ZERO-ONE Truth Century Creation 3/2/02

KENTA vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa

ER: Weird match as it gets almost 20 minutes, but rarely feels like anything more than a Takaiwa squash. KENTA had some mighty ineffective juniors offense and no strikes to go along with his awful frosted tips mushroom 'do. No strikes in a match against Takaiwa means you're going to get beat up. So Takaiwa beat him up, and Takaiwa is just a guy I totally blocked out really really liking, mistakenly mentally lumping him in with guys like Kanemaru and other late 90s/early 00s meh juniors. Wait do I also actually like Kanemaru!? MY MEMORY IS SHOT AND NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE! But Takaiwa is definitely now a guy I'm correctly re-evaluating. He has a lot of offense and hits it really hard, and KENTA and his dumb haircut is a fun guy to see get clotheslined and powerbombed a bunch. Match structure is all wonky as we basically get Takaiwa beating KENTA up for 15 mintues, then KENTA gets some flimsy roll ups and ranas before inevitably succumbing. KENTA had this annoying habit of kicking out of his every single one of his pinfalls (outside of the schoolboy that opened the match which was a real nice schoolboy). He would get a roll up and then after a 2 count he would act like Takaiwa was suddenly made of hot lava, just scrambling away from him before Takaiwa would kick out. Annoying.

PAS: I remember really digging this period of Takiawa, there is a ton all over the early 20s Schneider Comps. He was basically a juniors Kurisu, a balding little prick who wasn't afraid to be completely unprofessional. This match would have been really good if it had about five minutes shaved off. The idea of a young guy getting mauled, and getting some hope spots is a great match type, but the mauling here dragged. Takiawa is just stomping KENTA in the back of his head and trying to break small bones in his neck with clotheslines, but at some point around the 10 minute moment it stops mattering, I mean if the brainbuster on the floor doesn't end it, why will this suplex. I did like KENTA 's crazy dive into the crowd, and it is really surreal to see a kickless KENTA match.

Kohei Sato vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

ER: The title card actually bills Fujiwara as "The Wrestle Master" which....yep, that math checks out. And this was a match that would fit right in on a modern Evolve show, with the first 8 minutes being mat rolling. And now I'm just drooling at the prospect of Fujiwara as elder Catch Point statesman. There was some good rolling though it could have leaned further one way or the other. There were nice reversals though neither seemed to have an advantage and it didn't always seem spirited. Fujiwara has some sick transitions and I especially loved him planting a forearm on Sato's throat as he moved into mount. On their feet and Fujiwara starts dishing headbutts and getting that gleeful old man gleam in his eye. But he goes down for the count pretty quickly to a soft kick behind the ear. I wasn't expecting him to stay down for a 10 count after it. We've all seen him take far worse strikes, and this was essentially the only strike he took in the match so it really should have looked better if it was meant to be the finish.

PAS: Awesome grappling match, in the style of the classic PWFG and UWF Fujiwara matches. Pretty much all on the mat with both guys desperately fighting for counters and reversals. Sato is very comfortable in this relm and does a lot of cool shit. You don't often see someone who looks comfortable rolling with Fujiwara in this way. Most guys even if the action is worked even, appear carried, while Sato looks like he has his own ideas. Sato uses his height well on the mat, sort in the way someone liked Kendall Grove does in shoots, he has long legs and uses their length to extricate himself and get advantages. Of course no one in wrestling history is as comfortable on the mat as Yoshiaki Fujiwara and all of his attacks are very fluid too. Finish was slightly abrupt, Fujiwara has done good KO finishes in the past, this one didn't feel as much like a finish, the kick didn't land as solidly as it needed to, and I think it dropped the match a bit.

Sean McCully vs. Wataru Sakata

PAS: Ok Sean McCully is the hidden star of this Zero-One revisit. He looks like a Jersey City nightclub bouncer, and has this great "COME AT ME BRO" charisma. Sakata is an ex RINGS and Pride guy who ended up in Zero-One for some reason. This starts out as a shootstyle match, and McCully is surprisingly adept at basic shootstyle mat work. McCully ends up getting flipped to the floor and then they start brawling on the floor with McCully posting Sakata, and it almost turns into a Murakami match. Finish is awesome, McCully is in the ring taunting Sakata "YOU WANT TO RUMBLE BRO, YO THE PULSE IS WHERE I WORK DUDE, YOU DON'T FUCKING DISRESPECT ME A MY CLUB BRO." Sakata gets into the ring, and McCully claps his gloves together in anticipation, and Sakata hits a jumping knee and KO's him. Totally would have been a viral video if it had happened outside of a bar, I wanted to start chanting WORLD STAR.

Samoa Joe/Tom Howard vs. Steve Corino/Gary Steele

PAS: This was a super entertaining NWA v. UPW tag. A nice mix of Corino's horseshit and more indy ROHish tag work. Joe is in full super indy mode, chaining together suplexes, hitting tope con hilos, wasting people with lariats. Meanwhile Corino is hitting hard, but also talking mad loud shit, and doing the MX/Delfin armwringer spot. While a lot of the match was Cornio v. Joe, I think Howard may have been the under the radar star of the match. He hits all these weird takedowns and has these cool punch combos, just a totally unique wrestler. He also had the spot of the match, where he used a Joe suplex bridge to springboard himself into a nasty dropkick on Steele. Whole thing was pretty great, I could easily see this main eventing a alternate universe ROH show and being really well regarded.

Yoko Takahashi vs. Yuki Kubota

PAS: This was either a worked shoot, or a sloppy MMA fight. One of the ladies gets her nose busted open, and they throw pretty recklessly. Sort of entertaining because they eschewed defense, hard to rate something like this though.

Josh Dempsey vs. The Predator

PAS: Man the hits keep coming with this show, this is another killer match. Dempsey is a boxer and Predator is an ex NCAA champion wrestler, but this was a nutso brawl. Dempsey jumps Predator at the bell and throws a bunch of nasty bodyshots. Predator hurls Dempsey out of the ring and he basically falls head first to the floor. Rick Bassman jumps on the Predator and gets thrown. The whole thing is completely out of control, Dempsey is throwing spuds, Predator swings around his Brody chain, and tries to hang Dempsey with it. I honestly thought this was as good as the best Brody brawls, maybe the Predator was an improvement on the original.

