Matches from NJPW G1 Climax 7/6/19

I didn't really plan to write this up, and likely won't write this up in full, but there are a couple intriguing on-paper match-ups that I might give dashed off live style reviews to.

Jeff Cobb/Ren Narita vs. Tomohiro Ishii/Shota Umino

ER: I don't think I've seen either Young Lion, but thought they were fine. Narita threw an unexpectedly nice belly to belly. Are Young Lions still only allowed to do dropkicks and elbows and boston crabs? It felt like these two did a lot more than that. Ishii looks really small here, and Cobb looks bigger than he's been. Ishii looks a little softer too, and it wouldn't be too shocking to find out he's got a zillion built up injuries that make intense workouts tough. Cobb's stop motion reverse back suplex is one of the most spectacular moves in wrestling. A lot of this doesn't quite work as Cobb/Ishii do several of their "we're standing and hitting each other hard" moments and Ishii just doesn't look like a guy hitting hard. This would have been more fun as two singles, give the young guys each a 5 minute match against a vet.

Lance Archer vs. Will Ospreay

ER: Archer is now cosplaying Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and his decades old bad lower back tattoo is slowly but surely morphing into just a full black backpiece. This match would have made for a really exciting series of GIFs, but I sadly had to watch the thing in real time. Archer is apparently a guy who moved tickets in the Dallas area, so this is his showcase match, and he showed me that he's still a guy who is really awful at getting into position for offense and still just stands their motionless waiting to receive offense. This happened the entire match, and it looked awful each time. There were a lot of cool moments, Ospreay is always going to have cool moments. But a ton of the moments required Archer to suddenly not be selling any kind of big move that he had just taken, just a constant stream of Archer popping up from a big move right away only to then stand still in place waiting for the next move. The timing is all sorts of wonky. Archer hit a boss chokeslam through a ringside table (killer height by Ospreay), there were a cool Ospreay code red in the aisle, Ospreay's springboard dropkick to Archer's face as Archer crawled back into the ring was awesome, and that's the thing: a lot of these moves looked awesome as long as you forced yourself to not think of the inorganic set-up. It would make for a sick 2 minute YouTube comp, if people still make those. Included in that compilation would be Ospreay making the dumbest "He kicked out at 2!?!?!? G-G-G-G-Ghostssssssssss!" face. What a goober. Archer won with a claw in Texas, and I will give them credit for that being cool. But I don't think even the claw is cool enough to make Archer look cool.

Bad Luck Fale vs. EVIL

ER: I am arguably the biggest fat guy wrestler torch bearers on the internet, but Fale is really a guy I struggle with. He is a not as good Kareem Muhammad, just an impossibly boring big fat guy. Here he's a giant fat guy who tries to win by count out (which is an amusing giant guy heel tactic) and tries to use chairs, while being the third most important and interesting person in the match. When you're less interesting than Marty Asami and EVIL, you done messed up. Asami is weirdly the focus of the entire match, as every spot is merely a set up for him to do some big bump across the ring, on the floor, or to the floor. Asami even refs the very next match, and doesn't oversell any of these actual attacks the way most refs do, so it literally just felt like a showcase for some of the big bumps Asami learned. EVIL hits a bunch of nice hard lariats and a cool headbutt, but Fale kind of only knows how to sell lariats by standing there and lightly swaying like a less impressive Giant Gonzalez. Not great.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA

ER: Sanada is a NJ guy I really liked 2-3 years ago, whose stock has fallen the higher he moves up the card. He's a guy I liked in multimans and a guy I like much less in singles. But this one still jumped out on paper for me. It just didn't really live up to whatever hype I had for it. I think I fell for Sanada when I saw him in more multimans, when he came off like a throwback big bumping UPW wrestler. A guy without much offense but could take a couple bumps that looked heavier than they actually were. This was just him doing a bunch of mirror sequences with Sabre while Sabre mocked him in between mirror sequences. Don't get me wrong, I laughed several times at Sabre mocking him. But that's because Sanada looked like someone that should be mocked. The only interesting part of this was one of the stand and trade sections, where I thought all of the "fighting out of a straitjacket" submission stuff looked really great. The rest felt like Sabre leading Sanada through the same sequences that look better with other opponents. There were a couple cool reversals (I like uppercuts reversed into backslides, and I like backslides a lot in general), but the subs never went anywhere interesting and the finish felt like Sanada fell into a victory. Sabre was funny throughout the match, I liked him waiting to roll back into the ring at the 19 count, but it made Sanada like like a punk and the match didn't have enough good to override that.

KENTA vs. Kota Ibushi

ER: KENTA is not the guy people remembered from 10 years ago, and he was a flawed wrestler 10 years ago. Now he's a step slower and could still act like a dick, but he's never going to come off cool like Masa Fuchi, he's just going to come off like a junior who isn't as good at doing his same set of moves. KENTA looked out of shape and slow, and that's not a super interesting thing to see. Ibushi had some real nice sells of KENTA's stuff, he can really class up a Go 2 Sleep, but KENTA seems totally washed to me. There's still upside to a lazy asshole gimmick, but his needs work. He did stomp an big old hole in Ibushi's guts, really didn't seem to pull back in any way off the top, and that's something. A lot of fans are really hyped that "KENTA is back", the problem being this guy was never the guy they thought he was even in his prime, and that prime is looking streets behind at this point.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

ER: I can never quite put my finger on it, but something about Okada always reads "water polo dick". I didn't watch this. I later saw a GIF of Tanahashi's high fly flow to the floor, and those always look great. I hope the people who watched this got what they wanted out of it.

Read more!

2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Sabre v. Tanahashi 1

74. Zack Sabre Jr. v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJPW 7/17

ER: This was the opening night of the G1 and these two didn't seem to care at all that their limbs would have to hold up over the following month. Early on Tanahashi goes for his leaping elbowdrop and Sabre shifts to catch him in an armbar. You can ask why Tanahashi - with bicep tendinitis - was even attempting an elbowdrop, but you dance with what brung you and he paid. Tanahashi attacks the arm the whole match, firing kicks, and locking on painful octopus holds to overall weaken Tanahashi and make it easier to get at the arm. Tanahashi finds openings by landing a bunch of nice body shots, hard shots under the ribs, and going after Sabre's long legs. We get some real nasty leg whips and dragon screws, and a tightly locked in cloverleaf. Finish was a nasty bit of business, with Tanahashi going for the high fly flow and eating knees about as painfully as possible, leading to Sabre trapping his good arm and dismantling the bad arm. The crowd gets super loud cheering for Tanahashi, as Sabre removes the bicep pad and starts unraveling Tanahashi's arm tape, yanking and snapping that arm around like a guy trying to rip a branch off a tree. Tanahashi's selling throughout was good, and I especially thought his pained howls were effective. A lot of wrestlers have a weird habit of staying quiet through pain, and Tanahashi's pain was palpable thanks to his screams. Killer, simple match.

PAS: There was some stuff in this match that was pretty bad looking, both guys have some of the cringiest looking stuff for supposedly great wrestlers (Sabre I think is pretty good, Tanahashi I have never gotten). I thought those body shots Eric was praising looked crappy all windup and no impact. There is a section where they both duck their heads and get kicked in the stomach, and both guys do ever step in the processes badly, the head drops for the backdrops look bad, the kicks don't connect, the selling wasn't plausible, I was ready to delete the file and curse Eric for making me watch this, but it got really good by the end. Tanahashi did an awesome job of selling the bad elbow, and I really liked the viciousness of Sabre tearing at the elbow tape and his manipulation of the elbow was grotesque. It is a big deal to make a huge star like Tanahashi tap out, and the violence of Sabre elbow attack made it plausible, it was experimental, he felt like a sadistic toddler trying to find new ways to rip the wings off insects. Hard match for me to rank, as the good stuff was awesome, but the bad was pretty bad.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

NJPW G1 Special in USA - Night 2 Live (as it airs) Blog

So the first of these didn't go too terribly, so I figured WHY NOT. Why not do it again. He never knew when to quit.

1. Jushin Liger/David Finlay/KUSHIDA vs. Yoshitatsu/Yohei Komatsu/Sho Tanaka

Boy Yoshitatsu sure does have an epic entrance song for a guy loathed by everyone in attendance. It's still hard for me to distance Finlay from his father. Any comparisons will be unfavorable. I like how Liger works Komatsu, and it seems to wake up Komatsu more than when up against other guys. Liger hits a nasty baseball slide dropkick and Komatsu flies gloriously into the rail. Tempura Boyz also nicely catch a KUSHIDA flip dive, and I really dig how Tanaka fights KUSHIDA over the hoverboard lock. I'm happy as Tanaka catches a KUSHIDA handspring into a german, just because I get so damn tired of handsprings. They must be punished. Finlay throws a great back elbow...but then he throws another that's not as good...and then does a silly diving European uppercut. I was hoping for more Yoshitatsu gloating, rubbing it into the fans how he knows they hate him, but he doesn't care. This is about as base level as you can get for a trios match. I see that Meltzer gave it ***1/4 which just means that a random CMLL episode must be total ecstasy for him. Nothing will be remembered about this match. ***1/4 seems fairly memorable to me.

