AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/3 - 11/9

AEW Dynamite 11/5/25

Athena/Mercedes Mone vs Willow Nightingale/Harley Cameron

MD: Mercedes Mone is a star. Athena makes her shine all the brighter.

I'm quite high on Mercedes for much that she does. I think her reactions in the moment are believable. Her matches are ambitious in many ways. She has an incredible work ethic. As an ace, she's tremendous at treating each and every opponent differently; I loved seeing her switching up her taunts and crowd interactions for Olympia's strength for instance. 

That said, there is often a rehearsed feel to her matches. It's a perfectionist's bent, a practice makes perfect sort of feel that's impossible to escape. While the matches feel alive in the moment, sometimes the overall effect is a little plastic, a little blunted. It's more DDP than Randy Savage. That's fine. 98 DDP was great. But it's not transcendent.

Athena, endlessly reactive, endlessly electric, as dynamic as any wrestler in the world, helps Mercedes transcend herself and become her own personal Randy Savage.

They worked so well together here and it felt natural as could be, a meshing of two disparate but tangential egos, two parallel characters, two parallel paths to a flawed sort of kayfabe greatness. You could see it right from the get go when Mercedes pulled a seething Athena to fawn over the belts and how it transitioned right to the two of them almost immediately switching gears with Mercedes seething behind Harley as she entered the ring and Athena posing with her big Yaaaaaay! after their successful initial ambush of the babyfaces. 

The structure was double heat, but Harley carried both face-in-perils. That fit the hierarchy very well. It allowed Harley to gain sympathy, allowed Willow to come in like a wrecking ball after the first hot tag, and allowed Athena and Mercedes to look like the very best in the world as they took over with a tandem backstabber out of nowhere, the wild Athena dive through Mercedes' legs, and an absolutely perfect but still chaotically organic double team move where Athena basically hit Mercedes with the MoneMaker but right onto Harley. 

That unique no shine/double heat structure let them utilize a Willow blind tag (instead of a conventionally hot one) after the break and allowed for things to break down a little early without it feeling unearned or unbalanced. The finish, with Statlander coming out to disrupt Billie and the belt and distract Athena (who had just hit one of her super impressive strength spots), furthered the Full Gear title match and set up a few matches in the future including Athena vs Harley for the ROH title. 

My big takeaway, however, is that while I understand Athena and Mercedes going out like this (they were almost too big to continue on in the tournament and this furthered other storylines) the pairing, either feuding or teaming, is just too good not to go back to sooner than not. 

It's pro wrestling. You need your stars shining as brightly as possible as much as possible, and Athena burns brightly enough to be the perfect spotlight for Mercedes Mone.

Samoa Joe/Powerhouse Hobbs/Katsuyori Shibata vs Eddie Kingston/HOOK/Hangman Adam Page

MD: Keep your eye on Eddie Kingston.

I came across an obituary of Gene Wilder a week or two ago. In it, the writer noted it was a known secret in the acting industry that actors that wished to "better themselves would do well to watch a movie with Gene Wilder in it and pay particular attention to him in a scene when someone else is speaking, someone else has the focus. He was always acting in those moments too, reacting or listening in perfect character and supporting the scene with his presence. A lot of good actors are good when they have something to do. Gene Wilder was good all the time."

I had immediately connected that to Negro Casas actually, and the work he did in trios matches when he wasn't the main focus of a feud.

But then I saw this match and it clicked here as well.

Eddie's not even in this feud. Eddie is HOOK's plus-one. But he managed to do something that was absolutely a contradiction here: he not only stole the show, but he then took what he stole and donated it back to his partners. 

Here's the key: he's constantly, consistently both engaged and engaging. Someone can be the one but not the other and it goes both ways. I love watching Ultimate Warrior on the apron in tags, but he's not necessarily responding to what's happening in the moment and adding to the overall match. There are also plenty of guys able to put their arm out for a tag but not also able to use it to draw you into the match. And Eddie draws you right in while making it about what's going on in the ring and not about himself. 

Some of that is his strength as a storytelling but I honestly believe so much of it is his foundation as a fan. He remembers caring. Hell, he watches certain matches over and over and over again because he still cares. He cares as much as anyone reading this and as much as the person writing this and he's able to channel that feeling into what he was doing here. 

That meant he showed his disgust when Samoa Joe started the match by dodging Hook and tagging out to Shibata, that he sold chops as if they were hurting him, and that when Hook was trying to fight back (and after Hook hit the suplex that threw his back out the rest of the way), he'd lean halfway into the ring to try to will him over to the corner.

And when it was time for him to get in there, he did exactly what he should. That meant getting beaten on by Samoa Joe in the corner, his comeback chops ineffectual. It meant being able to fire back against Shibata but cutting himself off due to the fact he's still working his way back to full strength. It meant that when it was time to mount a comeback, he climbed that hill and almost, almost worked with Hangman to hit a tandem Uraken/Buckshot (we need to see that at some point, TK, just saying; you've teased it now and let the heels rob us of it so you have to pay it off). 

And then after Hobbs crushed Hangman at the top of the stage, he found the inner strength to fight back against all the odds one last time. That's the only shame here. If this match had five more minutes, it could have been not just a double heat, but a triple heat, with Hook making that first tag to Eddie, with Eddie coming back after a 3-on-2 beating, and then with Eddie having to crawl back after Hangman got taken out, lasting just long enough in that All Japan Trios style for Hook to recover, even if it would all end in brave but futile heartbreak. 

But that's still out there on the table for another day. What we got was the best supporting player in all of wrestling pouring his heart out for yet another one of his award winning roles (not that he'd ever admit it, but those who watch closely... we know). 

Don't believe me? Next time you get a chance, just keep your eye on Eddie Kingston. You'll see it too.

Darby Allin vs Daniel Garcia

MD: Styles make fights. Contrast makes the world go round. Character drives action. 

Three sentences. Three true statements. You put them together and you get this match. While Darby is accomplished on the mat, he's no Daniel Garcia. While Garcia has a chip on his shoulder, has been training with Moxley and has been fighting full of grit, he's no Darby Allin. The difference between these two drove this one. In the ring, whether it be in the early feeling out process or trying holds down the stretch, Garcia had an advantage. When things hit the floor or got dirty, Darby tended to have an advantage. 

But Garcia was going to blink first again and again, because he had more to prove, because he couldn't get out of his own way (that's the character bit). That meant teasing the dance after choking Darby with the turnbuckle connector protector. It meant trying for an additional suplex (or neckbreaker) after hitting a superplex. It most especially meant mocking Sting when he had the Scorpion on, which ultimately cost him the match. 

There was a third character in this one as well ( and I don't mean PAC who set up a nice nearfall countout), the ring itself. They could have done this straightforward, eye gouges, ear biting, armbars and headscissors, but they chose to go inventive with it instead. After using the turnbuckle protector, Darby stuck Dany's arm in side the ringpost. Garcia's big transition to heel offense was trapping Darby in the apron. The stairs were used liberally. Garcia hooked Darby's chain to the corner. Pretty clever stuff all around which added to the chaotic nature of the match while keeping it character-driven and laser-focused on the contrast between the two. 

Three sentences that point to true north for almost every match and Darby and Garcia followed the map to their destination here.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/6 - 1/12

AEW Collision 1/11/25

Daniel Garcia vs. Katsuyori Shibata

MD: My favorite part of the entire WrestleDynasty card was watching Shibata and Tanahashi lock up. I'm not a big 2010s NJPW guy so I don't have a lot of nostalgia for the specific pairing but I am a big 1980s NJPW guy and it had the same sense of Inoki struggling for a grueling, tortured minute against every inch of a hold. Wrestling is the very best when the wrestlers put so much effort and care into even the smallest of things; if they care, the crowd will care. I certainly did.