Kazuhiko Ogasawara vs. Ryouji Sai

PAS: This was also nuts. Ogasawara is a fun karate guy and Sai is a shootstyle Zero One young guy. First move of the match is Sai going in for a shot and eating a knee square on his nose. It looked for a second like they were going to end the match immediately. Sai passes concussion protocol and comes back and we get another heated brawl, with Sai going for takedowns and submissions and Ogasawara winging hard punches and kicks. At one point Ogasawara tosses off the Gi and busts up Sai's nose. Finishing spin kick I think legit KO's Sai, as you can see his eyes roll up into the back of his head and someone pull out smelling salts.

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

PAS: Marufuji juniors matches aren't really my bag, I am always going to prefer crazy karate guys,  but this one moved along and had enough fun moves that I ended up enjoying it. Hoshikawa throws hard stomach kicks which makes him a perfect junior for a Hashimoto fed. Marufuji doesn't have great offense, but in the age of Okada and Tanahashi it doesn't stand out as much, and he does really connect with his superkicks. I actually liked how he worked his submissions which isn't something I remember him doing. These guys had a pretty well regarded match on the first Zero One show, and they appear to be a pair of guys who worked really well together.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masato Tanaka

PAS: One of the all time greatest bear maulings in wrestling history. After this beating I imagine Tanaka wished he was back getting unprotected chairshots and thrown into barbed wire. It is a great kind of semi-squash match because Tanaka is always coming forward and attacking even as he gets mutilated. He even does some pretty nasty knee work, throwing some hard forearms right into the side of Hashimoto's knee, you know that guys knees weren't great. He even gets a great near fall, when he wiggles out of the brainbuster and smashes Hashimoto with a big rolling elbow. Still this was all about Hash as an absolute stalking killer. Not only does he throw those windmill over hand chops to the neck and his baseball bat wheel kicks, but at one point he jumps off the ring apron and lands full weight right on the side of Tanaka's ribs, I have no idea how they didn't crack like wishbones. There is this great spot late in the match where Tanaka backs Hash into the corner and slaps him, Hash gives this great wry grin and just full force punches Tanaka in the jaw. What a fucking rockstar Hashimoto was.

Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Naoya Ogawa

PAS: Another super heated scrap, what a fucking show. I guess Murakami was feuding with Ogawa at this point as he consistently needs to be held back from going after him. Murakami is such a superstar, when he throws off his shirt he is like Steve Austin. Ohtani uses Murakami's distraction to get an early edge, hitting his great missile dropkick and german suplex, Ogawa is too much thought and he eventually STO's Ohtani into a ref stoppage, Murakami tries to after him again and we have a great pull apart. Checking Cagematch, Murakami doesn't show up again until 2006, what a dropped ball, Ogawa v. Murakami looked like it would have been awesome

Read more!

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!

All Time MOTY List Head to Head Ikeda v. Ishikawa v. KENTA v. Ki

KENTA v. Low-Ki ROH 12/17/05

PAS: I was a little worried that this wouldn't age well, juniors wrestling is a style which I have soured on the most as a fan, so much of current wrestling is infected by crossfit juniors style, that stuff which looked great back in the day, tends to really show it seams now. I hated the Tiger Mask stuff on the NJ DVDVR set, really didn't like Ultimo Dragon WAR matches, thought Liger v. Pillman sucked last time I watched it. However, while this match was clearly in the Sayama to Okada lineage, Low-Ki will kick a match into my heart.

The hellacious assbeatings laid in on this match really separated it my eyes, Ki and KENTA both unloaded on every shot and Ki especially did a great job of selling concussive force, I loved his selling of the final Go 2 Sleep, he just crumpled in a ball. The nastiness of the shots really helped the momentum shifts, if a guy needs to go on offense one of those face kicks will really do it. Ki was also such an explosive athlete in 2005, watching him leap to the top rope for a Spaceman plancha or elevate for a double stomp is like watching MVP season Derrick Rose. I also really loved all of the slap exchanges, trading slaps is the one of the most played out things in wrestling, but man do both guys throw fast and hard shots, and they also don't just exchange, but perry, block and counter.

ER: I'm with Phil, I was not expecting this to age very well, but it turns out I can get behind a couple of guys stiffing the hell out of each other. I really liked that end run slap exchange, it felt far more FUTEN than New Japan as it had that immediacy to it. The NJPW slap or forearm exchanges always feel so mechanical, so forced, performed with the energy level of a Chevy's employee forced to sing Happy Birthday to a table full of teenagers, none of whom were born on that day, none of whom will be giving them any kind of tip. Here Ki and KENTA throw off balance and don't really take turns, block, and throw any number of shots that would lay me on my butt. I still love modern day Low-Ki, but he's like Negro Casas in that you can watch decade old (or two or three decade old with Casas) matches and see how they moved differently, occasionally did moves differently, and were generally different wrestlers that you loved differently. It's Finlay in Germany vs. Finlay in WCW vs. Finlay in WWE: They're all great, and all slightly different. And Ki now is still violent, but slightly slower. Here he's fast, violent, and seemingly indestructible. He comes off like a pro wrestling cyborg, the way he snags KENTA's arm and yanks over the top rope with his weight, his body jutting out at this extreme horizontal angle as if he were a Cirque du Soleil acrobat doing an armbar. Later he does a double stomp to KENTA that then sends his own body quickly tumbling to the floor, and it comes off like he just thinks about damaging his opponent, with no regard to damaging his own body.

The kicks from both men end with a real snap and thud and we build to some pretty big nearfalls. I think they went a couple nearfalls too long, but the kickouts get a mammoth reaction, and it lead to big moments like KENTA's crazy falcon arrow off the top, and Ki's scrambly Ki Krusher. I also love Ki's great attention to little things, plausibly getting KENTA to wait in the tree of woe by stomping on his knee, focusing KENTA's own attention on getting Ki's boot off his knee, while Ki then double stomps the hell out of him. Crazy match that went long, but never felt like they were wasting their time, and the overkill felt earned. Great stuff that exceeded expectations.

Ikeda v. Ishikawa review

Verdict:

PAS: This was closer then I thought it would be, KENTA v. Ki is awesome stuff and easily an EPIC on the C+A Low-Ki, but it was a match built around stiffness and violence, and you can't step to Ishikawa v. Ikeda with that as your attribute. FUTEN reigns supreme.

ER: Great match, a match-up I thought was going to be a total blowout but actually felt like a legit challenger. Ishikawa/Ikeda is arguably the most violent match I've ever seen, and while this match was helped out by a molten hot crowd, the violence and struggle was never quite as real as it was in that FUTEN classic. A hard fought, but decided FUTEN victory.

Complete and Accurate Low-Ki

Read more!