2. Kenny Omega vs. Jay Lethal

This starts great as Lethal has his ribs taped up and Omega just kicks him hard a couple times right in the tape, then does a front suplex right onto the apron. Fuck your ribs, Jay. They do some do-si-do stuff, Lethal gets into the OWA in about the least convoluted way I've seen, then Omega somehow plausibly makes the lethal injection look good. Lethal didn't take forever setting it up either, and it actually looked good! Then Lethal warms my heart by nailing Omega with three straight topes into the barrier. I like when guys capitalize on big moves. Omega gets his leg worked over and after a dragon screw Lethal yells "He's a dead man!!" and then proceeds to measure his distance, hit a slow motion handspring, and get caught in a backstabber. I take back me liking the move a few sentences ago, the lethal injection remains the stupidest finisher in wrestling. I cannot think of another instance where you'd go in for the kill by walking momentarily on your hands away from an opponent. I saw Keith Hernandez on a 1986 episode of Dick Cavett, and he was talking about when they started allowing women in the locker rooms. And on the very first day it was allowed, Keith came walking out of the showers naked, on his hands. IF 1986 Keith Hernandez had delivered a totally nude lethal injection (the terrible finisher, not some gross euphemism for penetration) to the first woman allowed in a locker room, that would have been the only acceptable lethal injection ever performed. Lethal gets caught by the transition dragon suplex, because, you know, he points to the ropes opposite his opponent, yells that he's going to slowly bounce upside down off of them, and then gets caught. Lethal matches have become an exercise in getting caught doing stupid things. He has strikes that are good enough to make him maybe the most frustrating wrestler in the states, because he keeps insisting on working his matches entirely around his awful finisher. And speaking of awful finishers, both men then carefully balance while doing a couple reversals based around the one wing angel. If Omega can do a bad handspring into getting his opponent somehow on his shoulders...I think we could reach nirvana.

3. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tomohiro Ishii

I love this total style clash match-up, and love Sabre for coming out and trying to slap Ishii. Sabre foolishly playing into Ishii's one strength is great, and then Sabre ups things by headbutting him. Sabre takes some shots and finally kicks Ishii in the bicep and Barnett is talking about his "Lancashire style" and it's pretty great. Sabre eats a big shoulderblock and nice delayed superplex, then kicks Ishii's bicep again, lands a great short uppercut and then hits a killer jumping northern lights. THAT looked freakish, like some mutant Alexander Otsuka move. Ishii finally gets wise and catches one of those kicks aimed at his bicep, but Sabre rolls him through with a bridge. Here's a neat thing about Sabre's bridge: he pins Ishii's shoulders down by standing on his armpits. That's some fine detail work right there. Sabre locks on a great twisty sub and keeps grabbing each Ishii limb that gets close to the ropes, great moment where the crowd kept getting louder every new iteration of the sub, and finally Ishii reached ropes and lay there holding his arms and body. Sabre leaps at Ishii to try to lock on his nasty wristlock, comes close, opts to hit the penalty kick...but modern offense cannot hurt Ishii, and he barrels through him with a lariat and delayed brainbuster. Satisfying match, fun to see Ishii out of his brainless stiff exchange pattern.

4. Juice Robinson/Dragon Lee/Jay White/Titan/Volador Jr. vs. SANADA/Hiromu Takahashi/Tetsuya Naito/BUSHI/EVIL

I look up and think Takahashi's tron video said "Tickling Time Bomb", which would be a decent gimmick. BUSHI is wearing the super cool black/red gear, looking like a final boss ninja. SANADA continues to warm my heart by dropkicking Titan during his handspring. Death to all hand springs! EVIL mostly sucks, but American fans still like him because he has that Japanese credibility. SANADA plays lucha maestro by locking on a couple Nieblinas and JR chooses the first strike of the match to gush over as a sliding kick by Naito that whiffs. Boy, Titan has been in this whole match. There are 4 other guys, buddy. Naito takes Juice's leaping sidekick better than any man has taken it, and then Juice throws a great lefty lariat on SANADA in the corner before hitting a couple cannonballs. Our first strike exchange of the evening actually belongs to Lee and Takahashi, which is like the least interesting thing they can do to their bodies. Having them match up in a 10 man is kind of pointless as we've seen them in multiple long singles matches, there's really only so much they can do during a 90 second exchange. White throws some cool off balance strikes that shouldn't look as good as they do, and SANADA continues burrowing his way deep into my heart by being the only guy doing interesting things on the apron. JR starts talking about Tony Garea while BUSHI takes forever setting up a missed move off the top. Juice hits a weird/cool short left hand to KO Takahashi off the apron and Jay White finishes things by running through a few 1999 Power Plant graduate finisher moves.

5. Tama Tonga/Tanga Loa/Hangman Page vs. War Machine/Michael Elgin

This match and one other I'm weirdly excited for are the ones that Meltzer did not give a ***+ rating to, which makes me more excited for both of them. Has someone less threatening ever been given a cool nickname like "Hangman"? "Christ Stomper" Stephen Hawking. "Throat Slasher" Eddie Deezen.  Yeah this match kinda blows so far, but no more than our first trios. A lot of cracks showing through in this match, guys waiting in position for other guys, delaying moves that are supposed to get interrupted...but then Tonga takes a crazy fast bump over the top to the floor, and Page gets hiptossed into Loa (while Loa is draped over the ropes) and I'm in. The War Machine springboard clothesline german suplex is cool - indy as hell, but cool. But then we do some lame "hit me so I can show you how tough I am" stuff that takes me back out. BUT, Hanson hits a big top rope cannonball and I'm back. Rowe always does a couple cool things in his matches, here I dug him headbutting Tonga's arm as Tonga threw a forearm, and he also bumped a Page lariat bigger than it probably deserved. Match was okay.

6. Roppongi Vice vs. Young Bucks

Pretty early "fuck this match" as they do a bunch of goofy as hell missed somersault legdrops, then everyone throws a dropkick at once and the crowd ERUPTS in applause. Then they all do the worst phone booth fighting you've ever seen. The rest of this is going to have to be incredible to get it to its ****1/4 designation. Romero always has an incredible knack for moving in far enough so that he never catches his opponent on dives to the floor. They always end up flying just over his head, in the same way John Morrison has been overshooting his twisting moonsault for a decade now. Bucks always do things I like, and I'm probably higher on them than most humans (at least ones that run in our niche nerd circles), but they're better than what this match has been. This has been a bad Eliminators "hold still so I can do spots" match, with dodgier execution. "A jumping piledriver on the apron should spell disaster for Nick Jackson." I mean...you would think that, wouldn't you, JR? But even with another piledriver back in the ring, it wasn't enough. There are several more moves that don't finish Nick Jackson. They cut to someone in the crowd marking out, and that someone MAY have been Marty the Moth. He looked like he was having the time of his life. Man, I do not need a "We're having a WAR!!" strike exchange with fucking Rocky Romero. Matt just completely no sells a Romero dive, which makes sense, it looked terrible. But it looked no worse than any Romero tope, and those all get sold. So it's weird for him to just take this one and decide "Wait a minute these are terrible, I didn't get hurt at all!" and pick him up. They do an insane Meltzer driver to the floor (and toss in a nice tribute to Herb Meltzer, which was genuinely nice), then they do another in the ring that doesn't hit at all. This match was terrible. I mean really, really terrible.

7. Cody/Yujiro Takahashi/Bad Luck Fale/Marty Scurll vs. Briscoes/Will Ospreay/Kazuchika Okada

Scurll found a way to make me lose interest during a Mark Briscoe sequence. That's a special kind of boring right there. This has more stalling than an '89 Rougeaus match, but is nowhere near as entertaining. This match and the prior one are finally making this live report seem like a terrible idea. Man this match is bad. Ospreay the only one with a raised heart rate. Everything in this match is taking so long, and guys are selling without taking hardly any moves of any kind. Yujiro gets his head snapped nastily on a Jay neckbreaker, then bites Jay's thumb, hits a couple light sliding dropkicks and thankfully Jay levels him with an elbow. I think guys are trying to work comedy spots? Nothing is very funny, but I think that's what's happening. That's the problem with having offense that looks like shit, is it's never quite clear if you're just having a laugh. This match is just interminably long. Ospreay hits a big flip dive and hits a flipping...knee? elbow? on Cody. Cody sells it by doing his finisher moments later. God this match was fucking awful. Here's hoping Billy Gunn can save this show!

