Eddie Kingston Couldn't Sleep at Night, In Bed He Kept a Knife

 Eddie Kingston vs. Matt Riddle Hybrid Wrestling 10/27/17 - SKIPPABLE

PAS: This was shockingly bad for one all timer and a guy who normally was pretty good to great on the indies. I haven't been this surprised at a match being bad since Fujiwara vs. Kawada. They open with some comedy spots around a rubber chicken, and then each no sell about a half dozen suplexes, and it kind of goes from there. It really felt like they were just going through an indy match at 3/4rs speed, it wasn't even particularly stiff, at one point Eddie totally airballs a clothesline. Finish was really cool at least with Riddle leaping onto Kingston's back and felling him with Goodrich elbows, which Eddie sold great. Finish was cool enough to get it at least a FUN rating if everything else wasn't so bad. 

Eddie Kingston/Jon Moxley vs. Luke Gallows/Karl Anderson AEW Dynamite 3/17/21 - FUN

ER: Can't think of too many big league teams with less watchability in 2021 than The Good Brothers, but I also can't think of a wrestler I wouldn't want to see Eddie Kingston face. And this was mostly a total one man Kingston show. Gallows misses half of his offense (including an ugly pump kick on Moxley that comes up a couple feet short) and Moxley throws some terrible strikes and hits an ugly slow as hell tope on Gallows that kind of connects his hands with Gallows' hands, but we do have Eddie Kingston, and thank god for that. Kingston is active match long, always doing something, and for such a meh match his selling was really stunning. He was great at setting up offense for the Brothers, and while everyone else was waiting to take every piece of offense they took, Kingston was always falling, crawling, dropping to his knees, swinging wild, really giving this match a whole lot of gravitas that it didn't earn. Anderson took a great Kingston exploder, Gallows had a couple nice spots where he got knocked off the apron by Moxley, and the match ending small package was tightly executed. Kingston had maybe the best moment of the match towards the end, lying on the entrance ramp, trying to pull himself by the referee's pant leg to save Mox from a pinfall. Nobody else was putting in that kind of selling effort here, but that's just how Kingston can class up any match at any time. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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WWE Fastlane 2017 Live Enough Blog

1. Rich Swann/Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick/Noam Dar

ER: I'm a couple months behind on 205 Live but I do plan to skim through it to catch up. Crowd does not care about this, though over the course of the match the crowd gets into Swann as FIP. Kendrick is great throughout at trying to only be in the match when he's got the advantage. It doesn't always work, which leads to him eating a high backdrop while Swann is about to powerbomb Dar, and then another to the floor before eating a dive. Dar is kind of disjointed the whole match, though I like the way he takes Swann's kicks. This match just didn't have enough going for it. Kendrick was fun but the whole thing was rushed. Tozawa didn't get to do much as the whole match was built around Swann. Swann had nice kicks but his flip dive looked soft, and he came up short on his phoenix splash. Everybody seemed like they were trying, but there's this inescapable desperation that comes through during these cruiser matches. It's like the all know the whole thing is going to die soon. Also, I hate Michael Cole saying "Vintage Rich Swann!" Vintage compared to what?

2. Sami Zayn vs. Samoa Joe

ER: I'm into Joe punching Zayn around the ring, with Zayn picking his moments. Zayn does a great Kawada-like crumble sell after eating a right jab. The bow and arrow took too long to set up, but the legsweep to Zayn's shins was sick as hell. Sami aims to dislocate his shoulder by throwing a mean falling clothesline, and I smile huge when he hits the blue thunder bomb. You can see Zayn's power meter falling but he still tries and still looks for openings, and Zayn is good about setting up trademark Joe offense. Joe just keeps coming forward and it's all about survival for Zayn. I liked the drama around the top rope sunset flip, and Zayn's selling during the kokina clutch. The match was basically an extended Joe beating, which is a good way to debut him on PPV. Zayn was in there to sell and put over Joe's kicks and slams, and mission accomplished. They have a better match in them, but they needed Joe to look strong.

