey Boy Smith Jr./Lance Archer vs. Toru Yano/Chuck Taylor

ER: Over/Under on how many time's JR compares KES to Hansen/Brody? 4. I think 4 is fair. KES are too goofy, Yano is too goofy, serious Taylor is still too goofy. KES are never as hoss as I'd like them to be, and I hate the look of orange spray tan, blonde spiky hair, big doopy mouth guard. Smith still moves so stiffly around the ring. He never looks comfortable in there. Archer has a face I dislike on sight, but he hits hard on a shoulderblock, and he and Smith can at least sometimes act like big guys. I don't have much use for Yano, and I still can't buy Taylor as a competitive heavyweight.

Marty Scurll/Cody vs. Tanga Loa/Tama Tonga

ER: This match has one of my favorite NJ guys (Tama Tonga) opposite my probably least favorite NJ guy (Marty Scurll), so I know which team I'm rooting for. Scurll stinks. I hate how JR always compares him to Marty Jones, Regal, Finlay, it's gross. Scurll always comes off so hack. He attempts a Regal-esque spinning wristlock sequence and clunked his way through it, getting hung up twice. Tonga is awesome, though, like the Usos working a main event Roman Reigns style. His exchanges are fast, he throws nice strikes, goes down like a shot on a Scurll superkick, misses a Superman punch in style, I always dig him. Loa is good too, never really got a chance to do much in WWE, but he hits hard and has a nice moveset, really sinks that spear. Both Tonga and Loa take offense well. Cody still doesn't do a lot for me, but his ring confidence is far bigger now than ever, and that counts for something. Scurll stomped Tonga's elbow nice a couple times. I'll give him credit for that, at least.

Hiromu Takahashi/BUSHI/SANADA/Tetsuya Naito vs. Ryusuke Taguchi/Dragon Lee/KUSHIDA/Hiroshi Tanahashi

ER: Boy with all these multi-mans they must be trying to use 40 guys on one show. We're 5 matches in and we've had 26 guys on the card. It's a lot. This match felt like it should have been better. It's impossible to have a bad 8 man, really with almost anybody involved. Everyone has to be in so little that you can really play to strengths. This wasn't a bad match, but it had guys with a lot of strengths, and should have been better. Takahashi and Lee cram a lot of ideas into their singles matches, yet here only get a couple quick moments together, nothing really memorable (though Takahashi does chuck Lee into the turnbuckles on a wild suplex). I like "Tanahashi is injured" matches, and they kind of start going after his arm but it doesn't go anywhere. The stretch run dance partner trade off was really fun, one guy after the next running in to do a move or two before getting taken out by the next guy. Those moments are always fun with talented guys. Taguchi impressed me here, liked his energy, liked his heel hook roll through, liked a couple of his hip attacks. I was similarly impressed by BUSHI. But this should have had more oomph to it.

Jushin Liger vs. Will Ospreay

ER: I was optimistic about this one, as Liger is great enough to reign in the excesses of Ospreay, and Ospreay is talented enough to be reigned in. And I liked the story they went with of Liger working up to big time the hot rising star and surprise him. Liger is aggressive and nails a somersault dive off the apron, crushes Ospreay on the floor with a brainbuster, drops him with a Liger bomb. We get more intrigue when Ospreay lands funny on his left knee and I honestly can't tell how legit the injury is. He still does a bunch of crazy flying stuff, but he sells his knee the whole damn time, even during flying moves, and I don't know if Ospreay's selling is THAT good. There was some impressive attention paid to his knee injury here. He also takes a great bump off a shotei, with Liger hooking him under the chin, and Ospreay looked like a cartoon cat running into a laundry line that he didn't see. The match ends a lot shorter than I expected, about 10 minutes, not sure if that's the overstuffed card or if they went home earlier because of that pesky real/fake leg injury. But we get a couple nice nearfalls before the sudden finish, and I thought the match was real good. Ospreay even cuts a good promo post-match, giving credit to Liger but also acting big for his britches. He gets a good reaction by challenging Mysterio too, which could be a fun match. But then they have Scurll come out and cheapshot Ospreay and rip Mysterio's mask off. Did we really need to give Scurll that much of a rub? Spend your time on other guys.