8. Billy Gunn vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

The crowd boos Gunn because they're shitty. I've never been a Billy Gunn fan, but this kind of match-up seems way more interesting that seeing another wankfest rematch against any number of NJ natives. And Gunn is great doing all this slow annoying stuff that must be infuriating the live crowd. Showing off his height during lock-ups, yanking Tanahashi's ponytail during a headlock takeover, and then going after Tanahashi's taped up arm. Single arm DDT, smacking it into ring posts, and the fans hate it!! Gunn even punches Tanahashi out of the air, but Tanahashi doesn't bump his missed axe handle like Arn. Gunn is awesome punching Tanahashi while holding his ponytail. The man is wearing a ponytail in a wrestling match, it needs to constantly be used against him. Gunn gets his trunks pulled down and awesomely continues working with his trunks down. Only weenies give a shit if their underwear is showing. Tanahashi finally goes on his first run of offense, and exclusively uses the arm we've seen get worked over the past 10 minutes. Flying forearm, hip toss, leaping elbow, I mean literally all the moves he did at first opportunity used his bad arm. Tanahashi only knows how to work New Japan Main Event Epic and it is embarrassingly on display here, though has been hinted at in the way he completely disappears during trios matches. Not a good match, but a match that should have been good, and all it would have taken was a LITTLE bit of effort from Tanahashi. He showed no interest in selling, showed no interest in being engaged while in holds, clearly put half ass into his offense. Terrible Tanahashi performance.

9. Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii

I'll be honest, I'm probably not in the best mood for this match. The Tag match was terrible, that 8 man match was embarrassing, and that Tanahashi match was one of the more phoned in performances you've seen this side of an Orton main event. 30 minutes of NJ epic is not going to be what I need. Let's see if they can win me over. But 10 minutes in we've just predictably got a lot of "I'll show YOU how tough I am, hit me!!" junk. The floor brawling was inspired but too brief. Ishii will take a DDT right on top of his head, and he'll do the same with Omega's stupid high jump bulldog. The nastiest part of the match so far is a flip dive from Omega, caught valiantly by Ishii, who also gets his head smashed into the concrete upon catching him. We build to a big stupid table suplex spot, with some amusing stuff like Ishii biting the top rope to prevent Omega from throwing him. Does Ishii have strong teeth strength as one of his known attributes? Because it comes off kind of funny for a guy to try to Jaws his way through things. If you were suplexing Richard Kiel, this would be a familiar spot. Here it felt like an odd joke that was told moments before the joke teller got head-dropped through a table. It's amazing how Kenny Omega is so good at making huge suplex spots mean so little. Top rope dragon suplex against Okada, a dragon suplex off the apron through a table here, they all mean as much as any other move done in his matches. Big deal, I saw a 20/20 piece on backyard wrestling 15 years ago and a kid took a burning hammer on a picnic table in a park. There's a good chance it meant more to whatever match those two idiot teens were having. Finishing stretch sees Ishii dumped on his head by the snapdragon, kneed in the face, and go down with fighting spirit to the end. Good for them. This sure was New Japan-y.


I never know when to quit. This show was fucking awful. I liked the Sabre/Ishii match and the 10 man, couple other matches had their moments...but man there were some dogshit awful performances peppered throughout this show.

Read more!

I Liked Tanahashi/Naito! Phil...Did Not Like Tanahashi/Naito!

Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Tetsuya Naito NJPW 1/4

ER: I much prefer this "not going gentle into the good night" Tanahashi than "promotion ace" Tanahashi. It's similar to Misawa's late career William Munny character, though not nearly as broken or tired. But Tanahashi is sliding somewhat back down the totem pole and now wrestles with a certain disgust, and that disgust shines through in his work. Naito is the clear heel here, but Tanahashi doesn't act like an ultra valiant babyface. He doesn't stoop to Naito's level of disrespect, but he doesn't aim to take the total high road either. Naito just goes right after Tanahashi's leg, really taking it apart, and Tanahashi sells it nicely. Even down the home stretch he didn't completely forget about it. That right there sounds backhanded, but it isn't. Before Naito attacked his knee Tanahashi hit this killer left hand right into Naito's ribs, and it's almost like that one shot totally changed Naito's gameplan. Tanahashi would go after those ribs whenever he could, even later locking on a single leg crab where he was clearly pressing his and Naito's weight into the hurt ribs side. That attention to detail was so damn cool and something you rarely see in matches featuring even the best mat guys. That rib work also lent more weight to his splashes, crossbodies and sentons; seeing Naito wince on a hook to the ribs made you immediately think how much pain he was in after the great high fly flow to the floor. I loved how Naito used spitting in Tanahashi's face as a means to comeback, knowing that was a level even slightly gruff Tanahashi wouldn't stoop to. Even the strike exchange portion had a neat twist, as both men kicked at each other's legs. The kicks didn't look very good, but it tied in great to the match itself, and meant far more than any elbow exchange could have meant. Naito peppered in his comebacks nicely, Tanahashi stacked his offense wisely, and I ended up really digging this.

PAS: I was pretty pissed when Eric nominated this, which meant I had watch NJ Twink main event wrestling, my least favorite kind of wrestling. It really feels like Eric is trying really hard to find good things to say about this

"Didn't completely forget about the leg"

sounds backhanded and it should have been, Tanahashi did sell it at the beginning, but his end of the match selling consisted of him shaking his leg a bit and then hitting all of his dives unencumbered.

"Even the strike exchange portion had a neat twist, as both men kicked at each other's legs. The kicks didn't look very good, but it tied in great to the match itself, and meant far more than any elbow exchange could have meant"

It sure didn't look great, it looked really goofus and while it meant more then any elbow exchange, Eric forgot to mention that it was proceeded by one of those dumbass tickle fight elbow exchanges that looked like Ethan Page practicing in his mirror. The finish run was pretty terrible too, I have no idea what in the sweet name of Chris Kanyon Naito's finish is supposed to be, but it looked super silly and elaborate, the whole end run had this very forced near fallism which is just so inorganic feeling.

There were a couple of things I liked, I thought Tanahashi's dive to the floor looked great, and Naito caught it in a way that made it look like he concussed himself. I also did like the opening body shot, although I think Eric is inventing some grand narrative which isn't there. I didn't hate the beginning, didn't mind the middle, and hated the finish. Not for me.

ER: There is a chance I was two White Russians deep when I nominated this match. I will buy Phil al pastor super burritos from El Farolito next time he is out here, and hope it heals wounds. I stand behind liking this match, though.

Read more!

MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 25: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

2011-09-06 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

I'm interjecting this one in as it's between the opening round and the finals of the Universal tournament. I saw Sombra vs Liger, Nakamura, and Goto, and I thought that I should hit this one against Tanahashi too.

This was loads of fun, just full of schtick and sequence. Terrible and Texano were really good together. I love how they were able to really dominate a match with a solid beatdown in the Bucanero match  vs Sombra with a lot of heat that I looked at previously, and then here got to have a real crowd pleaser. They had a really great little stretch against Sombra where he played the dominant tecnico countering everything they did which was probably the best of such I've seen out of him in this process. Warrior brought a lot of energy to things as well. I like him in almost every match I see him in, no matter the year.

Tanahashi fit right in too. He was such a flouncy heel, which is really the natural role for him, holding his own on the mat vs Sombra (and that was simple stuff but good and competitive) losing chop battles, getting clowned by Garza and just selling it huge.:

Garza was a comedy machine here. I like his reactions more as a rudo and I like Terrible more as a dangerous wildman but both played their roles really well in this one:

There was at least a bit of the wild beatings too:

Structurally, this had a few inversions (the tecnicos cutting off a rudo takeover at the end of the primera, the rudos coming back out of nowhere at the end of the segunda) which may not seem like much but are really satisfying when you see a lot of these that feel the same.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 7/31/15 Review

1. Bad Luck Fale vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (8/8/14)

I liked Nakamura in this, though the match was kinda junk. We had lazy move set ups like Fale going up top for the sole purpose of setting up a Nak superplex. But Nakamura took Fale's Grenade nicely, and dished out a bunch of big knees, scrambling knees to the ribs, wild running knees to the face, big kicks to cut down Fale. But the laziness in the transitions pretty much killed this one for me.

2. AJ Styles vs. Togi Makabe (8/8/14)

Fun match (though the version shown on TV was clipped down to nothing), which I wasn't really expecting as Makabe doesn't do much for me. Styles really uses that Styles Clash top rope set up a lot, where he Pele kicks his opponent up top then lifts him down into the Clash. I don't really know that I would have noticed it if they hadn't been showing weekly Styles matches. But I liked a lot of his other stuff here and the G1 was quite a nice little tear for him. Really liked his forearm into the crowd.

3. Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (8/8/14)

Mauro says that DBS is as agile as a cruiserweight but man this guy always seems like a really uncoordinated lummox to me. I genuinely can't think of any moments of him moving around like a lithe little cruiser. He just looks like a slightly more in shape version of Alison Hendrix's husband on Orphan Black. In showing a lot of G1 matches, they did a strange thing, in that they showed every major upset during the whole tournament. But since there is only so much TV time, 1-2 matches a week were "monumental upsets", so you constantly had Mauro screaming about how this is one of the biggest upsets he's ever seen and the biggest win of so and so's career, and it just starts to lose something week after week and becomes more of a "Greatest Night in the History of our Sport" kind of thing. Tanahashi didn't look very good in this one, his stuff was reallll loose, and you know that's saying something if Tanahashi's stuff looks notably looser than normal. Smith has some nice power offense, a good powerslam and great capture suplex, but he's a guy I'm entirely uninterested in so this win didn't matter a whole lot to me.

4. Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuchika Okada (8/8/14)

Okada's pre-match promos are one of the better utilized things about this program, as he regularly does some high end kayfabe sit downs about why his opponent is going to be tough, why the match is important, and does so much better than Mauro has ever been able to get across during his actual matches. Here he says that Suzuki is a difficult opponent because he always ends up being tricked into playing Suzuki's game, tricked into working at Suzuki's pace instead of his own pace. I liked that little touch a lot and is really something an announcer should pick up on (especially recording these things long after they happen). This was a good match although some segments could have been reordered to more success. At one point Okada hit a big clutch piledriver after working over Suzuki's neck, but due to the structure Suzuki had to basically get up right after taking it because the match called for him reversing Okada's next run of offense. Poor placement. Suzuki's neck selling was really great (except for the unfortunate piledriver placement), throwing in nice details he doesn't always bother with, sometimes with a neat twist on his own style. At one point he gets tossed into the ropes, and Suzuki is a guy who always no sells rope running, usually by just holding onto the ropes. Here he crumbles before reaching the ropes, holding onto the back of his neck and just falling into the ropes. At times he was really vicious with Okada. His knees right to Okada's jaw after a blocked Gotch piledriver was tooth rattling, and his running dropkick put every Okada dropkick I've ever seen to absolute shame. And damn did he put over the Rainmaker huge, landing in an impossibly painful position right on his head; but his neck didn't really bend so it looked like a grotesque drawing they used to have on the side of diving boards, with a cartoon diving into an empty pool. So yeah, some problematic placement of some big spots, but all in all a good performance by both.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 7/24/15 Review

1. Tomoaki Honma vs. Katsuyori Shibata (8/3/14)

So, so, so so great! I loved every second of this one. Honma is just the best and really gets that underdog mentality over to an insane degree. Here he got just as much offense as Shibata, but always came across as the underdog. And it's not like he kept lucking into his offense, he's just really great at conveying his character. Shibata was great here too as a more skilled, cold asskicker who is not necessarily underestimating Honma, but at the same time almost in disbelief that he is having *this* much trouble with him. The crowd is just so into Honma here and it's incredibly infectious. I can't remember an underdog character I get this invested in, get this genuinely excited about the outcomes of his matches. Honma just commits to everything, and it makes all the difference. His shots hit big, and they miss bigger. His headbutt flying straight into Shibata's boots was heartbreaking; his hooked legs and high cradles are the most hope-filled pinfalls possible. Shibata hits tons of nasty shots in this, and his elbows with a dropkick follow up in the corner was just brutal. But it was key that he did not view Honma as a joke, and he most definitely made Honma look like a competitor here. He sold a Honma slap like Kawada taking the nastiest Misawa elbow, actually showed struggle when kicking out of Honma's high cradles. And I could have sworn he hesitated just a moment before nailing Honma with the match-ending Penalty Kick. I really did love every second of this. One of my absolute favorite matches of the year.

2. Yujiro Takahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (8/3/14)

Hey this was better than I expected. I don't love either man, but Yujiro was pretty good here. I really liked his delay german, but then did not like how slowly and feebly he fell into the corner after a Okada dropkick. With these guys it seems like for everything they do that I like, they do something not long after that I dislike. Rainmaker looked good because Yujiro flew into it gloriously, but right before that he holds a tombstone too long which only makes it clear that Yujiro's head came nowhere close to the mat. These two give, and they immediately take away. But, it was better than I expected, and was overall perfectly acceptable televised pro wrestling.

3. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (8/3/14)

This was pretty much the match I was expecting, with fine execution and problematic layout. Tanahashi talks about his injured neck before the match and how that will affect him and how he'll have to change his style, but nothing about the way he worked this match made it seem like he was changing up his style in the least. It's like those horrible band interviews where they're talking about recording their new record, and how they've been listening to a lot of Neu and Harmonia and Phil Manzanera guitar patterns, and how they're really getting influenced by these sounds....and then the album comes out and it's the same trash they've released on their previous two records. I mean Tanahashi did not do one thing differently. I hate that.

Nakamura seemed a bit hesitant in spots, and Tanahashi is clunky about getting into position for things at times. Sometimes he's just sitting there, arms at sides, waiting to be kicked. I will give him credit for always leaning face first into Nakamura's mean knees and kicks, so there's that. Finish run was pretty bad with a rote forearm exchange, then Nakamura hitting a nasty Bom Ba Ye that looked match finishing, but Tanahashi was up doing his moves just seconds later. That was a repeat trend. This was real disappointing.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 7/10/15 Review

1. Bad Luck Fale vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (7/28/14)

This was...okay? It was a real Fale-heavy match, kind of a squash for him really. They gave him a big nearfall off the grenade, which I assumed would lead to the Tanahashi comeback...but then it didn't. G1 always has some even-stevens type of wins, and this one was pretty harmless. I actually really dug the opening wristlock battle. Tanahashi did a nice job putting over Fale's grip strength, and he leaned way into all of Fale's big moves. Fairly inoffensive, good for the allotted time.

2. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Tomoaki Honma (7/28/14)

Man the home stretch of this was so damn fun. Honma is such a great lovable loser, like a better working Masao Inoue. Even though he almost always loses his nearfalls always get me, always make me think he's going to get the upset. The brainbuster here especially hooked me. Fans buy into it too and it always makes for great atmosphere during Honma matches. Mauro does an admirable job covering for a backslide flub down the stretch, and flubbing a move like that actually works within Honma's character, especially where it happened in the match. Saying something like "that could have put Nakamura away, if only he were able to hold on to it" practically writes itself within the context of Honma. Nak himself looked a little off in spots, or else I would argue this match's placement on our MOTY list.

3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito (7/28/14)

Eh, this wasn't bad but not really my thing. Seems like I always have the same complaints about these two, and everything I complain about was right here staring back at me. Feels like a waste of all of our time to repeat all of them. Naito can bump big, but he's really bad about making those bumps mean anything. He takes the big "everybody takes this bump off the top onto the apron in every Okada match" bump, spikes himself on a DDT, but really only takes the bumps in a nasty way because it looks cool. He's still back up running around moments later. And Okada does the same thing. He gets dumped on his head with a dragon suplex, which just is used to transition into a strike exchange. It's that kind of wrestling where everything is executed wonderfully, but if you stop and think about the order of some things it will drive you nuts. But really this is all just me burying the lede, because you guys....according to Frank Shamrock....Tetsuya Naito can LITERALLY fly. Can Naito literally fly, Frank Shamrock? Really? Or can he just fall. It seemed like he just fell from a high place to me. But he assures me that Naito can literally fly. The future is now people.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 7/3/15 Review

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yuji Nagata (7/26/14)

This wasn't much. Nagata made a bunch of goofy faces to the shock of everybody. Nakamura got dumped spectacularly on his head a couple of times, especially by a rough release German. Both guys looked sluggish throughout. Nakamura usually brings great energy to his stuff, but his kicks were moving in slow motion here (the missed ones looking especially embarrassing), and then the Bom Ba Ye's were among the ugliest and least painful I've seen. He would just sorta walk up to a kneeling Nagata and take a back bump while kinda sticking his knee out. If you didn't know a knee strike was supposed to be happening, you would not have guessed you had just seen a knee strike. The one that finished the match looked fine, but boy, not a great start.

2. AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito (7/26/14)

Well, this would absolutely have to be considered a miracle match. Because it was a really really good match, that had Tetsuya Naito in it. That's just absurd. Styles did an incredible job here, and really Naito did his part just fine. Naito comes into this with a big cut and bandage on his forehead, and Styles immediately goes after it, working him over with snug wrenching headlocks and shots to the cut itself. Styles is a dick in this, always going after the cut and it builds actual sympathy for the robot that is Naito. Naito's comebacks were placed really well, and his selling was shockingly good. I don't think I've ever seen Naito sell...well, anything before, and here he's able to believably hit his offense while also selling damage done and also wooziness from loss of blood. Really feels like a career performance from him. Styles is relentless and the build to the finish is awesome, with the struggle over a top rope Styles Clash being a real peak. This is something Styles can really hang his hat on, he came out of this one looking like one of the absolute best guys in the world, and this far exceeded any expectations anybody could have realistically had for this match.