3. Enzo & Cass vs. The Club

ER: Enzo & Cass: The reason why I start these blogs late. I can't risk getting to their segment and having to sit through it in real time. I do have a weird soft spot for wrestlers with no offense, so sometimes I want to like Enzo. And playing FIP in tags is by far his best use. He takes stupid, untrained looking bumps, but it somehow works to make him more sympathetic. I like how Enzo flops while in a side headlock, and like all of Anderson's kneedrops to Enzo's throat. Enzo and Anderson work a really fun grounded side headlock sequence, with Enzo trying to roll to Cass and Anderson rolling through to get him back to the center of the ring. Gallows takes a mean post shot and they do one of those fun spots where Enzo gets knocked out of the sky while attempting a tag. They work kind of an absurd number of fun spots around guys leaping at Enzo and missing. He's essentially Pacman Jones, TNA tag team champ. Cass does a nice hot tag, and they do a great false finish with Gallows yanking Enzo out of the ring just in time. Really fun tag that totally overdelivered.

4. Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks

ER: First few minutes of this are just Nia tossing Sasha around the ring, nasty backbreaker, huge hiptoss, even a kind of curbstomp. Ladies make certain moves look better with their flexibility, and I really dug Nia's torture rack. Sasha maneuvers into a guillotine and then we get some cool moments of Nia trying to shake her, and Sasha hanging on: gets shaken out of a guillotine, grabs a backpack sleeper, gets ditched on the turnbuckles, leaps back into that sleeper. I thought the Banks statement looked great, and Nia just plants her with a chokeslam. Also liked the bridge at the finish, looked genuinely tough to kick out of. Still I'm not really sure what they're doing with Nia, as she seems to lose an awful lot for a monster. But, I like Sasha a lot so I'm cool.

5. Jinder Mahal vs. Cesaro

ER: What the hell has happened to Jinder Mahal and why has the wellness exam not figured it out? I saw this guy several months ago in Liga Elite and he looked softer than ever, now he's getting all lean and veiny. Maybe the dude just knows this is his last shot and is busting ass. But the match is good and both guys work it with immediacy, especially Mahal. Mahal looks and works like a heel, throwing clubbing shots and back elbows, choking Cesaro in the ropes, raking at his face, and looking good doing it. I'm surprised this is so Mahal-heavy, with Cesaro making a couple brief comebacks with his impressive throws, but most of the early match is Mahal. But, once Cesaro DOES go on offense, the match doesn't really work as well. Cesaro's 619 is ugly and doesn't fit with his moveset, and there's just no denying the match was better with Mahal controlling things. That's something I wasn't expecting to type. Ending couldn't have been flatter. This had potential, and was fulfilling it, and they lost it.

6. Rusev vs. Big Show

ER: Wasn't really expecting this one, just Big Show kicking Rusev around the ring and Rusev suddenly a babyface. How do they somehow always make Rusev look like a babyface? Big Show's dominance didn't interest me too much, but I loved Rusev clipping the knee and Show's bump for it. But Rusev's comeback is short lived as I guess we need to keep Big Show super strong? He pretty much steamrolls Rusev and it takes way too long. I love Show's leaner physique and big beard look, but man he did not need this dominant of a win.

7. Gentleman Jack Gallagher vs. Neville

ER: Awesome stuff, which felt like the match the Cruiserweight division needed. Gallagher is just a total nutter, and these two really delivered on PPV. They both do great at fast exchanges, and Gallagher takes some brutal bumps, starting with him getting his head whipped into the mat off a double leg. We build to an awesome Gallagher dive, with him just flinging his body sideways and hitting Neville flush, and back in the ring Gallagher goes for a prawn hold and Neville reverses into an INSANE german suplex. Gallagher's landing was like an accidental Great Sasuke bump, just landing right on the side of his head and shoulder. Good lord. Neville's flying is tight and his big moves land with actual force, Gallagher still gets some hope with his glorious headbutt, and this just felt like the match that needed to happen. Both came off looking good.

8. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

ER: Well Roman looks like a doof in white soled basketball shoes. Now we know. I'm sure one person, somewhere, was wondering, and now that person knows. And it doesn't matter because this was awesome. Braun throws himself into everything, so the hits and misses are huge. He breaks out a big splash, but misses a charge into the ring post, nails a crazy powerslam through an announce table, takes a huge bump to the floor off a missed big boot. Braun came off like a shark, always moving forward, and Reigns was scrambling from go. Roman is really good at surviving damage and making space for comeback shots, dodging Braun and sending him into the steps, hitting a Samoan drop after Braun hits the post, and these two are really going at it. I'm sure plenty of people will be pissed that Roman went over, but he stood up to a couple superman punches, a spear, and then did an insane big splash off the top before taking a final spear. I'm sure when people think about this match the visual of Braun standing tall on the top rope will seem like a bigger deal than the fact that he got pinned. He'll get his.

9. Charlotte vs. Bayley

ER: I wasn't really feeling the first few minutes of this. I know Bayley is a strong FIP, but I thought Charlotte was hitting the "you're just a fan" stuff a little too hard and the pace was too slow. I did appreciate how after overshooting a moonsault, she followed up with a somersault senton. I'm not sure if that senton was planned, but it felt like she called an audible before going for the pin. But this whole match feels longer than I think it actually is. A lot of this felt pretty sloppy, and I thought the finish run was a mess. Not the match that I wanted. And what's worse is right after Bayley wins, Cole just casually brings up "Hey you know, this is the first time Charlotte has been pinned on PPV!" It's like feast or famine with these assholes. You have the feeling JBL would have been bringing that up every 30 seconds during the match, and here it's just "oh hey btw". Why did they bother having her go undefeated on so many PPVs, even when her winning sometimes didn't make the most sense for the storyline at the time. They had to do so many damn title changes to keep that streak going, and now it's just "oh, hey, that's over!"

10. Goldberg vs. Kevin Owens

ER: This went as expected, but I'm reallllllly wondering when they're actually going to have Goldberg work a full match. They can't have him squash Brock again, and they're running out of time to figure out what they want out of him. Truthfully, *I* don't know what I want from Goldberg at this point, yet I weirdly enjoy seeing him.

ER: Not really much of a PPV. Roman/Braun was top notch, and Gallagher is a loon, and I liked the Club/Enzo/Cass tag WAY more than I expected, but then there was a lotttttt of shrug.

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WWE Clash of the Champions 2016 Live-ish Blog

1. Alicia Fox vs. Nia Jax

I liked the little build we got to this one, as Alicia flipping out on Jax in the hallway seemed like it had an unexpected moment in it, with Fox seemingly accidentally smacking Jax in the face with a box. You look at the reactions of both when it happened, and I genuinely think it was an accident. But it lead to that super violent shove and I was interested in seeing a match. I really liked Fox not long ago when she was a big bumping heel, but almost right after I wrote something praising her work she got buried in 6 mans and wasn't really face or heel. She was just around. And this match went just about as it should. I love monster heels and Fox was given just enough, and I really liked how they transitioned to Jax finishing her off. Fox was smart and jumped her with kicks, but I loved when they went into Jax hitting her with bigger, more damaging kicks. Jax tossing Fox around was great, as Fox has these long limbs that make her ragdolling look even better. She's also just a good ragdoll bumper in general, so it's almost disappointing that this basically ends their feud. I could watch her get tossed around at least a couple more times. But Fox's comeback crossbody was great, loved how Jax leapt into it. Also love how they set up Jax's butt splash in the corner, with Fox slipping out of the Samoan drop and falling back into the corner, only for Jax to be on it. Fun opener.

2. New Day vs. Gallows & Anderson

Damn this was really good! It's one of those wonderfully constructed hot 8 minute tags. It's short enough that nothing stupid needs to happen, but long enough that it feels like it has some substance. Nobody has time to deal with their shortcomings, it's just a hot match that keeps the crowd up. This may have been Anderson's best performance in WWE so far. He really came off like a badass whose moves all ended with an exclamation point. That spinebuster was sick. And the match was obviously tightly constructed, but had a nice chaos to it, with interference and brawling on the floor not being the moment the match breaks down, but being integrated nicely into the match. Big E looked good as usual, both teams clicked, this was a real nice "opener".

3. Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins

Well TJP clearly has a barely rejiggered version of the best parts of Mega Man 2 theme, and I can't help but flip out for that. And WWE putting up the purple ropes for this match is an awesome attention to detail. Phil and I each compared Kendrick in the CWC to Finlay, so it's appropriate he's the one who gets to bring Finlay's great apron skirt trap back into play. I'm picturing Finlay blessing him with the spot backstage in a gruff but touching moment. Perkins is kind of awkward in this one. His double chickenwing just looked like Kendrick fell on top of him with all of his weight. And then he whiffed on that neckbreaker (but Graves had a nice cover for it saying him drug Kendrick down by his hair). TJP hits a wild rana off the apron that sends both men splatting. I think Kendrick's scrappiness is kind of a good way to cover up for any accidental sloppiness. He does some stuff that's unpolished, throws some timing off, it adds an element of uncooperation without ever coming off unprofessional. There was an moment where they abort an Irish whip and it landed in a neat moment of "guy changing his mind on a spot vs. guy just shifting his timing to keep opponent on his toes". The match overall was a step below the CWC stuff, but still plenty fun.

4. Sheamus vs. Cesaro

Cesaro comes out dressed like a badass maitre'd who is actually just a hitman disguised as a maitre'd. I will never have a moment in my life where I look that cool. I love both of these two but weirdly liked the very first match in this series more than the others, and that was buried on a pre-show. Cesaro seems weirdly light in the first half of this. His uppercuts had a little less mustard, that crossbody landed like a Petey Williams crossbody, and that 619 should never see the light of day again. AND THEN THAT HAPPENED. THAT happened. Cesaro takes one of the most grizzly bumps in wrestling history, and the look of fear on his face after his spikes himself on a dive was horrifying. And WWE make sure to show 5 angles of it and it keeps looking uglier, keeps looking more like something a man shouldn't live through. I assumed immediately they would call an audible and just end on a count out. And somehow they didn't. Somehow it kept going. I wake up some days with a kink in my neck just because I slept wrong, and here Cesaro just basically leapt into the air and  landed on his head. We had a swimming pool growing up, and a diving board. And there was a sticker on the side of our diving board with a cartoon man diving into an empty pool, with a red circle and line through it. And when they showed Cesaro's dive in slow motion, he was in the exact same position as the man jumping into the empty pool. But somehow things continue and the crowd's disbelief leads to the crowd getting way into this match, and the drama seems huge afterwards because it doesn't even seem like Cesaro should be walking anymore. I had no problem with the double count out, because after that dive it's like the rule book went right out the fucking window. This wasn't either man not wanting to get pinned, this was two dudes fighting and not caring about a count. Great stuff that all built from a very, very scary moment.

5. Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho

Somehow the slight facial hair has massively improved Jericho's look. He went from looking like old lesbian Denis Leary to more of a Timothy Olyphant type. A massive improvement. And his walk to the ring is very much perfect. The ring work and execution isn't the great in this, but it feels nicely laid out. Jericho is just really bad at taking offense at this point. He essentially bails on Sami's flip dive and baaaaarely catches that through the ropes DDT. Sami wins me over by appropriately selling his genitals and groin after missing the yakuza kick in the corner. The blue thunder bomb was a big moment and Sami added an extra spin, but I thought the finish was extremely lazy with Jericho just standing up and hitting the codebreaker. We can do better than that, right?

6. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte

Not a big fan of three ways but I dug the way the early part of this was worked. I must have missed why this is No DQ though. Sasha and Charlotte match up really well, loved how Sasha bumped face first into the bottom buckle off a Charlotte kick. Bayley seems like she's been disappeared for 6 minutes. Sometimes Charlotte has a really goofy way of getting into position for the next spot. Like she's just doing a zombie sleepwalk. It's weird that it's No DQ but Dana Brooke has only interfered one time. Shouldn't she just be working this like a tornado tag if it's No DQ? Charlotte is just being booked like a beast throughout this whole thing. No move can hurt her, she's hardly needed Dana's interference despite being 2 on 1, and she gets big spots like that moonsault onto both women. You would never know the Bayley to Belly was used as a finisher, because Charlotte didn't even take a moment to act like a move had been done to her. Bayley was just a total afterthought in this whole match. Gone for much of the middle, never made to look important at any point other than the first 10 seconds. This got an insane amount of time and was just a total mess.

