Matches from NJPW G1 Climax 7/6/19

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

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

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

Lance Archer vs. Will Ospreay

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

Bad Luck Fale vs. EVIL

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

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA

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

KENTA vs. Kota Ibushi

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

Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

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

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

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

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

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

Juice Robinson/David Finlay vs. Gedo/Hirooki Goto

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

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

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

Marty Scurll/Cody vs. Tanga Loa/Tama Tonga

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

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

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

Jushin Liger vs. Will Ospreay

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

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

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

Jay White vs. Hangman Page

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

The Young Bucks vs. The Golden Lovers

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

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


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

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Finale

1. Gran Metalik v. Zack Sabre Jr.

ER: This one didn't really move me, but I thought it was a fun match with plenty of nice spots. They worked a really impressive fast pace almost the entire match and had a fun clash of styles. Sabre gets a lot of hate and it's odd to suddenly find myself as an almost Sabre defender. What's odd about it is my opinions on him haven't changed over the last year, but the online consensus opinions on him seemingly have. So while my opinions have stayed static - he being a guy who does a lot of things I like, has been in several good matches, and is also capable of doing plenty of things I dislike - I've somehow shifted from liking him less than the line, to seemingly liking him more than the line. "His strikes look bad" is something I've heard a lot, but...he doesn't ever position himself as a striker. He throws strikes, many of them, and they're never meant to be sold as KO blows, they mainly seem to get thrown to disorientate his opponent to set them up for what he's actually good at, submissions. I wish they would have played up the tradition of submissions in UK and lucha libre, but I guess it was more important for Mauro to scream out names of the same few Japanese wrestlers he really liked. Just because Katsuyori Shibata also does a penalty kick, some tells me that no, Mauro, Sabre's kick was not "inspired by Katsuyori Shibata". I liked how Sabre would use Metalik's speed to kind of lure him into a cranky sub, using Metalik's own momentum off a springboard or other flying attack. Those seem to be his most effective, like catching Gulak in that armbar off a lariat, I liked him shifting his hips to turn or Metalik splash into a triangle, or leaping onto him to wrench in a sick octopus. Metalik is always very smooth, but did a couple things that surprised me, like when he tossed in a nice headbutt during otherwise lax strike exchange. I wasn't actually sure who was going to win and that certainly added to the fun of things, and this was the first time I liked Metalik's build to his finisher. In the other matches he always seemed to kick out of a devastating move, then merely stand up and do his driver. Here I didn't get that same feeling, and he also hit the driver much faster than in the other matches. There was no struggle to lift Sabre, just a quick lift and a drop. So I did not love the match, but there was plenty to like, and I felt they filled the time well.

PAS: I enjoyed parts of this, Metalik had some fun llave which nicely played off the British style of ZSJ, when they were exchanging holds it was pretty good, when they were exchanging shots it really wasn't. Metlalik had a couple of nice highspots although it is more graceful then violent. I second the enjoyment of the Metalik driver, it was by far the best it has been used.

2. Kota Ibushi vs. TJ Perkins

ER: I thought this was an exceptionally fun juniors match, and I'm sure if I thought long and hard about it I could find some kickouts or some selling lapses I didn't care for, but while watching it I was definitely synced up with the vibe of the crowd, and as this match went on the crowd was hot as hell. Hot crowds can do wonders for a match, and this crowd jumped me right in there with them. That moment when TJP kicked out of Ibushi's powerbomb, and a guy in a Bullet Club shirt was standing up to celebrate Ibushi's certain victory, and the camera caught him right in the middle of his STUNNED realization that TJP had kicked out? That shit is awesome. Being in the moment is becoming more and more of a lost joy, and it's infectious getting sucked into a moment. Both guys were very generous here, Ibushi tossed out some great kicks, and I liked how his aggression would lead to a couple of TJP's reversals. The moonsault that hit knees, and TJ's simple grab of the kneebar from that was satisfying. The nearfalls were good and the kickouts were exciting, and on this one I sadly *knew* TJP was winning it, and I could only imagine how exciting some of the nearfalls would have been had I not. But this match felt like the right match to have.

PAS: I enjoyed this a lot too, loved how TJP kept going after the leg and some of the snatches were really great looking, I totally freaked out over him turning the pele kick into a kneebar, such cool shit. Ibushi really laid in his kicks too, I especially loved him pummeling Perkins in the ropes, really felt vicious like something Hashimoto might do, rather then just a junior guy landing kicks that sound good as a spot. Still Ibushi had been built up as so indestructible in this tourney I never really bought any of TJP's near falls and the final finish didn't feel like enough. If Kendrick didn't bring him down with a burning hammer, how did a leg lock do it?

3. Noam Dar & Cedric Alexander vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa

ER: Really fun tag with a real colossal flop of an ending. Gargano and Ciampa are a really good team, both bring out some good things in the other. Noam Dar is still there because...well, nobody has any idea why Dar is there. But he's still digging around in his ears before the match, just like his last match. What is with that? He was doing it so much in the beginning of his match against Sabre that I was positive it would play into the match. But, no, Dar apparently just digs around in his ears a bunch with his fingers. I know I adjust my glasses as a nervous fidget, maybe Dar just jams fingers into his ear canal. Maybe he has an inner ear problem that messes with his balance, and can possibly explain why he looked so terrible in this match. But Gargano's kicks and Ciampa's knees were on point the whole match, and seeing a guy pinball between kicks and knees is a fun diversion from the more common superkick party. The spot with Gargano superkicking Cedric while he was on Ciampa's shoulders was sick, and they really got in a great groove during their car crash spot, one guy hitting a move seamlessly into him taking a move, and so on. And then Dar decides to do that stupid "head tucked against the turnbuckle" spot. Now, it's only a mildly stupid spot when it leads to the guy with his head stuck getting immediately superkicked. Every second beyond that initial tuck the stupidity of the spot increases exponentially. So of course Noam Dar was going to leave poor Ciampa out there to dry, and make him have to pretend to have his head stuck in a turnbuckle for an eternity. This was far worse than the legendary "Jeff, goddammit!" spot where Rico had to lose his balance for 30 seconds because a meth head was out of position. No, this is just Dar being horrible. He traps Ciampa's head, and then goes about his business in the rest of the match, leaving Ciampa just flailing and flopping in place, like he was about to be finished in Mortal Kombat. What a lousy place to be put in. Totally took the wind right out of the match. Maybe it was a comedy spot and I was out of the joke? They didn't do a whiff of comedy the rest of the match, so doing one in the final minute of the match would certainly be strange placement...

PAS: This match was based mainly around people being kicked, kneed and elbowed violently in the head, and that was a nifty twist on your normal workrate tag. Alexander opened up the fun by absolutely nuking Ciampa with a dropkick, and the whole match is mostly guys trying to dislocate each others jaws. It got a little repetitive, although lots of KO shots in a tag works better then lots of KO shots in a singles match (a big problem in Chris Hero matches) because guys can roll out and take a breather or tag someone else in. I agree with Eric about the head tuck spot, super dumb in concept, looked silly and really hurt the momentum of the match. Real problem with a lot of todays indy guys they feel like they need to horn in all of their comedy spots in every match, whether it works or not.