Unfortunately, Garcia and Shibata couldn't start with that same sort of lock-up. This goes back to a tricky pothole that we all often fall into with match reviews. A match doesn't exist just for your star rating, to be reviewed and written up. It's part of a nexus of a show, of multiple shows, of the history of a promotion. That grueling lock up? It was needed far, far more for Jericho vs Dax at the end of the night. They needed all the help they could get and complex spots weren't going to cut it. Starting off with that wild intensity as they spilled out of the ring and jockeyed for position? That they could (and did) do.

Tanahashi and Shibata followed the lock up with chops, neither moving, just endless fighting spirit hard shots and that didn't do a single thing for me. They looked tough but there was no cause and effect, just endless cause for no effect until the time was up. Once it was up, it was too late.

Garcia and Shibata went right to chops as well, but it was an entirely different world. Remember, the last time they faced was for the Pure Title and Shibata in so many ways ate Garcia up. He was just crushing people during that run and despite Garcia coming in with bluster as the champ, he didn't have a chance. Here, a more seasoned, elevated Garcia stood tall, but got knocked down. He took the chops like they came out of a shotgun and then got back to his feet and fired back only for Shibata to eat them like they were nothing.

But Garcia kept getting up. He fell down. He got up. He fired back. It didn't work. He fell down. He got up. He fired back. That's a babyface. That's someone the crowd can get behind. That means so much more than even someone like Eddie Kingston, a folk hero in his own right, standing tall and going even with Shibata. That's admirable sure, but it's not heroic. It's not brave. It's mythic, but it's not relatable. Eddie doesn't need us to root for him. It's fine if we do, but he doesn't need us. Garcia does. And that changes everything.

Which meant there came a moment mid match where Garcia who had took shots and took shots and took some more finally found strength within him through channeled the crowd to stand tall and drive Shibata back. Because he had given so much early and because Shibata had given nothing at all, this mattered so much more than guys just shooting bombs at each other trying to impress with sheer quantity alone. This didn't overwhelm. It inspired.

Chops aren't the only part of Shibata's game though. Down the stretch, Garcia locked in the Dragontamer out of nowhere. Shibata is all technique, all struggle, yet he seemed to just let it happen. Once locked in, he calmly pushed himself up and flipped Garcia over into a leghold and then the figure-four leglock. Garcia, selling huge, struggled to make it to the ropes. That's not Inoki but instead Fujiwara, that sense of defensive wrestling, of gamesmanship where he's luring a trap for his opponent. You almost never see it in wrestling today so to watch it play out so beautifully is worth noting.

As is Garcia's Bret Hart-ian (and Darby Allin-ian) ability to snatch victory out of nowhere. Watching Cope vs Bill to start the night, I thought to myself that the spot where Bill hit his head on the exposed turnbuckle and then Cope somehow hit him with a huge power bomb would have been a perfectly fine finish. They instead went around a couple of rotations with some big kickouts (including of the spear) until they did the bit where Cope emulated Moxley (on commentary, Tony picked up on it but didn't go far enough with the idea that you become the monster you're fighting). Maybe the match needed that. Maybe it could have been in the post-match too. But that was such a memorable spot that it would have been even more memorable if it ended the match and it would help further that feeling that a match really could end at any point. AEW matches almost always use those moments for a big kickout and only end matches on set finishers after multiple rotations to get there. We'd be in a much more interested world of matches could end a minute or two earlier on a big, unexpected move.

Garcia's so good at finishing a match with the jackknife now, that I actually buy some of his other roll ups. Garcia's confidence to be vulnerable (with the chops, with having to pull himself to the ropes in the figure-four, with letting himself win with roll-ups out of nowhere instead of a dominant finisher) is a strength. It means the fans feel concern for him in the moment and then share in his triumph when he overcomes an opponent. It means his opponents look strong in defeat and feel like truly meaningful entities to defeat. It's babyface wrestling 101 but so few people over the last decade have dared to do it with open and earnest hearts and it makes Garcia stand out even more week after week.

ROH 1/09/25

Trish Adora vs. Harley Cameron

MD: First and foremost, this was a very good effort. Technically, this was Harley's first or second real babyface match and she only has so many matches under her belt in general. She had good energy. She tried to get the crowd into it. She sold sympathetically. She had a good comeback. All good things. Past the handshake right at the start and one shout in the middle, though, I didn't really see enough of what made her stand out over the last few months. 

In fact, Trish came off like the star here, not just basing like a champ (maybe even too good at times), hitting some standout strength spots (a few killer suplexes including two very different Germans), playing to the crowd and the camera and almost just riding the wave of the crowd like it was music at times. 

That's the sort of thing I've come to expect from Harley more. It's tricky. What was getting Harley over were the antics, but there has to be some real worry that without channeling some traditional babyface techniques, she's not going to stay over as a face and get the crowd behind her; she'll just bewilder them. I don't think that's the case. I want Garcia to go fully into those tropes. With Harley, I think she can be more Looney Tunes or Marx Brothers (or Bugsy McGraw or Les Kellett). She can confuse and frustrate her opponent with a sort of mad surrealism and still get swatted down and come back. 

It's a tricky balance. The first time she goes with the Wrath of Harley Cameron, it's funny. When she thinks it's a thing and it's not, that's funny. When it becomes a thing and it's in her tron, then it loses a bit of its appeal. It should come when you least expect it and maybe even when it's least appropriate.  I always thought that the weakest part of her act was coming out to the Outcasts music to the same choreographed moves. She should be interacting with the crowd and the camera on the way down, maybe starting to do some of those moves and getting distracted by the first shiny thing she sees and then try to go back to them and forgetting her place. Something like that. The spontaneity is the key with her. You tune into a Harley Cameron match because you know you're going to see something unexpected and it won't be the same the next time around. If you miss a Harley Cameron match you're going to miss something unique forever. That's the appeal. 

Ritual and meeting expectations are good. But for Harley, the expectation is the unexpected. That would be difficult for a ten year vet, let alone a 50 match rookie, but that's the position she's talented her way into. Big task, huge opportunity. But this (and the Mariah match) wasn't it.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/27 - 6/2

ROH TV 5/23/24

Workhorsemen vs Angelico/Serpentico

MD: We've got no Fingers of Death active this week and it's going to be a little bleak for a while with Kingston out. The fifth one is eternally floating and there are various people that will get rotated in there like Christian and Rush and Athena, but today, we're playing moneyball with the Workhorsemen and friends.

Anthony Henry is right off of an ill-timed jaw injury and a sort of a strange journey of being gone and being back and you can tell that he was rearing to get back in the game. JD Drake is the very definition of a DVDVR/Segunda Caida guy and I'm happy for whatever focus he gets. These ROH matches really do buck a lot of the current AEW criticism. They're closer to ten minutes than twenty, not stretched out by a commercial break, and very often, you don't know coming in who's going to win. There was just as much chance that Angelico and Serpentico took this as the Workhorsemen. And given that Workhorsemen won this, just as much chance that they were going to win as Top Flight in the match covered next.  