7. Rusev vs. Roman Reigns

This was a little deflating, as I really like Roman, but the whole thing was handled so poorly and obviously by the announcers that I just couldn't get into the match. The end felt inevitable. No matter how good Rusev looked, all you would hear about was just how brave Roman was for surviving, or how "Roman just needs to...." or "Is this Roman's moment..." It just sucked all of the drama out of everything for me. Though I was genuinely surprised by the big reaction to Roman's match winning spear. Crowd really exploded for it. I liked the Lana yanking the ref false finish, but I just didn't think this was one of Reigns' better performances. He seemed sluggish throughout, seemed tentative on offense.

8. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens

I'm really liking Owens in this, liked his shit talk as he caught Rollins' leg and kicked him, liked him dropping the elbow out of the apron and working a snug horizontal chinlock. I get a little burnt out by PPVs though. I don't think I have proper stamina for them. I don't know if it's how WWE paces their shows, or if I can only just watch 2 hours of wrestling at a time, but matches just take more to get me involved in them the longer a PPV goes. The crowd seems with me. They all seem super quiet. Owens is trying. That missed cannonball looked great, and the gutbuster off the top was wild, and Owens is so wanting to get ANY kind of reaction from the crowd that he even does crotch chops before missing his announce table senton. That feels barely one step removed from people using a stunner on 1999-2003 indy wrestling shows. And I'm so sick of that moment every PPV where one or all of the announce team goes "Not like this!" This match felt an hour long.

It seems like all of these PPVs start out exciting and just get more and more arduous the longer they go.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Samoans v. Bullet Club

Roman Reigns/Usos v. AJ Styles/Luke Gallows/Karl Anderson WWE Raw 5/2

PAS: Cool throwback to the days of RAW having awesome six-mans every week. I have been a Gallows fans since the Festus days and I am glad to see him make his way back to the WWE and he was super aggressive in this constantly jumping at Roman and getting in his face. Finish run was really exciting with Gallows and Anderson nuking Roman while an Uso and Styles went at in the ring. I liked the post match angle with the temptation of Styles and Reigns wrecking him after the bell. I am into this feud.

ER: I really liked this trend of good TV matches coming back. Maybe we always need a storyline where the GM just tries to put on the best show possible? Nawwww. People probably just want GMs to talk a bunch and put on lousy shows. This kind of match needs to be happening every week. Gallows had a great showing. I remember telling Phil about the (still awesome) Festus/Kozlov Smackdown match, and him being in disbelief. So then I brought it over on VHS while he was visiting and we both flipped. If that doesn't put a timestamp on things. And I liked the early stuff with he and Roman going at it, and how they kept getting matched up, subtly keeping the match away from Roman/AJ, with Gallows around at the end to eat the Superman punch. The finishing run was great with nice superkick cutoffs from the Usos, great nearfall chains and then we get some awesome post match brawling. This was all really good and felt like it brought a fresh energy that hasn't been on WWE TV in a long time.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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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.

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Ring of Honor on Destination America 6/10/15 Review

Actually liked the Kazarian/Daniels promo to start this, and "Hey I liked that Christopher Daniels promo!" doesn't feel like something I've said a whole bunch in my adult life.