All Time MOTY Head to Head: Ishikawa v. Ikeda V. Captain's Fall NOAH

KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji/Kotaro Suzuki/Ricky Marvin vs. SUWA/Makoto Hashi/Takashi Sugiura/Yoshinobu Kanemaru NOAH 4/17/05

ER: Well, this stunk. And it stunk differently from the typical bad match stink, because this stunk AND lasted 50 minutes. That's just cruel. I remember really liking a few of these NOAH Captains Fall matches. This must not have been one of them. This match was all over the map, paced poorly, structured oddly, and just not very good. It was long. And I can't for the life of me understand why it took 50 minutes for them to accomplish what little they did. At minimum, it was a masterful SUWA performance. Everybody looked their best against SUWA, even when he had to wait eternities for Marufuji to set up his horrible offense. SUWA made some little things mean more, took offense like he and few others can (that dragon rana that Marvin pinned him with, yeesh), and just looked like a boss. Sugiura feels like a guy who got really overlooked during this era, and during his career, as I liked all of his contributions here. Whereas KENTA would be breaking up pinfalls with weak ass stomps, Sugiura would come blazing in with a vicious spear. All of his spears looked like the best version of any spear. Hashi really didn't blossom until a couple years later and peaked in FUTEN, but he still has some fun contributions, and he's a certified psycho for all of the damage he's no doubt doing to his body with those diving headbutts. But man that babyface team was junk. Marufuji is arguably the worst wrestler of the last 15 years that anyone thought was "good". He's terrible. He's super klutzy, his selling is out the window (watch him sell a brainbuster from Kanemaru by just standing up and slapping him in the side before getting the pin with a roll up) and his offense looks convoluted and weak. He's so, so terrible. KENTA looked slow and weak in a lot of this, with him finally getting inspired to throw some full force slaps in the midst of his awful combos and overly rehearsed junk. Marvin had some beautiful flash and I always liked him. His fast flip moonsault with his knees hitting face was amazing. Suzuki is a weird guy, as his offense always kind of blew, but he knew how to sell damage better than most of the other babyface juniors. Watch him lock on an octopus, get clonked by a Hashi headbutt, and then crumble to the mat out of his submission. There was also a lot of questionable reffing, as many times he would prevent the faces from making saves while the heels ran wild, and that never made sense. And right out of the gate the heels were the underdogs as Kanemaru got beat first. Who ever books a multi man match and has the heels outnumbered!?!? I am normally one to piss all over quick eliminations, but this really could have had 20 minutes lopped off and benefitted so much more. But I really, really disliked this.

PAS: I didn't mind this, it was way too long, there was about twenty minutes before the first elimination, and while there was some OK stuff, it really dragged. I also don't get the psychology of having KENTA and Marufuji v. Sugiura as the final guys in the match. Sugiura team was working the match as heels, so having the heel fail to fight off two blowjob babyfaces is odd, you didn't see Arn taken to the back, while Tully valiantly fought off Ricky and Robert. I am always happy to see SUWA and he was pretty great in this, SUWA was Toryuman trained so he had lots of experience working with pretty boy flyers, and every time he was in, his opponent looked awesome. He absolutely slaughters Suzuki with his John Woo dropkick, and the Ricky Marvin dragon rana was about the slickest I remember seeing.  I also really liked KENTA throwing shots with Hashi (who has a lifetime pass for me based on his FUTEN tag) and Sugiura. Enough good stuff in this, that I basically enjoyed it, although it isn't anything I would strongly recommend.

Ikeda v. Ishikawa review

Verdict:

PAS: I didn't hate this as much as Eric, but it doesn't even come close to Ishikawa v. Ikeda. This is a wire to wire win for FUTEN

ER: I thought this stunk. Killer SUWA performance, but no moment in this even came close to sniffing Ikeda/Ishikawa.

Read more!

All Time MOTY List HEAD to HEAD: 2005: Kenta v. SUWA VS. Ikeda v. Ishikawa

KENTA v. SUWA NOAH 9/18/2005

PAS: This match was all about SUWA as the kind of shitbag Southern heel that Japanese wrestling didn't really see much of in 2005. Now this kind of thing got totally played out by the Bullet Club, but you normally didn't see a guy get DQ'ed on purpose or shove Joe Higuchi. SUWA had this short but awesome run as a nasty asskicker who bumped huge and had nice punches, this was probably his apex point. I loved him as a desperate pockmarked creep above his pay grade, but desperate to take his shot. The spot where he countered the springboard by just hurling the ref at the ropes was great. KENTA's role in this was to land all of his spots, and they looked fine, his kicks really thudded as did the GTS. KENTA isn't a very natural babyface, and this would have been better with someone who evinced more sympathy. Still a great match, and as a long time SUWA fan, something I really enjoyed re-watching.

ER: I have an unabashed love for SUWA, and there's a fair chance that I love him more than anyone. I - perhaps foolishly - didn't contribute to PWO's Greatest Wrestler Ever poll because I missed the nominating process and realized SUWA didn't get nominated, and therefore I wouldn't have been able to vote for SUWA. And there was just no way I could turn in a ballot without SUWA's name on it. He meant too much to my late 90s to mid 2000s wrestling fandom. He was a great composite of so many things I love about pro wrestling. A disrespectful southern heel operating in front of a super serious backdrop, and this match was him doing his thing on his biggest stage. Minoru Suzuki brought a different brand of irreverence to large Japanese feds, and a few years later The Bullet Club would bring awful Attitude era cheating to New Japan. But SUWA didn't feel like an impression of a southern heel in any way. He seemed like a man oddly rebelling against his culture, a man out of place and a man with different goals than the goals presented by NOAH and that fans of NOAH accepted and respected. NOAH was a simply booked fed with a hierarchy and more respectful face/heel interactions. There weren't really traditional American heels in NOAH, it was all respectful athletes who merely disagreed over who deserved a title more. "I've worked hard and *I* deserve the title." "Well, I also feel that I've worked hard and deserve the title. Let's showcase our hard work and determination and see who is the victor." And in this match SUWA showed the crowd that he didn't care about a title, didn't care that he was in a big spot on a big show, didn't have a need to put aside his personal grievances with people who weren't a part of the match; to the crowd he was a guy who didn't respect them, didn't respect the brand, didn't respect the ideals of his employer. He acted like a guy who worked comfortably doing his thing under the radar, and when faced with more spotlight said "Okay, but you may regret this." The employee who loves his job when he's able to dick around without being noticed, but the second he's given responsibility he tries anything he can to get shunted back down to how things were.