4. TJ Perkins vs. Gran Metalik

ER: Am I the only one who thinks Metalik looks like a mascot for Tecate? I can't be the only one. Is it just because I live in an area with a high hispanic population, and they all drink Tecate? No. Look at this can. That can is Gran Metalik in beer can form. Moving on! I thought this was a fun match that built nicely, but had small disconnects running throughout; spots that didn't hit flush, over cooperation on holds, little moments of the guys checking out of the corner of their eyes to see if the other was in position. And those kinds of things are going to happen. They just seemed more on display here than before. All of the opening mat stuff had those moments, the worst being TJ slapping Metalik's sides and Metalik just offering up his arms to complete a pendulum submission. But things did build nicely even if there was that disconnect. Both got to show off their apron ranas, and there was always that danger of Metalik slipping up and getting caught in the kneebar. This didn't have the drama of some of the other matches throughout. I didn't actually think of this before the tournament started, but there was FAR more drama involved in "I don't want to be eliminated" storylines than in "I want to win" storylines. Maybe it's because we love an underdog, and by the finals we don't have an underdog. Neither guy backdoored his way into the final match. So it didn't have that built in drama of the rest of the tournament matches, especially the 2nd and 3rd rounds. But things still build nicely in their own way, and I liked the finish with Metalik going for a giant top rope version of his finisher, that had been a killshot through the whole CWC, and it failing as he lost his balance, leading directly to TJ locking on his kneebar, than crossing the leg to definitively end things.

PAS: The main problem with the show for meis that they basically were left with four guys I didn't care about. It is a little like the NCAA tourney, in the early round you get all the fun Middle Tennessee State style schools with big upsets, and by the end it is just Duke v. Kentucky again. I also thought some of this felt a little off, Metalik jumped early on the basement dropkick, there were a couple of pillow soft kick and elbow exchanges, just a little more ragged then you would hope from a match between two normally smooth wrestlers. There was some individual stuff I liked, Metalik's dive looked cool, and I loved the final kneebar, but this was pretty forgettable for a final.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE CWC

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QUICK TO STICK MY FUTEN SWORD RIGHT IN YOUR NAVEL - FUTEN 4/24/05

PAS: Pretty cool to wake up and see some FUTEN show up on the internet. The main event I have seen before, but I don't remember seeing the undercard, and we get a Hiroyuki Ito sighting which is always exciting.

ER: ^^^ Phil wrote that a couple of years ago, before starting to review this FUTEN show. Up until that point all that existed of this show was the glorious main event. Then one day many years later the entire show popped up for our viewing pleasure. Phil started the review, and here we are finishing it.

Katsumi Usuda vs. Kota Ibushi

PAS: Really fun Usuda performance, who worked this like a poor man's Fujiwara. Working the young kid through some mat exchanges, milking drama off near KO's and slipping in a flash submission when it looked like all was lost. Usuda doesn't have Fujiwara's charisma (really who does) but he has that match structure down. Usuda is really great at pace changes, speeding up the match and slowing it down. There is a great part here where they are sort of sparring looking for openings and Usuda catches Ibushi with a solid shot to the chops, the match immediately kicks up a gear with Ibushi reeling and throwing shots desperately, while Usuda swarms to get the KO, when it doesn't come, the match slows down a bit again.

ER: I really liked Ibushi here. You know going in that Usuda is going to be money, but I don't know how decade+ old Ibushi was, and here he was really good. Was he good because he was standing opposite a man willing to take nasty kicks to painful areas? That was some of it, but this wasn't Usuda helping a blind man cross the street. Usuda clearly paced things but Ibushi was awesomely along for the ride. His kick flurries were manic and brutal, and the way he mixed up strikes to keep Usuda off balance was glorious. At one point he's lacing in with kicks to the body and chest, throwing slaps to the face, and Usuda is taking all sorts of punishment and the moment he starts to figure out some timing and advance, and Ibushi just surprises him with a front kick to the gut. I loved all of Usuda's flash subs (catching the arm into a Fujiwara was great) and I loved Ibushi sending Usuda on the run with kicks. One great moment where Usuda is on the ropes trying to shield himself and Ibushi just rushes for the attack. He gets paid back later with Usuda taking him out with nasty low leg kicks (watch how great Ibushi's sell is on his wobble legs). Awesome match.

Takeshi Ono vs. Hiroyuki Kotsubo

PAS: Big waste of an Ono match. He is such an incredible wrestler and shows up so rarely on video that it is a bummer to see him saddled with such a load in such a short match. Only about 4 minutes and some awful looking offense from Kotsubo, that was one of the worst clotheslines I have ever seen. Ono sells for a sec and then decides to just punch this clown out. His finishing flurry was cool, but only a taste of what he can do.

ER: This was weird but I think could have been good with some time. Ono is a good enough worker that he can drag a good match out of someone like Kotsubo if given enough time to tell some kind of story. This wasn't enough time to tell any kind of story, so what we were left with was just a short match and an awkward opponent. Kotsubo did have SOME skill, just limited. Ono is a guy who can work around limited skill. He didn't really get the chance to do that here. Kotsubo is clearly some kind of amateur wrestler, as his opening takedown and single leg floatover looked really good. But he tried to do more than that and that's when things looked uglier. For a wrestler he didn't have a very good suplex, so when he german'd Ono it was supposed to be one of those match turning point suplexes where Ono does a flip over bump and sells it as a potential KO blow, except the suplex basically looks like a rolling cradle and Ono sells it as the KO anyway. Yeesh. Then Ono gets up and kicks the shit out of him like we all wanted to begin with. Yep. We all realized "man if this was gonna only go 4 minutes, then this should have just been Ono giving this dude spinning backfists for 4 minutes."

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Kyosuke Sasaki & Hajime Moriyama

ER: Team BattlArts/Zero-1 vs. Team U-Style! Those names all mean something to puro kids these days, right? I haven't seen much of Team U-Style, but they seemed perfectly fine here. Bland at times, kick party fun the next. Once they started kicking the veterans things got fun, and Hidaka and Fujita suddenly getting desperate against the young turks was a nice moment. We get some nice spirited moments, like Fujita and Sasaki breaking into a spontaneous slap war, Hidaka breaking out a trippy grapevine leg sub that would make Negro Navarro drool, and an awesome finishing sub where he rolls a snug double leg into an almost Texas cloverlead/dual ankle lock with several points of painful leverage. I had no idea what I was looking at, but I loved it. Match as a whole was more like several separate vignettes. It didn't totally build to a finish, but instead was a kind of series of restarts. Which is fine, and this style sometimes lends itself to that, but taken in it's segmented form it was overall fine.

PAS: I really enjoyed this. Always liked the Fujita/Hidaka tag team they were one of my favorite parts of mid 90's Japanese indy wrestling. Cool to see them pop up ten years later and still as slick. The U-Style dudes are all beasts on the mat and I loved how fast and slick all of their rolling with Hidaka and Fujita was. Lots of grabbing and twisting of limbs in nasty ways. Hidaka especially was on one, just breaking out crazy nutso limb locks one after the other, the U-Style guys were throwing the kind of thumping shots appropriate on the undercard of Ikeda v. Ishikawa. Very cool stuff.

Hiroyuki Ito vs. Manabu Hara

ER: This never totally got going for me. Similar to the previous match it felt like there were too many momentum breaks. A lot of kick, down, count, back up. Sub, rope break, separation, back up. There were moments where it threatens to get really good, where the violence almost broke out from the pack. That can be tough on shows like this, with several tough guys, all trying to out-tough the other to be more memorable. At one point Ito rushed in with a bunch of fast and nasty right kicks to the chest and body and it got really exciting, like Ito snapped and got tired of screwing around and Hara was going to respond with brutal kicks of his own. And he kinda does. But soon they're back to breaks and separations. At the end of the match it felt like they went out to do a Ikeda/Ishikawa match, except nowhere near as good, and right before an actual Ikeda/Ishikawa match. Just not enough substance here.