1. The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. Kyle O'Reilly

This was supposed to be reDRagon (also, I don't understand the name. Pointless capitalization? Meaning I'm missing? Accidentally misspelled when it got back from the printers, so they just ran with it?) but Bobby Fish is on injured reserve, so O'Reilly takes them on solo. Match only goes about 4 minutes and is actually pretty fun, almost entirely because of Kazarian/Daniels. O'Reilly looked awful and nothing about his flimsy offense looked like it would keep two guys at bay. But Kazarian and Daniels bump and do pratfalls like crazy for him and somehow make a lot of it look plausible. O'Reilly throws these embarrassing hockey punches on Daniels (at least I think that's what those were supposed to be...whatever they were they were hilarious) and throws really bad regular punches where he kind of aims somewhere over his opponent's head. But Kazarian/Daniels bump for his stuff, fly into guardrails really tough, even set up for a wild O'Reilly dropkick off the apron into both of them, who had been placed improbably in a chair. Eventually Daniels hits him with the belt and the match is thrown out, but this was probably better than it should have been when you factor in the participants, and that it was a handicap match.

2. Dalton Castle vs. Jushin Liger

Well this was fun! I have never seen Castle before, and he's like a cross between Michael York, Cassandro, John Tatum and Blake from Workaholics. He has a couple of eunuchs with him who fan him with peacock feathers, even has sparkly tights (under his awesome glittery Bowie jumper/cape) with a glittery peacock feather on them. The dude has got the look. His work was good too as he bumped all over for Liger (loved his big bump off the apron from a Liger chop, and the way he took the finishing brainbuster and sold it after was great). Liger dogged it a little bit, had some lazy little palm strikes a couple times that looked like a kitten batting at yarn, but he flew into Castle's knees off a splash, threw some nice suplexes and jeez the guy is 50 and certainly works more athletically than most other guys who are 50. My dad already hated going on walks when he was 50. Castle knew how to stooge for him, this was plenty enjoyable.

3. Brutal Bob Evans vs. Cheeseburger

Bob Evans looks like a David Koechner character; or, a line cook at an actual Bob Evans. He does not look like somebody who should be wrestling on a nationally broadcast wrestling program. Yet he comes off as more of a wrestler than Cheeseburger, who seems like a guy who used to populate opening matches of IWA-MS shows because he sold enough tickets to earn a spot on the card. Nothing he does looks very good. He tries a springboard knee that whiffs by a couple feet, looks scared to go fullspeed into a turnbuckle or even the ring ropes (noticeably slowing way down before hitting the ropes or the turnbuckle), throwing lousy strikes, just looking like a guy who is only given a job because he was promised one after completing training. Bob throws some light punches himself although they are close to being salvageable. Something tells me at the age of 42 he won't be working too hard to improve them. He hits a nice enough shoulderblock and I did really like the sideslam off the apron through a table. I didn't see that coming so the surprise was nice. But man these are two guys who should not be featured on TV.

4. The Kingdom (Michael Bennett & Matt Taven) vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson

Oh, god I have to watch Red Shoes on the program too? Cahmannnn. I was hoping I'd get to see him working his Billy Crystal routine with multiple televised feds. Bullet Club seems to be all the rage amongst live wrestling crowds these days. Lots of BC shirts and whatnot. I don't get it myself. Bullet Club matches usually just mean a bunch of poorly executed interference and matches that would have been better if there wasn't interference. Maybe it's just a cool logo that white guys like to wear? I had not seen Taven before this. I do not want to see Taven after this. Man he looked bad. Taven, Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara...are these the kind of guys the ROH school is churning out?? Good lord. Taven undershot every moved he tried by a few feet, peaking with him going for a moonsault to the floor and landing about 6 feet short, so that Gallows had to sprint several steps just to get grazed. Earlier he got caught with a Gun Stun leaping off the top to the floor, but to make it work required him to land - again - about 6 feet short of his target. Dumb spot. Bennett and Anderson throw some unconvincing Frye/Takayama stuff, shove Red Shoes a bunch, Red Shoes works his schtick where he doesn't actually do anything worthwhile as a kayfabe ref, and instead focuses far more on mugging. Gallows looked fine, Anderson tends to look better in a NJPW setting, Bennett looked good enough, Taven dragged the rest down. Match couldn't have gone more than 5 minutes before the non-finish.

Well, I really liked Castle/Liger, and the rest of the show was...well, not as bad as last week. So that's some progress. They still threw us a couple Brisco promos which are always a great thing. The promos from everybody are actually a far stronger part of the show than the wrestling has been. Eh, where do I have to go on Wednesdays? I'll keep checking it out.