I remember my friends' reactions when I showed this to them within a year of it airing, and telling them how great it was - but not why. The confusion within the first minute when it looks to end in a DQ was hilarious, and watching it back now I think it works great as a non-gimmick performance. SUWA coming out, ripping up Higuchi's proclamation, and then immediately getting himself DQ'd at the first sign of trouble, that got a genuine reaction. And you just didn't get genuine heel heat in a major Japanese fed at that time. SUWA's fist raise the second the DQ bell rings is classic, really rubbing the ideals of the promotion and fans back in their face. He stalks around the ring, arm raised, pointing at fans, soaking up the jeers. His walk to the back is the best, shrugging his way to the back while still laughing at people. The fans had seen SUWA be a dick before, but not in a title match on a major show. And by the time the match is restarted and KENTA is kicking SUWA back to the ring, the fans are more behind KENTA than they would have ever been before. KENTA is mostly a zero from a personality standpoint, and SUWA did all of his babyface work for him. He was such a dickhead that KENTA became a mega face just by doing what he would have done anyway. And SUWA adds these things throughout the match, kicking KENTA right in the balls twice, ramming him balls first into the ringpost at another point. KENTA could have been a debuting stranger and the crowd would have gotten behind him. SUWA makes a flat out babyface out of any person even tangentially related to the match. When he spills to the floor and screams at Higuchi, and Higuchi starts to take off his ring jacket? Listen to the crowd. SUWA gives Higuchi the biggest pop of his career, 10 years after his retirement. I bet there were people who went home talking about Higuchi removing his jacket, before talking about the Misawa title match or big Tenryu tag match that came after. Later on SUWA boots Kikuchi in the face and spits on him as he tries to replace the turnbuckle pad SUWA had just ripped off, and later in an all time great spot he shoves the referee halfway across the ring to interrupt a KENTA springboard spot. We've seen that kind of spot since, but I've never seen it come off more genuine or been used so effectively. The ref flew into those ropes as if he had zero clue he was about to fly into ropes, and further cemented how little shit SUWA gave.

SUWA being a tremendous asshole really elevates things, but I think even without him being who he is, the match itself would be very good. Strip out any sort of character work and just look at how the match builds, and it's really a wonderful match. The one drawback is that SUWA seemed like he could have this match with practically anybody, and just didn't normally have the stage to do so. He was so great at crafting openings for KENTA's comebacks that KENTA just had to hit his marks. It's a total one man show, and that's not a real diss to KENTA. KENTA was KENTA, SUWA just found a way to craft the best KENTA match. He lead KENTA to every great babyface comeback, bullying him around the ring would always lead to KENTA firing back with bigger shots, only broken up by a kick to the dick or something else untoward. SUWA bullying him in the corner with chops, the best punches and a huge dropkick lead to KENTA doing all the same to the bully. The build around SUWA hitting his finisher was classic Kings Road, with KENTA doing everything he could to sandbag himself, eventually leading to KENTA flipping out of it and hitting his G2S. And SUWA gets into ring position far better than any opponent KENTA ever faced. Look no further than the finishing stretch. KENTA hits his big running knee, and watch SUWA stand up and fall into the bottom rope, steadying himself against the middle rope, stepping on his own feet. He's drunk me standing up out of a chair and realizing how drunk I am. KENTA sets him up for the knee that will finish things, and runs off the opposite ropes fully expecting SUWA to just stand still in the center of the ring for 6 seconds while KENTA runs back and forth before hitting the knee. SUWA stumbles, expertly drops to a knee and struggles back to his feet just in time to take that knee, occupying himself more interestingly than any other KENTA opponent before or since. And really the fans don't care. They would have reacted the same to that knee no matter how SUWA occupied himself in the meantime. He laid the groundwork for the big reactions, and the match build delivered. He didn't need to pay this extra attention to what happened in the seconds leading up to the finish. But he did. And that really sums up SUWA. He was a guy who knew how to occupy himself, his matches, and his surroundings, from opening match status, to his one big match.

Verdict

PAS: I think Ishikawa v. Ikeda still holds the belt. I enjoy heel shtick more then most, but parts of SUWA's stuff felt a little cosplayish, the most awesome version ever of Ziggler having HEEL in his twitter handle. Nothing felt winking about the grotesque violence of Ikeda v. Ishikawa and that kind of war will always have an edge up for me.

ER: This still ranks as one of my very favorite all time matches. I don't rightly know that I could say whether or not this was better than Ikeda/Ishikawa. They both scratch very different itches for me, but they each scratch those itches like the best possible backscratcher. The horrific violence of one versus much of what I love about wrestling in the other. One might be the most brutal war in wrestling history, the other hits me on a more personal level. It's the old "Greatest" versus "Favorite" argument. Is your favorite movie the same as what you think is the greatest movie? Favorite album the same as greatest album? SUWA/KENTA is one of my favorite matches. It's one I'll watch more often over the course of my life than this specific Ikeda/Ishikawa match. Both of these matches feel like #1 to me. And since I can't decide I will yield to Phil, who has a clearer feeling which match is better. However, if we were to do an All Time Match list some day I feel there's a good chance KENTA/SUWA finishes above some matches that finished #1 in their respective year. Or at least I'll argue for it to be.

Read more!

WWE NXT REvolution Takeover Live Blog

 I am not super familiar with NXT so this review is going to be a bit noviceish.

Kevin Owens v. CJ Parker

Parker is working some sort of trustifarian gimmick, he has that look down. I have never been a huge Steen guy, but this was a good way to debut him. He came off like a beast, that cannonball is nasty as was the dive. Didn't get a sense of Parker although he did bust Owens nose with the palmstrike, which did add something to the atmosphere.

Lucha Dragons v. Vaudvillans

Vaudvillans are working as hipster artesianal cocktail bartenders. Lucha Dragons are Sin Cara and Kalisto (Samuray del Sol). I kind of wanted more old timey wrestling from the Vaudvillans, if you are going to do the gimmick, give me a stump puller or something. Lucha Dragons had some fun highspots, not bad, although I wanted it to be better.

Ty Ellinger v. Barin Corbin

Fun squash, for a version of a flatliner, that was a fine flatliner. Not sure why he did a stare down with Green Lantern Fan. How the hell do they fire Naylor and hire GLF?