PAS: I really liked this. Ito is a weird wrestling genius who showed up in shoot feds in the early 2000s had awesome matches from the beginning and then disappeared again. He was one of my favorite U-Style guys and had a great short Big Mouth Loud run. This wasn't a high end Ito match, but it had a lot of the trappings which made him such a compelling wrestler. I loved how he brought the match up and down in intensity, and how he would respond to Hara's fast kicks with one or two thumping ones. There were a lot of rope breaks, but I enjoyed how the worked in and out of them, Ito was great at throwing quick kicks off of breaks.This was more U-Style then FUTEN as it was more of a chess match then a harrowing war. The kind of match which isn't done anymore, and I really enjoyed watching it.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda

ER: This is a legendarily violent match between two of the biggest badasses in wrestling. I think this is actually the most violent match these two have ever had, and my lord think of the ground that covers. This match is so violent that I'm not actually sure how neither of them ended up KO'd at some point. Are they this good at close-up magic? You know it's going to be a barnburner as both men start the match with their hair at 0.7 on the Big Ern Scale, with Ishikawa's dyed that fashionable blonde/platinum/gray/purple that ladies are into, beating the trend by a decade!  It's possible that he was sporting mermaid hair in whatever FUTEN hasn't shown up by now. And after the hair is checked and being fluffed by the AC, these two men destroy each other for 14 minutes, to the point where some parts of the match get difficult to watch.

Ishikawa is at his most violent here, punching Ikeda in the throat - regularly - punching him in the ribs, hyperextending his arm in an awful armbar after already damaging it with a hammerlock. Watching Ikeda rub his inner elbow while trying to flex after breaking that armbar is either next level selling, or the look of a man whose elbow is now going to be cranky every time it rains in Tokyo. And for this lifetime of elbow pain, he decides to kick Ishikawa square in the forehead. A lot. He kicks him in the neck with his left leg, and then kicks him in the ear with his right leg to catch him on the way down. He punts him right in the head and face several times. I actually looked away at one point. Every time either man got to his feet looked like a legitimate struggle, and sometimes I rooted for them to stay down. Yet once I begged for Ishikawa to stay down, he would rally, and nail Ikeda with elbows and more punches. Ishikawa locks on a choke at one point and we hear Ikeda gurgling. Mouths get bloodied. Elbows get thrown to the back of heads. Ikeda clotheslines Ishikawa in the side of the neck. Ishikawa enziguiris Ikeda in the mouth. I don't know what kind of relationship these two men have outside of a wrestling ring, but their professional wrestling relationship certainly blossomed into a strange thing that would be impossible to explain to any of your co-workers. This match is a horrific masterpiece. I think it's the best singles between the two men, making it the best singles match of one of my favorite match ups in wrestling history. These two perfected a style that few could handle, and few would want to try.

PAS: I am not sure where this match stands it the pantheon of Ikeda v. Ishikawa matches. This is the most violent, but also the most simplistic. You want simplistic and violent from Ikeda v. Ishikawa and the fact that these are two guys who have lost some of their athleticism is part of the appeal. It feels more like a hellacious battle from two guys who have already taken large pieces out of each other over the years. They had some nice wrestling scrambles, but every scramble was a set up for a violent attack. Ishikawa's punches were pretty unbelievable, they hit so hard that it actually sounded sweetened. Meanwhile Ikeda is sprinting across the ring and trying to Janakowski Ishikawa's head through the uprights. There is a section near the end where a glassey eyed Ishikawa blood dripping out of his mouth like he had a root canal, is just dropping Ikeda on his head,  can't help but think "what the hell am I watching?"  A lot of the stiff Puro wrestling today is loaded with guys trying to prove how tough they are by not selling, in this match they unloaded holy hellfire on each other, but every move took a toll, they weren't ignoring the pain to prove they were tough, the felt every bit of the agony and kept moving forward.

ER: Ikeda/Ishikawa is a true epic, and after talking it over Phil and I decided to add it as the 2005 rep on our All Time MOTY List. What 2005 matches could challenge it?!


ONGOING ALL TIME MOTY LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 8/31/16

Back for another week of Mauro SHADES OF Ranallo screaming and shoehorning longwinded references into matches!

1. Gran Metalik vs. Akira Tozawa

ER: I like Tozawa (and really liked him in his match against Gallagher) and I like Dorada (although I like him most in trios) but this was a match between two guys I like that left me mostly hollow. The flow seemed off, the build seemed stunted, and the finish was another lame Metalik finish where he takes his opponents' finisher, then just stands up and hits his own to win. I liked individual segments and started getting momentarily into things when I thought Metalik was going to be working heel. That moment where he strolled up to a kneeling Tozawa, paused, and then roundhouse kicked him in the face? I was on board. But any kind of dickhead behavior ended there, and we went into a series of segments that seemed almost disconnected from anything that happened earlier in the match. We even get a silly little "epic" strike exchange that only adds to the directionless feel of the match. But Tozawa at least tried to bring some personality to the proceedings, and he gamely - if not ridiculously - got into position for Metalik's highspots (on two occasions having to wander halfway around the ring or roll all the way to the center), but Metalik's highspots at least deliver. His topes especially always see him bury his head deep into his opponents' neck and chest, never bailing early on first contact. I love Tozawa's snap Germans, so was bummed to see him hit two, only to see both men then struggle to their feet and Metalik hit his driver finish for the win. It's a pretty uninteresting finish, an annoying example of Tozawa somehow being more tired from hitting his moves than Metalik was from taking them. TL;DR, things looked good, I like both guys, this didn't move me.

PAS: I thought this was fine, but never really came together. Felt like the most 2016 juniors matchish of all the tourney matches, no real story, no real . Both guys have cool looking spots but just kind of throw them out willy nilly with no connection between moves. I did love Metalik's dropkick which pinned Tozawa in the ropes, I am a big fan of this tourney bringing back the violent dropkick. I also thought both guys had cool dives. Still ultimately a forgettable match, this really should have been Tajiri v. Gallgher.

2. Brian Kendrick vs. Kota Ibushi

ER: This was a great match, a match that I really loved with a story I was really into, with a major hitch in the middle of the match that I'm having trouble reconciling with the rest of the match. Kendrick has been a revelation in the CWC, as nobody was talking about him before this special, and suddenly he's come off (to me, anyway) as the clear best guy in the tournament. And considering the tourney has two of my absolute favorites in Drew Gulak and Jack Gallagher, this was not something I was expecting. But Kendrick is legit and his scrappy underdog stop-at-nothing approach has been easily my favorite thing in the CWC. I love him going for countout wins and trying to sink in that choke (never though something as simple as a posted up side headlock could get over so huge), kicking the middle rope into Ibushi's groin, dropping his neck over the actual corner turnbuckle while on the apron, doing awesome, incredibly precise things like getting his knees up on a standing moonsault and then in one motion rolling Ibushi into a small package, and then always going back for more on Ibushi's neck. It all lead up to that ultimate of neck crunching spots, the Burning Hammer, and here it couldn't have been delivered any more brutally. And it got a 2 count, and really never factored into the rest of the match. Ibushi sold his neck great in the moment, but jeez what a monkeywrench to jam into the middle of a match. I'm sure I'm far from the only one who views the move as (perhaps foolishly) sacred. It always felt like the go-to joke answer amongst my friends, to perfectly capture overblown indy match excess. "Well they finally put him away with a second Burning Hammer through chairs." We still laugh about some early 2000s Dateline type expose on "the dangers of backyard wrestling" that showed a kid dropping his friend with a Burning Hammer on a picnic table in a park. It's the ultimate death move in a fake sport, and there it was right smack dab in the middle; kicked out of, no less, not even delivered too close to the ropes, with Ibushi's body accidentally rolling to the floor and Kendrick unable to capitalize. But it's in there and there's no ignoring it, so I guess at minimum we can just flip out that we saw a freaking Burning Hammer on WWE TV. That's worth something. And for his part Ibushi was good. His kicks were nasty, his flying is graceful, and he looked like he was getting choked deeply by Kendrick. Now Kendrick helped out those kicks by flopping and leaning in and going down like a shot, no denying that. I loved the match and it just added to my full on over the top love of Brian Kendrick. A deep dive on current Kendrick is certainly in order and will be a fun new project for me. And damn does the CWC keep bringing these terrific pre-credits moments, with Gargano/Ciampa, HHH/Alexander, and now Bryan coming into the ring to cry and embrace Kendrick. Goddamn CWC, I need to clean my house because things are getting dusty in here.