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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.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 6 Workrate Report

1. Karl Anderson vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (8/4/13)

Wow, out of all the G1 matches from 2013 they could have shown, they lead with Anderson vs. Tenzan? Mauro assures me that I am seeing the greatest pro wrestling IN THE WORLD. I'm starting to think Mauro is a liar. Tenzan is still pretty much the same guy he was 15 years ago. The Anaconda Vise has always seemed like a pretty easy move in terms of getting to the ropes. Nothing about this was very good, and I'm not sure why Tenzan is the guy they'd want to expose to a national audience. I mean Shibata vs. Ishii from the same show was RIGHT THERE, featuring two far more relevant guys in an actual good match.

2. Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Satoshi Kojima (8/4/13)

Are they really just showing these two matches because TenKoji was a well regarded tag team when I was still a teenager? DBS always gets put over as a big time catch wrestler but most of the time he just works big man power spots. But hey I ended up enjoying this match. Kojima is still plenty spry and all his clotheslines and elbow strikes looked nice (and you know there are going to be plenty of clotheslines and elbow strikes in a Kojima match). A lot of the blocks and reversals looked real good, especially both men blocking each other's lariats (really loved DBS yakuza kicking Kojima's right arm which made Kojima spin around and blast him with his left) and the timing of everything throughout was real tight. Bullet Club interference can be clunky but here it's minimal with Taka grabbing Kojima as he went to the top, but then taking a great tumbling bump down the apron to the floor after Kojima clocks him. I mentioned DBS is always pushed as a catch wrestler and instead does power stuff, but that isn't a real disappointment as a lot of his power moves look good. He has a nice big boot, hard shoulder blocks, nice brain buster, really nice sit out powerbomb, took a nice fast bump over the top off a clothesline. He's essentially a very good Test. This was fun. Also, if you weren't aware of it before the match, Davey Boy Smith Jr. is the son of Davey Boy Smith, who was in the British Bulldogs with Dynamite Kid, and is also related to Bret Hart. This is information Mauro and Josh were polite enough to tell us about every minute.

They are cruel and have Nakamura before the match talking about what a great match Ishii vs. Shibta was and wondering how he was going to top that. Why would they not just show that match!? Maybe they're showing B block one week and A block the next?

3. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi (8/4/13)

This right here is a great GREAT match and easily the best thing they've aired so far, probably the best puro match of 2013. The stretch run of this match holds up as one of the best stretch runs of the decade, but really the whole thing is impeccably laid out. Nakamura was a nasty bully who underestimates a more than game Ibushi, and from there we get both guys just really clicking. All of Nakamura's strikes were brutal in this, with the Boma Ye's in particular just horrific (and Ibushi foolishly leaning way into all of them), and all of Ibushi's comebacks were fun and logical. Ibushi can pull off some spectacular flying spots that look effortless yet impactful. Loved his standing shooting star, immediately rolling through and nailing a springboard moonsault. His strikes also worked plenty well but really Nakamura was the story of this match as before this match happened I know I wasn't expecting much, but this match vaulted Ibushi into a "guy I actively like" status, and Nakamura up to the level of "guy I actively seek out". The way he tears into Ibushi is just epic, with some crazy kicks to the back of the head, a couple awesome running knees in the corner, all the Boma Ye's, a crazy flip out moment where he's just stomping on Ibushi's throat and screaming. He really made it look like this indy punk would upset him and that he had made the pompous mistake of underestimating him, and once he really turned it on he came off like a total sadist. This match also figures probably my favorite kickout ever, when Nakamura blasts Ibushi with a knee and Ibushi kicks out on one, fights to his feet and falls flat on his face, and immediately eats another Boma Ye for the easy 3. That spot could have come off so hack and Ibushi really nailed the mannerisms, with some Kawada level selling using his last bit of strength, really putting over that he kicked out at 1 on pure muscle memory but really had nothing left in the tank and was just a final gasp. Excellent match. I linked it above in case you hadn't ever seen it.

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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.

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