Hideo Itami/Finn Balor v. The Acension

Why is Prince Devitt in blackface? Wouldn't a minstrel gimmick work better for the Vaudvillians? Match was good, nice showing for Itami and Balor, and the crowd is really into them. That reaction for the Go to Sleep tease was nuts. Hadn't seen the Ascension before, they were fine guys taking the spots for Balor and Itami, but they looked pretty bush league, really felt like the kind of guys who would be ECWA tag champions in 1999, like they would be a fine Cheetah Master/Ace Darling opponent in the semi main under a Scoot Andrews match.

Charlotte v. Sasha Banks

I kind of enjoyed Banks Bad Girls Club style shit talking. This was very much not bad, but it kind of felt like a touring indy match that Ian Rotten would bring into IWA-MS and then cut a long promo about how these two kids are the future of the business. Some fun spots, big long near falls sections but some awkward stuff, and not good looking in between stuff. Not terrible but I am not eager to see them give the divas 20 min PPV matches.

Sami Zayn v. Adrian Neville

Very good main event match, which for the most part delivered on the build up. I was always a bit of Generico agnostic, but without the mask and the borderline offensive gimmick he has a real connection to the crowd and real charisma. I am not sure if Neville is a great wrestler but has a lot of physical agility and his early mat work looked nice. I did think they slowed it down a little too much at the beginning, I like a slow build, but they went to a chinlock a little earlier then they should have. I also thought the Temptation of the Zayn stuff was a little overdone, which to be fair is a bit of WWE big match trope. Outside of those two things I thought it was pretty great. The crowd was a bit chanty, but you rarely see people into a match this much anymore and it made each near fall fell like a real big deal. Finish was great as they built to that big kick all match. I really liked the post match too, they nicely drew out the big angle at the end, really letting Zayn and Owens do their Beniot/Guerrero hug, doing the Neville thing, signing off and then having the Owens turn kind of come out of nowhere. Wrestling tends to work the same beats over and over again, so when something is worked at a different speed it is really effective.  

Read more!

NOAH 1/24, 1/26/03

1. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa/Mitsuharu Misawa:

This was during Ogawa's slimy greasy shitball punk phase, which was one of my favorite wrestler characters ever. Kikuchi looks roughed up before the match even starts, with a back brace, scratches, bandages on his wrist and arm, and grisly bruising on his neck. He looks like a rape victim extra on CSI. The match itself was a formula NOAH tag, which I took for granted at the time, but 10 years on seems so much better than most things we get now. Everybody here matches up nicely, and the Misawa/Kobashi sequences are really eye-opening. We've spent so many years watching shrimps in kickpads do these same sequences and falling badly on their faces, that when you see them done by the real deal, pre-crippled, powerful stars, it's pretty awesome. Just watching simple exchanges between the two is like two great guitarists taking turns every 8 bars, or like Jordan and Pippen running circles around people, or like how Mother Teresa must have been in her 30s. Ogawa was full on snivelly punk, trying to take Kobashi down with ineffective punches (which got no sold) and then always falling back on eye pokes, but then busting out a bunch of cool knee work (including a ring post figure 4 that bent Kobashi's knees at all sorts of horrible angles). This whole thing was just a real fun way to waste 20 minutes of your day, even if every single minute went exactly as you expected it would.

2. KENTA/Kenta Kobashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Mitsuharu Misawa:

This was not as good as that. Marufuji threw all sorts of thigh slap offense that didn't hit (including a couple kicks to the back of KENTA's head, but since they made zero contact KENTA didn't realize he was supposed to be selling) and KENTA took forever and a day to set up all sorts of convoluted offense that occasionally looked good. Misawa looked great in the match, and was doing all sorts of subtle heel things to try and lift up the match, and Kobashi chopping Marufuji over a rail was awesome, but overall Marufuji was just too lousy for this match to recover.

3. Jushin Liger/Koji Kanemoto vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru:

Liger is wearing his all red outfit and it looks totally badass. Kikuchi looks like he just got jumped into (or out of) a gang, then had to jog to the arena for his title match. This match is pretty darn terrific, and has the rep of being maybe the best NOAH juniors tag ever. I'll have to watch the others before I go that high, but this was a damn good time, and one of the greatest Kikuchi performances ever (them Liger and Kanemoto fellas ain't bad either). Kikuchi starts this thing off as fiery asskicker, but this match pretty quickly went right where you and I and everybody else knew it would go, and wanted it to go: Kanemoto and Liger taking all of the frustrations and anger out on Kikuchi's poor, poor scarred and battered body. Kikuchi makes the greatest "Fuck my life" facials in the biz, and Kanemoto just throws all sorts of brutal kicks at him. Kikuchi's little comebacks were all awesome, really coming off like a pro-style Yuki Ishikawa a lot of the time. He'd take a bunch of kicks, occasionally catch a leg, and then attempt to cave in Liger or Kanemoto's skull with a headbutt. Fans were way behind his fighting spirit and it really was impossible not to get behind him in this. Just a classic performance from a great wrestler. Liger looked insanely great throughout as well, busting out a nasty piledriver and an endless supply of great palm strikes. Kanemoto looked hungry and vicious, too. All three guys looked like top 20 in the world guys. This had the build, it had big moves, it had great nearfalls, just a super fun match. Yoshinobu Kanemaru also participated.

Read more!

Wrestling I've Enjoyed Recently (9 Months Ago Edition)

Whenever I talk with Phil I always feel like the most out-of-the-loop wrestling fan around. I love watching wrestling on DVD. DVDs have revolutionized tape trading. You used to buy a tape for $10-15, and now I can find people selling DVDs for $2 a pop. I can afford to keep up with every single promotion in the world at that rate. BUT, I don't love watching wrestling on a computer. I will watch if it is the ONLY way I will ever see a match (the amazing VIP lucha tag from a couple years ago, the Navarro/Terry match, etc.), but otherwise I'll just wait for the DVD.

PHIL, however, is the master of watching wrestling on a computer. He watches matches matches that have disappeared forever by the time he tells me about them the next day. "Oh man, it was fucking amazing." "Where can I see it!?" "Oh, it got taken down 7 minutes after I watched it. I doubt it'll ever be uploaded again." If we're talking music terms, then Phil is getting his hands on all the cool new 7"s from hip indie labels like Hozac or Captured Tracks or Woodsist before they go for ebay money, while I'm still listening to my Deep Blue Something cassingle on my Walkman.

So, yeah, I watch wrestling way late, on DVD, like a loser. Here are some matches I watched recently that I really enjoyed, that took place 9 months ago.