PAS: Kendrick was really amazing in this match. I loved him trying to steal the win early, all of his desperate alleycat attacks, and all of the big near falls. Just masterful conducting of a wrestling match. Kendrick is a buck fifty at most, so I guess I buy his burning hammer not being as devastating as a 275 pound Kenta Kobashi's, still this really builds up Ibushi as basically unbeatable, if a neckbreaker on the post, a sliced bread, multiple bully chokes and a fucking burning hammer don't put him down, how can I buy anything done by anyone else beating him? Feels like they have booked themselves into a bit of a corner, especially because there really isn't anyone compelling left in the tournament. All the great stories are over, seems inevitable that it will be a ZSJ v. Ibushi final, and that is a really underwhelming finish. Don't want to get too down as this really was a hell of a match, and the Kendrick performance in this tournament was truly amazing. Right up there with Liger's 1994 J-Cup run in an all-time tourney run.

ER: Even with that Burning Hammer genie let out of the bottle, the Kendrick match was an easy choice for our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List; here's hoping we get even more Kendrick scrapping his way onto our list this year.

COMPLETE CWC GUIDE

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 8/10/16

1. Tajiri vs. Gran Metalik

ER: This felt like a match that would have got 10 minutes on Nitro while the crowd went nuts and Schiavone talked about the nWo the whole time. I really liked a lot of this, even though the ending was really unimaginative, anticlimactic and flat. Tajiri looked real good throughout, loved his momentum shifting armdrags and sneaky kicks. Tajiri had a bunch of fun kicks (you heard it here first!), and that moment where he kicked a kneeling Metalik in the chest, and Metalik just stood up, slapped him, and Tajiri just stood there? That was the best. I really liked the mat stuff, had some smooth lucha flow and some vaguely unprofessional behavior, made me want to see Tajiri match up against guys like Blue Panther or Virus (and made me realize that we've never gotten to see an extended matwork run from Tajiri before). We get one of Metalik's big beautiful dives, Tajiri gets his leg dragon screwed through the ropes in a nice spot.....and then the ending just felt flat as hell. Tajiri kicks Metalik in the head, Metalik falls down....then just gets back up and does his finisher to Tajiri. That's just about the most uninspired way I can think of to end a good match. It was like they both remembered they left their stoves on and had to get out of there as fast as possible. Did my Network feed jump ahead or something?

PAS: I dug this more then Eric, I thought the opening matwork stuff looked like Negro Navarro or Solar maestro stuff which was crazy to see on WWE TV. Tajiri's mat counters looked awesome, that lifting press headscissors counter was truly beautiful, Metalik stuff was fine, but Tajiri looked world class on the mat. Feels like Tajiri v. Jack Gallagher is the dream match that came out of this tourney. I loved all of his kicks as usual, and he has so much more character then most of other guys still in. Metalik is fine, he has cool spots, but this feels really clearly like the wrong guy went over.

2. Kota Ibushi vs. Cedric Alexander

ER: Sometimes when watching a match I can see that the crowd is into it, and feel myself not seeing whatever it is they're seeing. But this match? I was right there with them, and it was an exciting and unexpected reaction. Ibushi and Alexander are two guys who I don't really have strong opinions on. I have liked matches with both, I have disliked matches with both. In matches of theirs I like I typically don't get driven to seek out more of their work, and in matches of theirs I dislike I don't get turned off from watching them in the future. They operate in that zone of guys who don't surprise me when a match is good, but I never expect it. And this match wasn't really the kind of match I like, but damn if that crowd didn't just draw me right into the whole thing. I surprised myself by how much I suddenly wanted Cedric to win, and that is a testament to the emotional performance that he put on. It wasn't because Ibushi was playing subtle heel, it was wholly because Cedric just worked like he deserved to win, and I wanted him to get that win. There were a couple kickouts I didn't care for, but who can really argue as obviously it slayed the live crowd and I totally get it. Both guys did things I dug, especially Cedric's early match back elbow. I wish Ibushi didn't leap up so quickly after that big ass brainbuster, but it was soon in the rearview as I flipped out over Ibushi's massive powerbomb and big kicks and that death wish German suplex. These guys got me invested and made me really excited for everything that was happening, despite having minimal opinions on them beforehand. It's a special reaction that doesn't happen often.

PAS: People really talked up this match, and I figured I wouldn't like it, 2016 near fall juniors wrestling is very much not my thing. Still I got caught up in this, I am giving a lot of credit to the announcing, the match had a simple story of a young guy with a family getting his big shot, coming so close and falling just short and both Bryan and Ranallo did a great job spelling it out without Joey Stylesing it. This tournament is pretty unique in wrestling history, as most of these guys in here aren't signed, for many of them it is their one shot. I can't think of any thing like it. This felt like a semi-final match at Wimbledon where a guy ranked 85 makes it to fifth set against Nadal before succumbing.  The last minute was really great, the quick kick after the brainbuster kick out was an awesome near fall, and I totally bought into Alexander's devastation at losing. HHH's little thumbs up at then might be the only thing he has ever done I actually liked. Emotional wrestling is something that the WWE normally does terribly, it is usually hammy Shawn Michaels horseshit, here we have two weeks in a row where it has been done well.

ER: Both matches were clearly wonderful, probably the most unanimously beloved hour of TV wrestling I've seen since some of the high end Lucha Underground episodes. Both matches landed on our 2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST, and it's starting to feel like this tourney will be producing many more that land on that list.

COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE CWC

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 7/13/16

PAS: Helmsleys fake Liev Schriber documentary voice was pretty bad. I get they probably couldn't afford Liev, but they could have at least sprung for Pablo.

1. Gran Metalik vs. Alejandro Saez

ER: Metalik is Mascara Dorada, and I have never seen Saez before. And Saez might have the absolute goofiest "stagger" selling I've ever seen. Watching him twitch around the ring after Metalik hit a superkick, well...it was something. His facials in general are just absurd. Dorada hits a big springboard flip dive, Saez surprises me with a shooting star off the apron, and Dorada wins in about 4 minutes. This wasn't much, any Dorada lightning match is more interesting than this. Saez hit a nice SSP but man was he goofy.

PAS: Saez was XL in Chile and I saw him during that brief period where a bunch of Chilean youtube showed up. I remember him as an amusing crowbar, and he was a little less crowbary here. That SSP off the apron was really nasty as was the high kick that set it up. I had no problem with Saez's facial selling, I am in on Chilean crowbar John Tatum, that is a wrestler I want to watch. Metalik is obviously a pro and will do fine.

