June 2019

Shunma and DASH are both the smallest members of their teams, and they often spend a lot of time in tag matches getting beat up and trying to tag out. But wouldn't you know it, they're both extremely evil and bloodthirsty in this match. The match is very brutal, even the outside brawling is just stiffer and wilder than what you usually see in Japan. Shunma and Dash both take insane bumps on the regular, and they do so here but it's really the intensity and the creativity of some of the spots which makes the match. The finish is very cool, Dash wins with a great splash off the ladder after Shunma kicked out of a gnarly sunset flip (also off the ladder). It's a great match!…

This was one of the best things NXT has done all year. Io and Shayna were great and the drama at the end was really well done. They basically did a modern take on the Snuka vs Muraco cage for the finish (and in a nice touch, Mauro referenced that match earlier), with Shayna picking up a fluke win. Post match sees Io snap on Candice LeRae, a turn that had been slowly building for weeks, and the crowd reacted with legit disappointment at one of their heroes going bad. All eyes were on Io when she left the ring and this felt like a big time moment. That's what happens when you build up characters and stories the crowd care about and get emotionally invested in, instead of di…

I've needed more Hideki Suzuki squash matches in my life. It's the simple things like not letting Inamura tie him up in the ropes, slipping out of headlock attempts, making Inamura work hard for everything and not just giving him offense. What offense Inamura does get off is your typical young beefy dude offense and it's okay but what you're here for is Hideki's armwork and some nasty strikes in the corner and stomps to the face. Love the finish, with Hideki setting up the takedown with multiple mini headbutts before he hits the rolling double wristlock into a modified neck crank. Very dope. Nothing high end but Hideki's still one of the best guys working today.

For the second show in a row I think Cody had the match of the night. The storytelling, with him being more powerful than Allen but unable to put him away, was done well and I enjoyed the extra touch of the hand injury to Cody which allowed for the odds to be evened. That apron bump was absolutely sadistic and the bodybag bit was a cool visual. The draw was a good way to put over the resilience of Darby while still being clear that Cody is ahead of him in the hierarchy. There's definitely enough there that they could go back to this and have something of a programme in future. The ethical issues with the following angle have been discussed to death but taking that ou…

EASILY the best match of the night. Two great personalities clashing in a match that fits those personalities pretty much perfectly. Full of creatively fun violence w/ them constantly looking to one-up the previous big spot. ***3/4

Well fuck me. Where did this come from? I think by now everybody who's familiar with Virus knows what his bread and butter is. He's one of the best mat workers ever and for a while there we were getting a string of amazing title defences against guys who otherwise haven't done much of anything (with a few exceptions, like Dragon Lee). He's one of the best ever at leading young and unimpressive mat workers to impressive matwork without making it obvious that he's leading them. I really don't know enough about Fly Star to say with confidence whether this was another example of that. He looked fine during the mat section, honestly. But this was Virus at his very best, and no…

They go at it at a frantic pace right from the start with Rush bringing the fight to Dem Boys immediately, and that pace pretty much never lets up. All four men bring so much badass offense into the thing, and especially The Briscoes & Rush have their own unique swagger to them, making the already superb action all the more charming. FANTASTIC bout. Definitely one of the top tag matches of 2019. Kicked SO MUCH ass. ****1/4

Miyahara was in top form defending his triple crown against tag partner Yoshitatsu. He did the role of heel to perfection since the hot crowd was firmly behind Yoshitatsu. He conveyed the cocky confident champion excellently, from his facials to that strut he did was on point. Yoshitatsu probably had the match of his career. He such a great job being the face and working underneath that he got the crowd actually believing that he could secure the win. A definitely a MOTYC.

What a hoss brawl this was, just rough and stiff. SUWAMA and Ishikawa stake their claim as one of the top tag teams in the world by carrying limited performers in Parrow and Odinson to their best match ever.