1. Bronco/Romano Garcia vs. Danny Boy/Flecha (El Toreo, 12/3/08)

Going into this I didn't know Bronco, loved Garcia but didn't realize he was still even making tape (Mr. Condor/Diabolicos, along with Apache and Pimpi, were one of the only bright spots on early 2000s Galavision AAA TV), didn't know Danny Boy, and knew Flecha was Skayde. Didn't have tons of hope for it but I love old guy lucha so figured it would be OK.

It was awesome. Romando Garcia is a total monster here. He's a little greyer up top, but he's as sneaky and bastard-y as ever. He just makes Danny Boy (who has the appearance of an older, hispanic Joey Maggs) his target the whole match and is just ruthless. Just kicking him in the balls, beating him with nasty chairshots, and in one of the greatest things I've ever seen in wrestling, Garcia grabs an empty beer bottle from a ringside vendor, breaks it on the ring post, and goes after poor Danny Boy with it!! Garcia is a marvel here, one of the ultimate heel performances I've ever witnessed.

Danny Boy bleeds like a champ and plays a really great sympathetic technico. Really interested in all their other meetings this year (two of which I have on my old fashioned Digital Video Diskz), so look forward to watching those some time in 2011.

2. Sami Callihan vs. Trik Davis (IWA-MS, 12/5/08)

These guys matched up a couple times in '08, but THIS was the singles match to watch from them. This is one of my favorite indie workrate singles I've ever seen. Trik Davis is so great here it really makes me think I should've had Trik over Sami, and Sami just got more showcase matches against cool opponents (Trik didn't get the Scorpio or Ian singles matches). Trik makes Sami's offense look better than I've ever seen it look before. Trik just leans into EVERYthing and both guys really deserve some kind of weirdo standing ovation for giving and taking such nasty beatings in front of like 35 people. The way Trik takes Sami's finisher on the floor is just totally painful, and it was on a side of the ring that had like 6 people sitting on it. Sami doesn't really know how to play to the crowd very well and project, he just kinda does his Billy Idol sneer and that's it. Trik is getting really good with his facials and plays to the crowd well and it really ties the match up. This is a great match, well worth going out of your way to see. PLUS, Fannin points out that Trik came out to the Fall Guy theme song , which may be appropriate. Trik still doesn't get much credit as a great worker, just because he looks like Big Pete Wrigley. So even though he might fall from a tall building, or roll a brand new car, he's still the unknown stunt man, that in this match made Sami Callihan such a star (I still have my Fall Guy lunch box up on my living room shelf).

3. Grits N Gravy vs. Ian Rotten/Mickie Knuckles (IWA-MS, 12/6/08)

This was part of the IWA-MS Candido Cup tag tourney. Grits N Gravy is Sami Callihan and Michael Elgin. You're all familiar with Ian, Mickie, and Callihan, and Elgin is a big doughy squishy dude squeezed uncomfortably into a singlet, who hits REALLY hard.

Ian is the standout here, and he's just awesome. He looks like my old elementary school classmate Nathan Hoffman, who would kinda do anything just to get attention (and had a baby blue Member's Only jacket with a spot on the left breast pocket so you can put I.D., so Nathan sloppily wrote "Nathan" on a piece of torn lined paper and put it in there). I usually don't get too excited for bullshit in wrestling. I have to be in the right mood for it. But Ian's bullshit? I could watch that all day. The dude is always on and people could gain a lot by watching his tag work. The dude is just always on. His apron work here is fantastic, his stuff on the mat is cool, there's a great spot on the floor where he dishes out some classic "Smothers-Fu" to Elgin, and when Sami wanders over to save Ian delivers a mule kick to the balls. Just watching the guy waddle around and somehow be awesome is such a treat.

Mickie Knuckles genuinely scares me. I like watching her wrestle, and like seeing her come in and headbutt her brain cells away, but she scares me. She really has a kind of reckless way about her -- not in a sloppy way, but in a I-don't-care-if-I-die way -- that makes her really intriguing.

Real fun tag match with four people who hit hard and get hit hard.

4. Takeshi Rikio/Naomichi Marufuji/Mohammed Yone vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano/Ricky Marvin (NOAH, 12/7/08)

I am such a sucker for NOAH six mans. Throw six guys with seemingly little connection to each other, one side acts like heels, the other acts like faces, somehow all six guys end up looking awesome. I have no idea how this happens. Marufuji consistently looked like the worst guy in everything he was in the last two years, and he was great here! And remember when Ricky Marvin was the best wrestler in the world!? Well he looked like those days were upon us NOW. All his stuff looked good and he did a rope-walk dropkick that I had to rewind a few times. Yone is really big now and he has his fro back. The only guys larger than him in the match were Rikio and Takayama, and man he packs a wallop. This had all the shit you know and love about NOAH. Dudes getting thrown into guardrails a bunch, dudes setting up spots where they run all the way across the building to clothesline a guy, stiff strikes, hott stand-offs, everybody wins. I love NOAH six mans.

5. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH, 12/7/08)

This was the first time I enjoyed a singles match with Nakajima. I've enjoyed a good amount of tags where he's in with heavyweights that just beat him up and all he has to do is get beaten up and throw some big kicks. But this was a good Nakajima singles match. Misawa is fat, grumpy, and in no mood to get kicked by some punk. Misawa's elbows are truly insane. They're like an Anderson Silva back-peddling jab: He doesn't look like he's throwing them that hard, but when they connect, they just might dislocate your jaw. Misawa hits all sorts of elbow combos and Nakajima reddens his chest, and the match ends when it should end.

6. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA/Taiji Ishimori (NOAH, 12/7/08)

There are gonna be a hundred of these matches this year that I can't stand, filled with wasted big moves and dudes popping up doing the jacking two dudes off fighting spirit fist pumps. But I dug this one. KENTA plays a great face-in-peril and Kanemaru/Suzuki are really good at cutting off the ring. The first 10-15 are classic southern tag, and by the time we get to the big spots they're all really fun and well strung together, making good use of saves to avoid too many pointless kickouts. This was real fun and I seriously doubt I'm going to enjoy a juniors tag this year as much as this one...but like a sucker I'll still watch them.

Read more!

Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY LIST

1. Nigel McGuinness v. Samoa Joe ROH 3/3
2. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
3. Nigel McGuinness v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 4/14
4. Chris Harris v. James Storm TNA 5/13
5. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/4
6. Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 2/16
7. Matt Hardy v. Finlay WWE 6/19
8. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23
9. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/31
10. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
11. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
12. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
13. Bryan Danielson/Takeshi Morishima v. KENTA/Nigel McGuiness ROH 5/12
14. John Cena v. Great Khali 5/20
15. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Bison Smith NOAH 6/3
16. John Cena v. King Booker v. Bobby Lashley v. Mick Foley v. Randy Orton WWE 6/24
17. Briscoes v. Murder City Machine Guns ROH 4/28
18. Finlay v. Undertaker 3/6 WWE
19. Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH 4/14
20. Colt Cabana v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 2/24
21. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
22. John Cena v. Shawn Michaels WWE 4/1
23. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
24. Matt Sydal v. The Man Gravity Forgo PAC ROH 3/4
25. Davey Richards/Roderick Strong v. Jack Evans/Delirious ROH 4/14

Previously on the list

Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16
BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
Nigel McGuiness v. Jimmy Rave ROH 3/4
Matt Hardy v. Ken Kennedy WWE 3/13
Samoa Joe v. Eddie Kingston FSM 3/17
Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio NOAH 4/1
Undertaker v. Batista WWE 4/1
Chris Benoit v. MVP 4/10
Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13
Mitsuhara Misawa v. Takuma Sano NOAH 4/28
John Cena v. Great Khali v. Umaga WWE 6/4

7. Matt Hardy v. Finlay WWE 6/19

Matt Hardy has really developed a great TV match formula in the first half of the year. A batch of hot offense, he injures a body part, the heel works over the body part, Hardy does a great job of selling, and then he pulls out a flash win. It is pretty much a formula you can use with anyone half decent and have a good match. Hardy plays the role great, he is probably the best seller in the WWE outside of maybe Cena, and his offense is simple and looks good. When you plug a master like Finlay into the formula you are really going to have a treat. Finlay is spectacular here, going after the leg, everything he does is with force and violence and I am loving the indian death lock as a secondary finisher, maybe it is a shout out to Princess Paula.

13. Bryan Danielson/Takeshi Morishima v. KENTA/Nigel McGuiness ROH 5/12
This was a blow away main event of an otherwise crappy PPV. I have read people complain about Nigel just throwing lariats, but I am a Choshu fan, nothing wrong with simplifying what you do, if you do it well, and Nigel was killing people with lariats here, from all angles. Nigel's big match restarts are always fun, and I loved him coming back in with the taped up arm, and the jawbreaker with the bad arm was a great near fall. You kind of forget how good Danielson is, but he was amazing here. KENTA and McGuiness are two of his best opponents, and all of their interactions were great. The multiple reversal finish is a staple of indy wrestling, but Danielson may be the only guy who can really pull it off. The whole finish section with KENTA was completely awesome. The match wasn't perfect, for guys who trained together and work constantly KENTA and Morishima don't interact well, and the points where they were matched up were the weakest parts.


15. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Bison Smith NOAH 6/3

I was down right shocked at how much I enjoyed this match. I really loved Misawa in his matches against Sano and Sugiara. He plays the role of a broken down old Samurai trying to will his body into one more battle, he wants to pass the torch but no one will take it. It is a cool role, and he is incredible in it. Still its Bison Smith, outside of a 2001 match I saw live against Donovan Morgan, and some fun UPW tags with Luminous Warrior against Orlando and Marquis Jordan, he kind of always sucked. No real reason to think that broken down Misawa could drag him to anything. Boy was I wrong Not only was this good, it wasn't a great wrestler dragging a shitty guy to a good match (like Jacobs v. Whitmer or Cena v. Micheals), Smith was right there wrestling the match of his life. Misawa is overpowered early but uses his guile to injure Smith's leg. Smith does a pretty good job of selling this (I saw him fake a knee injury as part of an APW political play during the King of the Indies tourney, so I knew he could sell), but still is able to throw around Misawa. He press slams him from the ring to the apron, which was a totally crazy bump, and also hits some really great shoulder blocks, including a tope from the ring floor over the rail onto a seated Misawa, easily the best I have ever seen Smith look. Still this was all about Misawa's selling. They tease two countouts, one after the press slam to the ramp, and one after the tope into the stairs, and both times Misawa just lies there untill the count gets to 15 or so, then he takes this deep breath, and rejoins the battle. He wants nothing more then to lay down his sword, but something keeps him going. I also loved the finish, Misawa is able to catch Smith and reverse him into a second rope Emerald Frosion (which was the only sequence in this match which didn't look good), and then he pounces, he has been conserving his energy for this moment, and he just pounds on a weakened Smith, until he finishes him with a nasty elbow to the back of his head. Misawa is still totally awesome, but I don't think that it will translate well to his ROH stuff. Although if Misawa can have a match this good with Bison Smith, Misawa v. Joe should be insane.


16. John Cena v. King Booker v. Bobby Lashley v. Mick Foley v. Randy Orton WWE 6/24

You X division cluster isn't really my style, but when you replace interchangeable Sonjay Duttish guys with big hard hitting over heavyweights it can be pretty damn fun. Cena is the wrestler of the year, but he works well in long matches where he can sell and build to big spots, this isn't that kind of match so he really was incidental. Lashley was a monster here, chucking people around, taking big bumps and delivering an absolutely spectacular tope. Foley takes a couple of nice bumps and is over enough to not do a ton, I did love him throwing socko to the crowd and grabbing a chair to waste people. Booker and Orton were the only heels here, and were just awesome, Booker was just recking people with knees, and was the guy in this match doing the lions share of the work. Orton may the best wrestler in the world at timing big spots, and his countering of the five knuckle shuffle into an RKO was perfect. Finishing run was great, as all four guys stuff is so over, that all the near falls were big.

17. Briscoes v. Murder City Machine Guns ROH 4/28

Briscoes are guys with a pretty set formula, the formula is what it is, and you will tend to get what you get from it. The PPV tag against Sydal/Claudio was a pretty basic example of the formula. Some time killish stuff at the beginning, leading into some big crazy spots at the end, about half the time the match ends on time, half the time it goes a bit too long. If the formula is hitting on cylinders it can be pretty entertaining, but it rarely moves into excellent. What separated this match from you standard Briscoes match, was a load of quality bullshit by the Murder City Machine Guns. The first part of the match which is often the Briscoes weak point, was filled with a Shelly and Sabin homage to every cheap heat heel stooge in the book. All of that stuff got me into the match, so when they start with their big finish (and it was a great finish run) it wasn't just a collection of cool looking stuff, but I actually cared.

Read more!

FAR FROM CLASSIC TOMK- throwaway comments written about a bunch of matches in 2004

Ahh 2004 and I was full of optimism about the future of the heavyweight Pro-Wrestling. Its almost sad looking back on my optimism.

