June 2019

Yamashita dropped the title but she's still one of the best pro wrestlers in the world. She can fit so much into 10-15 minutes. Her selling is all purposeful, rarely can you really say she's no-selling her opponents but most of the time she does a great job at looking like she's trying to fight through the pain. Mizuki has a great underdog perfomance in this match, as Yamashita beats her up with kicks and knees. Mizuki's double footstomps completely change the match, it's fantastic. I've never really been impressed by the move but it's such a sudden game changer here that I loved how they used them. Yamashita gets up from a series of footstomps and lands a german suplex b…

Johnny Gargano defends the NXT Heavyweight title. Talk about it here

Showcase match between two of NXT's top stars. Talk about it here

Shayna Baszler defends the NXT Women's title. Talk about it here

Four teams vie for the vacant NXT Tag Team titles in a Ladder Match. Talk about it here

Velveteen Dream defends the NXT North American title. Talk about it here

Ospreay and Taguchi both have 12 points. Winner of this match faces Shingo Takagi in the finals!!! Talk about it here

Tanahashi returns after being out injured since the G1 Supercard in NYC on April 6th. Talk about it here

Juice Robinson defends the NJPW United States title. Talk about it here

Final match of the 2019 BOTSJ!!! Talk about it here

I honestly thought this was really good. If it wasn't for those last minute botches, this wouldn't get nearly as much hate. In fact I'm not even sure those spots were actually botches. A drained, bloody Goldberg collapsing while going for a tombstone made sense as did the jackhammer not being perfectly executed (it turned into a Hashimoto style sheerdrop brainbuster which I would actually consider to be a bonus). I'll admit the finish was a little too anticlimactic though. Expecting a fluid, fast paced, flawlessly wrestled match was silly. This was exactly what it should have: a gritty, ugly heavyweight slugfest between two past their prime heavy hitters. The snake eyes t…

Great battle of both women showing their joshi spirit. Both had nice spots with each getting a chance to display their strengths. Also with both women always going for pin falls quickly gave this double championship match more urgency.

Laredo Kid defends the AAA World Cruiserweight title This was an incredible match. Hijo Del Vikingo is the best flyer in Mexico today IMO. Laredo Kid is right up there with him. This starts off with some usual mat wrestling before the crazy flying starts. Vikingo hits a crazy springboard Spanish fly. It takes talent to catch a guy in mid-air to hit that move. I especially liked Vikingo's SSP off the ramp of Arena Coliseo Monterrey. The finish was good too and the crowd was going crazy throughout the match. Not sure if this is a MOTYC but it's a really good one. Once Vikingo gets his work visa. he's going to be a big deal in the states.

Dragon Lee defends the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. Talk about it here

Kazuchika Okada defends the IWGP Heavyweight title. Pretty good stuff from Jericho here in between the aggressive attacks, heel stuff and generally trying to stay one step ahead of Okada story wise. I like Okada in general but this was a nothing performance. Aside from the gloating at the start, he contributed nothing to the match. Good finish with Okada outmaneuvering the "brawler" Jericho with a simple wrestling move. The pacing was pretty lethargic though and large parts fell flat. Not bad but hugely disappointing. ***

Kota Ibushi defends the IWGP Intercontinental title. Talk about it here

Go is coming into the thing w/ a heavily taped up shoulder, so naturally Maru goes to town on it w/ some pretty vicious work, and he is acting cocky as hell all the way through, which made his onslaught even more compelling. Stuff like those little arrogant kicks to Go's head + pouring some drink at him was AWESOME. Maru is great at being a smug veteran systematically breaking down his opponent with a focused strategy. Go's selling was VERY surprising too - I certainly wasn't expecting to see one of the finest limb-selling performances of the year come from NOAH, but goddamn his selling was outstanding all the way through. The moment of him getting up on the corner w/ the…

This is Hoshiki's first defense of the Wonder of Stardom title since she ended Momo Watanabe's nearly year long run the previous Korakuen Hall show. This match has gotten a far bit of hype and it's justified for the most part. This was the best performance of Tam Nakano's career, granted I've never really been a fan of hers, with some good leg work early on and some terrific work during the finish. In fact, this was the best finishing stretch that I've seen this year. The last 8 or so minutes are must watch. The only knocks I have against it was that they did overreach a times leading to some messy execution and Hoshiki did brush off Tam's early legwork. As a whole though…

These two had something to settle and man was this great. Both tried to inflict as much punishment on eachother as they possibly could. Things escalated even more with a sick headbutt from Tachibana giving the cool visual of the single stream of blood trickling down Ashino's face. Them we have the submission counter battle with Ashino coming out on top with the win. This match has me wanting to watch more W1 the rest of this year.

This is a terrific stars with junior partners match. Shindo and Manami start out with some fun rookie stuff then, later in the match, take their beatings from their senior opponents. The high point of match though is the Sareee/Satomura interactions, which show flashes of Jumbo/Misawa. A super fun match here. ****

Tokyo Princess Cup – Round 2 Very good little match build around Yuka working over Miu's arm in pretty Yuka fashion, unique techniques and all. Miu's selling is fine for the most part but she is a great underdog and puts up a hell of a struggle. ***1/2

Daisuke Sekimoto defends the Zero1 World Title. Talk about it here

The modern BJW Strong six-man tags are some of my favorite matches to watch and the build to Nomura/Okabayashi has me stoked. One of my most anticipated matches of the year. But man, they are ready to kill each other. This was great - you've got bald-headed Kikuta looking like the Japanese Vulture and punching people and plenty of good, hard-hitting house show filler between Hashimoto, Kamitani and Kawakami. Punches to the face, headbutts, suplexes, etc. But Nomura throwing Daichi into the corner like a chew toy to call out Okabayashi is what you signed up for. Fun technique vs. power grappling to start, with Nomura adding a cool rolling double wristlock set-up to his rep…

A more melodramatic take on the WALTER-Starr feud as compared to the more action sprint they ran at the 16 Carat Gold. Where Starr went with an unrelenting pace in the 16 Carat Gold, he's decidedly more cautious in this match. He chooses to take things slow, picking his shots, and then chipping away at WALTER's knees. The desperation and consistency with which Starr attacked the legs was really quite brilliant. I liked how Starr's attack and WALTER's selling progressed through the match with Starr getting small shots in, annoying WALTER, until he was all out battering the legs making WALTER limp. WALTER put in probably the best selling performance I've ever seen from him …

This was just so much fun. Bryan was unsurprisingly excellent, Rowan was good & the Heavy Machinery fellas impressed as well - especially given the starting setting of the match w/ the Washington crowd being 110% behind Bryan. Really liked Tucker's FIP seg with Bryan working over his leg a bit, and I LOVED how Bryan went right back to that briefly worked over leg as they were in the ring together once again towards the end. When he has a target, he doesn't goddamn forget it. The exchanges between Bryan & Otis were pretty fantastic, and I also enjoyed the HOSS showdown between Otis & Rowan. Heavy Machinery, overall, looked really damn good w/ their explosive po…