2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Jericho vs. Suzuki

 

9. Chris Jericho vs. Minoru Suzuki AEW Dynamite 7/24/24

ER: I cannot stand modern matches with long bad-looking stand and trade sections, and that's what makes up the bulk of this match between two guys whose wrestling matches I no longer look forward to seeing. "Hey man you hear about that match where two guys just traded forearms for a half hour" yeah man I'm never going to watch it or read about it. Why would I want to watch two wrestlers throw worked strikes with a hard strike thrown in maybe every fifth exchange? Well, I guess there are rules, and there are exceptions to rules, and the rules and their exceptions change when the combined age in the ring is 110 years old. Two 30 year olds chopping each other and making faces and straining their necks? Sounds terrible. Shit would suck and nobody would speak about it again. "Hey man you hear about that match where two grandfathers chopped each other until their hands were swollen and blood was running down their chests?" The rules have changed. 

It's a bit sad seeing the most lucrative earning years of Suzuki's career finally winding down. The man has made career money working forearm exchange matches for 5 years in the states. The polaroid money alone must be incredible. Every person who saw clips of the Mecha Mummy match and had never heard of Yoshiaki Fujiwara lined up in droves to see Minoru Suzuki blow into town with his 5 Light/1 Heavy Stick Out Tongue Repeat routine and every single person who ever wanted to scream Kaze ni nare with a a ton of people who look exactly like them has had chance after chance after chance to do so. Now Minoru Suzuki blows into the Volunteer State for the first time and the crowd response to Ayumi Nakamura was so tepid that I finally realized the whole thing is over. It's been over for me for a while now, but there were still believers and I assumed it would thrill them until he was in his late 60s. I wanted it to. I couldn't have been less excited to watch a 2024 Minoru Suzuki match against 2024 Chris Jericho. I didn't want to see Suzuki working a Jericho match and I really didn't want to see Jericho work a Suzuki match. God. Please. 

What I did want to watch was an honest to god war of attrition between two old guys who decided to hit each other until one of them gassed out. It's Jericho. Jericho's the one who gasses out. Jericho's obviously going to be the one who gasses out from hitting a guy with chops as hard as he can. It's at least 8 minutes of two old guys doing nothing but chops, and that sure sounds rote as I type it but what might start rote turns intriguing real quick when you can see Jericho visibly tiring and physically in pain as he gets outstruck. Minoru Suzuki barely regards Jericho's first chop, and by minute three he isn't reacting in any way to them. Jericho, in continuing to hit Suzuki, begins to only damage himself. Suzuki was reacting to his chops like Jericho was a young boy from a rival fed. He had no life behind his chops, could barely swing his arms, and the more gassed out he got the harder his body reacted to Suzuki's chops. Blood was literally running down Jericho's chest in rivulets and he could no longer flex his chest or straighten his arms enough to absorb Suzuki's chops. His entire body was being turned with every chop and yet he was stuck in this bit now and couldn't get out. His hand was killing him and the only thing he could do was beat his hand against a small brick wall that was never going to break. All Jericho had to do was break, but he was in it, and you could tell he was really seeing just how long he could go with old man Suzuki, who it must be said now has the exact same posture and movement as old man Fujiwara. 

Jericho wanted to test himself, and that's interesting. That's more than just a too long forearm exchange or even a too long chop exchange. Jericho wanted to see how much he could absorb and see how far through the pain he could push himself. That's some rock headed dumb brain wrestler stuff right there man. He doesn't need to do that. Nobody asked him to do that and I bet the majority of people watching him do it wished he wasn't doing it and weren't interested in seeing it. But Jericho wanted to do it because he's a dumb pro wrestler and wanted to see how many more chops he could take after his chest was busted open in several spots, and wrestlers who don't need the money who choose to do stupid physical things are the kinds of wrestlers I still want to watch. 

He eventually broke and the match pivoted into Suzuki working over Jericho's self-pummeled hand, and I laughed when Jericho torched his arms and then had to get the bad one arm barred over the ropes and smashed inside a folding chair. This man don't know when to quit and I realized I was smack in the middle of the most interesting Suzuki match in years, because Jericho had twisted and tweaked his formula and made the exchanges turn into limb work that actually meant something and flowed out of the endless stand and trade. 

You would not believe how uninterested I was in seeing these two wrestle in 2024, and they made me interested. Rules change. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 7/24 - 7/30

AEW Dynamite 7/26/23

Darby Allin vs Swerve Strickland

MD: I kind of miss AEW bringing out the numbers for rematches. This is the third singles match between these two in AEW though there have been Royal Rampages and tags as well, of course. It feels like the tenth singles match maybe, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. They're well matched up. Darby can take all of Swerve's stuff naturally and has an almost preternatural way of getting himself in position or setting himself up to where things that shouldn't be possible or feasible seem at least not a wild stretch. Moreover, Darby's whole gimmick is resilience. He takes and takes and takes and takes and then has the two or three moves he can do to turn the tide and get a lightning-quick win out of nowhere. It allows for slightly more escalation than I'd put up with otherwise. They start with the overly fancy chain wrestling and go from there all the way to an avalanche death valley driver onto the apron, with precisely timed counters and cutoffs to keep the transitions interesting. 

Swerve really does bring a lot to the table, and I especially like the Swerve/Nana pairing compared to some of the other things they tried. I'm not sure of some of the timings on the distractions or specific things Nana said to Darby or Wayne, but the general vibe of the two of them dancing in sync or Swerve shuffling over the corner to seek reassurance after the Last Supper had them completely on the same page. In some ways, though, Swerve's entirely dependent on his opponent being able to fit into his act. When it's not quite grounded enough, you get something too floaty like the Wayne match. If someone can't keep up or feed into the spots, you get something like the Tanahashi match. Here though, everything hit and there was plenty of clever learned psychology and enough selling and resonance to keep it from going from clever to cutesy. I'm still hoping for a coffin match sooner than later between these two.

AEW Collision 7/29/23

Darby Allin vs Minoru Suzuki

MD: Not a lot to say about this one. Darby needed a win to heat him back up after a couple of losses and Suzuki is absolutely credible, especially as a surprise opponent. It never feels like a small thing to beat him. When you look at the annals of wrestling commentary over the decades, more workrate-heavy analyses are going to ignore Darby's initial reaction to Suzuki's music hitting, but the announcers certainly picked up on it and it underpinned the early, desperate onslaught. If the wrestler portrays investment, then it's easier for the crowd to be invested. It's the difference between people hitting a bunch of spots (clean or clever or otherwise) and a fully formed character acting in a compelling manner. You can run a throughline here: Darby wanted a fight. Darby realized what he got into. Darby ambushed at a key moment of the song and stayed on Suzuki. Darby realized that he could only chip away at him so much through conventional means but that he had to press the offense with strikes as there was an opening before him. Darby took Suzuki's stuff. Darby took the opening Suzuki gave him by going for his strike flurry instead of a chop and hit the Code Red. Darby realized that he could only put Suzuki away by throwing his body at him but in doing so, opened himself up to the sleeper. But he's Darby so he did it anyway and then found a way to sneak a win through desperate resilience. That's part of what makes Darby so great. It's all character driven based on the reality of the moment. Yes, he takes crazy bumps. Yes, he throws himself into everything. Yes, there's a real sense of danger with his stuff. But it's all grounded in something that resonates.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death: Week of 6/20 - 6/26

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 6/26

Chris Jericho/Sammy Guevara/Minoru Suzuki vs. Eddie Kingston/Wheeler Yuta/Shota Umino

MD: Hot crowd, some real stakes, a lot of personal issues, and guys stepping up, so there was a lot to like here. The biggest issue was Eddie vs Jericho, obviously, but Eddie had reasons to get his hands on Sammy after what happened to Ortiz and Suzuki was in the match to be the anti-Kingston weapon (to great success as we'd see). So they delayed Jericho vs Eddie until the time was right. The AEW house style is all about setting up spots and paying them off later, or alternatively, hitting spots and then inverting them on a second attempt. Here, after Yuta started off with Jericho giving him a ton of shine (albeit shine leading to an easy enough kick out for him) and the subsequent brawling around the ring, they gave the crowd a Kingston vs Suzuki chop off. Suzuki walked into the machine gun chops, completely negating them. He took the advantage and Jericho came in to take advantage of that, only for Kingston to comeback and then hit the machine gun chops on Jericho, who sold all over the place. That, right there, was a nice little bit of set up and payoff. Suzuki was able to get Kingston's arm as he tried to knock him off the apron, though, and that gave us a bit of a heat. Just a bit though. 

The match would break down shortly thereafter and stay broken down for the rest. It worked more often than not and most often when there was a big character impulse driving it, like Umino getting Jericho in the Crab and then enduring shots from everyone or when the hit the dive train with Suzuki teasing his or the triple submissions or, I suppose when they hit one rapid fire spot after the next ending with Sammy's cutter and Yuta's splash, though that last one felt more choreographed than opportunistic. Some of the choices between break-ups and nearfalls towards the end were a little dubious, most especially the tornado DDT/brainbuster combo. The dynamic between Kingston and Suzuki, where Suzuki kept getting in his way and slowing him down but not ultimately stopping him from getting a shot in here or there was effective. Yuta and Umino stepped up appropriately; no one can say that Yuta isn't taking full advantage of his opportunity. Sammy looked like he belonged in there. I'd say the finish followed from the story of the match well enough too, as the cumulative damage was ultimately too much for Kingston's side. I would have maybe liked more extended heat before everything broke down though. 