While the comeback was a lot of fun, my favorite part here was the opening exchanges. Where the Workhorsemen excel most is enabling their opponents to really be the best versions of themselves possible. They're versatile, contrasting in size and shape and style. Drake's excellent at knowing when to give and when not to give. Here he was matched up with Angelico and combined one or two slick and smooth little counters with jamming Angelico on a trip, only to miss a senton a moment later to put himself off balance for Angelico to actually hit. He was able to be there for Angelico so he could hit some of his more tricked out stuff but not make it look overly collaborative either. Then Henry and Serpentico did an extended tit-for-tat exchange that veered just far enough away from looking choreographed to work even though it was all done at high speed with everything hitting. Then, as the crowd was cheering, Henry nailed a cheapshot to take over and start the heat. Maybe it's because he appreciates the roar of the crowd and the thirll of the action more than ever post-injury but he was really living in the moment in these matches, pumped up and gloating during the spaces in-between. He's always a "hit it clean" guy but he was projecting for the last row in the best way in these. They made it seem like Angelico and Serpentico were going to take this before Maria's guys came out for the distraction, but that's part of the Workhorsemen's strength as well, making it all believable not matter what 'it' needs to be.

ROH TV 5/30/24

Workhorsemen vs Top Flight

MD: More of them enabling their opponents to be their absolute best. That meant that Dante was bounding off of Drake's back or leaping over and under and in between the ropes with Henry on a hook for a big move. It meant that Darius was able to storm in after the hot tag as scrappy and gritty and fiery as can be, with big and broad canvases to attack. Darius has pretty snappy punches in a world where no one's doing punches anymore and he stands out even next to his own brother because of it; that said, you couldn't overly fault Dante's rapid-fire forearms right into Henry's recently injured jaw.

And in between those moments, when it was time to grind down on Dante, the Workhorsemen kept things moving while being oppressive and interesting at the same time. Drake's took full advantage of Dante's jumping ability in the transition to heat as he pressed him up against the ropes and smashed him on the outside. It's a move that always looks great and effective, that was especially so here, and that is used at varying times in the match by Drake, but I'm actively glad it didn't show up in the Angelico/Serpentico match because while it can be a 75% of the time move, it really shouldn't be an every match one. It's too unique and conditional for that. This had just the right balance for a competitive mid-card TV match that could have gone either way, the sort of thing people occasionally lament is missing these days.

AEW Collision 6/1/24

Workhorsemen vs Daniel Garcia/Katsuyori Shibata

MD: Got to admit that it seemed like a nice neat way to do it this week. Three Workhorsemen matches over two weeks. Three very different sets of opponents. I didn't know that JD's leg was going to go out here putting a bit of a damper on all of this.

That said, it makes for a completely different sort of watching experience, right? It's 2024. When you peel back why we watch wrestling, old wrestling, new wrestling, it doesn't matter, it's not the same as why and how someone might have been watching it in 64 or 84. A lot of the time when I watch matches, I already know who goes over, right? I want to see the journey. I want to see it play out. I want to see the creative choices and how they're executed. I want to see if they zig in the way I want them to zig or zag in a way that I'd never seen before. I want to see them take the old structures and overlay new bits of execution. I want to see them tug at those most human emotions like only wrestling can do in ways both classic and novel.

Rarely do you really, truly connect with who you're watching though. When you do, it's special. It's like watching a perfect game in baseball a little bit, right? That butterfly in your stomach feeling where you don't want to jinx it. You want them to hit the landing. You think to yourself "man, if this thing just has the right finish and they make it the rest of the way..." I'll admit to watching some 2023-2024 Danielson matches and thinking to myself "I hope he's ok," but then he's been a jerk like that (and has landed on his head errantly a few times too).

Where I'm going here is that shortly into this one, JD Drake messed up his leg or his foot. They could have went home. They persisted. He could have stayed on the apron and had Anthony Henry work the lion's share of it. That would have been a pretty tough sell overall though. For a minute, it seemed like they might go that route, that we might have actually gotten something of a heel-in-peril structure for good or ill. Truth be told, they needed JD in there to shut Garcia down, to turn the tide, to justify a team of two killers like Shibata and Garcia getting dragged under.

Shibata and Garcia are like a modern day Raging and Ravishing, except for Shibata is more cold steel than hot fire and Garcia has a ton of steak to go along with the sizzle. When it happened and they were checking on Drake, Shibata dropped down into his pose and after a moment, Garcia did the same. Then we got that extra bit with Garcia and Henry, with Garcia hitting his new triple twisting neckbreakers (with a Henry heelbutt in the middle to keep it interesting), before Drake came in and asserted himself. The guy could barely walk but he is such a presence and an imposing figure that he could control the center of the ring with sheer gravitational force. Garcia created motion and movement by coming towards him and he powered through and did the rest.

There were moments in the back half where you maybe looked twice or wondered at something feeling just a bit off. Shibata has a great way of making his violence look natural, of just walking over and getting a shot in as opposed to setting up a complex spot (the world's big enough for both approaches), but some of those Tenryu tribute shots looked a bit hesitant which might have had to do to filling in necessary gaps. But like I said, they didn't just go home with it even though no one would have blamed them for that. They kept going. Shibata and Garcia needed a win that meant something, one that had heft and weight to it. Shibata and Garcia didn't need to just win; they needed to overcome. That meant when Drake finally did make it up and hit his moonsault, the fans knew full well what they were witnessing, the effort at play, the gutsiness in front of them, and they popped big accordingly. And when Shibata interjected to set up a win for his side, it meant something. It meant everything that it needed to mean, really a hell of an accomplishment, all things considered.

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AEW (And CMLL) Five Fingers of Death 3/25 - 3/31

AEW Collision 3/30/24

Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Katsuyori Shibata vs. Dutch/Vincent/Lance Archer

MD: Not quite an all-star trios match but certainly a unique one with Shibata in the mix. We're just at the start of him as a weekly player as opposed to an attraction and on some level, I feel like he'll add as much as Okada and Ospreay, maybe even more, because he is a contrast to a lot of the roster. Every match up with him feels like a fresh match up. Even with Archer, Cagematch says he's only faced Archer two times before this and they paired up really well to start. Likewise the early Dutch vs. Claudio bits where Dutch provided Claudio a massive canvas to work his strength spots on. 

The meat of the match, however, was Danielson working FIP against the unified trio. It was easily explained away by Danielson's jetlag and the Righteous and Archer's superior chemistry (even Danielson and Castagnoli have only teamed up ten times or so in the two years of the BCC existing). Plus, he got to absolutely dominate all three (including him getting up on the apron to take Archer out with a knee with lightning fast speed, really) right before he got dragged down by a Vincent cheapshot out of nowhere. It was a great face-in-peril performance, one that will probably get overlooked in time, but stood out hugely to me on a random Saturday night at the end of March. Danielson knew he had Claudio's strength and Shibata's suddenness and technique on the apron so it made sense for him to be in the role. He had to look strong despite the totally valid excuses because each week he's being judged against what Ospreay is up to. That said, he had to ensure that Archer, Vincent, and Dutch could keep dragging him down for their sake, the sake of the match, to justify this being a main event. And while Archer's instantly credible whenever he enters the room, the Righteous are, through no real fault of their own, deeply below their opponents in the hierarchy.  

That meant that while Danielson would be able to flip back over Dutch or get kicks in on Vincent in the corner, he'd make sure to give his opponents their due: Vincent with his ferocity, Dutch with his size, and Archer with the monstrous combination of both. Given that the crowd was hot all night and it built the pressure just right for Claudio to get the hot tag and come in like a freight train, and then, after everything broke down and we got the swing and various finishers, for Shibata to close things out almost simply by being himself. Overall, a difficult performance managed masterfully by Danielson, and we will continue to appreciate how lucky we are to get to see it week in and week out while we still can.

CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 3/29/24

Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Jon Moxley/Matt Sydal vs. Blue Panther/Mistico/Ultimo Guerrero/Volador Jr.

MD: Speaking of being fortunate, well, there's this, isn't there? Something that would have been impossible to imagine ten years ago or five years ago and that would have seemed very unlikely just one year ago even. For a lot of us, it's up there with the Sting retirement match as something that's just unbelievably special, so much so that it's hard to even put down words for. Arena Mexico is special. When you get a crowd that's really committed to what they're seeing, it's like nothing else in the world in 2024, or 2014, or 2004, or even maybe 1994 (Outside of Puerto Rico, I imagine). While there is ritual and expectation and that wonderful pro wrestling reality that exists with the particular style of CMLL's lucha, there's still a level of suspension of disbelief and immersion that almost undoes the chemical change that has affected (afflicted?) pro wrestling over the last few decades and has completely changed the incentives of wrestlers. 

That's the environment that the BCC and their erstwhile "captain" Matt Sydal (with his Peace, Love, and Pro Wrestling tron to counter the Violencia sin Limite BCC shirts) walked into. And while it didn't give me 100% of what I wanted, it gave me a lot of it. I wish that there was a longer feeling out process with initial pairings. I get why on a time-crunched PPV that was unlikely and it's total valid to skip that part in a trios or atomicos match in order to get straight to the heat. That's a totally valid way to build a match like this and maybe extra heat was what the doctor called for here given the stylistic issues and, frankly, inexperience of most of the BCC in maintaining the rhythm and flow of a lucha beatdown. I just wanted to see initial pairings, that's all. As for those shortcomings, Claudio was dropped in as natural as could be given his background, the ultimate base in so many ways, and I just can't imagine a world where Jon Moxley, if given two months of weekly Friday and Monday shows, wouldn't be an amazing traffic director; for his first try, he wasn't exactly Satanico in there keeping things moving though.

That meant you ended up with some weird, weird stuff where the more familiar you were with the trappings, the more it'd take you out of the moment. I'm talking about Blue Panther getting a full, momentum shift (mandate-of-heaven) comeback with the big Mistico leap into the ring, only for the BCC to take back over on Ultimo Guerrero (the best of all time in getting beaten up in a corner and still raising the roof to show the fans that he's the toughest star you've seen) to set up that lovely bit of ritual, his power bomb off the top and the real final third of exchanges and break-ups. As a match in a vacuum, it absolutely worked. It just threw me given that watching lucha in Arena Mexico is always a quarter about expectations being met and worshiping at the altar. 

There were a lot of great individual moments though: Panther celebrating Danielson at the start (and celebrating Danielson's celebration of himself, of course), Danielson embracing the yes chants, all the energy that led to things breaking down with that initial beatdown, Sydal being a spin kicking attack dog for the BCC, the giant swing on Volador, Claudio destroying Ultimo Guerrero after he raised the roof, and then the exchanges at the end, with Guerrero and Moxley scrapping and Mistico subverting the Yes chants like only he could, and Claudio basing for everyone, including allowing Panther to be absolutely fearless, down to just charging through the knee when Danielson hit him with it. So yes, overall, very special and they're even giving me what I didn't get here next week by running Danielson vs Panther back. Yes, I have a few nitpicks but absolutely no complaints for something we're all but blessed to have in the end.

AEW Rampage 3/29/24

Dustin Rhodes vs. The Butcher

MD: There are a lot of bad faith arguments about storytelling with AEW. I thought about engaging but we don't really engage with bad faith arguments around here. We focus on the text itself more often than not. Let's do that. Dustin's deferred his retirement which he was thinking might be this year. He feels good. He's ready to go. Butcher and he have history, so a feel good promo was interrupted on Wednesday. That history includes a Bunkhouse Tag back in 2020. They have familiarity. Usually a match on Rampage is either setting something up (including heating someone up), paying something off, or an attraction for a live crowd. Menard was in the main event here to do the last bit (and to set up a chain reaction ending with the Bucks standing triumphant if not tall), but there's probably something to Dustin, being an old WWF guy, popping a Quebec crowd. 

This was straightforward and leaned on that familiarity. That meant that they were able to make things that were less than smooth, like an early backslide attempt, feel like organic struggle and not miscommunication. It meant Butcher was ready for the first dropdown punch. It meant that he was able to capitalize and yank the arm over the top to take over. He had very straightforward, credible offense, mainly headbutts to the arm, but I'm never going to complain about headbutts to the arm. He was able to use it to cut Dustin off and take back over. Dustin, despite his size, was always so good at making himself smaller when he sold, and he did so here, pulling inwards with the arm to get the point across. He was able to tap into his bombs (like the code red) as hope spots, but Butcher was right there to take back over, playing to the crowd as he pressed his advantage. Down the stretch, Butcher had one last tricked out arm assault, a pulling fireman's carry right into a crossface which was something that would have played just as well in 1960s France, but Dustin was able to pay off the kneeling punch, hit his short power slam that the commentators weren't sure he could hit, the Cross Rhodes that he needed two tries on, and then the final reckoning for the win. We won't know for a couple of weeks if this was to heat Dustin up for something or just was an attraction for the crowd, but every chance to see Dustin work from underneath and get a crowd behind him is worthwhile and this crowd was lucky to experience it at least one more time.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 3/11 - 3/17

AEW Dynamite 3/13/24

Darby Allin vs. Jay White

MD: Obviously now, a few days after the match we're well aware of the injury that happened very early when Darby hit a dive and hurt his foot. Definitely a strange occurence considering that there was a post match ankle injury angle to write him off. I'm all for guys being written off but it was maybe a little weird considering he was climbing Everest. It should give White plenty of heat doing a "I Broke Darby's Foot" or, alternatively "I Shattered Darby's Dreams" deal. Given the weighty promo Darby made they've been walking a fine line where they admit that it was on the dive but also point out the post match chair shattering. This is rare ground; it's not every day someone gets hurt in the same place that they were supposed to get hurt to be written off screen and put heat on the heels, while also substituting the reason why they were written off for the actual injury. And it's not every day that the reason they were originally written off is due to climbing a dangerous mountain. Wrestling is at its most serene when it's at its most honestly bizarre sometimes, I guess?

Originally, I was going to write about consequence, focusing on the injured/lacerated back and how great a job they did making what happened to Darby against the Bucks resonate. That was present right from the get go. Darby, of course, has a history with headlock takeovers, but the one that White hit him with at the start was made to seem particularly devastating. This is a good thing. If wrestling is trying to create a suspension of disbelief over time, then having consequences last after one match and into the other is not just something to aim and strive for, but also actively helpful in situations like this where you have people of similar hierarchy and want to realistically put one over the other while still protecting the loser. It was presented as valiant (and crazy) that Darby was out there at all. He was bandaged. Every slam or bump or crash into the corner or prone press to the mat for a pin attempt was presented as painful. We'd seen the blood. We see the bandages. We could imagine the pain. Wrestling getting us to imagine pain is a great way to help us to suspend disbelief and more thoroughly immerse ourselves in what we're watching.