"Between this [ Ogawa v. Goldberg] and Takayama vs. Nakamura 2004 really started out on a good foot in terms of heavyweight wrestling."

Goldberg burnt out on wrestling and now does MMA commentary. Ogawa really doesn't do "wrestling" anymore.JBL retired. Takayama went down for a couple years and who knows to what degree he'll recover.

And the two people who's work most excited me in 2004 are dead.

some stuff here I still stand by, other stuff not so much...

Takeshi Morishima vs. Jun Izumida (NOAH 3/13/04)

Man Izumida is on this ridiculous hot streak. Normally when guys who stunk get good after ten years it's cause they simplify, drop silly stuff, work tighter. Izumida has taken the opposite tack and just gone on an offensive tear. Ridiculous. Plus all of Izumida's old Tenzan'ish (headbutts, mongolian chops) offense is also looking really crisp lately. And yeah I'll say it best diving headbutt in the business today.

Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels - WWE World Heavyweight Title (WWE 3/14/04)

Cooey seems to like the early exchanges in this. I have no idea what he sees in those. The rest of match is all about the Benoit crowd heat. The crowd heat was awesome, but what made it so awesome is it was all about the crowd turning on the story of the match. Shawn Michaels goes for the WWE I hit opponent’s offense and hits a laughable German suplex in what was laid out as a "we are equal" faces spot. Crowd boos. Crowd boos any time anyone but Benoit is on offense. Crowd doesn't want to see the match that's been laid out for them. Crowd heat cool, actual match not much.


Eddie Guerrero vs. John Bradshaw Layfield - WWE Heavyweight Title (WWE 5/16/04)

This is your WWE match of the year.

How does one work as a World Title Holder?

Ric Flair gets a lot of crit on the net for the way he worked as champ. It's asked "Why is he begging off from Ricky Morton?"

Hogan doesn't get the same criticism. As he either gets criticized because his formula was stale, or praised for work as "strong champion". I've never understood the second as one of goofiest things in any Hogan match is the "I have to lose the beginning of test of strength segment". You have the biggest guns in wrestling, why is Bob Orton, Lanny Poffo or the Bossman powering you down? Why do you have to dig deep to win test of strength with Adrian Adonis? Stupid.

Kobashi gets some crit for his championship work against guys who aren't on his level. He can't find way to make lesser opponents credible unless they work same work the leg formula. Why does everyone have to work Kobashi same way? Rikio spends entire match working the leg until he starts throwing bombs. It's Rikio why not throw bombs from start. Sano beats Akiyama by just destroying his ribs. That’s what gets him to the title challenge. But he never does that in the title challenge itself.

Helmsley doesn't know how to sell for opponents.

Eddy Guerrero has figured out how to work a match against lesser opponent. Whole match is based on Eddie being the better wrestler and Bradshaw just not being at his level. All of the offense, all of the selling is built around that. Just a fucking great Championship match.

When I watched Eddy vs. Lesnar I remember thinking that I liked the way two worked together and would have liked to have seen them work a series.

Eddy vs. Bradshaw was better than that although I have really no interest in seeing the series. Unfortunately that’s what I'm stuck with. Still 5/16/04 is your WWE match that should make this or any list.

KENTA vs. Jun Izumida (NOAH 6/11/04)

Izumida works as poor mans short Hashimoto, Kenta works as Kenta. They do a spot where Kenta hurts his shins doing Kawada kicks to Izu’s head. I hope Kawada and Jamal work that same spot. I like old school AJ, love count out post dive lucha falls....I'm big fan of count out finishes. Liked the Hash v Vader count out finish which the crowd turned on. Izu vs. Kenta, best worked count out finish this year.

Kaz Hayashi vs. TAKA Michinoku - AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title (AJPW 2/22/04)

Who would have thunk. Two guys who I think of as being natural heels. Two guys who started out in lucha inspired juniors promotions. Working AJ-they work what felt like really good AJ juniors style match. This wasn't no NJ goofball juniors. This wasn't Toryumon meta-lucha. This was AJ juniors match, with AJ juniors style selling trace-ing line back to Fuchi vs. Kikuchi. Who would have thunk it.

Kawada vs. Hashimoto (AJPW 2/22/04)

The new thing that Hashimoto has brought to Japanese heavyweight wrestling is Ole Anderson, Ricky Steamboat bodypart selling.

Yeah there used to be you worked on body part for submission or the old school AJ body part work was lead in to throwing bombs (i.e. you weren't going to be able to throw opponent until you had weakened through body part work).

Hashimoto says we do bodypart work like Steamboat. Hash and Kawada are both broken down guys coming into this match and that adds to the epic feel of it. One of the things you realize by watching Kawada out of AJ, is that Kawada is short. Kawada is shorter than Ohtani, shorter than Kohei Sato. Dwarfed by the likes of Noaya Ogawa. He's short guy coming into ring with Hashimoto. But hell, Hashimoto worked credible singles match against Liger he can do it with Kawada. Whole match is built around Hashimoto's arm vs. Kawada's leg. If the two worked a match pre injuries it would have had a ton of suplexes. It doesn't need them anymore as its all about the bodyparts.

Hashimoto is alot better at the bodypart selling and work here but Kawada really steps up to the plate figuring out how to work this style. And besides which when Kawada no sells, the audience has to recognize "his leg is sleight screwed up" ...thus his fighting spirit no sells seem well like either legit fighting spirit or more often a game face to show no intimidation from opponent. Kawada does that alot here grimacing followed by putting on a game face, there are these great moments where he moves like an old man struggling to get out of bed and then just fights to try to hide that on his face.

Epic match. Everything I wanted out of meeting of these two.

Naoya Ogawa vs. Bill Goldberg (Hustle 1 1/4/04)

Speaking of selling, the weird thing about Ogawa in Zero-One is that he's become all about the selling. In all the endless mediocre Ogawa/Hashimoto vs. shitty guys tag matches. It's Ogawa who always plays face in peril while Hashimoto works hot tag. It's Ogawa working Kikuchi to Hashimoto as Kobashi. Not a role that anyone would've picked Ogawa for five years back. Somehow through this Ogawa has gotten actually good. He's limited in that he has a WWE superstar’s offensive depth. He has about three really over offense moves. And he’s able to sell between that. Goldberg also not a guy with a lot of depth of offense. Both have really over offense spots but not a lot of them. The two come together in ring and just feel like they were made for each other. Between this and Takayama vs. Nakamura 2004 really started out on a good foot in terms of heavyweight wrestling.

Read more!