August 2018

Zeus defends the AJPW Triple Crown Title. Talk about it here

King of DDT tournament final, good DDT main event type match. The beginning of this was interesting with Endo laying down for Sasaki, before kicking out and trying to steal it with a roll up. A bit later, Sasaki uses Mad Paulie to stop Endo's Sasuke special. They work a pretty straightforward match after that, with Sasaki targetting Endo's leg while controlling the match, followed by an Endo comeback, before a finishing stretch where they trade submissions. Endo has great offense what with all the crazy throws and dives he does. It felt a bit like they might be building towards more matches between these two, and while those would probably be great, I really like Damnatio…

First time ever match!!!

This was one of my most anticipated matches from this year's 5* Grand Prix and it didn't disappoint. The story of the match is setup early as Jungle drills the post on the outside trying to chop Konami. The rest of the match is build around Jungle's tremendous selling of the arm as she tries to work through it while avoiding Konami's submissions. She succeed in doing that by effectively plowing over Konami hard enough to get the win. Terrific storytelling here. ****1/4

Thought this was really good and more proof that Rollins is having probably the best year of his career since maybe 2013 with the initial Shield run. Fast paced, exciting wrestling, mixed with some really good grounded storytelling. Owens attacks the arm early and uses it to transition himself back into the advantage at multiple points in the match. Not just that but Rollins sells it consistently throughout as well as introducing some really creative spots. Having to change the way he performs an Irish whip because of the damage to the arm? Come on, that's just awesome right there. Toronto crowd got way behind Owens by the end which only added a lot of fuel to the fire th…

X-Division Champion Brian Cage vs Fenix - Impact 8/30/18 I like both guys a lot but this was just kinda there for me. I love how Impact was really pushing Cage hard on commentary as a once in a lifetime athlete that was revolutionizing the game. Is it hyperbole? Hell Yeah! But it made Cage feel like a big deal. I actually think Fenix is the game changer, what he can do on the ropes is sublime. Honestly, I am not a huge flippy/gymnastics guy with one major exception if you are really good I mean really good then I'll watch. Fenix is that dude. Cage was trying to live up to the hype of being the Ultimate Hybrid athlete busting out the 619 early on (it was kinda ugly mi…

Impact Women's Champion Su Yung vs Tessa Blanchard vs Allie - Impact 8/30/18 It is a damn shame they didnt give this more time as this was shaping up to be one of the better triple threats I have seen in a long time. The strikes in this matches were phenomenal some of the best I have seen in the 2010s and puts most men's matches to shame. I thought Allie looked the best, just vicious forearm shivers and chops. Liked Su Yung's palm strikes. Surprisingly I found the usually intense Tessa to be timid in this match and really did not have many memorable moments. Allie started off with a great shine. Nice double spot on both. Su Yung worked a great submission on Tessa. Su…

Geezus!!! Has anyone else seen this? One of the bloodiest matches I have ever seen, including Cena and Eddie vs JBL!!!!! Josh Alexander leaves puddles all over the ring!!!! This was disturbing, but I couldn't stop watching....I'm not even sure how I feel about this.... Taped 8/25/18, aired on PPV One Night Only 8/31/18

Very fun match from beginning to end, all of the matchups in this are interesting and a few turn out great. HARASHIMA and SUWAMA start with some quick grappling but the match really starts with Ishikawa and Hama. Any matchup in which Shuji is the smaller guy is interesting. Hama is very fun to watch throughout this. The other two, Hino and Higuchi, chop the fuck out of each other. There's a lot of shit going on at times and Hino kind of holds it all together by coming in and chopping people. There's a great moment where Hino goes to knock Higuchi and Hama off the apron and Hama decides to not move at all, so Hino stands there looking confused for a second before SUWAMA el…