2. HoHo Lun vs. Ariya Daivari

ER: I've not seen either of these two, but I must say I'm happy WWE went so far out of their way to bring guys like Lun into this. Quite the unexpected move. That said, Lun does not seem ready for prime time. He has super weak strikes, doesn't really have expressive selling, and was part of a few awkward behind the curtain moments (the worst being when he was breaking Daivari's grip, and Daivari was flexed as if struggling to maintain grip, and Lun moves his hands off Daivari's arms to clearly show Daivari was just struggling against himself). Yeah yeah we all know it's a show, but man did Lun expose some things here. Daivari looked a lot better here than his brother looked in Lucha Underground, so that's a plus. Daivari had a lot of polish and I much would have rather seen him advance. He missed big, smothered Lun with a headlock, fed into...whatever it was Lun was supposed to be doing. I think they were supposed to be moves. But one can't be sure.

PAS: Daivari had nice pop on his stuff, everything looked very sharp and professional. Lun is a guy who trained himself watching youtube, and kind of wrestles like it. I think it is cool that they got a Hong Kong backyarder into the tourney, no reason to have him advance though.

3. Clement Petiot vs. Cedric Alexander

ER: Didn't get much of a feel for Petiot here. His control segments were sound, but kinda boring. I liked his discus clothesline and liked how it set up Cedric's finisher, dug Cedric's big springboard clothesline, but this felt like they could do more with the limited time. And less Bryan talking about grinding.

PAS: Thought Petiot was fine, he and Davari should both be singed and be put together as a workhorse NXT tag team to put over guys they think have futures. I haven't care for Alexander in longer matches, but his flashy stuff works good in a five minute TV match.

4. Kota Ibushi vs. Sean Maluta

ER: Maluta seems pretty raw, fairly tentative, does some goofy stuff (top rope codebreaker, ugh), but I liked his big bump off the top to the floor off an Ibushi Pele kick, and liked his stiff superkick (with Ibushi turning right into it and falling like a felled tree). Maluta almost kills himself on a flip dive, catching the ropes and then getting a lucky break by hitting feet first on the apron with his momentum taking him into Ibushi. Most of this is a mini showcase of some trademark Ibushi flying, his slingshot moonsault to the floor, his nice standing moonsault, some quick kicks, nothing you haven't seen before if you've seen one Ibushi match.

PAS: I thought the announcers did a nice job of selling this as potential 16 v 1 seed tourney upset, and the match was worked like that. Maluta had no real shot coming in, but maybe Ibushi's neck is hurt or he has jet lag. Maluta's nutty blown dive really worked in the context of this match, he probably shouldn't have tried it, but he needed to try some David strategies to have any shot. That superkick looked great and was sold great and ended up being a big near fall. I thought this was an actively good match, and better then a lot of your pimped NJ Ibushi "classics"

ER: Well, let's hope the matches kick up a notch once we trim some of the first round dead weight. I love the idea on paper of giving these unknown guys showcase matches, but so far the unknowns have only shown that they don't have tons to show yet.

PAS: I thought this was good first show, Ibushi v. Maluta was good stuff and I thought a lot of the first round losers showed some real promise.

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WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising 4/2/16

PAS: My buddy Dylan Waco called this show the best show he has ever seen live, so I figured I would check it out. Lots of awesome on paper stuff here, hopefully it lives up to the hype.

ER: Last year's Evolve/WWN Mania weekend shows were far and away my favorite live wrestling experience of the year, and right up there with all time for me. Great atmosphere, great wrestling, tons of my buddies with me. Can't really go wrong. Watching these VOD might not feel as special, but I love a lot of the talent, and the venue itself has a killer vibe. All the faux storefronts and strung up hanging lights make for a cool visual as guys spill to the floor. I'm in.

1. Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

PAS: Man Chris Hero's throwback Golden State Warriors gear makes him my new favorite wrestler, that is so dope. Hero was awesome in this match, I think it is his best performance in year. He totally brutalizes ZSJ while delivering some sweet smack talk, at one point he calls Sabre sweetheart while begging him to hit him. I loved how Hero used typical indy counter stuff as a shit talking move, he would counter Sabre's stuff and use it to taunt him, nice use of something which can come off like applause pandering under other circumstances. Sabre is still a little unnatural to me, his KO selling and fired up faces seem pretty performative, it isn't nearly as bad as Davey Richards, but it is in that same phylum. This also goes a bit too long, no opener, no matter the back story or talent involved should go 30 minutes. Still I did love the finish run, with Hero getting more and more vicious and Sabre trying to pull out a flash submission, or roll up and just getting overwhelmed until he gets put to sleep. Great stuff, and I like ZSJ consistently falling short to Hero, it is going to make his big win really big.

ER: Hero's too-tight Golden State tank top and trunks make him look like he's wearing half of a kid's jammie set. Or like Hank Venture wearing his Aquaman PJs. Hero is one of my favorite guys in wrestling, one of those guys who I would go out of my way to watch wrestle anybody. And I loved his act here. He really had this cocky thing going, but not in a way that was brushing off Sabre, but more like a guy confident in his abilities who went out partying the night before. So he was out having a good time, and throwing some elbows and kicks on his way there. And I loved how this match progressed, with Sabre easily outpacing him to start, kicking him all around the ring, catching and blocking all of Hero's chops and elbows, and eventually Hero has enough of that and just straight punches him in the face. And from there the match settles into Hero kicking some ass, with Sabre being so damn squirmy and smart that he occasionally finds ways to reverse Hero, or make Hero's body or attitude work against him. Sabre always pulls out quirky reversals and here I flipped out when Hero went for a senton and Sabre kicked his legs up so Hero landed on the back of Sabre's thighs, right into an armbar. THAT was awesome. But Hero is too damn strong and while Sabre is good at blocking or catching some elbows, he can't catch them all, and those elbows that land, land HARD. And Hero starts punishing Sabre for his earlier reversals, planting him with a couple of authoritative sentons. Hero has arguably my favorite moveset in wrestling, and I love it against Sabre. Also love that Sabre hung in there the whole time, always looking for an opening. At one point Hero opens his arms for crowd adulation, and Sabre rushed into frame to grab Hero's outstretched arm. There was some punishing stuff throughout this one, all of that ankle/wrist/finger/elbow joint manipulation always makes me cringe, and I love Hero getting occasionally frustrated (him flipping out when Sabre wraps a chair around his arm, but then accidentally swinging his trapped arm into a ringpost was a great little moment) but never completely losing sight of beating down Sabre. It did go a little long, but I've seen tons of shorter indy matches that felt much longer. These two know how to fill time. This felt like maybe the greatest ever Hero performance, a perfect convergence of his ringwork and character.

2. Fred Yehi vs. Drew Gulak

ER: A year ago I thought Gulak was a step behind the best of the grappling sub guys, and at this point he may be my favorite of them. But then you have Yehi who at this point is must see against anybody. Guy is legit. And these two tear down for 9 hot minutes and it's great every step of the way. Both guys are constantly working to be one step ahead of the other, and you always end up seeing a reversal or transition that is totally new and totally fresh. I don't know how these two maintain their bearings with how fast they move in their scrambles. I imagine it would be like not knowing which direction is up while underwater, but they always look totally locked in. Too many cool things in this one to list them all, but I especially loved Gulak locking on a side headlock and running circles around Yehi, like he wanted to twist that head right off. I've seen Yehi sell a knee like he did here before, and it's an impressively real touch to this kind of grappling. Sweet Dee on Always Sunny does a real great fake gagging face, and I imagine doing a convincing knee buckle is as impressive a personal niche to a wrestler as a fake gag is to a physical comedienne. It lead to some real exciting momentum shifts as Yehi would come up swinging and plant on that leg, once sending him falling to his face, another time making him wobble hard. Both times Gulak smelled blood in the water and pounced. I like how the knee played into the finish, but not in a traditional "work the leg" kind of way. Instead it just slowed Yehi down and left openings for Gulak, which allowed him to roll through with his dragon sleeper choke, a chance he might not have gotten otherwise. I pretty much want to see every match these two have, against anyone.