What's astounding here is how thoroughly they leaned into it even after the foot injury. Immediately thereafter, Darby hobbled across the ring to hit the tope. He followed it up by eating the half and half into the chair. I think back to Danielson/Okada one and how they adapted with the injury. Here, they didn't, and that felt like the right move since they were still selling the weight of a spot-of-the-year type crash through glass. The overarching story was that Darby was already a step slow. It made sense that as the match went on, he might be two steps slow. One injury creates the possibility of another. Vulnerability begets vulnerability. This is all basic pro wrestling storytelling; it can be done more or less gracefully, but early work on one body part so often opens things up to shift to what the wrestler really wants to work on. It's all a matter of whether it is coherent and compelling. This wasn't quite that as White never targeted the foot/ankle, but after comeback attempts and cutoffs and multiple times dodging the Blade Runner, Darby took too long to hit the coffin drop and then missed entirely when he tried to course correct once White rolled to the apron. That was basically the finish, as Darby valiantly beat the count only to get hit by the Blade Runner. I don't necessarily know if I have a unified thesis here other than the notion that Darby's one of the best in the world at portraying that most important element of pro wrestling, consequence, and here it was multiplied multifold considering the bump through the glass preceding the match, the weight of Everest over their heads, the legitimate injury early on, and the injury angle post match. In that regard, it was an unquestionable counterbalance to...

Eddie Kingston/PENTA/PAC vs. Young Bucks/Kazuchika Okada

MD: Hey, did you guys see the PENTA vs. Action Andretti match from Rampage a week or two ago? It was like there was a metal plate in Andretti's head and a giant magnet in PENTA's boot. He just kept zooming headlong into superkicks. It was the funniest match I've seen in a while. It's amazing when you think about it, that someone trained their body to be strong and fast and supple enough to twist and fly and contort all to the end of crashing into someone else's foot seven times in one match. Pro wrestling is the wackiest thing, really.

AEW Collision 3/16/24

Bryan Danielson vs. Katsuyori Shibata

MD: The biggest red flag in this match is the strike exchange. It's at the end and we're at the beginning, so let's leave it ahead of us for now. There's a sort of comforting, lazy casualness to putting these dream matches on Saturday nights on free TV. They're all X amount of years after they should be (even, arguably, the Hechicero match! We were watching him fight Black Terry in 2014!). The stakes are low. Ultimately, there's a level of pride, the fear that this won't be enough, the worry of injury. On the other side of the scale is perspective; we understand that it's a near-miracle that we're getting these matches at all. And they continue to be interspersed in Danielson's 2024 journey, one where he is finding peace with himself and the path before him.

This match could never give us everything we hoped for. By its very nature, it made us hope for too much. What it did give us, however, was wonderful parallels and, truthfully, so, so much of what we were looking for. It certainly gave us what we needed and only a little that we likely didn't. Considering we were dreading shoot headbutts between the two, the match ended up not just a miracle and a joy but also an absolute relief.

They started out with a feeling out process and some matwork that was tight and gritty and based around opportunities and openings while still feeling tricked out. It felt like it was bordering on shoot style at times, not quite UWF but more UWF in 86 NJPW with that firm pro wrestling patina. Everything felt earned and it was all interesting. They played into the parallels (first on commentary mentioning the head injuries and then in the match itself) with both wrestlers getting bow and arrows.Danielson went to strikes first but that just let Shibata play stoic in the corner. More often than not, it's Danielson going into that well, not his opponent, so this let him play up against a different sort of paragon. Danielson realized he wasn't going to win in a standup at this stage of the match and went to the leg. That opened up the arm and other holds, including him stomping on the elbow. Shibata was able to get him out and hit a PK on the apron though, sending things to the break.

During the break, Shibata pressed the advantage on the floor, but Danielson trapped him in a chair and hit him with a running dropkick. He wasn't able to press it back in the ring, because Shibata, trapped in the corner, turned it around and started throwing these killer pokey Tenryu-esque punches. In his control, he was able to dropkick Danielson in the corner and step on his elbow. Parallels abound.

They went into a false finishing stretch there. Shibata wins matches with the sleeper into the PK and he tried the sleeper here. Danielson fought out and they traded ankle locks, with Danielson turning it into his ankle-hooked German, followed by a Shibata STO. This really felt like a finishing stretch, with both wrestlers down, Shibata recovering for the death valley driver, and Danielson reversing the ripcord forearm attempt into the Busaiku Knee and the LeBell Lock.

It doesn't work though. You see false finishes, but you rarely see a false finishing stretch that feels so fully formed. AEW house style often has a shine/heat/a finisher teased right before they go to the commercial break, but this went further than that. In doing so, it made the strike exchange that was to come more palatable to me. Yes, they'd ultimately be asking to get hit, but it was after they brought the match to a logical conclusion and it simply wouldn't end. Yes, I say this fully understanding why strike exchanges like this happen, the cultural significance, how they played out in the 2010s. I still don't love them. I get that fans want them. I get that they're expected. Later in the show, during the Keith/O'Riley and Claudio/Archer matches, they were even more egregious because this one felt like it was a special moment and it ended up being not even a once-in-the-night (or twice-in-the-night moment; guys were asking their opponent to hit them all night!).

But I won't punish this match for what came later. Here, at least, it did feel special, with Shibata sitting cross-legged first, with the two trading boots after he rolled to his feet, with Danielson dropping down and showing that they were equals, with both cross-legged and firing away. There is no rule of wrestling so universal that there isn't some situation where it makes sense to break it. For strike exchanges where people just ask for it, this was probably it. Danielson won it (when he couldn't earlier) and to me, it was because he had already hit the knee once. That's when they went into the real finish, with Danielson failing on his second knee, Shibata locking the Octopus, and the two going into roll ups. Maybe it was my own expectations. With these two, I was expecting that extra level of excess and we only got the normal level of it, placed at the right point in the right match to make it resonate. If they had worked the whole match that way, it would have frustrated me, but a couple of minutes of the ultimate parallel, the willing strike exchange, in a match built upon the notion of two so equally matched mirror-image wrestlers, well, what can I say? It worked for me.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/25 - 10/1 Part 2

AEW WrestleDream 10/1/23

MD: Since there's so much to cover, I'm only going to do a full write-up if I have a lot to add. I don't have a lot to say about Kingston vs Shibata, for instance, just a few sentences. The announcers covered it well at the start, noting it was sort of a clash between the UWF-inspired NJPW style and the King's Road AJPW style, and at the end where they pointed out that Kingston had used up his theoretical rope breaks to protect the Pure Champion in his loss. I thought the image of Shibata rising up in the corner as Eddie was beating him down was absolutely iconic and shouldn't be lost. Likewise, Shibata goading Eddie with kicks worked really well. They kept the pop-ups to a minimum, a brief flash in the overall match. The finish effectively got over the power bomb as Eddie's finish moving forward and not just a one time thing.

While there was a sense of anticipation of the post-match hanging over the main, it was still a definite hit. A 2/3 falls match, much like a Texas Death Match, allows for different finishes than usual. The turtleneck bit was brilliant but might have felt like robbing the fans in a different match; using a countout after the stairs shot really put it over as something even more gruesome than normal but would have been impossible in a different main event. Christian having trouble getting him over for that spot added instead of detracted because it made it seem less cooperative, like less of a "spot" and more of a murder. That's something with Christian's offense in general. It was a lot of him just leaning on Darby instead of carefully placing move (or counter) after move (or counter). The best part of the post-match was Christian's overall demeanor. He wasn't horrified or excited to see Copeland show up. He was begrudgingly accepting that "this guy" was here again and that even in the best case, he'd have to share the spotlight. I don't think anyone else in wrestling would have played it quite like that.

Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr.

