August 2018

Soberano and Titan have had a couple matches against each other lately. Titan always works as the rudo in them, which may be where CMLL is going with this. They're pretty good matches though. At first, the rudo/tecnico dynamic is less marked here and Titan actually gets the better offense early on. Until Soberano hits his tornillo and throws Titan out. At this point, Titan goes back in, offers a handshake, gets a cheap shot and starts undoing Soberano's mask. It was a good way to get them to buy into Titan as rudo, which although i don't watch too much British wrestling, I think wouldn't have happened otherwise. They end up going for all the crazy offense they each have, …

A dream match that I didn't expect to happen, but never say never I suppose as this match tore the house down. Two very physical behemoths finally collided in the UK of all places, but that didn't stop either man from tearing each other apart. Even though Ishii was coming off a very exhausting G1, he didn't phone it in at all and gave a great performance that you would expect from Ishii. WALTER was very good here too as his chops resonated throughout the building multiple times. None of the chops from Ishii even came close to sounding as loud as WALTERs. I was hoping for a future WALTER vs Suzuki matchup, but that will be the next dream match I hope eventually happens, **…

This was the third match for both teams in the jr tag league. The dragon gate team had lost both matches coming in and Aoki and Sato have won both their matches and won the tourney in both 2015 and 2016. Aoki is also the jr champ so the DG team had a lot against them in this match. The best interactions in this match was between Mochi and Sato when they started it was just a barrage of palm strikes and kicks. There was a great later sequence between the two where Sato had Mochi in an armbar which he reversed into an ankle lock into a succession of nasty head kicks by Mochi. Shun has improved over the last few years he is one of the smoothest high flyers in the world,…

This match completely lives up to the hype if you are familiar with the NOAH main event style and wrestlers. Shiozaki and Sugiura are two guys who have a large history together in the company. Their most recent outings against each other were tainted by Suzuki-gun, so this was their chance to have the epic match everyone knew they could have. It's physical, it's emotional, but at no point does it get boring. Shiozaki gives his literal everything in this match, putting on a performance that you rarely see from him. This is easily the best "pure" NOAH match in years, ****3/4.

Jordan Devlin defends the OTT World Championship. Talk about it here

This was the main event to the opening night of the Stardom 5* Grand Prix. Konami put in a tremendous performance here as she takes this to the mat early and forces Kagetsu to remember that she was a Meiko Satomura trainee. Konami seems to have an answer for everything that Kagetsu throws at her in this match. If Kagetsu tries to go to mat, Konami outworks her there. If Kagetsu tries to outstrike her, Konami hits harder than her. Even when Kagetsu tries to out duel her with big moves, Konami beats her there to. Just a fantastic match to start the tournament. ****1/4

This is the Wonder of Stardom champ versus the Shimmer champ on the opening night of the 5* Grand Prix. These two ended up working together really well due to the similar styles. The match has a lot of nice back and forth switching in between strike, suplexes, and submissions. It was nice to finally see a match like this in joshi that didn't ended up with the politically mandated draw. Very entertain stuff. ***3/4

Much to my surprise, both guys had pretty good chemistry. Cole is in a place that I'm not a fan of where indie guys go to WWE and just become a catchphrase, and it worries me about his future direction. That said though, he had Ricochet in this match to completely cover that fear of mine. I can't say this was a total carry job by Ricochet, but at the same time Cole didn't do anything special aside from a few cool spots and that generic "strong style" sequence. Not the most impressive match I have seen both guys in, but it all somehow came together to be a very enjoyable match, ****1/4.

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I'm a bit unsure how to rate this as it's a strange stipulation and feels like two matches in one. 6 women start the match and it's elimination rules until we're down to 2, then it's a Texas Death Match where victory is by a pinfall and then your opponent being unable to get to their feet for a count of ten. The first 30 minutes is quite fun. We start with all 5 of her opponents all beating the hell out of Mayumi Ozaki as they know she's going to play some dirty tricks to win if they don't take her out quickly. Doesn't last though. Mayumi's stable constantly interfering gets annoying after a while and it's a relief when she's finally eliminated. But it's the fin…

This was a blast. Braun appearing and claiming that he would actually cash-in after this match was a nice touch, as the crowd knew something would be different this time. They wasted no time, bringing kill shots right from the get-go. Roman's initial flurry and Lesnar's front facelock were amazing, and I almost believed Roman was gonna tap. Lesnar taking Strowman out of the equation was smart on his part and also addressed their previous rivalry, and it was also the opening Roman needed to get the win and finally slay the beast. His celebration felt sincere and him taunting Heyman was incredible. Great stuff. It just opens up so many possibilities now that …

Miz and Bryan have the kind of history, depth, and meaning that Cena and Orton have always pretended to have. I liked how so much of the match was centered around Daniel Bryan wanting to punch Miz in the face. His punches have been insanely good since coming back so it made for a solid offensive foundation throughout the match. I enjoyed the stuff with Miz apeing Bryan's moveset only for Bryan to really show him how it's done. Probably the highlight of this is Daniel Bryan leaning into the It Kicks. Amazing. Old school finish with the dirty heel using brass knuckles to punch Daniel Bryan in the face. A sneaky move that deserved to end the match and also stays in the thema…