3. Karl Anderson vs. Kazuchika Okada (7/26/14)

Mauro Schivaone calls this "The most important singles match of Anderson's career". This is a guy who fought for the IWGP Title twice in 2013. Those seem just a wee but more important than a single match in the G1 tourney. Man Okada has a really sloppy and ineffective top rope elbow and a feather soft dropkick, but this was probably the best I've seen Anderson look in a singles match, but it could have been because Okada looked lousier than normal. I suppose he fed into Anderson well, and their counters simultaneously goofy, and good, if that's possible. The Rainmaker really is just preposterous. How would you just not duck? It's one thing if a guy blindsides you with a lariat, but how many times in a match do you get hugged, spun around by your arm, and THEN clotheslined. It would seem really easy to go "Okay, Okada is hugging me...now spinning me around...I should probably duck". It's like Von Kaiser bobbing his head before a jab, or Great Tiger's little jewel flashing in Punch-Out!! Just duck to the side once you're getting hugged and spun. So yeah, the little do-si-do reversals were goofy but fun, I liked Anderson's running power bomb and front kicks. This was better than I expected it to be.

4. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (7/26/14)

This was really good right here. Shibata laced into Tanahashi the whole match, and I love when Tanahashi starts working subtle heel when he falls behind early in a match. The crowd always picks up on it too as they always start immediately booing and getting restless. Shibata goes for big kicks right away, and I love how he immediately went for the Penalty Kick and really missed with purpose. If Tanahashi hadn't ducked he would have been a PEZ dispenser. Tanahashi played it great by scrambling into the corner looking scared as hell, and then Shibata charged and whiffed on another kick as Tanahashi bailed to the floor. And before long we get like 10 straight minutes of Shibata kicking Tanahashi's ass all over. We get that nasty pump kick over the guardrail, some brutal shoulder shrug elbows in the corner (with the camera nicely zooming in on just how much Tanahashi's face is getting smashed) and then capping with a spinning backfist that would make Kong proud. Styles peppers in some nice comebacks, and the release German trading actually worked for me as I dug the way Shibata snapped up and sold later. It made more sense for him to instinctively pop up as he hadn't really taken much damage, but I thought he really effectively sold the "catch-up" damage. Tanahashi looked good throughout this, leaning into all of Shibata's strikes, making the Slingblade look actually painful, crushing him with a nice somersault senton, going all in on both HFF. But Shibata really looked killer through all this, right down to his nasty sleeperhold that looked like it was literally choking the life out of Tanahashi. I didn't have big expectations going into this one, but really loved it.

**NOTE: I felt the Shibata and especially Styles matches were worthy of inclusionon our Ongoing 2014 MOTY List. When I informed Phil he was predictably peevish, amusingly preferring to close the book on 2014 than be forced to spend time watching New Japan matches. I am not wholly unsympathetic to his plight, and I insisted it was not entirely my goal to trick him into watching poor quality pro wrestling. He told me he would consider it, which I read as thinly veiled code for "kindly fornicate yourself". Then we made fun of Makabe's "next level" sub-Abyss punches for 4 minutes.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 6/26/15 Review

1. Tomoaki Honma vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (7/21/14)

The emergence of Tomoaki Honma "The Perpetual Underdog" is one of the better stories of the last decade of pro wrestling. It's neat to see a former death match guy actually work his way into a respected role in the largest company. I mean, it only took 15 years so maybe we just have a case of survivor bias here, but whatever the reason I'm happy for the guy. Match itself was a fun Smackdown match, with a finish that was never really in doubt nor even teased. Honma looked really great and I loved him taking it to Tanahashi before inevitably failing. The underdog character in wrestling is so good when done well, a guy who is good but just plain not as good as the top guys, and needs every single thing to go right in matches to pull out a win. I really like Honma's offense and energy, like how he makes Tanahashi actually duck on a lariat, blocking Tanahashi's strikes with his forearms, love his sad face as he realizes he's about to take a Dragon Suplex, like his fighting spirit without any sort of actual gameplan. Honma never really had a chance, but the match was fun an competitive. Though it is a little weird how Honma came off like a bigger star than Tanahashi here.

2. AJ Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada (7/21/14)

This was clipped to ribbons but what they showed was mostly good, outside of the poorly set up Bullet Club interference you knew was going to happen. Yujiro looked fine on the run-in, they're always just set up in the lamest ways. Either Red Shoes has to just ignore that it's happening and kinda hold his arms out going "Guuuuuuuys, cahmahhnnnnn", or we get the lame set-up here: Styles gets knocked into Red Shoes, Red Shoes proceeds to be knocked out or holding his stomach for the next 3 minutes. I get why nobody would want a horrible David Manning invincible referee, but goddamn do all referees have to be gentle little Faberge eggs? Red Shoes gets bumped into, does a backward roll, and is just OUT. It's human nature to roll through something and get back up, fine or not. I've tripped and fallen while running a few times, always immediately instinctively sprang right back to my feet before my brain could even process what had just happened. But all referees are required to have fragile little bird bones so doing a reverse somersault is tantamount to crashing your bicycle into a brick wall. It's just so lazy, and so damn bad. Which is a shame, as the work between Styles and Okada was very good. Styles always makes Okada's offense look better than it is, really throwing himself into Germans, splatting off the apron from Okada's top rope dropkick and getting obliterated by the Rainmaker. Okada looked better here than in most matches I've seen, his offense was clean and in some cases spectacular. His wild running crossbody into the crowd was unexpected and killer, and he at least cut low on missed Rainmakers and got really great bridges on his suplexes. So other than the lazily set-up and boring middle portion that happens in all Bullet Club matches, this was actually really good. Shame, that.

3. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (7/21/14)

Shibata is a little dry, and we had a goofy ass dated headdrop exchange in the middle, but overall this was fine. I liked the sit down interview with Shibata as he explained how he hadn't fought Nakamura in 10 years, and how different each of them were then and now. That does make it kind of weird that NJ would waste a match-up like that on a G1 tourney match, but it did make the match feel like a bigger deal. Nakamura was great during this, flying face first into Shibata's kicks, posting himself nicely, getting dumped by suplexes and setting up all of his runs nicely. Shibata always feels like a guy I want to like but always leaves me somewhat cold. I also cannot fathom how Nakamura hasn't become some sort of internet crossover gif meme at this point. How have I not been bombarded by gifs of Nakamura doing his Mick Jagger Start Me Up moves with "Haters Gonna Hate" stamped across it in large white letters. Feels like a gif that would be posted by tons of people who had no idea there was even pro wrestling in Japan. His fucking finger guns and hip shakes before hitting a series of knees have me in stitches. Nakamura always has this drunken master aura to him, this weird slithery controlled sloppiness that is wholly unique. Which was in stark contrast to Shibata's grown up young boy dropkicks and half crab style. The dopey no sold headdrop exchange was clumsily out of place, and it's a shame as Shibata's spill looked brutal, but then he just popped up and a disgusted, eyerolling "yuck" involuntarily dropped out of my mouth. I did love the battle over Nak's Bom-Ba Ye's and Shibata's Penalty Kick. Nak's BBY off the middle rope looked good, and the finish PK the Nak took flush looked brutal. The execution for everything was really great, and while the order that things weren't put together wasn't all my cup of tea, this was still plenty good.

Nothing blowaway great this week, but one of the overall better episodes as the ring work was all really good, just didn't always have great match structure to go along with it. But an hour of good ringwork is still plenty entertaining even if it doesn't result in any classics.

Read more!

Ring of Honor on Destination America 6/17/15 Review

Kevin Kelly looks like current Henry Winkler.

1. Colby Corino & Adam Page vs. War Machine (Hanson & Rowe)

This again started with Whitmer graciously giving his spot to Corino, and then War Machine lacing into Corino as Page refused to tag in. I like how this has been presented so far, although I'm not totally sure *where* it's going. Corino won't be able to realistically get much offense in against any of these guys, as man is he scrawny. I do like him showing some spunk, slapping Rowe and going after Hanson right when he tagged in. Rowe's rolling tilt-a-whirl back/chest breakers into a powerbomb looked nasty, and I dug the Steve Corino/Whitmer tease in the postmatch. Still, curious where they're going, how they're gonna get there, and how long the plan is. With those questions I presented, I suppose you can refer to me as a man who is "engaged".