Zack Sabre Jr./Minoru Suzuki vs. Tomohiro Ishii/Kazuchika Okada

ER: Okada just doesn't to it for me, but there's enough personality in this match to really make it work. And sure enough, cocky doofus ZSJ is awesome and I love that I'm now the high vote on the guy. Seeing he and Suzuki put a bunch of dickhead tandem submissions on Ishii while the crowd chants "Fuck you, Sabre" is joy. You see, Suzuki is too cool for them to be mad at, they would want to be friends with him and hope Suzuki thought they were also cool. But Sabre is just a hateable mug who should be pummeled. He stomps Ishii to the rhythm of their chant claps, and continues to poke the bear by rubbing his boot laces in Ishii's eyes, kicking him condescendingly, rubbing it in while Ishii is on the mat. When Ishii snags him and lifts him into a deadlift German it's a great moment. I love ZSJ using Okada as his submission jungle gym. Okada can often come off Polar Express-eyed and this makes him show some emotion, a little fight and a little desperation. Okada throws some embarrassing elbows when it's his turn to fight, really disappointing stuff. I hear Sabre get called out a lot for being too skinny, but he's practically the same size as Okada, and I don't hear that complaint about Okada. I don't get it. I think people just like to hate Sabre, which he should get credit for. Sabre continually doesn't learn his lesson. After a (too long) Suzuki/Ishii who-can-hit-harder contest, Sabre is back and mockingly kicking Ishii. Ishii catches a kick and steps in with a great headbutt and stiff powerbomb. Ishii is okay but is he as good as even Kazuyuki Fujita? Is he even the best Japanese guy working a "Man with no neck" gimmick? He's nowhere near Masa Saito. I don't know if he's better than Fujita. But I do really like how Sabre and Ishii match up, loved their July 2017 singles match, love how Sabre acts around Ishii. Sabre taps him with a great tangled up grapevine, puts Okada in an octopus hold after (but does not tap him during the match, which would have felt like a huge deal), even tosses Okada's title on the floor after the match. That's an Okada singles match I would watch.

Jay White vs. Hangman Page

ER: Last couple matches were pretty exciting, crowd is noticeably cooled off for this one. I usually like White, but he can also benefit from good opponents, and Page isn't very good, so I get the quieted down crowd. They make an effort though, so things liven up a little bit down the stretch. Once they really get the crowd into things, they immediately go into this lonnnnnnnng and drawn out spot where Page repeatedly tries to set up the slingshot lariat, and White keeps wandering unnaturally to the side to break it up, and Page keeps resetting him, and never actually gets to hit. It's like they were working a silent vaudeville comedy act and it could not have come at a worse time in the match. And then they go from Page not succeeding at hitting his indy offense four times in a row, to the other end of the spectrum, with White hitting a DDT on the apron and then a freaking German suplex from the apron to the floor. What the fuck!? Page flips and lands on his feet and then falls backward, so it's not like he got dumped on his head (earlier he did take a nasty snap dragon suplex in the ring), but it's a crazy spot to come out of nowhere. So much Page offense has a really implausible set up, which means he'll fit right in with New Japan main eventers. This match is really overreaching at this point, it's going way too long. White singles matches can drag on too much. I think he's much better in trios. Page sets up an improbable swinging neckbreaker off the top rope, and it's treated like a big move on commentary, but moments later White is hitting Page with a nasty back suplex on the floor, and another in the ring. They trade big moves. JR even shrugs off a "Well they're hitting a lot of big stuff..." after they keep trading moves. That shooting star shoulderblock is such a risk for what the payoff is. It just looks like a less impactful normal sholderblock, with added risk of breaking his own neck. He throws a nice lariat, but adds in that stupid rope flip right before (that he always stumbles a bit on). White throws so many rough suplexes in this match, all with really low launch angles, all looking like they bounce Page off his head. Way too many of them. And after all of those suplexes, his finisher is basically a Roll the Dice. These two tried to do way much. Page looked tougher than anybody else on the show tonight. Everyone else pinned and submitted so much quicker. They did a lot of things you'd think this crowd would like, but the reactions were never really there.

The Young Bucks vs. The Golden Lovers

ER: This was overly long, overinflated, overkilled match that had plenty of great moments. It tried to have way too many great moments, but it had some great moments. It also had moments where I watched in 2x speed. It was around for awhile. This was the match fans in attendance wanted to see, they wanted to celebrate modern New Japan, and this match gave them the chance to chant and clap "Fight Forever" and "New Japan". They are a part of something, this is their punk rock, etc. I thought this was a great Nick Jackson performance, with Matt stepping it up down the stretch. Ibushi is a nut, but I hate that he does so much offense that can occasionally drop himself on his own head. But this whole production was just stretched too long. They could have made much better use of partner saves. There are a lot of kickouts, and by the end Matt Jackson is kicking out of everything. It was a little deflating. They overpeaked it and suddenly they were the last person to finish at an orgy, and everyone's been done for 15 minutes and you're still working towards a finish. The big time where they utilize a partner save to great effect, Matt had just kicked out of some huge things, so Ibushi hits the V Trigger, with Omega hitting the One Winged Angel. OWA is one of the more contrived set-ups in finisher history, but it's super protected and Nick flying in for the save was awesome. But it had all gone on for so long at that point. Ibushi was off a bit all match. He'll still commit to crazy, but some nights he's like Sabu, looking just as ready to injure himself as his opponent. The first table spot was handled really nicely, I always like a good instance of something set up early that is forgotten later, until it makes its presence known again. This usage reminded me of the great Modest/Daniels vs. LeGrande/Thompson match I flipped out live for so many years ago. The table had been set up at ringside long before, and the Bucks were trying to separate Ibushi from Omega, Omega kept getting knocked to the floor, as the Bucks tried to string offense together, and after Nick hits a 450 then Matt goes crashing off the top through Omega, through a table.