Bullet Club (Young Bucks/El Phantasmo) vs. Dudes with Attitudes (Sting/Darby Allin/Shingo Takagi)

MD: By the time this match started, it'd been non-stop multi-wrestler action since that little heat segment on Kingston's arm, with maybe a small respite when Clark Connors was getting beaten on. The action was good and I'd argue even at times smart, but it was all a little much. If they had shuffled the Ospreay/Cassidy match earlier on the card maybe? On paper, a match with a bunch of comedy spots would have been a good palette cleanser but it was still a multi-man spot-laden thing, so while being different in one way, it was more of the same in another. That said, in a vacuum, all of these things worked. Sting hit the big dive to start and then got to hit his first ever senton. Darby unsurprisingly fed into all of the Bucks' stuff well and they fed for his comeback. Sting got to get a bunch of superhero moments and the crowd went up for all of them. When everything really went crazy at the end it occasionally got a bit disjointed, which sometimes makes things feel more organic but maybe not here. I thought the finish felt a little flat maybe because Shingo had a bit too many things and the fans weren't as familiar with them as they might have been? Or maybe it was because it was a bit of an anti-climax due to the couple of minutes before it. Still, it's amazing how natural and meaningful Sting felt on this card, which is a testament both to him and his opponents.

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ROAD REPORT: GCW Devil in a New Dress 4/10/22

This Road Report is going to be much more vibes than actual match analysis. This was the first wrestling show I had been to with this many friends (seven people, including myself) in who knows how long. It was a great night, fun as hell, but there's no way I'm going to be remembering full details of a 20 minute Dark Sheik match or what specific Kidd Bandit spots I thought were stupid. The card was changed around wildly and the two people I was most excited to see (Biff Busick and Gringo Loco) were either there and not used or not there for reasons I don't know (travel?). So that was a drag! And yet, we still had a good time. It was fun seeing it with several friends who don't follow indy wrestling, as a couple of my boys were only familiar with Busick, Jacob Fatu, and Suzuki. With no Busick or Fatu, that meant they were seeing nearly everyone on the card for the first time, brains unsullied by the opinions of those on the internet. I told them to "just think of this as early Jersey All Pro" and that set the mood just fine. 

Effy vs. Nick Wayne

ER: If you had told me earlier in the night that Effy would be the guy putting on my favorite performance of that night, then I would have been skeptical. Had it been my Looper, I would have been more inclined to believe me. This was my favorite personal Effy performance and I thought he came off like an honest to god star. The Yellow Brick Road music, the trashy blonde asymmetrical mullet, the fishnets, and the extreme confidence on the mic. For reasons I could not quite make out (it is not an indy wrestling show without somewhat questionable sound), Effy stated that this was a family show and he would therefore be working much less horny. And honestly? Focused ass kicker Effy is much more entertaining than horny Effy. He did a great job bullying a high school junior, caught all of Wayne's dives (including a big tope con giro), and came off like a real complete act. I'm not sure there was anyone on the card who carried themselves like a bigger star than Effy did in this match, and that includes Suzuki. 

My favorite moment of the match - which might sound odd - is how he handled a failing prop spot: Wayne brought the doors into the match, and as Effy was setting up a door on a couple folding chairs and trying to keep Wayne on them, the door just fell off the chairs. As the fans were jeering the extended spot set up, Effy just did the most hilarious hurrr durrrr face with a funny dance to accompany it, immediately shutting down any potential derision. Now, the *craziest* moment came right after, when Effy went up top and Wayne got up way too quick to catch him with a Spanish Fly. Wayne got up so quick that Effy's feet weren't squared up, one of them looked to be slipping, and those knees were shaking hard as Wayne flipped. I was standing near the turnbuckle directly opposite them, and I swear to you I looked directly into Effy's eyes and saw the expression of a man who did not think he was properly making it over on that Spanish Fly. I thought he was going to brutally plant chin or neck first directly into the mat, but somehow he made it over (not really through the table, instead going off course and flattening one of the chairs). People were going nuts after that Fly, and I know I'm not the only one there who thought we almost witnessed an opening match murder. 

Jordan Oliver vs. Jack Cartwheel

ER: The only thing really worth remembering about this match is the bananas finish, but honestly on a show like this having the most GIFable finish is way more valuable than just having a good match. This was a match that I really didn't care for as I wanted to see Cartwheel get punished for his frequent cartwheeling and I don't think it got there. I did not need to see these two working multiple stand and trade spots and reversals of reversals over a too long 15 minutes, and I could not believe how many Cartwheels Jack got away with. We had to have seen at least a dozen of them (conservative estimate) and every single time I wanted them to end with Oliver cutting them off HARD. I like Oliver and liked when he did get stiff with Jack, but Cartwheel is like a bad Dynamite Kid, only replacing the crisp execution and crippling alcoholism with cartwheels. This match felt like it was peaking to a finish, and then kept going, then went to more slapping and missed its window. However, the finish is something that only the most joyless wouldn't pop for, as Oliver bounced Cartwheel off the top rope with a front suplex and then caught Cartwheel on the rebound with a sitout powerbomb, fundamentally erasing the previous 15 minutes from my brain by finishing with the far and away coolest thing they were capable of doing.  

Allie Katch vs. Kidd Bandit

ER: I would be plenty happy never watching another Kidd Bandit match ever again. I hate a babyface whose only quality is being cute, and this was some next level eye rolling uwu waifu horseshit. I wanted to see them get the shit kicked out of them but instead we mostly got them doing simp fingers, making Allie sell for an eternity while they posed, then posed some more, then did a shitty stunner and 619. Her kicks couldn't break paper and Allie was insanely generous selling for any of it. The best parts were Allie trying to snap Bandit in half with a Boston crab and battering her in the corner with a lariat, hip bump, and big cannonball. I did like Allie's match finishing piledriver, draping Bandit over the ropes and sitting back with it, but Kidd Bandit's act is 100% not aimed at me and that is fine. I do not want to be a member of that club. 

Jimmy Lloyd vs. Masha Slamovich

ER: Out of everyone on the show, I think my friends left this show as bigger fans of Jimmy Lloyd than anyone else. They liked plenty of people on the card, but the different boy just connects...differently. I was excited for Masha/Busick - the originally scheduled match - but this was a fine replacement. I dug the story of Jimmy trying to outpower Masha at the outset with a powerbomb, but when all it did was fire her up, going immediately to the weapons and pushing things to more dangerous places (and Masha being totally fine being pushed there). The floor brawl was cool and lead to some nasty spots, with both throwing chairs (Lloyd is someone who is going to lean into chair shots), Masha running up the apron with a tornado DDT on the floor, and Lloyd hitting a nutso death valley driver off the apron through a door. They broke some doors in this one, and when they took it back in the ring was when Lloyd started breaking out his biggest bumps. He was really good at selling and taking damage from the smaller Masha, never feeling like he was overbumping and mostly selling her shots appropriately. When he flies into a door, it's because he got hit with a high impact missile dropkick that sent him flying across the ring. 

Masha didn't escape damage, as Lloyd powerbombed her across a trash can and brother, that trash can barely took any damage. The can won that battle, and Masha's future back problems will be testament to that. Lloyd leaned face first into her running kicks, took and sold a nasty suplex across an open chair, even took a piledriver onto some open chairs. We don't get to see a lot of classic piledrivers in wrestling these days, so seeing one dropping a guy head and neck through a chair is insane, and I love how she finished with another one right after. It's hard not to be a fan of the different boy after this match, and the boy came off even more lovable later in the night when my friends kept seeing him in the crowd, not always knowing if it was Lloyd or any one of a couple dozen wrestling fans who look exactly like Lloyd. After the show, when most wrestlers were hanging around ringside and the merch area selling polaroids and gear, Lloyd was just chilling in the crowd sitting alone. A different boy even among peers. 

Titus Alexander vs. Midas Kreed

ER: This was kind of a local showcase, although I'm not sure you'll be able to call Titus a local guy much longer, as clearly bigger things await him. The Bay Area scene is not where you stay if you want to grow your career, all the big ones get out and move east. Titus stood out in a big way on this card just by actually working heel, doing things that got actual heat, and sticking to it. He wasn't out looking for MJF "I'm a HEEL" type heat, he did some actual hateful stuff like getting right in the face of the female ref when she made him break a count. He moved into her personal space so quickly that I think it actually caught a lot of the crowd off guard and really got them turned against him. Titus knew how to get heel heat and comedy heat, which is an important distinction. He was good at setting up spots and not paying them off with what the crowd wanted, like clearing a section of crowd to throw Kreed through chairs, only to throw him right back into the ring instead. It's an old trick, but one I'll laugh about every time. It's an especially funny trick in GCW, since every person in the crowd knows there's a chance any match will spill into the crowd and a minimum four guys are going to get thrown through a section of chairs. 

Kreed had some flashy stuff, like a 450 splash that connected (even though he's a small guy) and a really cool pendulum swing reverse DDT that Titus took right on the back of his head. It was like a Sliced Bread, only Alexander really got drilled into the mat. Alexander has a nice moveset: a spinebuster, a couple kneelifts to the face, and a big rolling Chaos Theory German suplex that threw Kreed across the entire ring. These guys were probably the least known on the show, and post-intermission is sometimes a rough spot to connect to a crowd (which typically correlates with how long the intermission is, and this one wasn't bad at all), but these two won the crowd over pretty quickly. 

Matthew Justice/Mance Warner/AJ Gray vs. Juicy Finau/Journey Fatu/D-Rogue

ER: I was excited to see my boy Justice live. I've seen him a couple of times live, and I just really connect with him as a big time babyface. He wasn't really a babyface here, but he's got that same kind of working man's charisma that Jimmy Lloyd has, that same kind of guy who will bleed and wreck his body for the fans, with the major difference being that Matt Justice fucks. He also did not let me down, as he hit some of the absolute LOUDEST chair shots I have ever heard. He was pasting these Islanders with shots (even broke a cane over someone's head!), hitting them so hard in the head and back that I bet his hands were getting hurt just as badly. Justice wasn't just wrecking people with chairs, he also caught a big D-Rogue dive and got flattened by a Juicy splash from the middle buckle. When Juicy told the crowd he was gonna hit a 450, he climbed to the middle buckle and slapped his belly: "THIS...is 450" and then made Justice disappear beneath girth. Earlier, Juicy had threatened to do a dive to the floor, and Mancer got on the house mic and said he had a bad leg and there was no fucking way he was going to stand there and catch that motherfucker's dive. Jacob was gone, but honestly Journey isn't much of a step down in quality. He hung in for stiff shots, ran Gray through a door with a running powerslam, threw headbutts, basically everything I would have expected from Jacob. 