MD: Let's start at the end. Post-match, Sabre refuses the handshake and Danielson calls Aubrey Edwards back into the ring. She's a hometown hero, much like Danielson, and there's a special connection between them, as there's footage of Aubrey crying during Danielson's retirement speech. He's on record on saying that he wasn't even sure what he was thinking in bringing her back, that it just felt right because the referee is such an important part of the match. That's the cool thing about art though, about everything we do in writing about it. Intent matters, but not nearly as much as effect. After a grinding, focused, measured technical match, one so good and credible that it was the spot in the show that they chose to cut to a MMA star afterwards, Danielson chose to give Aubrey her flowers. What that evoked to me was the theater, that curtain call where the actors take their bow and then clap towards the stage crew, light operators, the pit band. Danielson chose this moment, after this match, to do something which pulled the "curtain" down in as directly figurative a way as I can imagine. It wouldn't have worked after almost any other match. It would have seemed winking and cutesy and metatextual and pretentious, no matter the intent. Here, it felt appropriate, as if we'd reached a transcendent moment of wrestling as a performance art, and just this one time, we were allowed to acknowledge it.

I've been through this twice now, once just experiencing it, once trying to make sense of it. Because of that second pass, I can tell you that it was the fourth exchange of the match where they had all of the quick ins and outs and clever reversals and escapes; that's where Sabre knocked down Danielson's structural arm to disrupt the Indian Deathlock, for instance. That entire exchange was amazing, everything you'd want from a war of technical pro wrestlers. Narratively, however, if you want a skeleton key to the effect of the match (leaving intent aside again), Moxley's commentary provided it early on. Danielson is a reactive wrestler. That's the key to the match.

There were two big transitions, or more appropriately, act breaks. The first was Sabre goading Danielson into using his steel-reinforced right arm for a strike only to cleverly block it and damage it heavily. That would be Sabre's "end" throughout the rest of the match. He wanted to hurt the arm enough that he could get a submission with it. Even when he hit some other move, it was all to create an opportunity to go back to the arm. The second was Danielson starting on the leg, first in the corner with kicks and then with the dragon screws, most especially that stomach-turning one where everything seemed jammed in all the wrong directions. That, however, was not an "end", but instead a "means," something Danielson could use as a point of leverage to open Sabre up for the offense that he really wanted to hit, to create opportunities, to help facilitate escapes when his arm was in danger.  

On paper, Sabre's strategy should have been the one to win the day. In fact, you could make the case (and Danielson, Nigel, and Sabre all made it in one form or the other) that Sabre may have come out of this looking like the better technical wrestler. Just not like the better overall wrestler. He had one singular goal in the arm whereas Danielson, as per his personality and character, was adaptable, flexible, able to ride with the currents of violence and pain instead of trying to bend them to his will. And isn't that what a technical wrestler does? Technical wrestling is about control, about manipulating the human body in ways it shouldn't bend, about playing chess three steps ahead, about constraining possibilities so that there is only one inevitable future, the one you define. Danielson is, in many ways, the antithesis of that, which is why, when it seemed like Sabre had finally gotten him, Danielson, not ready for it so much as able to react to it due to his openness of mind, turned it right around into the RegalPlex, setting Sabre up for the Knees.

Danielson's 2023 is full of matches that play out not quite like you'd expect or anticipate. Sometimes it's due to injury. Sometimes it's simply due to unforeseen circumstances placing him into a match not his making. Here, in this battle of the greatest technical wrestlers, he ceded the competition entirely, instead serving as the ultimate steel for the very best to prove himself against. It just shows that to best appreciate Danielson, sometimes we have to take a page out of his book and be reactive and adaptive ourselves. 

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Shibata, Okada, Brain Trauma

7. Katsuyori Shibata v. Kazuchika Okada NJPW 4/9

ER: Yes, this is the infamous likely/hopefully last match of Shibata's career, as he's a super tough man who coconut clonks other tough men in the head as hard as possible, and because of that almost became a vegetable. But overall I thought it was his greatest career performance, at times masterful, and we also got the best Okada performance I've seen. Were there still problems? Yes, but the peaks far outweighed and made for some pretty great moments. Shibata works this like he's the Terminator, and Okada makes for a game Sarah Connor. Every strike Okada would throw at him, Shibata would emotionlessly brush it off as Okada's eyes would widen in disbelief. We start with some fun and engaging matwork, with Shibata almost always a step ahead but not wanting to finish, worked as if he just wanted Okada to realize how he could snap him if he wanted to. Shibata looks like he's hardly breathing and Okada looks like he's barely hanging on, Shibata easily maneuvering into chokes and an armbar, and later working over Okada's knee. I've been a consistent critic of Okada's convenient selling and poor placement of damaging moves, but I thought his selling was good here. There were still moments where he had to get his shit in, but even on his omnipresent dropkicks it's not like he would be hopping up afterwards, usually he would act like he immediately regretted doing a dropkick, and as the match wore on he wasn't able to throw out moves at full strength, allowing Shibata to stay standing through a couple of rainmakers lariats. I wish he hadn't done a pop up dropkick after the devastating sleeper suplex spot. I'm so over the pop up fighting spirit, and that suplex was such a colossal spot, Shibata choking the life out of him and then tossing his body away like trash. It should have been a bigger moment.

Shibata's attitude carried the bulk of this match. He wasn't just going along and having an Okada match, his smug attitude made all rote strike exchanges feel different, getting inside Okada's head by showing him how much more effective his strikes were. I have no clue how Okada's face and neck weren't bruised and swollen by the end. Shibata was great throwing out these condescending punts, not going for the kill, but swatting at Okada's spine, smacking him in the back of the head with a boot, just picking away at him in painfully annoying fashion. The headbutt is what it is. It's no grosser than any clonking headbutt you've seen Ikeda or Kikuchi throw, but it is admittedly troubling knowing what we know happened to Shibata post match. If you found out several tape submitters died of testicular cancer from ball shots, you probably would have laughed a little less at those episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos. The headbutt is gross, made somewhat better by Shibata finishing the final 5 minutes of the match, locking on sick octopus holds on Okada, but never able to put him away. I do think they had Okada take a bit too much damage, as it didn't seem like Shibata took enough to go down for the count (if we only knew how badly damaged his body was...), but I liked how Okada was able to convey his fading strength through his weakening rainmakers, and I think this is the best conceived version of a "main event New Japan style" match that I have seen. Shame about the effects of that style, though.

PAS: I was actively irritated at Eric for making me watch this, I have no desire to watch New Japan main event wrestling, and as someone who played high school football, college rugby and boxed in the golden gloves I am a little squeamish about brain injury (I am sure my brain scan looks like a bunch of old hot dog buns). Still I enjoyed this and Shibata sure went out on a hell of performance. Really dominant Shibata match which forced Okada to work from the bottom, which is where someone of his questionable offense belongs. Shibata also works better as a merciless killer, then as a guy doing 50/50 forearm exchanges. I loved Shibata tooling him on the mat, breaking out shootstyle submissions, and even British stuff from his Progress tours. This forces Okada to be the first guy to throw hands, and man does Okada get tooled. I loved the part where Shibata throws thirty or so short punches right to the jaw, and the kicks to the brain stem were grotesque. That headbutt was actually a great bit of wrestling drama, although man it is hard to watch with hindsight. I did like how Okada stepped it up with his shots, his forearms looked mostly good and that final rainmaker is the first time I have actually liked that move. I hated the no sell, and Okada's elbow drop is more CM Punk then Macho Man, but this was still about as much as I am going to like a 2017 Okada match.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY LIst: Shibata v. RIddle

2. Katsuyori Shibata v. Matt Riddle RPW 1/21/17

PAS: I enjoyed this a fair amount, although Shibata dream matches are not my kind of wrestling. You can tell that Riddle is really jazzed to work Shibata and his enthusiasm is what I liked the best about this. They had some pretty nifty arm bar based matwork, it wasn't Tamura but it was pretty good. After the matwork they got down to business and started cracking each other. Riddle had great facial selling, everytime he got smacked has this look on his face like "can you believe how hard this motherfucker is throwing? Let's go" This had some of the no-selling I can't stand in Shibata matches, and sometimes Riddle falls into the bad habits of his opponents, but overall this was good stuff.