2. Cedric Alexander vs. Moose

A lot of this was problematic, but had some moments. Moose is still really green, and doesn't have great timing on a lot of things. He took a nice ringpost bump and threw a great clothesline, but also showed horrible instincts catching a flip dive, stumbles into place at other times. The bomb trading portion of the match looked really good, which was not what I was expecting. I also liked the screwy finish that costs Moose his first loss, if only because Cedric made the shot with the wrench look really great. It was easily his best strike of the match, making me think of only one thing: "Make it good!" RIP Dusty. I don't think Cedric is very good, so the choice to have him end the Moose streak is curious, but sometimes streaks can be more of a crutch so maybe they just wanted to unburden him with it. Look man, I don't have answers.

3. ACH & Matt Sydal vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiroshi Tanahashi

Well hey, this was pretty good! I liked ACH more than Sydal in this, which surprised me as Sydal is a guy I like and ACH is a guy I usually do not. But now I'm thinking that's just because I've only seen ACH working long singles, and I should just watch him working more tags. Because tags make more sense for him. Naito is a guy who is...not good...but actually showed some sort of charisma while working as an invading pseudo heel here. He kept doing these weird "wide eyed" mannerisms which read like he was taunting white people. That is officially more personality I've ever seen from him. There was some clunkiness throughout this, but damn if ACH doesn't hit the awesome Aerostar flip dive, we get a cool Tanahashi German suplex with him grabbing Sydal out of the air while Sydal was doing a standing moonsault, and we got a great near fall save from Naito that conceivably could have been the 3. Ending was a little anti-climactic, but overall this was plenty decent.

I'm always a sucker for a contract signing in wrestling. I love the build to the table getting flipped over. Jay Lethal was really good with that, saying "yeah, I could flip this table over, get mad, but I'm not gonna do that." And then Briscoe made him mad and you KNOW that table got flipped the fuck over. Truth Martini makes a contract signing (or anything, really) worse, but even though nothing of note happened here, it did make me more interested in the match.

Better episode this week. I was all dewy eyed and tired after work, so I sat back in the chair and it was that satisfying kind of focus, and I dug what was presented. I'm surprised they didn't push their PPV way more, as they hammered it home during the contact signing, and a little during the Moose match, but it's wild there weren't constant commercials for it. Seems like that's a big deal, right?

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 16 Review

1. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. TenKoji (6/21/14)

I remember a time a decade ago when Lance Archer was a total embarrassment, truly one of the worst wrestlers in the world to appear on my television. I'm in my mid 30s now, I'm a homeowner, and Lance Archer is still a total embarrassment, truly one of the worst wrestlers in the world currently appearing on my television. Man there is not one thing he does well in the ring. He takes offense like he's scared to be hit, always preparing more for the bump he's about to take. His offense is just terrible. We - me the author and you the reader - we know what moves he's supposed to be doing just because we know the movements. But I have no clue what a first time viewer would think Archer was doing half the time. At one point he did a standing splash and Rachel actually had no clue what he was attempting. It's like he was making a weird human tent over him. He just sort of jumped up and landed on all fours, but no part of him came close to touching Kojima. Even worse he awkwardly yelled "Let's get CRAZY!!!" before hitting it. You have never seen anything less crazy that Lance Archer's standing splash. Out of all the things to possibly yell to the crowd...DBS Jr. isn't good either, but it's easy to not notice that when Archer is bumbling all over the ring. For every tiny thing DBS does well, he does something real poor. Nice knees to the stomach, horrible kicks to the stomach. He tries to carry himself like a big guy, but works real soft. Tenzan looked good in this, hit a nice spinkick, tried his damndest to make The Killer Elite Squad (ughhhh that name) look like they have painful offense. Kojima looked kinda sluggish, but DBS didn't do him any favors leaning far away from his lariat. This match was...not good.

2. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson (6/21/14)

Good match, with the story being Makabe was working it with a broken jaw, which sounds like lunacy, but I'll bite. So every shot thrown to Makabe's chin throughout gets a nice sneery reaction from the crowd. Anderson/Gallows work so much better as a team than Archer/Smith, it's really stunning how much work those two get. Gallows/Anderson have their double teams down, and the moves themselves look so much better. Here Gallows hits a great standing splash, and you actually know 100% exactly what it is he's doing. Tanahashi was good in this, fighting for two men essentially. There was an awesome moment where he hit the Sling Blade on Anderson, went up for the HFF and Anderson got the knees up, and right when Tanahashi hit knees Anderson cradled him right up. Awesome near fall, and the spot looked perfect. Makabe isn't great, but this match is kind of an ideal scenario for a Makabe match, as due to his injury he mostly sells, except when he comes back with a big lariat. So limit Makabe to selling and lariats, and things ain't bad! Finish is real nice as Bullet Club dispose of Tanahashi, and Makabe uses the last of his strength to go on a comeback tear, only to get nailed with a jumping Gun Stun, planting him right on his injured jaw. Good stuff.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 11 Workrate Report

1. Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii (4/6/14)

Well hey this was pretty fun! It's still a bummer when they clip these matches as they aren't actually very good with their clip choices. They'll keep in fairly bland moments where you know there has to be better stuff in the 10 minutes they didn't show. Is their goal to show the best moments? Is it to capture the vibe of the match while eliminating the dead time? Because they don't do that. Part of the time they feel like they just play a few minutes, and then skip ahead to a different part of the match, with really clunky edits. Here they show Naito throwing a suplex off the top and then before Ishii practically lands we cut to Naito throwing a different suplex in a different part of the ring. But then other parts they are incredibly slow to edit, just showing guys lying around. If they're so obsessed with showing all the spots, then show them. I just don't get their goal. But anyway, the match was indeed fun. Naito threw out one of the very worst performances I've ever seen a few weeks back, and here he was very much palatable. He was actually able to move his facial muscles to appear to be showing some sort of...emotion? Ishii had a lot of great moments in here, and while Naito looked lousy with strikes a lot of the time, but damn did he eat a bunch of Ishii's offense really great. Maybe even too great. Great enough sometimes that I feared for his cranium. He got dumped HARD a couple times right on his head, after Ishii lariats. One was a great lariat from the top rope while Naito was on the apron, and Naito just folded in half, braining himself on the apron. Nasty. When I think of someone who makes offense look good, I'm not thinking of Naito. But here he was, and I appreciated it.

2. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (4/6/14)

Wow, I really liked this. Like really, really liked this. Last week we saw their flat out dud from the Tokyo Dome show, so my expectations were lowered, but even if they were high I think this delivered. Alright, get it out of the way, Nakamura didn't totally sell the leg. I think he sold fatigue, and I think he sold damage, but he didn't overtly limp or anything, though I bought into it when he would clutch it after offense. Yes, there was certain offense that he did anyway, and that can sometimes really annoy me. But here it didn't. Sorry for the inconsistency. I was invested enough in each man in the match that the selling didn't really bug me at any point. Can't necessarily explain it, but still felt the match was killer. I really liked a LOT of Tanahashi's leg work, loved him snapping it over ropes and rails, bending it and stomping on it. Spots like Nak flying knee first into the rail were great, and Tanahashi was also a complete lunatic for taking some of Nak's brutal offense. Some of the Boma Ye's that Tanahashi took were just so so unkind. There was an incredible shot where the camera has Tanahashi in the foreground, and Nakamura runs straight at him (and this the camera) and just obliterates the back of his head with a Boma Ye. All of Nak's leaping front kicks were on point and nasty, and Tanahashi leaned right into all of them. At one point Tanahashi daintily slaps Nak with the tips of his fingers, and without missing a beat Nak punches him right in the fucking face and then caves in his eyeball with a Boma Ye. Both guys were on point during this, Tanahashi had great snap on a lot of his stuff, and fearlessly smashed into Nak's knees with a missed HFF. So yeah, I loved this shit, some of the selling be damned.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 10 Workrate Report

I wrote up the first 8 episodes of this series, but had to skip last week's. The idea of sitting through one hour of TV dedicated to Okada vs. Naito seemed like unbearable torture. Both are clearly the worst two NJ guys, with Naito being one of the worst workers I've ever seen. A completely clueless man when it comes to pro wrestling. So I skipped it, for my own sanity and yours. None of you would have wanted to see two paragraphs of me having a shitty Friday night. Wait do you? I don't know. All I know is that I didn't want to watch it.

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (1/4/14)

So this would have gotten an astronomical rating if I was only grading up through the entrances. Tanahashi comes out with old Megadeth and current weird anime guitarist Marty Friedman walking behind him up the ramp, shredding weird pop metal jams while Tanahashi mimes doing the same. Nakamura comes out with a bunch of strippers moving all funny, then when walking down the ramp he runs into an invisible door, finds the key to unlock it, bursts through said fake door and begins to do all sorts of red leather jacket Beat It moves down the rest of the rampway. Really jumped up a whole 'nother level with that shit.