All the stuff in the ring was even crazier than the stuff on the floor. SGC combined forces to suplex Juicy through a table, Gray threw his lariat as hard as possible at Juicy, Justice and Mancer made the perfect bug eyed dumb faces when Juicy grabbed them in Tongan death grips, and we got a cool finish with Justice and Gray nailing D-Rogue with Superfly splashes from opposite corners. The deservedly loudest pop of the match was when Mancer wasted Journey with an unprotected chair shot to the dome, and Journey roared his way through it because, well, the brother is Samoan. This was probably my favorite match of the night, a great mix of violence and personality and big spots. 

Dark Sheik vs. Joey Janela

ER: I am not a big fan of these 20 minute Joey Janela matches, but I recognize that I am likely in the minority, and even though they had the longest match on the card they managed to keep the crowd's interest for all of it. That means something. Still, this felt like a match that was about to wrap up around 12 minutes in, so of course it shot right past that window and yep, we were locked into 20 minutes of move trading, back and forth. If you have the offense to fill 20 minutes of time then more power to you, but a lot of times there felt like no rhyme or reason as to who was in control. Joey catches her with a kind of blue thunder bomb, and moments later Joey is eating a big Sliced Bread on the apron. Joey eats a brainbuster and big guillotine legdrop, but Joey is the one setting up the prop spots just moments later. There was some entertaining bullshit with Dark Sheik's valet, SF drag star Pollo Del Mar, that ended with Del Mar putting Janela through a table with a powerbomb. At the start of the match Janela had hit her with a cheapshot and this was a good way to pay that off. 

After the powerbomb, Sheik hit a big coast to coast missile dropkick, and that's what I thought would be the finish. You know, the cheapshot at the beginning got paid off in a big way, Sheik hit a big impressive finisher, felt like a good time to end all of this. But we still needed another 9 minutes of prop set-up, bad strike exchanges, and even worse kneeling strike exchanges! Janela did hit an insane running elbowdrop through a table, running from the stage and leaping  FAR off it, far enough that I wasn't actually sure he would clear the distance. Great spot. It looked like Janela would pull this whole thing off after a piledriver and top rope double stomp, but nah, we needed to get to some of that kneel and trade that never looks good. If I remember correctly, Janela eventually lost when he suplexed Sheik through some chairs, and Sheik just wound up pinning Janela. They went all out and had a bunch of big moves, and that's great, but man was I ready for this to be over and done with long before we got there. 

Minoru Suzuki vs. Speedball Mike Bailey

ER: When we got to the venue (The Midway, great building for wrestling that I had never been to before) and started wandering around scoping out a spot to stand, one of the first things I noticed was Suzuki just hanging out by the bar, leaning against it and silently surveying the growing crowd. He was wearing a track suit with his name on it, and a sunbeam was coming down from a skylight, giving him a perfect spotlight to lounge in. I swear, I didn't see another sunbeam shining into that entire (large) venue, and here's Suzuki basking in his own personal warm glow. 

Suzuki has a pretty great thing going with his US appearances. He knows what the fans want to see, and he knows the exact bare minimum he can do to scrape by while still leaving everyone happy and excited that they got to see Minoru Suzuki live. Sometimes you get forearm exchange/silly faces Suzuki, sometimes you get that plus a little extra. I think we got the latter. There were a lot of forearm exchanges (way too many), and you can see his personal formula for them when you're watching up close. He throws 90% of his shots totally worked, but knows to payoff his killshots with real stiff killshots. This leads to a bunch of dull exchange where guys are pulling everything and meandering through their 5th, 8th, who knows how many stand and trade sequences, but they always end with an absolute jawbreaker. It's like Suzuki is using George Costanza's High Note Theory, where he knows he can sleepwalk through most of an exchange before throwing one tooth loosener, and everyone will mostly just remember all the big endings to those endless exchanges. I really liked some of their mat exchanges, and thought this would have been a lot more fun if Suzuki kept tying Bailey up with arm and wrist work, leading to Bailey forgoing his arm and just attacking with kicks. We didn't get that, but I would have liked that. 

Suzuki had a hilarious misread of the room, as he kept getting into the female ref's face when she asked him to break holds, I guess thinking that him telling a woman to get out of his face was going to get him cheered? After Titus Alexander used the exact same thing to draw strong heel heat just a couple matches earlier, it was completely brainless to go in thinking he'd get anything but awkward reactions for backing down a much smaller woman. He won them back pretty easily with a funny spot where he ducked a couple of Bailey head kicks, stuck out his tongue to mock Bailey, and then got kicked in the face. Bailey had a few cool spin kicks that stopped Suzuki cold, a couple to the chest and one that wrapped around his head. He also hit a big moonsault to the floor and had a near fall off his flipping double kneedrop that got me to bite. Bailey wound up missing the same kneedrop, only off the top rope, mine own knees crying out in eternal pain just witnessing it, and Suzuki planted him with his Gotch piledriver. The match had far too many strike exchanges, but I don't think it would have been as bad if four of the other matches hadn't had the exact same strike exchanges. If you're on the undercard of a show Suzuki is headlining, it seems pretty dumb to have a shitty stand and trade sequence in your match, but that did not slow down all of the worst strikers on the show! Even thinking that a lot of the strike exchanging in this match was cumbersome, I can't deny that this was a bigger Suzuki performance than I was expecting. The guy is a legend and has some of the most contagious charisma in wrestling, and I couldn't be happier that he's getting the biggest paydays of his life while basking in sunbeams. 

After the show we battled the strongest winds I have ever personally experienced in San Francisco, and drove a couple miles to go to one of the great SF restaurants, Papito. Papito is a great taqueria with a French chef owner-operator, and this is the first time I'd been to their new location (around the corner from their old location). My favorite music venue in SF (maybe anywhere?) is Bottom of the Hill, and Papito is a nice steep uphill walk a few blocks away from B.O.T.H. As I have not been to any concerts in SF since March 2020, I have not been this close to Papito in over two years. The original location would have been a logistical nightmare with a five person party as there were only a few tables inside. Now they have 3-4x the space and we were seated immediately. Glorious. I filled up on their excellent chips and salsa, ruining my appetite for their incredible hamburguesa, one of the greatest burgers I have had in my lifetime. My plan, however, was ingenious, as I took most of my burger home and wolfed it down the next night, regretting not requesting some of their orange salsa to go. 

As I was the driver on this trip and therefore chose what we listened to, my friends' ears were blessed by a 3-2 Giants victory on the radio, some Gene Vincent, Grateful Dead's excellent 4/8/72 show at Wembley Empire Pool (with awesome tonally shifting 30 minute Dark Star, among other highlights), The Brides of Funkenstein's disco classic Never Buy Texas From a Cowboy, and Charlotte Adigery's amazing new album Topical Dancer. 

Even though this was not the card I wanted, there was not one person in our group who was disappointed by this show. Even the matches that were firmly Not For Me had memorable moments, and the people I was excited to see totally delivered. Every one of my pals had a great time too, and when GCW announced they would be returning in July, we made plans to do it all over again. 

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Danielson vs. Suzuki

Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki AEW Rampage 10/15

PAS: Bryan seems very excited to try his hand at 2010s New Japan style matches and while I am probably a low voter on that style and would rather see him tapping any other vein, if you are going to watch a 2010s New Japan style match your American Dragon version is going to be your best version. If I die never seeing another fighting spirit strike exchange I will die happy, but this is probably the best case scenario. Suzuki is great at pulling wacko faces every time he throws and gets hit, and Danielson is a tremendous seller of concussive blows and is perfectly willing to try to take Suzuki's head off. Suzuki has been doing that KO elbow around the horn in his touring US matches, but the one he hit on Danielson was gnarly. Danielson's real life concussion history is weirdly a boon to his matches, as it makes every big head shot and bump feel like the one that is going to make him a vegetable. I of course loved the grappling, as Suzuki is great at takedown and submission defense, like a great MMA wrestler who is going to use his wrestling to keep a fight on its feet, and I loved him stepping out and stuffing Danielson only to have his cockiness cost him. Finish run was very cool, and they definitely delivered on what was promised. I would have rather seen this look like a PWFG fight, but for what they did they did it well. 

ER: I'm really loving Danielson's This Is Your Life run in AEW and pretty much want it to last forever, with them just running back the best match-ups every 5 years like an aging wrestler Sunrise Trilogy. These two crossed paths a few times over 15 years ago across a few months of New Japan tours, and even had a singles match. But Suzuki was a completely different wrestler and Wrestling Personality in 2004. Suzuki had barely been back in wrestling for a year at that point after taking a full decade off after PWFG. His return to New Japan after nearly 15 years was more of a curiosity than the return of a legend. He was presented as different than a pro wrestler but was a memorable attraction, not a star. His star turned much bigger over the next decade, and he's never had a bigger name in America than at the announcement of this match. Suzuki hadn't even faced Mecha Mummy the last time he and Danielson crossed paths. 

I liked this match but it didn't feel like a great match the way Danielson/Omega and especially Danielson/Kingston felt. This was more of a spectacle than a great match, and was more of a collection of moments and spots that fans of Danielson and Suzuki would want to see. Danielson and Kingston crafted a brilliant match, and Danielson/Suzuki knew exactly what moments the crowd wanted to see. It's a different goal but each exactly what their audience wanted. The match as a whole was best when it was them working more PWFG, like that fast grappling that lead to a disgusting Fujiwara from Suzuki or Suzuki pulling leverage over Danielson's wrist and elbow. But we also had a lot of strike exchange moments that needed to be carried by the charisma of both men. I don't think most strike exchanges are sustainable for as long as these two were throwing at each other (and I thought every back and forth exchange in this match went too long) and so you need Suzuki's wild faces that play to the whole arena, and you need Danielson's selling for them to work. Suzuki was great at making the big shots mean more than the back/forth metronome strikes, and his two biggest elbows looked like he was aiming to give Danielson another 4 year vacation. Danielson is a focused lunatic and I love how he kept after Suzuki no matter how hard the kicks and elbows were, from cool slick offense like his sliding ankle pick attempt, to the way that big smile would break out on his face as he stalked his way into throwing a hard kick. Suzuki really made the finish work for me, as he just leans unprotected face first into Danielson's knee, two tough guys who slugged out until one stayed down. 