PAS: I loved this, Yehi is one of my favorite new guys in wrestling and it is really fun to watch him match up with a true pro like Gulak. His offense always looks a little different then regular wrestling offense. The angles he throws suplexes, the parts of the body he stomps it is just a bit off. Gulak has a much more traditional wrestling base, but knows how to work interesting struggles around Yehi's weird stuff. I agree with Eric about Yehi's leg selling it was awesome , and I loved how aggressive Gulak was when he saw it, they way a great counter puncher will parry until he sees any opening.

3. Tracy Williams vs. Matt Riddle

ER: Team Catch Point explodes! Is Matt Riddle the most obvious wrestling Rookie of the Year since Akiyama? Sure feels like it. He's shown so much intuition in his first year that I have no idea what he can do to improve past his current level. But if he keep cranking out matches like this then I'll continue to be along for the ride. Williams is a guy I like but also a guy with a lot of ideas, and a need to squeeze all of those ideas into his matches. Riddle is a guy who can dish it and take it so match him with Williams and you're going to see Riddle taking some damage, maybe too much. There were some real oh shit moments here, with Riddle bouncing right on the top of his head on a vicious lariat, and later on off a top rope DDT leading to an immediate tap out finish. Williams has some harsh offense to unload on Riddle. His upkicks were gross, and his power offense is done sparsely enough that it really impacts when he breaks it out. Riddle is so much fun during these matches, suckering Hot Sauce into a ropes assisted arm bar, taking a wild bump over the top to the floor (no shoes!!! People who wrestle with no shoes are certifiable), hitting a couple of cool flying knee variations, breaking out the neat Alabama Slam/heel hook combo, and bumping like wild. I liked the story of two teammates pushing each other further in competition, as opposed to one of them just suddenly acting like a heel and everything being cool afterwards. I may need a Team Catch Point t-shirt...

PAS: Yeah this was a total blast, I think I liked their match earlier in the year a bit better, but these two just click. I am also totally all in on Matt Riddle. His jumping knee strikes to the torso are totally nasty here he looks like he is going blast Williams kidneys out the other side of his ribs. Riddle also takes some truly sick bumps, like Eric mentioned that top rope brainbuster/DDT bump looked totally neck fracturing. Williams is a really solid guy in this style, he doesn't have the flash of Yehi or Riddle, but he is a great workmanlike member of this stable.

4. Anything Goes: Ethan Page vs. Anthony Nese

PAS: This was a fine WWE style garbage match, with both guys finding lots of different ways to land nastily on chairs. I especially liked Neese smushing Page's head into a chair with an Asai moonsault. I haven't really cared for either guy previously but this was fine violent stuff, and was a nice balance for the rest of the show. Still both guys really killed each other in a midcard match with a lukewarm reaction, felt like that punishment should have meant more.

ER: Fun match, felt like the kind of thing that would be regarded as a classic if it had happened in ECW. And I really liked Nese in this, really using all of his athleticism to take lunatic damage. And I kinda liked Page here more than I have before. This match was kind of the perfect use of his bloaty detached douche character. There was some pretty brutal stuff in this and I assumed it would go way into overkill, and it never did. That quebrada onto Nese's head on a chair is an all time brutal spot. Rewound that one a couple times. And Nese was great at sending his forehead into ladder shots, then getting turned inside out on a vicious tornado ladder shot from Page. Good grief. I thought things really built nicely and the powerbomb onto chairs with a nice piledriver after was a great way to finish things. For a match I went in with pretty low hopes for, this far exceeded them. Good stuff all around and made me want to revisit Nese.

5. Taylor Made vs. Nicole Matthews

PAS: Not a great idea on a weekend which had so much pushed high end women's wrestling to put on a dud like this. There was a mix of potato shots with some offense that looked really weak. I liked some of the stiffness, but both ladies were pretty awkward. The gimmick of these Wrestlemania weekend indy shows is that the ring work is going to be better then the big shows, this wasn't as good as the Divas 10 man, and was way lesser quality then either the NXT or Wrestlemania ladies matches.

ER: I'd not seen either gal before, and this match certainly isn't going to send me scrambling to find more Shimmer or Shine shows. I thought Taylor was clearly the better of the two, and Matthews looked real bad at times. I liked some of Taylor's stomps and boot scrapes, but this was mostly formless as sloppy, with some shots landing hard and then a moment later the worst clothesline you remember seeing. Sometimes sloppiness can get harnessed into an overall positive, depending on the workers, but this was just aimless and bland. My favorite parts of the match were Andrea's two running kicks, and it's usually not a great sign when the best parts of a match are a couple moves done by a second.

6. Jason Cade vs. Gary Jay vs. Maxwell Chicago vs. Caleb Konley

ER: I had mixed feelings about this one. There were plenty of amusing moments in it. Maxwell Chicago is a comedy guy I haven't seen before and a lot of guys have funny schtick the first time you see it. At the same time it's a title match, so the FIP title looks a little silly getting its showcase in a match that had to completely stop multiple times for comedy. Cade is definitely a guy who seems like an Evolve undercarder: small, does flying moves, easily confused with a few other guys like this on the American indy scene. Jay was really fun and I'd like to see more of him. He seemed like a goofball but also backed that up with some stiff strikes. I'd like to see him in a short violent singles. This is probably the best I've seen Konley look, and he was smart to mostly stay out of the way of Chicago's comedy. Maxwell clearly stole the match and basically steamrolled everybody else. Even during other guys' big moments he would still be stooging and carrying on with an extended bump from a move that had happened well before. Konley played along on a couple of the spots but mostly let the other guys get steamrolled, putting himself in the position of the serious asskicker who keeps setting the match back on track. Konley down the home stretch was awesome, pretty much right from the moment he obliterates someone with a backfist. Match was fun and didn't overstay its welcome, and this is the kind of thing that definitely would play even better on a live show, especially coming out of a long intermission and a dull women's match.

PAS: I liked this less the Eric, I couldn't get passed all of Chicago's Chikarisms. It is fine to do shtick in a match, when it makes everyone stop wrestling and point out how fake everything is, I am out. His wacky "I am afraid of heights dive" made the three other guys wait for him for way too long and then sell the dive as brutal. Thought the other three guys were fine, although nothing outside of Konley's backfist made any impression on me.

7. Sami Callihan vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: I felt bad for these two here, as at this point it had to have been a looooooong day of wrestling for fans and wrestlers alike, and it's almost like the previous match took the last bit of energy the crowd had. There were some strangely silent moments here that can only be explained by people being exhausted, considering the great reactions Evolve crowds usually have for everything. It made certain things come off a little flat in the match, things that usually sound killer, and then it made some of the legit violence come off across as in a vacuum, two sadists killing each other in silence. Things came off a little disjointed, with Thatcher doing a super convincing job selling his elbow the entire match, very much seeming like a legit injury, but with Callihan mostly staying away from the elbow. It's odd to see Callihan hit a stiff powerbomb on Thatcher, and then see Thatcher sell the elbow and none of the powerbomb, but Callihan then still going for KO blows instead of just ripping apart the elbow. That DOES come eventually, and it looked brutal, with Callihan locking on a top wristlock that I actually think should have gotten an immediate tap. Thatcher had been selling that thing before any actual lock up took place, and sold it as being in barely manageable pain the whole match, but then having that nasty wristlock locked on dead center of the ring didn't appear to make the elbow any worse. I don't think it's possible for these two to have a match I don't like, and I know I'm dumping on major parts of the match, but these guys have a much higher floor than most wrestlers. So while I think it was below what they're capable of, below average Thatcher/Callihan is still good eats.