I loved the sequence around that, but it is always fleeting with these guys, as it felt big enough to lead to a finish, but instead Omega is back quicker than expected and - and here's what I hate - instead of coming back and just beating ass, Omega is worried about getting Matt up onto his shoulders so Ibushi can fall on his head kicking someone. Having such clunky, difficult to set up finishers just makes guys look stupid when they come roaring back into the match and have to go through a convoluted sequence. We get Omega snap dragon suplexing Matt, only for Matt to bounce off his own neck and spring up to do a piledriver. Both moves looked great, and Matt grabs at his neck (after popping up from a suplex and delivering a piledriver, naturally), but they always leave me a little empty. Matt was good down the stretch and delivered the storyline heft, and Nick was great throughout, his timing more on point than anyone in the match (and matches like this obviously need some precision timing), I loved some of the sequences in the match, but didn't always love where they lead, and I think some of the bigger moves would have felt even bigger if Hangman Page hadn't just brushed off several headdrop suplexes. I want more space in a match like this, but the fans got the exact match they wanted, so I am not shocked that this is getting called classic. I wouldn't go classic, but it was plenty fun.


ER: A not bad show. They announced they were coming to the Cow Palace on 7/7, and I'm not sure what would need to be on the card to get me in the building. The word is Jericho/Naito, and that will not get me in the building. But if they do Liger/Mysterio? That would probably get me. It all depends on the price point, as I have an unknown mental price point in my head for everything ("I will happily see this music band for $10. Oh, the show is $20? I am less interested."), but I'll know it when I see it for this show. It's like art, you know what you like when you see it. For the Cow Palace show, I'll know if it's out of my range or not when I see the price. But on this show, I liked Liger/Ospreay, liked the Sabre/Suzuki tag, really thought the show breezed by nicely until White/Page.

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Fire Fundraiser: All Star Wrestling UK 3/10/14 Review

This was a show review requested by Davey C! He said I could review as much or as little as I liked, but the show was like 75 total minutes, so a full match review didn't seem like such a crazy idea.


1. Andy Simmons vs. JD Bryant

Bryant starts the match doing a Daniel Bryan Yes! chant to get the crowd going. I assume that was the 2014 equivalent to doing a Stunner on a 1999 indie show. I had never seen either of these two before, and by the end of the match I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more. Simmons especially is a real good hand, knowing how to work slight heel to get the crowd into Bryant, working him over with real simple but real well executed things like low cut clotheslines, kicks to the stomach with no light showing, nice open hand strikes, knees to the stomach that land, drop downs that actually look like he's trying to trip up Bryant. Simmons' style seems like it could easily adapt to having a good 10 minute match with anybody. Bryant for his part is a good underdog babyface. He also throws some nice open hand strikes (including two great southpaw strikes at the beginning), takes a nice flipping spill to the floor, throws a nice dropkick and admirably sells his arm (Simmons had been working it over with a couple great kneedrops). Match ends quick without much build, but it was still satisfying. Real good start to this show.

2. David Finlay Jr. vs. Danny Boy Collins

Collins has been showing up on UK cards for seemingly a few decades now, and I love him getting on the stick before the match to tell Finlay that he's going to pay him back for every single cut, bruise and stitch he got at the hands of his father. And this match was awesome, yet threatened to be ruined by a pointless fast timekeeper time limit draw. We'll start with the good, get to the stupid, and wrap it up with a smile: I loved the match, and would have loved it more on mute. Collins is a monster in this, very much like Finlay Sr. lacing into a rookie for 10+ minutes. Everything Collins does looks great, from his strikes to his matwork to his transitions. Every little move means something, and he never rests on his laurels. A choke in the ropes looked as dangerous as any submission, and his submissions looked brutal. There were no resting chinlocks here, mister. Everything Collins locked on looked like it was strangling the life out of young Finlay. Every backbreaker looked nasty. Every arm wringer and hammerlock looked like it was stretching all of the ligaments. Collins racks up a couple quick warnings, dropping Finlay with a nasty hotshot and tossing him to the floor in dastardly fashion. Finlay gets some momentary comebacks (with Collins taking a super high backdrop during one of them) but always loses it quick due to Collins' smarts. Now the stupid kicks in: At the 12 minute mark we get a "15 minute" announcement, which means we all know this is going the full 20. 30 seconds later we get a "3 minute warning", and if there was any doubt this was going time limit, now that the clock is on 4x everybody watching realizes it. What's sad, is the home stretch was real fun. Finlay got fired up and started going crazy with nearfalls, and Collins was awesome at putting over these nearfalls and getting into position to be rolled up; running chest first hard into the buckles to get a believable 2.9, and Finlay was great at making these pinfalls look like they could actually hold a man down. But the timekeeper suddenly going into 4x mode just sucked me right out of what should have been a very exciting home stretch. We end up with a 14 minute match going the full "20 minute time limit" and I just can't help but wonder why they didn't just do a 15 minute time limit? Everybody watching this knows how to count, and everybody has an idea of how long one minute is. It's insulting and incredibly dated to expect people to fall for this kind of time clock idiocy. Collins was so damn good at making all of Finlay's potential pins mean something, and the idiot fed was trying their hardest to make nobody expect a finish. Just took the legs right out of it. BUT that is not the fault of the two men, and regardless of timeclock idiocy they had an awesome match. Shame though.