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Eddie Kingston Don't Do Math, Eight Million in Ice

Eddie Kingston/Penta El 0M vs. The Young Bucks AEW Dynamite 7/7/21 - GREAT 

ER: I didn't like this as much as their straight tag the week before. That was a really well built classic tag with some hot moments. This was a full bullshit stunt show, with WAY bigger spots but not really any kind of satisfying build. This was a stunt show, and they hit some big stunts. It was clear there would be a ton of BS from the start, when they work Michael Nakazawa into an early superkick spot and Brandon Cutler is running around with cold spray, so there was always this weird mix of stooge comedy and violence. It's odd to have guys taking really dangerous bumps while seconds later having Cutler make dangerous bumps look silly by making funny faces through them, but the frenetic energy also added to the presentation. This was closer to a big ECW tag where tertiary people run in throughout just to take bad bumps, and the bad bumps here were bad. There are nasty small things, like Nick landing with a thwack into a chair on a drop toehold, up to bigger things like Kingston getting powerbombed onto a flat table, and then up to Matt Jackson taking a flipping piledriver off the apron through a table. I like smart dumb stuff like Nick hitting a 450 on the referee when the Bucks were falling behind, real fun dumb guy logic that buoyed this whole thing. Kingston brings thumbtacks and he takes the nastiest stuff, like getting a big handful of tacks thrown into his face, or tacks shoved into his mouth before a double superkick. The whole thing was a runaway train and part of a great show finishing fireworks display. 

Eddie Kingston/Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki/Lance Archer AEW Rampage 9/22 (Aired 9/24/21) - FUN

ER: A Lights Out, Anything Goes match where 75% of the combatants just hit each other with uninspired weapon shots. Eddie Kingston was the only one who was bringing any kind of passion to this fight, jumping and tearing his shirt, rushing headlong into a fight with Suzuki. Seeing the personalities of Suzuki and Kingston opposite each other is a large part of this match's thrill, so obviously I'm going to love seeing Suzuki kick Kingston through a table, but it wasn't enough. A lot of the match had such a huge disconnect, with Archer being unsurprisingly the biggest problem. Much of this Anything Goes fighting felt more like guys throwing really bad strikes while waiting for someone else to get into position for something that wasn't going to look that good. It's a series of false starts without any of their ideas building to a satisfying payoff. 

Moxley gets chokeslammed to the floor into a bunch of guys who came out to catch that chokeslam to the floor; Archer wraps his belt around Moxley's neck but when we come back from break Moxley's hands were tied and the belt was no longer around his neck. Suzuki spent a lot of time grabbing half ass submissions before letting them go, like a lightly applied single leg crab that Moxley wouldn't have even been able to defend, but it goes nowhere. Kingston's fire is the only thing that keeps this watchable, bursting back into the ring with his arm hanging limp at his side (I love when King charges into a fight brazenly wearing his injuries) and breaks a hold with an eye poke. We get a great moment where Homicide returns but then immediately fumbles around with a chair (I swear Homicide always has the absolute worst luck with inanimate objects in big moments), and Archer manages to make the finish look like, ahem, trash. When Kingston has Archer inside a trash can lid and Archer doesn't start selling kendo stick shots until the 4th one in, you know you're just dealing with a guy who has no idea how to work a match like this. Some fun moments, but a major letdown.

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Fujiwara Family: Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi 6/25/92

PWFG 6/25/92

ER: This show starts with some nice tributes and an in ring 10 bell salute to Masami Soranaka, a Gotch trained shootstyle pioneer who - like Fujiwara -  was a legit martial artist. He and Fujiwara both practiced judo, and Soranaka was a karate guy who began recruiting people for UWF by looking at martial arts tournaments. He was a lower rung wrestler in the first couple years of UWF, a guy who lost 95% of his matches yet owned a win over Fujiwara. He was a trainer, referee, and almost surely a tough guy running buddy of Fujiwara. He feels like a guy who Segunda Caida would at least pretend to like even if he was boring (if there was more footage of him). Bart Vale relates a kind of touching hollow eyed memory of Soranaka, who had recruited him to fight in Japan after meeting him in a Florida mall.


Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa

PAS: This was right around the point where Jerry Flynn got really good and he was great in this. Yanagisawa was a replacement level PWFG guy at this point, wasn't going to hurt you, wasn't going to do a ton to help you, so this match was made by Flynn. He throws great looking winging kicks to the stomach, scrambles nicely on the ground and slips neatly into a tight rear naked choke for a rope break and a wrist lock side headlock choke for the win. Flynn probably made a nice living in WCW, but I would have loved to see what he would have done sticking around this group for a bit longer. I imagine he would have made an awesome BattlArts gaijin.

ER: I'm with Phil, as I think Flynn would have put on some genuine classics in RINGS or BattlArts had he stuck around instead of being a very fun WCW Saturday Night surprise. But he looks strong and impressively cool here, expertly wearing down Yanagisawa and finishing the moment he felt remotely threatened. He was great at deflecting Yanagisawa's strikes and controlling the distance with his long legs and straight kicks. He hits a pair of solebutts that knock Yanagisawa far across the ring and almost knocks his lunch far out of his stomach. He is a bulldog on kneebars, hanging on and making it look effortless as Yanagisawa scrambles for ropes. He locks on snug headlocks and side triangles, and gets a nice rear naked choke to convincingly almost finish the rookie. Yanagisawa doesn't show a ton here but he's a tall guy and I remember enjoying him in early 2000s New Japan (a nice deep cut shoot style get for NJ). He fires up after getting up at 9 off that choke, then charges in with kicks to the body and some actual passion. Flynn effectively blocks many of them and at first split second opportunity shoots a double leg, then cranks on a twisting choke while twisting Yanagisawa's arm between his thighs. Flynn would be viewed a lot differently if he had a later shootstyle run in any of the Japanese feds, or had he been paired in WCW with Finlay, Regal, and Dave Taylor instead of Brian Knobbs and Hugh Morrus.  

Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuki Ishikawa 

PAS: This is baby Ishikawa in his third match wearing a flat top, and is basically there to show spunk and get smashed, both of which he does. Suzuki throws some rude elbows to the back of the head and pretty much takes all four minutes of this. Cool chance to see one of the all-time greats when he was in short pants.

ER: I have never seen Yuki Ishikawa so young, and it's great! He has a crewcut and is more muscular than I've ever seen him. He also keeps sticking his hand into the unforgiving razor sharp machinery that is Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki is younger than Ishikawa but has several years of shootstyle experience on him and sets out to successfully steamroll him. Ishikawa is wearing aquamarine tiger stripe trunks, kneepads, kickpads, and boots, and I mourn for him. He could have made the aquamarine tiger stripes iconic, but Ogawa was the only man brave enough to stick with the animal stripes. Suzuki blasts Ishikawa with palm strikes to the back of the head and kicks the hell out of him while downed. Suzuki hits those Kurisu level kicks that make you feel better watching this way into the future, when you know Yuki Ishikawa is still a fine functioning human being. Ishikawa hangs in as gamely as he can, but Suzuki basically takes his lunch money and finishes it right when he wanted to with a nasty choke. Ishikawa got slaughtered here, but there was a wonderful moment in the post match where they're on their knees bowing to each other, and they get up and hug. Yuki Ishikawa has such a huge smile on his face and looks SO EXCITED to be doing what he's doing, even though he just got a major one sided beating (the quickest most one-sided beating of his entire rookie year). At one point Suzuki was standing directly on his face, grinding it into the mat. But look at Ishikawa's face after the match and you can clearly see why he is still in the game, dedicating over half his life to shoot style pro wrestling. He loves it so much.  

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazuo Takahashi 

PAS:  This theoretically should have been more competitive. Funaki and Takahashi are closer on the pecking order than Suzuki and Ishikawa are, but this was also a one sided thumping. Funaki really did come off like a star, dancing on the balls of his feet in the striking, landing a couple of short counter shots to looping Takahashi strikes which dropped Takahashi. He actually reminded me a lot of Connor McGregor, killer movement and the ability to beat his opponent to the punch even if his opponent throws first. Takahashi was able to get some takedowns, but even when he took him down Funaki dominated on the ground and was able to twist out his ankle for the tap out. Would have been better if Funaki hadn't eaten him up so much, but you could see why Funaki would become such a big star.

Bart Vale vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara - GREAT

PAS: Interesting match which was worked very differently then I was expecting. Vale has an amazing strip mall sensei look: mullet, mustache, American flag short, he looks more like a Danny McBride character than an actual human being. He normally wrestles like that, too, lots of big winging kung fu kicks and such. But this match was mostly grappling, with Vale using his size and power to take Fujiwara down and press on him. Fujiwara was of course able to get some slick counters attacking legs and arms, but Vale would just press on him to take away his openings and use his size. We get some striking, a sneak headbutt by Fujiwara, and some of the big Vale kicks, but this was mostly worked on the ground and mostly dominated by Vale. 

ER: There is no better description of Bart Vale than that of a Strip Mall Sensei. The man was discovered while fighting in a shopping mall martial arts tournament, and nearly every depiction of a white martial arts goof since has been patterned after Vale whether they knew it or not. The Death Punch guy in Regular Show, Rex Kwon Do, and essentially Danny McBride's entire existence. He probably missed out on being in a handful of Cannon films by just a couple years, and he feels like a guy who will one day become a meme once normal people on the internet happen across him. He's a large guy who can bull through Fujiwara's attacks and smother him, and Fujiwara is arguably at his best when he's on the defense. All my favorite moments were centered around Fujiwara catching Vale being a lummox, like when he hit an elbow to stop a charge in its tracks or kept muscling him around the mat working a Fujiwara while grinding an arm across Vale's face. I do wish a couple of the strikes used for knockdown counts looked a little better. One (maybe two) of the high kicks that sent Fujiwara to the mat didn't even make contact, and Fujiwara is someone who you can make contact with. The finish, though, I thought was great, with Vale getting a side choke with all of his weight flattening Fujiwara, not choking him to the point of passing out, but getting him right to the brink and letting him get counted down. Vale's post fight celebration was cute and came off genuine. It had that Windows '95 launch dance caucasianality to it, with handclaps and little celebratory yips, with that feeling of actual accomplishment. 