ER: The dumb parts of this were dumb, the good parts of this were really good. The stupid german suplex tradeoffs come off really eyeroll-y to me at this point, they never seem organic or part of the actual match. I would say that we're all tired of turn-based chop and elbow exchanges, but the crowd began flipping out when Shibata started requesting to be chopped, so the formula works for the paying audience. I thought all that stuff was pretty lame, and minimized the actual cool stuff they were doing, and thankfully there was still a lot of cool stuff. All of the mat work is just insanely fast and makes me constantly expect some kind of tear. When I played baseball I remember this guy Nick, an athletic shortstop on my team, dove back into 3rd on a pickoff and his patella had completely twisted to the inner part of his knee. It was horrifying. Everything these guys do seems far more likely to end in a dislocated kneecap. All the armbar rollthroughs are fast but hypnotic, and while all of it is smooth you can very easily see something popping in an instant. I loved when they were each rolling out of each other's wrist control and Shibata rolled through into almost a grounded cartwheel spin kick to land in control. It's a bummer that I thought the suplex trading and planned strike exchanges took away from better, similar moments. Riddle had all these cool tough Karelin lifts that didn't seem nearly as impressive when both guys are bouncing off their heads and popping up to bounce the other guy off their head. And the finish was masterful, like the best Futen/Batt, with Shibata catching Riddle with a hard slap that dropped him, before tapping him In a vacuum the finish was perfection. But it came off lesser than it should have since I just watched these two voluntarily stand (kneel) and trade harder shots moments before. Sure we can make the argument of expected shots not hurting as much as surprise shots, but that would be ignoring that Shibata has a habit of not ending matches on his best strike. Still, the good in this was really good.

2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURAT MATT RIDDLE 

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Ishii v. Shibata

75. Tomohiro Ishii v. Katsuyori Shibata NJPW 2/11/16

ER: I don't typically go out for Ishii stuff, but this one kind of ended up entrancing me. It was this weirdly worked, cooperative match, professional match...but with both guys agreeing to do every "worked" move as hard as they possibly could. So the match started almost immediately with the two just standing in front of each other, taking turns elbowing each other. It's stupid at first, but then it keeps going, and it keeps going, and it seems stuck on an endless loop of shots that keep getting harder and more ill-intentioned. Ishii is taking shots to the throat, Shibata is taking shots in the neck and trap. The shots look crippling. And they keep happening. And the whole match is essentially move trading, and dick swinging...and it kind of takes you over. It's like Bad Lieutenant: Harvey Keitel's cop starts the movie at rock bottom. And new, rockier rock bottoms keep presenting themselves. This match starts with men hitting each other as hard as they can, and moves into clotheslining each other as hard as possible, kicking each other as hard as possible. The shots to the neck and throat keep happening, every Ishii clothesline looks like it should cave in Shibata's chest. Even the missed moves missed with meanness. A Shibata soccer kick, a low cutting Ishii lariat, these moves are dodged and ducked, but if they somehow weren't they would have been devastating. So the whole match has this vibe of one-upsmanship and "I'm tougher than you", except it's never unprofessional. It's an almost surreal vibe, and I dug it. Maybe the first "Ishii stiff fest" I've enjoyed.

PAS: I though the first part of this match was pretty terrible. Both guys hitting each other and making goofy faces, the worst of this kind of lame-o New Japan dick swinging. Lots of the shots weren't even that nasty, some of the shots to the throat were, but the elbows weren't that nasty, and the chops weren't Tenryu or Wahoo level or anything. The spot where each guy invites the other dude to suplex him was some dump ass Chikara shit, I almost excpected Ishii to hypnotize Shibabta or throw an invisible grenade. The second part of the match was an actually wrestling match with selling and transitions and everything and was pretty good. I liked Shibata going for the triangle choke and how he kept adjusting it, and the Ishii lariats were super nasty and were actually sold. I also loved the headbutts, it got a little Futenish near the end which I am into. I do think the PK is a weak finisher especially compared to some of the stuff which didn't finish the match from both guys. Liked the end enough to stick this on the bottom of the list, but it isn't going any higher.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Hero v. Shibata

55. Chris Hero v. Katsuyori Shibata RPW 11/11

PAS: In many ways this reminded me of the Samoa Joe v. Kenta Kobashi match, this absolutely delivered what the crowd wanted to see. They wanted to watch a big indy star work a signature New Japan Shibata match and that was what they got. I can understand why someone might have this as their MOTY, even though it isn't really my type of thing. Hero added some very fun flourishes to this, he was kind of a shitstirrer, talking trash, slapping Shibata in the face, doing a douchy kip up. When it came time to hit hard, Hero can do that as well as anyone, and they pounded each other, there was an especially great knee counter when he looked like he broke Shibata's ribs. I also really liked the way Shibata kept grabbing the sleeper hold, he was tenacious, got into it in a bunch of fun ways, and you really bought it as a finish. Still this had a bunch of elbow..stare..elbow spots, which really can take me out of a match, it is a stylistic thing I just hate. I imagine I will like this more then any New Japan match this year (unless Liger works a rookie or something) but I can't see it super high on my overall list.

ER: Not my favorite Hero match of the year, but Hero is on such a roll this year that he's spinning gold everywhere. Shibata is game and they work a nice condensed version of a modern Hero epic. What's ironic is I've complained about Hero matches going too long, therefore making his opponents seem too strong; and here, we get a 15 minute match and I didn't think Shibata took ENOUGH abuse. Will I ever be pleased? I line up pretty well with Phil on this one, could have done without the New Japan-y elements, loved the moments that felt more like Hero vs. an indy guy. Shibata is a great modern kicker, and Hero is a guy who will lean into kicks, and while the fans were dying to get behind Hero he kept doing all these great little dickhead cutoff spots, the best being a straight punch to the jaw to an unsuspecting Shibata. Every American watching knew Hero was going to work heel right when he came out in the Duke U gear, but I'm not sure how well that specific brand of white privilege translates over the pond. I would have liked to see some selling from Shibata as he mostly worked that chug chug chug NJPW style of "stand up and do your shit", but Hero made sure he stayed down a couple of times with some absolutely beastly knees that I don't recall seeing from him. Both looked like they should have permanently wrecked Shibata, so he's obviously a real man for taking them, but man they looked like finishers; the rolling knee (when he usually does a pump kick) as Shibata ducked in was just so nasty looking. Shibata not winning the strike game and going for sleeper chokes was a great plan, and loved how that's where we ended, with Hero going down to the sleeper through gritted teeth, long enough for the PK to do him in.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Kazushi Sakuraba v. Katsuyori Shibata NJPW 7/5

ER: Awesome little fight, my favorite Saku pro wrestling match. Not only was Sak unrelenting, but found nice ways to incorporate his history and story into a jam packed 12 minutes. I loved him throwing out the double stomp the second Shibata ends up on his back, and from there we get tons of knees, great chokes, and ultimately a man who is older than his 46 years, getting outlasted by a younger, fresher opponent. Old man dying on his sword is maybe my favorite match story in pro wrestling, and Sak played it to a T here. He took some ungodly punishment from Shibata, who blasted him with all kinds of kicks. Those corner dropkicks to a slumped Sak were vicious. But Sakuraba would fight back, and him finagling his way into a choke was epic, with Shibata making a bunch of really good dead eye gasps while going out. Sakuraba was great at using his more dated skillset, still breaking out some cool throws and going for older MMA subs, and Shibata just came strong with strikes. The match ended when it should have, with a devastating kick, followed by a respectful bow to a mentor and friend after his win.