And then the match started and it was clearly the worst of their recent matches, and not really a good match in general. For a Tokyo Dome main event this had zero big match feel. Tanahashi unconvincingly worked the knee, and Nakamura didn't even notice that was happening as it didn't slow him down for a second. Tanahashi got his ribs supposedly worked over but he didn't care too much about that either as it never made him stop for one second and think before hitting a few High Fly Flow variations. Some stuff looked good; I like Tanahashi's Cloverleaf, and while kind of goofy I liked the Styles Clash out of a Cloverleaf. Nakamura really had zero interest in selling the knee and Tanahashi kept insisting on going after that knee. Even after the match Josh Barnett was flipping out about Nakamura's tissue and ligament damage, "he may even have a couple of broken ribs!" all the while Nak is fucking moonwalking down the entrance ramp, not looking any differently than he did at the start of the match. This match was kind of a majorly aimless dud. Both guys are capable of much better.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 7 Workrate Report

1. Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (8/11/13)

So let me say that there was a GREAT moment in this match, after for TNA legend Naito had gotten his knee worked over a bit by Tanahashi, and Tanahashi shot him into the ropes, Naito did one of the greatest injured knee sells I'd ever seen. It looked so damn real, as he could barely make it running to the ropes, bounced back and just crumbled awkwardly onto his head and shoulder, at Tanahashi's feet. It was so wonderful and so perfectly pro wrestling. I rewound it a couple of times to see it again, really pay close attention to it. I called Rachel into the room, showed it to her and she asked if he had actually hurt his knee. It was a great, great moment.

But it happened just 4 minutes into the match. And there's no way Naito was going to be able to pull this off for another 30 minutes. He opened with "torn meniscus and shattered patella" and he still hadn't done any offense. It was a great spot in a vacuum, but he bit of wayyyyy more than he could ever possibly chew. It also meant that for the rest of the match I had to hear Mauro and Josh cry tears for Naito's poor, devastated knee. At one point Barnett even called it "emaciated". This all would have been news to Naito who was up, running around and doing all of his moves just fine. I mean the Koji Clutch he uses a lot would put an insane amount of pressure on his poor, emaciated knee. Oh, Naito will occasionally shake out his knee or sell it when it's convenient for him and won't get in the way of a Stardust Press.

I liked Tanahashi in this, but although I enjoyed his leg work there is something to be said about knowing your opponent's limitations and him going so hard after Naito's knee was a solid match plan in theory, but Naito isn't good enough to reliably work it into the frame of the match. Tanahashi has been far more enjoyable in these shows than expected, as he's tightened up some things in the last couple years (the HFF generally looks great, especially his crossbody version to the floor, the Slingblade actually looks like a real move now, his commitment to "missed" moves is really great as he flies painfully into opponents' knees on missed splashes), but man was Naito garbage. He has no clue how to competently work a match, he can't execute moves very effectively, his offense doesn't make tons of sense as a whole, he is a complete statue in terms of charisma, shows no passion, and seems to get lost at times (with the worst offense being a missed…something…as I believe they were both doing a crossbody spot but both men bumped too early and it ended up looking like both guys got hurt by the invisible monster in Fantastic Planet). Bad match. But man, that one moment was GREAT.

Oh, and while a lot of Barnett's jokes fall flat, he actually made me chuckle out loud when Naito locked on the Koji Clutch and Barnett yelled "Shades of Joe Stecher!" Good one. Mauro also made me laugh out loud, but unintentionally, because it's hard to keep a straight face during his Japanese over pronunciations. My favorite of his this week was "En-Zwee-GIDI" on an Naito enziguiri.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 5 Workrate Report

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Liger, Togi Makabe & Captain New Japan vs. Karl Anderson, El Terrible, Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale (7/20/13)

Here we get 6 minutes of a 12 minute match, which is better than last week seeing 2 bad minutes of a 15 minute match (although I understand what they were doing by showing Devitt getting a big win over Tanahashi to set up this week's match against Okada). Bullet Club do better in these kind of multi man matches as Anderson and Fale aren't really guys you need to see in singles matches but do enough nice things in 8 mans that it works. Fale can throw out a big corner splash, Anderson can stooge for some Makabe clotheslines, it works. Tonga is probably the best of these guys and I imagine he has a WWE deal waiting for him if he ever wants it. All of his stuff has big impact and a nice snap, and it's funny he's in here with Terrible as he's basically works like a Tongan Terrible. I've never seen "Captain New Japan" before and boy is that goofy. He threw a nice uppercut, but man those velvet-y pajamas. I'm kinda surprised that I've enjoyed Tanahashi as much as I have during this TV run. Some of his little things look like junk, but he has gotten a lot sharper on his crossbodies, throws real nice back elbows, and especially looks good when compared overall against Okada. There was a fun run in here where everybody took turns chopping Fale down, with Tanahashi hitting him, Liger rocking him into the ropes with a palm strike, and then Makabe blasting him to the floor with a clothesline. This match was fine.

2. Prince Devitt vs. Kazuchika Okada (7/20/13)

Man Okada stinks. Every Okada main event they've shown has been worse than the last. The guy hits his shit, usually in the same order, at points in the match where it really doesn't make sense, most of the time it doesn't look that great, and none of the preceding offense from his opponent matters. Devitt didn't look great throughout a lot of this either, but he looked aces next to Okada. At least some of Devitt's offense looked nice, like his double stomps (his double stomp off the top through a chair laid on top of Okada was the nastiest thing in the match, but it didn't matter as Okada was up doing mirror reversal segments moments later). Because it was the Bullet Club we had tons of interference, and for the most part these guys all have really bad timing on their interference. I did like Devitt's stomp to Okada's groin while Anderson was holding him prone on the apron, and Anderson's powerbomb to the apron is a great looking spot, but a little too devastating looking for a guy to take so early into the match. Especially a guy like Okada who will render the spot meaningless within a minute. Barnett and Mauro are in the middle of putting over legendary ref Red Shoes Unno, right as he was completely oblivious to interference that was happening right in front of him. He had another awful performance, both in kayfabe ref terms, and just obnoxious camera hog terms. He has a horrible habit of selling for the wrestlers: Somebody will take a slam type move and he'll jump up holding his own back in pain. At one point both men were down for the count and he did this exaggerated shrug while looking all around at the crowd, making all these awful Sabado Gigante comedy faces like he had freckles and a comically large lollipop. At another point he repeatedly interjects himself in the middle of a forearm exchange yelling and getting in the way and getting completely ignored by the workers. This guy blows. Man this match stunk.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 4 Workrate Report

1. Prince Devitt vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (6/22/13)

This is a 15 minute match clipped down to 2 minutes of highlights, so that seems pretty pointless. I liked some of Tanahashi's stuff in this, like his somersault senton and he actually snapped off the Slingblade. Devitt's stuff was all mostly complicated and looked good because Tanahashi flew into it. He's selling a knee intermittently throughout, yet still goes for a huge double stomp off the top. He misses and starts grabbing his knee, but I guess I'm failing to see how it wouldn't still hurt real bad if he had landed flush. Even in these brief highlights we got a fair amount of Bullet Club interference, and at one point Fale/Devitt wait around in hilariously bad fashion for a Tanahashi HFF off the top to the floor.  Devitt gets bumped to the floor and then he and Fale immediately get into position to take the crossbody, even before Tanahashi had even made a motion to do the move. So there they are waiting to take a move that at his quickest would have likely taken Tanahashi 5+ seconds to get into position to perform. Horrible ref Red Shoes Unno also is distracted for a preposterous amount of time by Anderson, just a poorly conceived spot to end a match. So, we get two minutes shown, and there are a couple of horrible moments in those two minutes. Oof.

2. Togi Makabe vs. Kazuchika Okada (6/22/13)

I really liked Makabe in this one, really did not like Okada in this one. Makabe threw a bunch of really great clotheslines and a couple real nice bridging suplexes, but none of it mattered as Okada would just do offense whenever he pleased, sometimes just beating Makabe to his feet after being the one who just took a big move. There were a couple different moments where Okada would get dumped by a suplex, then with both men selling on the mat Okada would be the first one up and just do a move of his own. And a lot of Okada's stuff did not look good. He has a real bad top rope elbow, and the match ended with the Rainmaker, which in this match just means that it ended with a clothesline that looked weaker than all of Makabe's clotheslines. Mauro went full scream mode pretty early in this match, too, although the crowd did get real hot at one point off a Makabe German suplex near fall. But man I'm not getting very excited for more big Okada main events. Dude will just get all his shit in, no matter if it makes sense the way the match is building or not. Still, I liked Makabe a lot more than I remembered, so this wasn't a total waste.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 3 Workrate Report

Looks like this will be another one match show, which makes sense if you're going to clip up a match to fit in two, like they did last week.