COMPLETE FUJIWARA FAMILY

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #2: Josh Barnett's Bloodsport

PAS: We really blew it by not pre-buying tickets early, Bloodsport sold out before we could buy some tickets and I assumed we were out of luck,  but the wrestling gods smiled on us and I was able to grab three seats on StubHub for half the face value.

ER: We got to go to lunch after Family Reunion and before Bloodsport, plenty of intriguing options within pleasant walking distance. We landed on a burger place that started playing Hootie upon us being seated, and Tom told a great story about an unearthed Pete Buttigieg "Dave Matthews Band in a Post 9/11 World" college op-ed that is either impossible to believe or a bit with real legs. On the walk back we pass Mr. Brickster on his way to the PATH and he's wearing a full Pac-Man screen suit with a LEGO bowtie, and our day of gushing about Brickster gains strength upon refueling. A line was already 25 deep for Bloodsport when we left, and we come back to a sardine packed White Eagle. Thank god for these assigned seats. It would have been a real shame if we had missed this. We'd never done a Mania week before (I went to some WWN shows when they played San Jose in 2015 but the week wasn't as crazy filled with events then), and had no idea some things sold out so much earlier. Phil casually mentioned as we were walking to breakfast that he had found 3 seats to Bloodsport, and from the second we were seated at our 2nd row seat I was so glad we were there live.

TKG: After Family Reunion we go get food and I see some tall guy on the opposite corner walking from PATH in pleather wrestling gear but without a roller bag, and loudly start with, “Look at that greasy haired fat faced wrestling fan, spent his money on his cosplay leather” or something like that. Eric goes “yeah that’s Davey Boy Smith Jr.”

 

Dominic Garrini vs. Phil Baroni

PAS: Baroni is pretty great at getting heat from the crowd, he was always a hatable sleaze as an MMA fighter and that translates really well to riling up an indy wrestling crowd. I liked this a bunch with Garrini having some nice sprawls to try to get Baroni on the mat, and a brutal finish with Baroni full force punching Garrini in the face. Dom was really going to prove his insanity later in the evening, but letting a MMA fighter with 11 KO wins, punch you full force in the jaw may even be nuttier then some of the bumps he took in the I Quit match.

TKG: Baroni poses and yells at audience “Yeah this is steroids” and neat as I expected Barnett’s vision to be RINGS but instead it was PRIDE. Was trying to explain Baroni to Eric, and couldn’t remember if he was a teen tanning or teen bodybuilding champion or both but the point is he is guy who totally embraces being a Long Island Teen Tanning n. Bodybuilding star, this match was all him doing the same “I’m better than this” shtick that he does in his actual MMA matches and potatoing Garinni. Garinni impressively built a match around that while eating potatoes. If Bloodsport can get some Tony Khan money Baroni/Malignaggi v Berto Bros in Tampa could be super amusing.

ER: I obviously knew Baroni from early PRIDE and UFC shows, and his name on the card excited me for the exact reasons we got here, and I didn't even know about the teenage tan 'n' bodybuilding stuff. He comes out, grinds on a woman, flexes, talks about his steroid bod, and then punches someone. Later, he came out as a second and yelled out tips while eating a PowerBar. Felt like we also could have used Matt Serra yelling tips to Pete Drago Sell. I like gi Garrini, it's a look he should pull more often. This was a quick taste but it delivered and set the tone for the show, really made me happy to be there live and so close to the action. I would have loved to see Garrini control more, threaten another tap (and he did get a cool armbar reversal), but the finish was the kind of fireworks people wanted: Baroni decked Garrini with a right hand for the near KO and then went for a mocking pinfall, then planted him with another to stop the match (after getting a nice dramatic 9 count as Garrini struggled to his feet). Baroni certainly didn't look like someone who was holding back on his KO punch, and agree with Phil that in retrospect taking to straight shots to the jaw may have been Garrini's craziest move of a day with several contenders.

JR Kratos vs. Simon Grimm

PAS: Kratos is a Nor-Cal guy who worked a couple of matches in this style in the late lamented PREMIER fed, but I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was. It was basically Grimm using his technique to try to minimize Kratos power advantage, there were some especially nasty elbows to the back of the head and ear, and some big slaps. The final mat scramble was pretty great with Grimm lifting up in Kratos's guard and raining down elbows, and Kratos transitioning into a head and arm choke. Loved the finish with Grimm using a schoolboy to grab an armbar, Kratos doing a Hughes lift for a powerbomb and wasting him with a brutal jumping forearm smash. I think this was better then any of the matches on last years show and it was only the second match.

TKG: This came out of nowhere and fuck that finish was beautiful. Kratos does the thing you want in pro/shoot hybrid match where he makes the pro-wrestling spots look as nasty as the legit spots.

ER: Kratos is primarily a Bay Area guy and is pretty popular around here, so no matter what kind of match we got I knew Phil would be touting him as my boy. Technically I was there for some *really* early Psycho Seth stuff, too, possibly even his debut way back in 2002, so this was a Bay Area represent match. Once Tom realizes both are APW guys he excitedly wonders if we might have gotten a triple threat with Moondog Moretti at one point. Seth could have crossed paths with Moretti but I think Kratos started too late. And this is weirdly seeming like Kratos' best wrestling style, as I loved his stuff in Premier and his performance in this match more than any pro style match I've ever seen from him. I thought this was great. It was a match that on paper was maybe the least match on the card, and it wound up being my 2nd favorite match of the show. I thought all the working parts were cool, dug how Grimm controlled the stand up striking (at one point he hits an open handed chop to the neck that made me scoot my chair back) with Kratos controlling more of the ground striking. Kratos had some cool takedowns including a couple where he yanked Grimm's arm through his legs and flipped him. Kratos did a good job minimizing Grimm's ground striking, maneuvering to spots where Grimm had no power, and both had some slick armbar attempts. I particularly liked Kratos pushing at Grimm's locked hands with his free boot. The jumping forearm finish was arguably the nastiest finish we saw all day, in a day filled with some nasty finishes. I've seen Kratos matches that were supposed to end in a KO stoppage that didn't really work. This worked so well it looked like Grimm would need to be helped out, and Kratos lifting up Grimm's lifeless body in case another move was needed for a stoppage was a sick touch.

Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Killer Kross

PAS: Another pretty great match which I didn't have big expectations for. They opened up with some kick boxing with Smith throwing some pretty heavy leg kicks. Kross would throw heat and did a nice job of scrambling into positions, much more competent at this then I would expect from TNA fake Batista. This is right in Davey's wheelhouse and he had some really slick takedowns and his final deadlift suplex looked great. Heck of a big boy punch out, and this show just delivered up and down the card.

TKG: DBS comes out in the shorts he wore underneath the tear away pleather pants. I remember DBS in some twitter thread agreeing with Kim Duk about an older credible style that NJ doesn’t do anymore. And thinking “hmm I wish DBS actually worked that style”. And here he is doing it and it is so much more impressive than anything else ever seen of him. This really felt like what he should be doing.

ER: Amazing that we saw DBS in the wild wearing a completely different set of ring gear while out and about. You see a guy walking the streets and taking the train wearing giant baggy pristine white vinyl pants with dog bones all over them, you assume that he's just wearing his gear and didn't feel like taking a roller bag. Then he comes out in trunks and you realize he just has custom walking around dog bone vinyls. But damn would I be so much more excited for DBS matches if he just wrestled like this guy every show. Tom turned to me right after the finish and asks "What other Davey Boy do I need to seek out?" And I responded with a non-word like "Ehhhhhhhhhhh". DBS looked like an absolutely fantastic roller and grappler for the duration of this, and the way he muscled Kross around the mat was really impressive. He really looked like he was moving a human sack of concrete at times, both guys really working the struggle. DBS even tried locking on a shoot Sharpshooter out of a scramble which was a great moment. Both guys threw nice leg kicks, Kross had a couple great Saito suplexes and DBS set up the finish with a bomb hardway backdrop suplex, drags Kross' body to the center and got the tap on a crossface. I thought some of the standing slap exchanges went too long, even though they all paid off nicely, and the throws and rolling totally overdelivered.

Masashi Takeda vs. Jonathan Gresham

PAS: Takeda is a guy who started out in Style E, BattlArts, FUTEN and U-Style before he decided to grotesquely scar himself in death matches, so he was very comfortable doing worked shoots. This was a middleweight fight and worked at a much faster pace then the rest of the show. Gresham is really skilled on the mat, and he kept moving to improve his position, while Takeda would have these almost acrobatic leaps into submission attempts. The match changes dramatically when they both spill to the floor, which opens up Takeda (honestly a sneeze might open up Takeda at this point), we get some very aggressive stand up with Gresham aiming hammer fists and slaps to the open wound and Takeda moving forward, finish was great with Takeda landing a flash knee KO. Really energetic stuff and a nice contrast with the previous match.

TKG: I've watched enough Fedor to know if a guy is made of scar tissue you should try to open that up immediately to get the stoppage. They tease a fall to floor once or twice before actually doing it and not sure how I felt about it. I liked the first match having a DQ for touching ref, Promotion establishing its own unique rules....maintain them. But once got back in the ring it got right back.

ER: I actually didn't remember Takeda as a Tamura guy. He's been a grimy death guy for so long. Is Jun Kasai an Anjo trainee? Takeda comes out and Tom asks "So this guy is a death match guy?" Takeda takes off his shirt. "Yep, that's a death match guy." Gresham's performance in this match really highlighted what a colossal disappointment that Orange Cassidy match that started our day was. There was Gresham generously letting a guy take 100% of a match with his shtick, totally thankless work, here he gets to work several cool can openers and throws down with Takeda and looks like a total badass. They made really good use of rolling to the floor (guys had been broken up while getting to the edge of the ring before this, but nobody had rolled out mid-move) and they really hit the ground hard when both took a tumble. Gresham looked really talented on the mat and I'd love to see that pop up more in his matches, and at one point he was throwing trapped hammer fists to the side of Takeda's head that were among the nastier shots of the show. The finish is the real nasty business with Takeda stunning with a strike, then rushing in with a brutal knee for the instant stoppage. That knee, man. Show was absolutely bananas at this point. We were literally sitting in our seats giggling.