3. Dean Allmark vs. Thunder

Short (7 minutes) but solid match with Thunder as the judiciously bumping big man and Allmark as the quick little bumblebee. Allmark's dodges and feints were nice, rolling out of the way, believably sliding through the legs, and Thunder was smart about when to bump and when not to. A couple dropkicks don't take him down but one close to the ropes sends him over the top. That's just smart attention to physics. Allmark's solid dodging skills made it satisfying when Thunder would catch him with a clothesline, and we got some more smart spots of Allmark using Thunder's size against him, like catching a charging Thunder with boots before nailing a quick superkick to put him down, then a quick moonsault. Finish was well done with Allmark going back to the top, Thunder a standing duck, so he shoves the ref into the ropes which then crotches Allmark, opening him up for a superplex. With more time these two could likely have a real good match.

4. Oliver Grey vs. Justin Starr

Well I like how this started but things kind of fell apart halfway through, and we ended with just a sputter. Grey is not a guy I had seen on NXT (I...really need to catch up on NXT) but I liked him throughout this. The match started as good as the others on this card, with an engaging feeling out process and stiff shoulderblocks. Both guys really thudded into each other and I was expecting some good things. But Starr ended up being a kind of bland heel, really just kind of looking at the crowd with his arms out as his one way of getting heat. The longer the match went on the more clunky he was at getting into position for stuff, the finish run being the worst of it. We had a superkick set up by that awful teeter totter spot that HHH insists on shoehorning into every match, and Starr somehow made the bump look even sillier than HHH, just bunny hopping right into the buckle ever so daintily. Then he landed too close to the ropes after the superkick and had to shimmy a few feet away to get pinned. The really was the tale of two matches as when it was worked like a simple black trunks young boys match it worked nicely, and once they moved into bigger things it fell apart. Still wouldn't mind seeing more of Grey.

5. Jushin Liger vs. Robbie Dynamite

Well hey this was awesome. This might be the best I've seen Liger in a singles match in....shoot I can't remember the last time I saw Liger this engaged in a singles match. Something even feels different during the opening matwork as it's a lot less perfunctory than your usual match opening NJPWish stuff, with Dynamite wrenching in some armholds and Liger rotating through to an awesome grounded octopus hold. There's real struggle and scramble getting to the ropes and Dynamite was bringing out some good stuff in Liger. Dynamite fed into all of Liger's best stuff, and didn't ease up his own offense at all. He took a couple real nice bumps to the floor (especially dug a missed plancha crash and burn) and the way he flew chin first into a shotei. Liger hit a heavy somersault senton off the apron, ate knees on a frog splash, a nice rana off the top, planted Dynamite with a brainbuster. But it didn't feel like a Liger greatest hits, it felt like him integrating his known moveset to take down a liveblood challenger. Dynamite was really great throughout, providing a great base for Liger and then doing cool power moves like lifting Liger into a deadlift vertical suplex turned falcon arrow. This was just a real satisfying match with a quality build and finish. Both looked good and Dynamite is a guy I'd love to see more.


What a fun little show! Only one match I really didn't care for and even that seems like something that could be fixed. But everything had some worth to a degree, several guys I had never seen before looked incredibly polished, and now I want to see every Danny Boy Collins thing ever. That fine old man didn't miss a single step and looked like an absolute beast. I love old man Collins. He was my easy standout. But this was a fine fine show, and I'm glad Allmark seems to be regularly posting stuff from this fed. I want more.

Good request, Davey! I'm glad I was made to watch it :)


***I'm probably sounding like a skipping record at this point but I'm still trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down, completely disappearing every single one of her possessions. The donations have slowed but no matter, I still have plenty of neat requests to fulfill and WILL be continuing to fulfill them! I'm matching EVERY contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. You donate $1? That's awesome. Whatever you can do. This means SO MUCH to me and you all are making me so happy***

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