1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (4/7/13)

So according to my DVR programming description, this match was the Observer MOTY for 2013. And, it was good. I'm not sure I would have guessed that it won Match of the Year honors, no matter how much Mauro screamed that it was a masterpiece and like the best combination of Steamboat/Flair and Austin/Rock. But it was good. I liked that Tanahashi established the arm work early, which is a smart thing to do to a guy who kept saying he wanted to win with the Rainmaker (even though we all knew that he was clearly going to hit the Rainmaker and use the arm when it was convenient). Still Tanahashi's arm work looked real good. I dug the wrenched in arm bars and really love one point where he started hammering down on the arm while then uppercutting it on the upstroke. Okada did a fine visual representation of selling it, making sure to hold it and touch it after doing a move. But it never made him hesitate when doing those moves. Still hit his elbow drop, still hit a couple Rainmakers, still threw a couple suplexes, still did his STF submission a couple times. He would always hold his arm afterwards, but at that point he was merely paying lip service. I get working through the pain on a couple moves, but going to the effort to sell the whole time while still doing almost all the moves exactly the same way seems like a lot of pointless work to me. It hurt in between moves, but obviously didn't hurt enough to make him consider not doing any of these moves. Maybe it was supposed to show how determined he was to win the title? The problem is that wrestlers aren't good enough actors to show determination. They just kind of growl. But they always growl, so it's hard to convey different emotional levels of growling. But even with that I still enjoyed it. I liked Tanahashi playing the shades of grey. He knew a lot of people in the crowd wanted Okada to win, but he also knew tons of people wanted him to win. Some of the crowd booed some of his actions, but it was all in the name of defending his title and nothing was flat out heelish, more just showing that he knew the threat he was up against. So we had some good near falls, good reversals that actually felt organic and not overly choreographed. Overall a fun match.

Now some things I really didn't like:

Mauro really has to tone things way the fuck down. This show and last he kicks into overdrive scream mode and it's already laughably bad, but for the people that enjoy it I imagine it's going to ring hollow in a couple episodes when he's acting like every single match is the greatest moment in the history of this sport. The excessively grand screaming about "WHAT IS IN THEIR DNA THAT MAKES THIS POSSIBLE!?" is kind of amusing unless you realize he's dead serious.

Okada really needs to practice putting on certain submissions. He stumbled a couple of times trying to lock on things, including one of the more business exposing things I've ever seen. He was attempting to lock some sort of float over butterfly submission to put pressure on Tanahashi's neck (after Tanahashi took a nasty spike DDT on the apron), and Okada kept botching the float over. So Tanahashi literally just had to sit still on the mat while Okada tried over and over and over and over again to properly apply this move. I've never seen anything like this before. The crowd started laughing at one point. Okada started laughing at one point. Imagine Flair trying to lock on the Figure 4 but continually tripping over Steamboat's leg, then just trying again and again, while Steamboat just idly sits there waiting to be put in the move. So awful. Again, I've never seen anything like this before. If John Cena fell over 5 times in a row while trying to put on the STFU, I imagine people would be citing that moment years later as a reason why he is horrible. I can specifically see Meltzer citing this and using his "first day of wrestling school bad" line. Yet Okada gets to skate.

And finally, that fucking ref is the worst. Had to look his name up, "Red Shoes" UnnoWhat could have been a real dramatic moment of the match involving crawling to the ropes to break a submission, was completely shit on by this hack making muggy cross-eyed Milton Berle faces. He does more of that ear cupping, leaning his face alllll the way into the faces of both men, really making it all about him at one point by standing up mid submission and doing a fucking Hulk Hogan finger point to the timekeeper as if to say "GET THAT BELL READY MOTHERFUCKER! THIS MATCH IS ENDING SOON!!" At one point he clearly blocks both of their faces from the camera zoom with his own face, really making sure the ringside camera was getting his face in there, really doing his job out there. This guy puts to shame any instance of Shawn Michaels as a guest ref. Seriously cannot stand this guy.

Read more!

New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS Episode 1 Workrate Report

So this is on TV now. I don't love New Japan, but it's in HD so I'm more likely to check it out on my TV than on Dailymotion or something, so let's give it a shot. What's going to be nice going into this is that I flat out don't know much about NJPW at the moment. I like Nakamura and Suzuki a lot. I have not liked a lot of the others guys very much. But this will, in a way, be like Matt going through a bunch of lucha stuff. I've been so far removed from most NJPW for so long that it's basically all new to me. I don't know which matches Meltzer likes, which Tanahashi or Okada matches the NJ fanboys like, don't know their angles or storylines.

Before the match they have a sit down interview with Tanahashi and I actually like his manner and self-depricating humor. Actually kind of reminded me of the way John Cena acts any time other than doing scripted promos.

Also I think this officially marks the first time either Tanahashi or Okada have had a match reviewed on Segunda Caida. Hooray for diversity!

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (1/4/13)

So…this match was fine? They did some stuff I liked, some stuff looked great, some stuff looked bad. Tanahashi does little transition stuff really poorly, in a way that's hard to ignore. He throws these wimpy little forearms to get out of a side headlock, light little kicks to the stomach; Okada is guilty of this in different ways, throwing shoulder blocks in the corner that wouldn't crack an egg, and resting in hammerlocks that look like he's a good citizen helping a blind person cross the street. So that kind of stuff was problematic. But there was a lot of the match I really enjoyed. I thought the overall build was really good, there was no overkill and things advanced logically. For that reason I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I expected I would. I really loved all of Okada's crucifix submissions. Mauro Ranallo was on commentary and kept calling every hold by Okada the Deep in Debt. It reminded me of JR yelling 3D every time the Dudleys did anything. But all of the crucifixes looked awesome, and a couple of them looked like some of the more intricate Negro Navarro submissions. Mauro was smart to bring up Okada's time in Mexico during some of these. I also like the continuing knee work by Tanahashi and Okada's selling of it was very good almost up until the end of the match. Even when he went up top for a move (amusingly immediately after Mauro and Barnett mentioned he preferred a ground attack) he rubbed out his knee before diving. And it wasn't in one of those "I'MMMM selling my KNNEEEE" kind of ways that Davey Richards does, there was a lot of nice subtle knee shake outs and things like that. I also liked the times where both men would clearly go for moves without bracing for the miss. Okada flew elbow first into Tanahashi's knees, and in maybe the best spot of the match Tanahashi hit the High Fly Flow off the top and Okada gets his knees up, but Tanahashi hits it full on, as if he wasn't expecting to land on knees (even though it was the planned spot). It was such a great spot because Tanahashi flies brutally into knees, but Okada can't capitalize because he immediately is screaming in agony because a large man just landed on both of his knees. Great moment. Earlier Tanahashi also hit a HFF crossbody to the floor that looked really great. All of his HFFs really hit with tons of impact, really one of the better frog splashes I've seen a guy hit. I also liked the running story of Tanahashi not wanting to win by count out, always rolling Okada back in the ring. Fans appreciated it too as he always got polite applause when doing it. Even though the legwork or neck work never really went anywhere, I still thought overall the match was good. It really had a good peak and ended exactly where it should have, and that counts for a lot.

Read more!

Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY LIST

1. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
2. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
3. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
4. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
5. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
6. John Cena v. Shawn Michaels WWE 4/1
7. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
8. Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13
9. Undertaker v. Batista WWE 4/1
10. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
11 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio NOAH 4/1
12. Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
13. Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16

8. Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13

This is a match where coming in I didn't like either guy. I am not sure going out I like either guy much more, but this was a pretty good match nonetheless. I really liked all of the legwork, the dragon screw over the top rope to the floor is a very cool looking big move, and I dug all of the different dragon screw variations Tanahashi had. Nagata also did a good job of selling here, and he kept a lid on the over the top facial expressions which always take me out of Nagata matches. Still outside of the legwork Tanahashi has some of the shittiest looking offense in wrestling. There is a point where he does a very cool legsweep counter to a Nagata high kick, and follows it up with an elbowdrop and senton combination that was so dainty it would make 2002 M Dogg 20 scoff. His big run of suplexes at the end of the match looked Momoe Nakanishi level bad, and I have no idea what the fuck the Slingblade is supposed to be. So this match was really hurt by the dramatic nearfalls all coming off such crappy looking stuff. Still Nagata looked as good as I have seen him in years and it was a dramatic exciting main event match.

11. Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio

This didn't have the deep story that your real high end NOAH tags have, but for big guys pounding on each other it was pretty class. They really did a lot of matching up, with Yone and Akiyama really pairing off, and the double Takeshis really going after each other. I always enjoy fat guys slapping each other and these were a pair of fat guys throwing slaps. Yone and Akiyama came off their awesome 4 minute match on the last big NOAH show by going after each other here. There were a couple of off parts, the big running spot in the crowd took to long to set up and didn't come off good, and there was a section where Rikio and Yone were brawling on the floor where both guys looked completely lost. Your big run was pretty great with the highlight being Rikio countering the doomsday device spinkick by crushing Morishima with a short arm lariat.

Read more!