Chris Dickinson vs. Andy Williams

PAS: Williams looks like a Peaky Blinders extra, and Dickinson comes right out into him and they wildly throw for a minute which really fired the crowd up. Williams gasses right after that and they move pretty quickly to the finish with Dickinson getting a choke. Short match, but the first minute was really electric.

TKG: Two guys volume punching with no defense till they couldn’t volume punch anymore is always going to be a winning formula. Two heavyweights doing it always is going to get a crowd riled up.

ER: I flew out here from California, but it's pretty cool they flew Williams in from Branson. And I somehow only found out after this weekend that Williams has been a guitarist in Every Time I Die for over 20 years, which is information that would have been much cooler to me in the early 2000s. And I think Phil and Tom are underselling this one as I thought the coolest stuff in the match came after the big throwdown opening. The throwdown is obviously cool and something we hadn't seen yet, but then you got Williams muscling up Dickinson for a powerbomb, and later a sic gutwrench that looked like it was going to be a ganso bomb, plus Dickinson throwing disgusting shots to Williams' ear and back of his head, and the finish was another classic: Dickinson works his way into a backpack choke with Williams gamely gets to his feet with Dickinson locking in the choke further. Williams knows it's locked in and does a forward roll as a desperation escape, but it doesn't work and just opens him up the rest of the way for Dickinson to lock in the choke. The final choke was a great visual as Williams spits out his mouthguard a bit before tapping, felt like the guy in Casino whose eye starts to pop out when his head is put in a vice.

Frank Mir vs. Dan Severn

PAS: Short exhibition, with Mir grabbing an arm pretty quickly for a the tap. Mir didn't show much in his pro wrestling debut, would like to see if he could provide a bit more spark with an opponent not in his sixties. Severn still looks awesome though, someone should sign him as a troubleshooting ref or something.

TKG: Not at all sure what happened here. This was weakest match on show where never made it to the next gear. Post match Mir says he’s getting into wrestling to take out Lesnar and turn Lesnar into the first pro-wrestling in ring death.

ER: I really liked what we got here, but wanted at least a couple more minutes. The finish felt a little sudden, but the work within was good. Severn is 60 and looks the same as he's looked for the last decade plus, body still looks exactly the same, and it looked cool when he dragged Mir down into a north south choke and gator rolled him. I really liked the maneuvering from both guys while Mir is trying to lock on an armbar or triangle, Mir trying to shift his hips and Severn trying to power up with his legs and advance. The heel hook finish looked really good and the application felt natural, I just wanted more stuff before we got there. At minimum, I thought it was awesome being this close to Severn.

Hideki Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: This was much closer to a MUGA match then a shootstyle match, which works perfectly to both guys strengths. Suzuki is so great at switching speeds, he will deliberately shift into position, only to snap a limb or flip into a submission.  Just everything in this match was applied so tight and twisty and every shot was thudding, Suzuki stomped Thatcher in the head and it looked like he was smashing a grape to make wine. The backbreaker/double underhook suplex finish by Suzuki was just super impactful. Between this and the Ishikawa match, Thatcher is having a monster 2019.

TKG: This wasn’t shoot style at all, this was just super tight mat wrestling and was my favorite match on the show. There was a couple enziguiri, a spinning toe hold, a bow and arrow, a desnucadora, etc...but all of them were sold meaningful. Thatcher's sell of the early toe hold and just his selling throughout left a real impression. We get so used to reversal of reversal wrestling that we forget how exciting changes of momentum can be in match where both guys are actually fighting for control, fighting to apply moves. Just lots of dramatic changes in momentum that crowd almost treated like finishes and two guys who looked completely committed to what they were doing.

ER: On paper this was the match I was most excited for this weekend, and it totally delivered everything I could have wanted it to. It would have been cool just seeing Suzuki's first and only match in the states, but having it actually live up to being the banger we all wanted was extra special. This was the most airtight match of the show, and one of the meanest MUGA matches we've seen. The headlocks and grappling alone would have made for a great match, seriously Suzuki's headlocks look like something that would pop a head right off a pair of shoulders, and it was fascinating being up close and seeing him work exchanges. Phil mentioned how Suzuki will deliberately shift into a position or move a limb to set up something different, and there are a bunch of cool examples of that here, like Suzuki trapped in a sub but moving Thatcher's calf higher up on his own thigh, which then provides him space to turn, which shifts pressure. We get moments where he digs in an elbow before passing, or applies pressure with his palm to Thatcher's knee, or smacks Thatcher in the shin. By the time Suzuki threw a stomp to the back of Thatcher's head, kicked him in the jaw, and hit a Rockette kick to the chest, they could do no wrong. Thatcher gets a nice gutwrench (love how Suzuki sold it with his arms out, like he was getting nerve pain shooting down his fingers), and when Thatcher locked in a side headlock to hit a Saito suplex I said "Uh Ohhhhh" aloud. Sure enough, Suzuki hammers down with his elbow and drops Thatcher with a backbreaker. Suzuki has done more for legitimizing the backbreaker than any wrestler I've seen. His looks like a genuine finisher and the move is actually treated as seriously as the name sounds. Great match, whole card would have been completely worth it if this were the only watchable thing we got. Instead the match had to set itself apart from a totally great show, and it easily did.

Josh Barnett vs. Minoru Suzuki

PAS: This was a match that felt like a main event. Barnett is such a hard man, and everything he did had some real force to it. First fifteen or so of this were pretty perfect as Barnett brought Suzuki back to PWFG as they were really twisting and pulling at limbs and landing big time knees, forearms and slaps. There is a little nonsense with a ref and a chair on the outside, which really felt like Suzuki taking unnecessary match short cuts. I really liked the finish of the match before the restart, and I thought it built nicely to the five more minutes, but you really need to do a finish if you are going to do a five more minutes. Going to another draw really took some steam out the match. Excellent main event for an all time great US Indy show, but I dug other stuff a bit more.

TKG: Barnett’s current look is ridiculously cool. He looks like Kurt Russell’s bad ass cousin and this match felt like main event wrestling. Everything the two did together was as good as you wanted and all the shoot near fallsish stuff, teased submission, teased going to close to the edge etc were as dramatic as anything you were going to see in wrestling. And the eventual escapes had folks on the edge.The show was excellent top to bottom but the semi and the main were the matches that really got you caught up in the drama of false finishes and changes in momentum, the pop of “is this gonna end it?”….being able to feel that drama again. Years of the goofy cliché 2.9, “one, two, nooooo” followed by three minutes of bug eyed Shawn Michaels faces "How did that not do it?, what will it take to put him away? Where in my reserves will I find what it takes?" almost killed the idea that false finish can have any emotional value. At this point I just treat it as a stock lazzo bit to fill time. Was great to experience drama of false finishes again. They work to a 20 minute draw and the crowd was excited as ending with two guys just swinging for fences while crowd counted down. I watched UWF and PWFG and have no problem with a draw finish. They did the five more minutes and it all fell apart, as they went into octopus and fighting spirit shtick. Either do the draw or do the Fujiwara guy taking a hellacious beating slips in a sub for the win. But going into horseshity overtime, hurt the match. Still this was an amazing show top to bottom and left me on a real high.

ER: This one had a real special atmosphere, with Barnett looking like the flat out coolest version of Jaime Lannister, and Suzuki bringing an impossible amount of charisma to a small room. Barnett looked leaner, more intense, and in better shape than any year during his long MMA run, and it was awesome seeing Suzuki immediately snap back into limb twisting savage. Barnett is even wearing his Inoki Genome pads, so we got a decades in the making interpromotional shootstyle war here! And there's not an easy move made in the match, everything is a fight, and by the end they both looked to have lost about 5 lb. of sweat. This was all ankle snapping heel hooks, sunk in headscissors, elbows yanked up to ears, knees driven into chests, twisted bodies trying to scramble out of chokes, and rained down palm strikes and elbows. At one point Suzuki had one of Barnett's legs grapevined, was controlling his wrist, and was shoving Barnett's free leg up towards his shoulder. Suzuki looked like he was a one man drawn & quartered machine, and it made me literally jump out of my chair and look around to make sure everybody else was seeing what I was seeing (which is in full view of the camera, my expression looking like a rube shocked by a magic trick). Honestly the match could have ended on that sub and it probably would have been stronger for it. Obviously we go past that, and get rewarded with more nasty shots and yanked limbs, but also lose some of the steam and magic that had been created. When we went to a bomb throwing countdown, I was fine with them ending on a draw (even though I was hoping Suzuki would feint his way out of the throwdown and get a last second tap with a heel hook). And the draw did lead to an undeniably great moment, as the crowd is chanting for 5 more minutes, and Suzuki looks like he's having none of it, rolling his eyes he quiets the crowd...and then calls for 5 more minutes. It was a great moment. But not really as great if we knew that it was just going to lead to another draw. The New Japan-ness of the restart didn't help, but it also didn't negate the genuinely great majority of the match. Flat finish or no, this was a tremendous live experience. It flashed in my head at one point that Suzuki might take the night off a bit, but this was among the hardest worked matches I've seen from him all decade.

ER: This should go down as a top show of the year contender, an absolutely thrilling 2 hours of pro wrestling. We put FIVE of the matches on our 2019 Ongoing Match of the Year list, and that seems like a near impossible mark to beat.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling: G1 Special in San Francisco 7/7/18

ER: I loosely considered going to this event, just because it was an hour away, but the card wasn't too interesting to me and the prices were way too prohibitive (Tim said the cheap seats were like $60, which - even if that's not true - fully prevented me from even looking further into attending this show), but I'm not someone with a very active social calendar so once I found out this show was airing on television, I figured I can spare the time to watch it. We were at a BBQ earlier, came home and it was literally 4 minutes in, figured it was a sign that I had to ruin the rest of my evening.