PAS: I liked this more then Eric, these guys have this weird rhythm which I really dig but I could see how people could think was disjointed. Kind of feels like a boxing match with two power hitters pot shotting each other but not throwing combos. Loved the violence of each big shot, Callihan has some nasty stomps and kicks. I agree the arm stuff was a little weird, although that top wrist lock was a big near fall. My only real problem with the match is that the Thatcher headbutt KO didn't look great and certainly should have been way bigger to get a knockout. There were so many nasty shots in that match that you really need to kill a guy to get a KO.

8. Tommy End, Marty Scurll & Will Ospreay vs. TJP, Johnny Gargano & Kota Ibushi

ER: Man, this was not good. For a match clearly presented as "breathless weekend-closing epic" there sure was a lot of time where guys were awkwardly standing around waiting to be superkicked for the 8th time. Ospreay is a guy with a lot of kicks, and none of them look good. Scurll is a VILLAIN but doesn't do anything villainous.  Everybody here completely forgot how to naturally get into position to take moves, sometimes at several points of the match. There were many moments of guys politely waiting around to be Irish whipped. The way they all end up in the crowd at the end is absurd, all waiting around to be gently tossed one at a time over the barrier, before Ospreay does a dive that overshoots everyone. At one point all six men squared off in the ring over an embarrassingly choreographed bit of rope running and bad stomach kicks. For something so clearly choreographed, you'd think it would at least threaten to get good at some point. Everybody looked far too cautious about getting in somebody's way, and you always had guys checking to make sure somebody else was hitting their mark so they could begin their dance steps. Gargano and End probably looked the best of anybody here, but nobody was utilized very well. This was a pretty downer way to close out a very good show. The new trend in indie shows appears to be frontloading cards, as I've been on a run of really digging the first half of shows and then just waiting for the rest of the card to finish.

PAS: People really liked this match, including some people who's opinions I trust, and man I am saying no go. There were a handful of cool spots, I really liked the double military press ace crusher, and a nice dive or two, but mostly this was just a bunch of guys doing stuff. Stopping the match multiple times to watch Osprey and Ibushi lightly massage each others faces with forearms wasn't a great idea. The face off triple team stomach kicks was one of the worst spots I have seen in years. Six man indy spotfests are not my bag as a style, but come on yall you have seen MPRO, youv'e seen Nitro lucha, shit you have seen SAT's v. Divine Storm, this was not that.

ER: Overall this was a really good show, primarily for the first half. The first half stands up with some of the greatest pro wrestling of all time. THREE different matches from the show ended up landing on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List, with Hero/Sabre and Gulak/Yehi landing the top two spots so far. Other matches weren't far off from being listworthy. This show would be well worth the time and people should go out of their way to see most of it.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 8/14/15 Review

1. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba (9/21/14)

This kind of thing is refreshing after getting so many weeks of Okada WORKRATE EPICS it's just nice to see a couple old shooters be cocks to each other in a completely inconsequential match. I mean...I'd obviously always rather watch that than long Okada matches, but stay with me here. You watch this to see how Suzuki acts around Sakuraba, and in that regard it delivered. You had Suzuki (to the shock of nobody) pulling rank on Sak and bullying him a bit, and Sak was kinda playing the wounded child. Suzuki does bully better than just about anybody, and it all built to Sak locking on an awesome kneebar while Suzuki was tied up in the ropes, and I just loved Sak maniacally locking it on while Suzuki writhed on the apron. Nobody cares about what Yano did in this and as I type this I've already stricken most of it from my memory. I did dig the finish as Iizuka gets the claw and Yano cuts him off with a kick to the balls and a snug roll up. Afterwards Suzuki laughs and spits at the camera and does a great exaggerated Vince walk to show off how his hurt knee isn't hurt even though it's hurt.

2. Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito vs. AJ Styles & Tama Tonga (9/21/14)

Dug a lot of this (well, I mean, Naito is...well you know), Ibushi is easily one of the best flippers who - like Styles did years ago - has transitioned nicely into using those spots as a heavy. Tonga is the best lackey in the Bullet Club and he really needs to be featured more instead of duds like Archer or Davey Boy. He moves really cool, bumps big and works way more stiff that guys like Karl Anderson or (obviously) Archer. Styles gets a little too hammy with the bumps here but he and Ibushi work great together and I really dig the Styles/Tonga team. Ibushi always hits his flying offense impossibly on point, and yeah, nice to see some fresh faces on this show. I don't think I can write up another Okada main event (which was why I skipped last week's show).

3. KUSHIDA vs. Ryusuke Taguchi (9/21/14)

A flawed but fun match with the strengths outweighing each guy's weaknesses. We had some issues of convenient selling and some funny build, but the overall story worked for me. I don't really love either guy's personality but something clicked for me. It's possible my White Russian is doing the clicking for me, who knows. But I got into the leg work vs. arm work aspect, loved KUSHIDA kicking the hell out of Taguchi's arm to set up the Hoverboard Lock (which really is a great looking sub) and Taguchi going after the knee to set up the ankle lock. KUSHIDA does a lot of handspring offense and he snaps off handsprings more believably than anybody else in wrestling. I'm not sure what that means, exactly. Because handspring offense is almost universally idiotic. It's like someone being the best at plunging a toilet that they clogged. Or somebody being really good at scraping the black parts off of toast that he burned because he doesn't realize that the dial on the breakroom toaster IS A TIMER. TURNING IT UP DOES NOT MAKE IT HOTTER, IT IS A FUCKING TIMER. It is a set of heated coils which stay heated for a set amount of time based on what number the dial is turned to, but this guy is really good at making his burnt bagel somewhat edible. They do some roll ups that are entirely goofy but I had fun with them, I totally bought into the Hoverboard teases and certainly thought a tap out was coming, loved moments of Taguchi scrambling for ropes, and yeah. This was fine. This was fine pro wrestling. My time did not feel wasted.

Post match and Taguchi does an interview where he keeps saying something translated as "Oh my and Garfunkel"....which is weird. Is it like when religious people avoid saying the Lord's Name so they say something like Oh My Land or Oh My Stars? Is he just being a silly goofball? He kept saying Garfunkel and it was equal parts amusing and confusing.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 15 Review (feat. more Matt D/Young Bucks feud data)

1. The Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA) vs. The Young Bucks (6/21/14)

I really dug this! Bucks worked a super effective heel RnR style and other than my complaint of them  never using the springboard tombstone as a finish, thought this was one of their best performances. They bumped around (especially Matt), their tandem offense looked good, and Matt threw some nice mule kicks, flashier spots (the tornado DDT to Shelley after Matt floated through to the apron was slick). This actually had the best usage of their double tombstone, as it clearly looked like it would have finished the match had Shelley not burst in with a great save. The build to the hot tag was really good, and the heel schtick came off more legit here than it does on the indies, for reasons I can't easily explain. Possibly because they toned down the more cornball antics (which I actually like from them in certain situations) and worked with a slight sinister edge. Crowd was hot, work was good, match was time well spent.