This was very comedy based for a shoot-style adjacent match. Probably the closest in that vein that I've seen is that tag match with Mashimo and Hashi on FUTEN, which I coincidentally saw the day before they uploaded this to DDT Universe (so, thursday). I've seen people say Abe is a Sawa copycat but aside from inherited moves and working with the same people, I think that's not really true. Character-wise, he feels closer to that Shamrock getting slapped in the face gif than Sawa's natural underdog vibe. I love Abe's twitchy striking, which he exaggerates here to the point of self-parody. I thought all striking exchanges felt remarkably fluid, even though they're played f…

The whole purpose of this match was to introduce the new Dean Ambrose, and holy shit he ruled here. The grappling opening sequences felt organic, Ambrose's headlock was ruthless, but then he started to give Ziggler some brutal chops and lariats and even a great fallaway slam. No rebound lariats, no shitty stinger's splash followed by a running bulldog, no suicide dive, none of that, just power. And it fix Ambrose's new body and attitude perfectly. The Dirty Deeds outta nowhere was a great finish for a very good tv match, and a perfect reborn for the Lunatic Fringe.

I've barely watched any WWE since WrestleMania, aside from most of the Money In The Bank show, but I'm giving it another go and trying to catch up before the PPV this Sunday. I really liked this match and the way it was put together. Like it or not, there's a definite WWE main event style, and Reigns really has mastered it. Red-hot crowd down the stretch really added to the atmosphere. I wish they'd actually pull the trigger on Balor but they still do a couple of things I find interesting from a long-term perspective, like how they protected his finisher in this match, and also how he is unbeaten in the Demon facepaint. The post-match also was fantastic. Legit…

Great shoot-style match with Hideki bringing his heavy, aggressive grappling and Nakamura the slick maneuvering and takedowns. I love how Hideki bulldogs his opponents into a corner. He throws a nice belly-to-belly suplex and when they're the mat, he's grabbing limbs and trying to hurt Nakamura. Nakamura uses a rope break to avoid the German and manages to take Hideki to the ropes with his single leg takedown into the cross heel hold, and then with the armbar takedown into the armbar. Hideki's too much for him though and in the end, in true UWF fashion, Hideki KOs him with a German suplex>dragon suplex combo.

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This was just a damn delight that, had it taken place in the ECW Arena 20-some years ago, would probably be seen as an all-time classic. Kofi Kingston eating the commentary chair on wheels was just the start of a match with all kinds of crazy bumps. Erick Rowan earns 10,000 toughness experience points for going hard into that barrier with the torn bicep. Kofi kicking out of the finisher distracted from things a bit for me. They spent months building up the Bludgeons as this unstoppable force, but then Kofi kicks out of their finisher, onto a ladder no less? This was about the best outcome that could have come out of yet another unfortunate injury, in what I felt was a ver…

Pentagon Jr vs Sami Callihan - Impact 8/23/18 Street Fight This was billed as a Mexican Death Match but it was not wrestled as such. A Mexican Death Match is a Last Man Standing Match with pinfalls before the ten count. This was just a street fight with pinfalls. This was even lamer than their Slammiversary Match. Very little intensity or urgency. Callihan just lets himself get staple gunned. Callihan is really good at playing a coward. I like that about him. None of the "highspots" stick. Very cooperative. After the staple gun, they run a standard lungblower highspot sequence. I cant even remember the second weapon that's how unmemorable it was. There is the bat but…

It's neither the dirty, serious violence of your indie lucha handhelds nor the workrate bloodletting of the average BJW main event, both of which usually get praised more (and generally for good reason), but this kind of giddy, occasionally hilarious hardcore match can be special when done well, and I thought it was a ton of fun. It's a huge mess of course, that should go without saying, but the clowns and Lider put so much effort into making sure the level of destruction is super high at all times, whether by using their opponent's bodies or their own. Pagano is clearly the star, hitting a dive with sticks in his forehead, getting stretchered out after delivering a suple…

Part of the King of DDT tournament, which I thought was very good this year. This is my favourite match from it, with the huge caveat that I haven't seen the final show yet. The grappling was good and competent throughout, especially with both struggling for the armbar early on. I really like Sakaguchi's elbows and open palm strikes. The fighting spirit kick exchange was nice. The soumato teases and counters or blocks were great throughout. I'm gonna have to go and watch these two's other matches together eventually, since I liked this so much.

TOKYO Princess of Princess Championship: Miyu Yamashita (c) vs. Yuu Yuu takes her vile chops to the next level when she starts chopping Miyu on the back and hitting double arm chops! This was a vicious back and forth where the hits got harder and the beatdowns more violent as the match progressed. Pure barbarism on display from the two best wrestlers in the promotion. ****3/4

I went into this match with no real expectations, more curious because Riho rarely makes tape in a singles match against a relative peer, but came away thinking that this was easily match of the night. Riho looked amazing here. She's not a flashy worker at all but she's so good at laying out a smart match and making everything matter. I've never been a Shoko fan but she put in the best performance that I've seen from her here. She was calm and under control which did wonders for her here as she didn't have her usual sloppy performance. Definitely a match worth taking the time to check out as it is a match that could get lost with the more talked about stuff on this card *…