Sho/Yoh/Gedo/Yoshihashi/Rocky Romero vs. King Haku/Tama Tonga/Tanga Loa/Chase Owens/Yujiro Takahashi

ER: I like that they start with Haku, but it's pretty silly to have him bumping around right out of the gate for Yoshihashi. But this whole match isn't too interesting. Barely 5 minutes in and Takahashi is settling into a chinlock, which should absolutely NEVER happen when you have 10 guys in a match. Rocky Romero threw some light shoulderblocks, Gedo threw nice punches, Haku dishes a nice old man piledriver, Haku's kids were hardly in it snd they would have been the best parts of the match, Sho/Yoh had a decent double team section, but this was super short and the definition of inconsequential.

Minoru Suzuki/Zack Sabre Jr/ vs. Tomohiro Ishii/Toru Yano

ER:  I have next to no use for Yano, which is a shame as he really muddles up the works here. I love Sabre but seeing him do his thing against Yano is just the least interesting opponent. Things get better once Ishii is scraping his boot all over Suzuki's face and head, but their opening forearm exchange is uber uninteresting. Sabre comes up with a couple fun ways to block Yano's horseshoe, but this match also feels super inconsequential. Everything has so far felt like guys goofing off until it's time for the finish, which is a terrible way to start a show. Maybe there were people there live that were super excited to see Yano's schtick (he does clearly have fans), but I would feel majorly ripped off at this point.

Marty Scurll/Hangman Page vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi/KUSHIDA

ER: When you see two straight clunkers, and the next thing you hear is "Coming up next, Marty Scurll", that's when you know that you've made a series of awful choices in your evening. We were at a BBQ later, and that was okay, and now we're here and this is less than okay. This whole show feels like a house show, with wrestlers who don't understand how to make a house show interesting. WWE house shows are some of the more interesting and fun shows I've been to, and these guys all seem to think they're really charming and can survive on coasting, but most guys on this show actually have really awful schtick. I think Page and Scurll's schtick is "our offense hits really poorly" then they're actually really good at it. Page's shooting star shoulderblock off the apron is a top contender for Dumbest Wrestling Moves Ever Performed. Page's early 2000s indie offense finishes things, and this show is a heaping crap pile so far. Matches have all ended abruptly and without much interesting happening, an easy 0 for 3 so far.

Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto

ER: I have higher hopes for this one, and it delivers early with some nice shoulderblocks and one of the flat out coolest belly to belly suplexes any of us have ever seen. Cobb catches Goto, spins around a couple times to find his angle, ducks down into a deep squat, then throws him straight overhead. There's some crazy strength involved here, and it looked awesome. Cobb also takes a nice posting on the floor, and I'm into this. Cobb keeps things interesting, breaking free of a Goto headlock to hit a nice impactful dropkick, nice leaping forearm in the corner, and a cool swinging Saito suplex. Goto has some early 2000s indie offense of his own, and there are many guys in modern New Japan who feel like Ric Blade, just dropping guys sloppily onto his own knee or clotheslining someone stupidly into his own leg or slamming his leg in a car door to own the libs or some stupid shit. I liked the Cobb running wild portions of this, and the Goto control segments where much less interesting. This was still the only thing worth watching so far.

Sanada/EVIL vs. Young Bucks

ER: We run through a lot of crowd pleasing stuff early, a spot where each legal man knocks the opposing partner off the apron, a series of missed elbow drops and sentons, a four person submission, just a bunch of guys working a series of bits. I wish Sanada and EVIL were a little more aggressive while beating down the Bucks. Sanada is a guy I like but he seems a little tentative here. Nick is super smooth in all his work around the apron, but the NJ guys seem a little slow on the timing spots. We still get the timing stuff delivered, there's just a little hesitation. I like Sanada's dragon sleeper giant swing, that's a great spot, but he's arriving to his mark too early to take Bucks' spots and it's pulling back the curtain on this seeming like too much of a moves exhibition. Still I like Nick using a big rope running flipping crossbody to take out EVIL on the floor. Nick is also good at leaping into EVIL's German suplexes and take a big silly fireman's carry/sit out powerbomb, taking it all flat backed so it really landed with a dull thud. The superkicks to the ref were done well, there were a couple nice saves down the stretch, this was a good enough match, but the structure and pacing could have been better.

Bushi/Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada/Will Ospreay

ER: A not bad tag, with a few guys who are bigger than this tag, and everybody kind of works this the same way Misawa might take off a tag 4th from the top at a non-major show. The key is that most people are working this show as very much a non-major show. Ospreay has come off like a big deal recently and comes off pretty low-tier here, as he's primarily matched up with Bushi, but he should be way higher on the card than Bushi. Naito throws a couple nice kicks, and Ospreay takes Bushi's stuff with a nice snap. All of these matches feel like they're taking place a half hour into an episode of Friday Night Smackdown, but specifically a Smackdown match that's worked by people that aren't appearing on an upcoming PPV, and are given orders to not show up the upcoming PPV.

But we're getting a lot of Eddie Trunk commercials.

Dragon Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi

ER: I'm shocked that they aren't constantly referring to this as the new generation Rey/Psicosis, seems like an easy get that JR would go to often. And we start with a wild Lee rana from the ring to Hiromu on the apron, and follow that up with a fast Lee tope. You just kind of have to decide whose offense you like more and root for the match that way, because there are going to be several times where you're annoyed that someone bounced back to his feet too quickly. Takahashi breaks out some crazy stuff, hitting hard on dropkicks, launching an especially nutty dropkick off the apron, then hitting the big standing senton to the floor. It's a greatest hits collection, but the crowd is a greatest hits crowd. By the time the two of them are trading big German suplexes, I don't care anyway. "These are restaurant quality suplexes, I assure you," says JR, and nobody has any fucking clue what he's assuring us of. You'll care even less about the forearm trading, but Lee will fly stupidly into the turnbuckles off a suplex. The match reaches full retard status when Lee bounces Takahashi headfirst across the mat on a package suplex, I mean literally headfirst, bounced off the mat. Doesn't matter too much, he won a minute later, off of what looked like one of the weakest moves of the match. That appears to be the New Japan way. "Do a bunch of dangerous shit, win with a weak lariat or a light backbreaker."

Juice Robinson vs. Jay White

ER: This works out of the gate because both guys are cool getting thrown violently into the ring barricades, with Juice especially flying hard into it. White needs someone willing to violently throw themselves into things, or else his whole being does not work, but luckily Juice appears to be this guy, throwing himself into the turnbuckles on a suplex and is good at taking a beating. Juice has a broken bandaged up left hand, and he's a southpaw, so we get a lot of stuff with White being a dick and going after the hand. On the floor and Juice takes a nice bump into the post, and then eats a nasty snap suplex into the barricade that actually knocks JR out of his seat, and that leads to Josh Barnett getting into the ring. White plays it nicely and both JR and Barnett are weirdly swearing on commentary, but White was hilarious acting like a smug prick for knocking over JR. Getting another 19 count out spot is a bit much on the same show (there was literally one in the previous match), but Juice is killing himself to make this match work, and White's cold heel demeanor is working off it. The stuff around Juice's left hand is a little too hokey though. Normally I'm a big fan of an injured taped up body part unable to be used, and the heel opponent using that to his advantage, but they integrate it a couple of really clunky ways using Red Shoes (Red Shoes acting too broad and hammy on a spot? Weird), it all could have been stronger. We do get a couple good nearfalls, and it was nice seeing Juice get the win. It was pretty easily the best match on the card so far, but there has also been a lot of very bad wrestling on the card so far.

Cody vs. Kenny Omega

ER: I appreciate the pomp, love Cody coming out in this grade school Roman cape, accompanied by Brandi and some lesser thans to carry him to the ring. His act works best with Brandi, and even if she's not great at ringside like Zelina, her presence can still be strong. It's great to see Cody doing totally shithead things like pulling her in front of him so Omega doesn't finish a dive. We get a lot of brawling on the floor, and it's pretty good. Guys have been taking nasty throws into railings tonight, feels like those things aren't tied down in any way. Juice in the prior match looked like he was bursting through them like the Kool Aid Man. But Kenny brings in a table and my god does it look incredibly painful when he does a flying double stomp to Cody. I was digging it up to this point, but they lost me with some of the trading and overkill, seems like Omega really wants to make his big thigh slap knee look as weak as possible, he throws it out so often and it can look great, but it never feels like a nearfall move anymore. You get nice bits of stuff, like a big flip dive from Omega and a nice headscissors, but I'm sick of stuff like trading dragon suplexes. Almost 20 years ago when I was sitting at home playing Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 and blowing off classes, the dragon suplex felt like a move that nobody could possibly even survive, let alone kick out from.

A ladder gets involved and I like some of the fighting around the ladder, liked the ladder used as a prop that you could get slammed into, but the climbing stuff didn't work for me, even though the two craziest spots in the match all happened because of them climbing that damn ladder. Cody's superplex  off the ladder was a thing of beauty, and I liked how we forgot about the table still sitting out on the floor, unbroken, waiting in position. I definitely could have done without the involvement of Red Shoes and his acting abilities, and they made sure all the worst elements of that dude were on display for the final 10 minutes. And I still cannot stand the one-winged angel, the fact that when an opponent looks like he can be put away Omega needs to go "Cool but let me try to bury my head inside his ass for a bit first", and as I'm talking about how stupid the move is, Omega does something far more violent and powerbombs Cody from the ring "through" the table on the floor, but the powerbomb falls a little short and Cody basically bounces off the table and straight to the floor. I enjoyed the drama with Brandi putting her body in front of Cody's to stop a V-Trigger, but really could have done without some last minute elbow trade offs. The underhook piledriver looked good and is far more plausible than burying your head in someone's ass until they're vertically up on your shoulders, but it was fine. The match went long and to their credit it didn't feel too stretched out. Behind Juice/White it was definitely the best of what's left.