FOUR SAMPLE MATT D YOUNG BUCKS MOOD CHECKER:

We now have four Bucks samples since I....well flat out forgot about this gimmick. Matt still seemed a little bull-headed about the Bucks last we checked in, but maybe there was a hint of retreat. I thought they looked good here and I love the vibe of a heel RnR who work less cute, more dickhead. I'm giving this one easily to the YB.

MATT: 1
BUCKS: 3

2. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano (6/21/14)

I dug this one too! Suzuki and Iizuka are a fun tag team, and seeing Suzuki tangle with Saku was a kick. The end run had Saku going for all sorts of subs and every time it looked like Suzuki was about to tap. The triangle was locked in and the rolling Americana looked great, and they kept getting broken up. Both teams had some nice convincing saves, and I love a great save in a tag match. Loved Yano rolling up Suzuki in a beautiful high cradle, really thought he was pinning Suzuki, so didn't notice Iizuka creeping up to pull the ref. I love Suzuki being the one guy in wrestling who understands running physics, so knows how to actually just stop running when Irish whipped. I love the sequences that followed both those physics spots. Really fun match.

3. Kota Ibushi vs. Ricochet (6/21/14)

Awesome little spotfest that would have been viewed as an instant classic on Lucha Underground, but kinda got a bit ignored on this show. We don't get tons of selling, but when the spots are this fun who cares. Tons of neat springboard spots, with Ricochet hitting a snug dropkick and later a massive shooting star. Ric landing on his feet and casually strutting away was one of several holy shit rewind that! moments, one-upping his earlier flip dive over the ringpost that spilled him way into the crowd. Ric's kicks all looked nice and Ibushi's weren't too shabby, all the "missed" stuff looked good, and there was a bunch of really terrific strike blocking. It always looks cool when you chop attach a guy's clothesline or something, and both guys got cool strike blocks here. Ricochet front kicking an Ibushi clothesline, both men tossing out blocks during fast strike exchanges. They all ruled. This was just satisfying as fuck moves based wrestling.

This was a real satisfying episode of NJ TV. Tons of variety, episode went by in a flash.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 12 Workrate Report

1. Alex Koslov & Rocky Romero vs. The Young Bucks (5/3/14)

We only get about 1/3 of this due to clipping and really that's probably for the best. What's shown is good and amusing, but I'm having a hard time imagining 15 minutes of this. Even in the 5 minutes shown we get Romero and Koslov showing off their comedy chops which was insufferable enough as it was. Still this was plenty entertaining. I really liked the Bucks here as they hit all their marks. NJ crowd seemed into them, all their double team offense was on point, they made Romero's offense look good which is a true talent, etc. Their stuff tombstone still looks devastating and yet is still more of a transition move, but their finisher looked great with Matt doing a Finlay roll to set up a Nick 450, to set up a Matt moonsault. Speaking of comedy chops, Barnett was really ramping up the yuks during this one. Coulda done without that.

Oh and to tally up the Matt D v. Young Bucks count, we'll go ahead and go

MATT D: 1
YOUNG BUCKS: 2

I liked the Bucks here, what can I say.

2. Kota Ibushi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi (5/3/14)

Well...not really sure what the point of showing this was. They clipped it all to hell, maybe showing 3 minutes of it? But again instead of showing just the "good parts" they showed stuff like opening headlock takeovers and other test of strength type exchanges. If you know that you only have a few minutes to put over a match, do we really need to set the mood by showing us "in case you were wondering, this match started like almost every New Japan match you've ever seen". After some pointless feel out stuff we eventually cut to Taguchi's bad offense (I do a sit out powerbomb and you kinda maybe fall chin first into my knees?!) and eventually Ibushi wins it. Ibushi is a guy I really like, Taguchi showed next to nothing here, and really this show had a really fun Ishii match that isn't getting shown so that instead we can watch 3 minutes of Taguchi and 5 minutes of Rocky Romero. Priorities?

3. Kazuchika Okada vs. AJ Styles (5/3/14)

Okada has a great sit down interview pre match, going over how he was caught off guard by Styles, saying he really wasn't *that* great in the U.S., and was in his decline. Then put over the Styles Clash by saying that he had taken it from Tanahashi before and thought it was no big deal, but taking it from Styles was a whole other level because Styles "must adjust his weight differently". That's so damn awesome.

And the match itself works about like I thought it would, with enough good stuff to make it enjoyable. Still it was structured like a lot of Okada matches, with his opponent doing lots of stuff with the sense of "Okada's going to take a bunch of offense and then at some point just start going for Rainmaker lariats". And that most definitely happened. And we also had tons of limp dick Bullet Club interference. Boy is that lame. Interference is one thing, but Bullet Club's interference rarely even looks good. Okada gets dumped to the floor and we get just bad stomps from Anderson. That's the brutal interference? Stomps that don't make contact? I'm sure plenty of NJPW purists were tickled at Yujiro interference leading directly to an IWGP title change. The end of match interference was handled embarrassingly as well, with Anderson just grabbing and holding Red Shoes so he couldn't see the interference, and then the run ins. Just lazy and it came off really poor. Styles looked really good throughout, my favorite spot being a nasty springboard loaded up punch. Styles worked great opposite Okada and really knew how to feed into everything; reversals from Okada's signature stuff all came off natural and logical, especially uncoiling from the Rainmaker to hit the Pele kick. But damn all the Bullet Club stuff just comes off so forced, really took what could have fun a fun match into "whatever" territory.

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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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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

1. Kota Ibushi v. Shinsuke Nakamura NJPW 1/3

PAS: Solid start to the year, with Ibushi curtailing a lot of his more obnoxious juniors stuff and wrestling this like a nasty fight. I especially loved all of the stomps. elbows and knees both guys landed on the back of the head which really added a different level of viciousness absent from a lot of the endless New Japan elbow smashes. I also liked how they snapped and started throwing right hands, which was put over nicely by Jim Ross as something outside of the New Japan rules. I was let down a little by the finish, the crazy springboard german was an interesting idea, but didn't land well at all, and the finishing blows by Nakamura looked a lot weaker then the earlier stuff, you always want a match like this to build to something big, and this didn't really. Still very good and a fine match to lead off 2015.

ER: Awesome stuff overall but it's a shame the nastiest stuff all happened in the middle of the match. I loved that there were no "we take turns elbowing each other and scream" moments, and all the strikes all came off looking like illegal MMA. Nakamura does a cool front suplex and immediately starts blasting Ibushi with north/south knees, Nakamura locks on a slick rolling arm bar and Ibushi gets to his feet and breaks it by stomping on Nakamura's nose and face. At some point you can see visible boot scrapes all over Nakamura's forehead. The misses in the match were very important too as there were tons of nice kicks that came flying full speed, really lending to the fact that if one of them didn't duck things would have been over. I loved how that played out later with Nakamura ducking a low kick and Ibushi almost expecting him to duck and immediately hitting a standing corkscrew moonsault. Ibushi has some cool offense with effortless flying that can land with impact (sometimes) and cool little snap suplexes that he rips off so quick they're near impossible to block. The build up showed him surprising Nakamura with one of these and sure enough he snaps off a couple here. Nakamura has a great unique style, real slithery and jellybones. I love seeing his limbs flop around when he takes a powerbomb or rana, and loves how he uses that stuff to goad Ibushi into striking a couple times which then backfires for Ibushi. The strike breakdown in towards the end was awesome, with Ibushi throwing full follow through palm strikes that buckled Nakamura into the ropes, with Nak shoving the ref into Ibushi and then just blasting him with a right hand. So many great strikes throughout this, with nasty elbows and knees to the back of the head, kicks to the neck and little annoying stomps. If only things happened in just a slightly different order. Even so, a very good start to the year.


2015 MASTER LIST

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