August 2019

This to have had some good matches in the past but nothing that made you think that they really clicked together until this match. The match was filled with a lot of attitude flexing from both women via hair pulling, slapping, and kicking. Momo eventually gains control and seems on her way to victory until Hazuki steals it from right under her. Great stuff with the bonus of a bitchy pull apart in the post-match. ****

These two are always electric in the ring together and this match is no different. This more of an "In your face" physical style of match than their previous singles matchups. The difference in this match is Utami dropping Jungle on the apron with her spinning powerbomb. While Jungle makes a spirited attempt to comeback, Utami ends up putting her away with a torture rack submission. Pretty great, short, high impact match. ****

Fantastic. Bryan is incredible punishing Murphy - his trashtalk rules, and the little pre-match promo only added for what was about to happen. The way he started to stretch Murphy some more after he refused to give up to the LeBell Lock was so great too, and even his kicks looked & sounded harder than usual. Amazing stuff all around by him, and Murphy definitely was real good himself too. The way he pushed the pace with his explosive offense bursts was awesome, and a real great contrast to Bryan's style. They meshed so well together -- the two definitely proved to have wonderful chemistry with one another in their first meeting. An absolutely terrific underdog story w…

First round match of the 2019 Super J Cup. Talk about it here

Michael Elgin's Big Japan debut!!! Talk about it here

Super fun match with great Hideki/Yuji technique vs. power interactions, like the failed bodyslam escape from the cravate and Yuji whipping Hideki off the hanging sleeper hold. We get hardway blood after Hideki smacks the shit out of a feisty Kato, big suplex throws, and Kato tossing Hideki unceremoniously out of the ring to set up the finish, which sees Kato pin Hyodo with a dope Exploder suplex hold. Can't complain.

Review courtesy of Makai Club #1 (some sort of glitch meant that this thread wasn't working)

Review courtesy of Makai Club #1 (Ditto the Ben-K match, no idea what happened re. these two reviews and why things weren't working)

My oh my one of those matches that just stays in it's lane because there's no need for it to be anything else. Basically four guys beating the shit out of each other and trying to out do their opponents in every striking department for 16 minutes. Daisuke/Elgin are the hosses and Nomura/Mochizuki are the smaller guys whose kicks and slaps are fucking vicious. I need more Mochizuki in Big Japan to be honest, because of course he fits perfectly here. Elgin once again is showcased like a beast and does well in this role, he continues to feel special like he did in the Sekimoto match the day before. Young Gawd has another good performance here, showing fire, resilience and m…

Strong Heavyweight Title match I mean, what else would you expect from this match other than also being a contest of two dudes trying to send the other one to hell via vicious strikes? Chop vs Kick. Lariat vs Elbow. Fired up dude vs stoic dude. Normal voice vs reptile. It's basically the same match Sato had with Sekimoto in January but with Yuji. So yeah, it's pretty fucking great!

Well, this blew my expectations out of the water. Gisele Shaw looked very awkward making her entrance and I thought she was going to be a total stiff in the ring. Even her first headlock looked so wooden but then she totally blew me away. I loved Shaw's condescending heel performance early on. When she offered a handshaw with that fake smile which slowly turned into a look of intent, I just smiled. Shaw using her size to her advantage really well, putting tons of aggression behind her offence, also blending that with her great athleticism. Her strikes in the match was actually pretty good, at one point she cut off a Natsumi Maki comeback with a nasty punch to the stomach.…

Miyu Yamashita pummeled Misao early in the match with some nasty kicks, and knees to when she trapped her in the corner which was awesome. Sakisama doing the paradise lock (eat your heart out SANADA) and then sitting on Miu Watanabe was great heel work. And then baiting Yamashita to come in and move out of the way of her dropkick, which then hit Watanabe was just the tip of the iceberg. Biishiki-Gun as a duo worked well together, cutting off the ring, working so viciously on Miu’s arm. Yamashita when she came in looked top level with how smooth and finesse she is. Everything she did came across as flawless from her strikes to simple things such as snapmares. Her strike ba…

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I love a good spotfest (I still think the first two TLC matches are two of the best ever matches in WWE history), but this left a lot to be desired. For every awe-inspiring high spot that went off without a hitch, there would be another spot with obvious cooperation that watered down the entire spectacle. Parts of this had me feeling like Jim Cornette, but they managed to wow me back into the room with spots like that incredible Canadian Destroyer from the ladder through the table. The final five minutes had some decent drama at least. Pentagon Jr. getting demasked when he nearly had the match won was a nice spot that I haven't seen in a ladder match before. Everything th…

Kazuchika Okada defends the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. Talk about it here

Tomohiro Ishii defends the NJPW NEVER Openweight Title. Talk about it here

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WALTER defends the WWE United Kingdom Title. Talk about it here