ER: Well I'm not bummed at all that I didn't pay money to see this live, but the presentation was simple and nice, and at least the final 3 matches felt like the workers were treating this like a big show. A few of the big stars were there but clearly didn't show up, and I think I like that Juice match because of that. We get a bunch of guys taking the night off, and Juice shows up and throws himself wildly through guardrails and into suplexes. An awesome performance, with some unexpectedly fun Josh Barnett threats right in the middle of the match! NJPW bringing in Barnett to work a series would be more interesting to me than most of their options. But I genuinely loved the beatdown to close out this show. That was arguably my favorite thing we got to see. Tama Tonga is awesome and one of the more underutilized guys on the roster, one of the NJ guys I actually go out of my way to see. Tama and Tanga looked great dismantling everyone, and even though he's 60 Haku has an undeniable presence and looked intense while stomping guys out. Haku would be an awesome addition as the third man in trios, and I'm really curious to see some high level Tama matches, see how he can step it up with the big opportunity.

So, overall I wouldn't recommend the show. But the big singles matches all delivered (and even though I got bored with Lee/Takahashi, I guarantee most in attendance got exactly the Lee/Takahashi match they wanted, so good for them) and the show ending angle couldn't have been hotter, so it was a show that definitely got better as it went on.

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Wrestlemania Weekend Thursday: Matt Riddle's Bloodsport

For those that don't know this was a no-ropes show with every match being submission or KO. It lost a little shine for me when Low-Ki canceled, but this is still full of guys I dig in a style I love

KTB vs. Dominic Garinni

PAS: Really fun short intro to this style. KTB isn't going to be comfortable exchanging holds with a Ju-Jitsu champion, but I did think he showed nice explosiveness on his takedowns, and I loved the little short jab he threw. Finish was really great with KTB dropping Dom with a jab and diving on him, only to get caught in a triangle choke for the tap. Cool flash finish, very Fujiwarish, which is a style that works well for Dominic, I really like him as a guy who can tap anyone, anytime.

Eddie Kingston vs. Tracy Williams

PAS: I liked this a lot too, Kingston is great as the unpolished guy who is just going to fight his way out of submissions with grit rather then technique. Williams is tying him up with leg locks and King is just looking for faces to punch.Told a very cool little story. I have no idea why Riddle was working as Eddie's second, but he is a great second. Neat finish with Kingston able to get to get to his feet, Williams runs right into a knee and King rocks him with shots and drops him with a backfist. Neat stuff and I need to track down their AIW match.

Martin Stone vs. Masada

PAS: First real miss of this show, they really should have thrown this out and had a fist fight, but they tried to grapple and that isn't up either guys alley. This was also marred by some really weird ref shit, Bryce Remsberg reffed half the matches, but the kid that was doing this match didn't seem to know what he was doing, he had a couple of weird standups, and seemed to stop the match early. Whole thing was kind of a mess and the referee didn't help

WALTER vs. Filthy Tom Lawlor

PAS: Kind of funny that the UFC guy versus the multiple time AMBITION guy was the least shooty of the matches on the show. This was just a stiff fight, with WALTER lacing Lawlor with chops and Lawlor firing back with shots. It had bodyslams and Tenryu jabs and not much grappling or submission attempts, and one point WALTER even ripped off Lawlors soft cast. Finish was great with WALTER just trying to pound his fist through Lawlor's chest and then locked on an arm trap sleeper hold.  I enjoyed this a bunch, crowd was really into it, although I would have liked to see them try to work a really shootstyle match.

ER: Hot damn this was a bank filled with money. This was a short match, just 8 minutes, but wasn't worked as a sprint with them rushing to fit everything in, and yet still seemed like a complete and total match due to the stiffness and selling and personalities of both. Lawlor is a big guy but looks small next to WALTER, and WALTER treats him small. This was a beatdown to start, with Lawlor attempting to trade but getting met with expectedly nasty chops and a smothering ground attack. Before long he's ripping off Lawlor's soft cast and starts slamming that freaking arm into the mat in the most violent disgusting way. My god, man. Lawlor's selling was great throughout and his comebacks really amped this up, knowing he was likely outgunned but not giving a damn, unflinching at the thought of going down in a blaze. I dug the Tenryu chop/jab comeback, and I flipped out for Riddle's superman punch. WALTER went down in a heap, and because Lawlor is the man he then even does the Roman Reigns shotgun to set up his next one...except WALTER chops him out of air to his doom and then levels him with a short arm clothesline. Toast. Lawlor throws a Hail Mary and rolls through a WALTER choke to set up an armbar, but it is fleeting. WALTER powerbombs out of it, pounds on Lawlor's chest like Donkey Kong, and locks on the most disgusting choke, trapping Lawlor's arm behind his own head while applying a sleeper. This match was huge, total war that was short without actually feeling like anything was left out. A real gem.

Chris Dickinson vs. Dan Severn

PAS: This was the most shootstyle of the matches so far, and I really enjoyed it. It was the story of Severn using his strength to ground and slow down Dickinson and Dickinson having some real explosion and aggression when he was on his feet. Loved Dickinson's kicks to the body and Severn kidney shots. Awesome spot where Severn caught Dickinsons high kick and took him down. Match was marred with another terrible ref spot, where Dickison was in the mount raining down elbows and the ref restarted them on their feet. This allowed Severn to catch Dickinson with a german and choke him out. Clearly the ref thing is some sort of angle, and it is a stinky one, show didn't need Tirantes and it is only making matches worse.

Nick Gage vs. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: Gage is over huge with the crowd, Gage is a bit hit and miss with me as a wrestler, but what a cool story his return has been. This was fun but a bit messy. I loved Thatcher chicken winging Gage out of the ring to the floor, it was cool that they kept all of the other matches in the ring, so this was a bigger deal. Similar story here that they had for Williams vs. Kingston, although this had more heat and some ringside brawling. I did think Gage needed to lay it in a bit more, for a deranged ex-convict, his stuff can be a little weak some times, I needed him to really smash Thatcher to buy the stoppage.

Matt Riddle vs. Minoru Suzuki

PAS: I really enjoyed this, and it was easily the match of the show. This felt like a big deal, Suzuki was super over and this was a main event match. All the early grappling was cool, and felt UWFIish, more then anything else on the show. Loved all of the leverage spots around the apron, such a clever use of the no ropes gimmick with the guy on top having the advantage some of the time, and then the guy on the floor being able to gain the upper hand. Also loved the finish with Suzuki really sinking in the choke and Riddle considering hurling them both to the floor, before thinking better of it and slamming Suzuki hard, but not hard enough, down on the mat. I am bummed about Low-Ki no showing, because that could have been really special, but this was a great last minute replacement

ER: Phil has been watching hot topic (because it's a hot topic online right now, not a show promoted by a bunch of doofs in Bullet Club shirts or something) all day and texting me about it, while I've been glued to my desk finishing up my yearly Fixed Asset Certification Reports. Much like with professional sports trades, we're better off evaluating them long after the fact and then deciding who had the better day. This was the first WM weekend show I watched and it was probably one of the most anticipated, and I imagine this delivered pretty much what people wanted and went as expected. The takedown defense of Suzuki is fun, and the grappling between the two of them is a gas, and you know we get some dueling kneebars that look like they would just snap my tibia. All my favorite stuff in the match happened around the apron. Since there were no ropes they were able to do some cool leverage spots with the apron, with Suzuki pulling guard for an advantage, but it quickly turning to a disadvantage when Riddle slipped off the apron and was now standing on the floor, hammering down on Suzuki's face and body. The other perfect apron spot was the end, when Suzuki had a backpack choke on Riddle and Riddle stumbled to the edge of the apron and threatened do plunge backwards off the side, instead dropping backwards into the ring before getting choked out (and turning purple in the process). Tons of fun moments here, like their lightning fast strike exchange that saw several limbs flying at once, the battle over a slow German suplex by Riddle (followed up by a big senton), Riddle calling out a fan for cheering Suzuki, pretty much all you wanted out of this match-up.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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A Friend Loves at All Times Yoshiaki Fujiwara is Born for a Time of Adversity

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Sgt. Slaughter NJPW 5/8/81 - FUN

This is the second earliest Fujiwara match we have on tape and is a fun look at Fujiwara as a young boy (although he still looks 45). This is basically a squash, with Fujiwara getting very little offense in. Slaughter looks like a killer, nasty short punches to the temple, a huge top rope knee drop right to Fujiwara's gut (almost felt like he should have done the Invader 3 pigs blood and vodka move.) I did like how Fujiwara kept pressing the action even as he was getting smashed, but this was more of a window into the past, then a great match. Although I imagine four or so years later it would have been killer.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Minoru Suzuki BML 3/22/06 - EPIC

These two had some great matches a decade earlier in PWFG and it is really fun to watch them match up again with Suzuki as a grizzled veteran rather then a brash rookie. Opening is great with Fujiwara immediately catching a Suzuki shot with his leg grab Fujiwara armbar. The story of the match was Suzuki being arrogant, and paying for it. Suzuki sticks his tongue out at Fujiwara and Fujiwara sneak headbutts him. Suzuki smirks and Fujiwara smacks him. Finish was really exciting with Fujiwara hitting two great counters, countering Suzuki's sleeper into a Fujiwara armbar, and countering his piledriver into a second armbar, before Suzuki is able to grab an armbar of his own for the tap. Just excellent high level grappling, and it really makes me wish these guys didn't go a decade between matches.

FUJIWARA COMPLETE AND ACCURATE

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Yoshiaki Fujiwara Still Bears Fruit he is Forever Full of Sap and Green

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kazunari Murakami/Minoru Suzuki NJ 11/15/15 - EPIC

Holy hell what a war, you can tell Takayama and Fujiwara mustered everything they had left in them for one more rumble. I would love this match if it was just these four guys making faces at each other, but instead they really press the pedal down. This was worked like an old school Murakami brawl with he and Suzuki jumping Fujiwara and Takayama at the bell and really slapping them around. Suzuki wasn't pulling anything including unloading some liver shots on Fujiwara's surely seasoned liver. Finish was a perfect Fujiwara finish as expected, as the cocky prick Murakami got a little too cocky. Way exceeded expectations, this felt like a something from 15 years ago, shocked that it was still this good today.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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