PAS: This was really, really good. Sakuraba brings such a legacy into a pro-wrestling match, and is great at telling the story of his life with wrestling as the medium. I loved how he would mix in stuff from Pride into a Shibata style potato fest, Sakuraba isn't going to stand in from of Shibata anymore then he would stand in front of Wanderlei Silva, so when Shibata starts to crack him, he moves right into a choke or a thai clinch or anything besides an exchange. Sakuraba's chokes were so cool, I loved the choke with the ankles and how he would scramble on Shibata's back counter ever attempt to throw him off. I didn't love the finish I have seen the kind of soccer kicks it takes to finish Sakuraba and that shot was no Ricardo Arona.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

15. Tomoaki Honma v. Katsuyori Shibata NJPW 8/3

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

PAS: Yeah this was really fun, it is about the best possible version of a New Japan forearm exchange match. Both guys have established characters and hierarchies, so it isn't just two even guys 50/50ing it, it is a sprint so it doesn't out stay it's welcome, there is selling, it is just two guys standing there and making faces and both guys lay it in which distinguishes it from what ever Okada and Tanahashi are trying to do. Homna is awesome here, although he does the same kind of thing in every match which can wear a bit thin, still this is about the best Homna formula match I have seen. Loved his in ring tope to take control, and him trying to go all out for big moves and failing. Meanwhile Shibata was really good as the overdog, kicking his ass convincingly, and still portraying those moments of doubt and fear.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 17 Review

1. Tomoaki Honma & Yuji Nagata vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto (6/21/14)

Awesome match, with a truly great Honma performance. This goes 11 minutes and is just wonderful. Honma has been having a quietly great post-deathmatch career. It's kind of surprising how little he gets mentioned because he really gets it. Here he folds a bunch of stories, character, selling and moments into 11 tidy minutes, and it's great. The stuff with he and Shibata is awesome with them stiffing the shit out of each other as they clearly try and knock each other's jaws out of alignment. Both men smack each other with total blinders on, really focused on just hitting the other really hard in the face. There's a great early moment when Honma and Nagata corner Shibata and Nagata is still hitting him in a pro wrestling kind of way, while Honma is clearly sneaking in full punches to Shibata's face, not fucking around with meager forearms. Shibata and Honma have several nice moments in this, one where Shibata punches Honma in the face as Honma just does a slow desperate collapse, and another where Shibata tries choking Honma with his boot and a test of wills begins, with Honma fighting that fucking boot and Shibata wanting nothing more than to dickishly grind that boot into Honma's chest and throat. Honma later hits a neat falling headbutt on him, and then splats temple first off a top rope attempt. Damn that looked bad. I normally do not have much use for Nagata and Goto (and Nagata's chipmunk cheek Undertaker eyeball armbar is still one of the out-and-out dumbest things in pro wrestling history), but Goto joins in the Honma shit kicking, peaking with a nasty spin kick in the corner, while Nagata contributes by hitting a nasty yakuza kick on Shibata over the guardrail. Honma gets an awesome near fall after reversing a Goto brainbuster into a small package, but eventually he is no match for Goto's goofy ass "American indy inverted DVD dropped onto his own knee" finisher. Still, awesome shit, and Honma fucking rules. Get on the bus.

PAS:Honma was awesome in this, I have really liked his new age Kikuchi act, and while there are no Jumbos and Fuchi's around to kill him, he is still really fun. Shibata is fine as a poor mans Usuda, and he lands some really killer shots. I loved the spot where Shibata twisted his wrists apart and landed a killer right hook. Goto and Nagata were very much guys in this match, but Shibata v. Honma is well worth the admission price.

2. Bad Luck Fale vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (6/21/14)

Well this was also surprisingly good. I mean, I'm as big a Nakamura fan as anybody, but Fale is a guy who doesn't ever look good during Bullet Club interference so I wasn't too excited about him in a long singles. But Nakamura was a generous and giving partner here, bumped big all over for Fale, and this worked because of that. Jeez Nakamura even did a stretcher job for him! Which is crazy. We get a pre-match sit down interview with Fale, which is one of the drier things you will ever hear. This guy showed nothing whatsoever. His tone sounded like Jimmy Snuka giving somber, remorseful testimony during his murder trial...but with better English. But damn Nakamura did a good job at wringing some interest out of the match himself. All his knees looked great, he throws my favorite knees to the stomach in wrestling. He flung himself into the Grenade, which is move that doesn't always look very good. Nakamura busts ass to make this work, and it totally did. Leans into the avalanche, gets knocked inside out on lariats, this was way better than it should have been.

After the match Karl Anderson and AJ Styles cut a pair of horrendous promos. They don't know any Japanese so just address the crowd really slowly, the way Americans think if they just talk slow and annunciate then foreigners will understand them, as if they think they were speaking to 2,000 retarded people. Both guys are microphone poison.

**NOTE: The Honma tag was awesome so we added it to our 2014 MOTY List. Link is below.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

15. Tomoaki Honma v. Katsuyori Shibata NJPW 8/3

PAS: Really awesome balls to the wall sprint. Probably the best short Puro slugfest since Ikeda v. Ono. Honma is a dude I dug back in the BJPW Yamakawa days, and is great in NJPW as a Kikuchish underdog who absorbs a whomping and keeps going. Shibabta is a bit dry, but he works great as an asskicker who is looking to put this little punk down. I loved him cornering Honma in the corner and just pounding him with one-two elbows, meanwhile Honma was great at finding moments to get in his own shots, his Chico Che style in ring tope was fucking awesome, as was his running clothesline. Finish was great as Honma was starting to elbow out of the fireman's carry, before Shibata just mushed him with a back fist and then Go-To-Sleeped his head off. Really enjoyed this, this kind of thing might get me back into Puro

ER: What a bizarre and mostly unheralded career Honma has had. Everybody first heard of him 15 (!) years ago when he was the wild young stupid death match worker, and then he basically spent all of the 2000s doing opening match jobber duty in AJPW and having his matches either clipped down or edited off entirely from AJ shows. Now he's kind of weathered that and somehow come out the other side as a never say die veteran who has to be nearing 40 and takes mean beatings before eventually going down. I really dug him here, with a cool deadlift brainbuster and that neat torpedo headbutt Phil mentioned (I loved when Spike Dudley did it and Chico Che's is even better, wonder why more guys don't do it). Shibata is more of a cold mechanical ruthless killer, and his elbows are some of the nastiest things I've seen. Give Honma tons of credit for hanging in with those, but damn did those look rough. Shibata was throwing them one after another right to Honma's neck. I get a crick in my neck if I hold my phone to one side of my head too long. I loved all of Honma's little comebacks, with a nice corner charge clothesline, the torpedo, catching Shibata's leg on a kick. Shibata's attacks were incessant so Honma had to make his moments, and finally Shibata squashes this little pesky gnat with a G2S followed by a punt for good measure.


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