June 2020

This was a blast. Just two dudes beating the shit out of each other, without losing sight of what was basically a squash. Ciampa's comeback doesn't make Kross look weak, as he was a former NXT Champ and a tough dude. It's quite the opposite, he nails the intensve feel without looking like a dork.

I’m kind of running out of ways to talk about how the Greatest Wrestler of All Time and the unofficial Wrestler of the Year is incredibly good at his job. This match rules because of course it does. These two have been having bangers against each other for nearly two decades now. The last time we saw this pairing put on a great championship match was at TLC 2018 when the roles were reversed. Bryan came in as the malevolent heel champion whereas AJ played the standup babyface. Here in the finals of a tournament for the vacant Intercontinental Championship, Bryan took the longer route—refusing a bye and fighting an extra match in the semi-finals–whereas AJ took advanta…

A lot of knee work going around this past week, huh? The main takeaway from this match is going to be the really excellent leg selling that ASUKA did through most of the second act and into the third. It comes off the heels of a great comeback sequence from Nakajima that culminated in her hitting a missile dropkick to the knee. Gorgeous offensive move that she did well to follow up on with a Stretch Muffler exchange down on the mat. ASUKA pulls out a really great defensive performance in this section, really doing well to sell the damage to her leg. It’s a really balanced performance as well. Not nearly as expressive as Endo but also not quite as nuanced and int…

This might've been the best match of the week. Orton and Edge work SUPER sneakily here, and you can feel the sense of struggle in basically every move. Everything is earned, instead of feeling like it was rehearsed. There are many nice, unique things here, and it FEELS like a big match, *almost* worthy of the meme-like moniker it had. Randy is the clear star here for me, but Edge was great. Each strike he did felt vicious, and his selling for even a basic headlock, considering his injury, was masterful. Every little detail made sense, and it just made for a terrific experience. The camerawork and commentary was on point, too. I know some people don't l…

There are many ways to have a great match in the COVID-era. The best approach, of course, is not to try and remind all promoters out there that holding shows anywhere in the world even now is grossly irresponsible. That’s #1 which probably makes Roman Reigns the actual Wrestler of the Year with Sami Zayn at a close #2. Barring that, workers can try to focus on a more technical matbased approach. Daniel Bryan, Drew Gulak, and Timothy Thatcher have shown how effective this can be. Matwork is something that requires so much focus and attention to begin with that it often drowns in lively crowds. Played to a mostly empty arena, a viewer at home has the chance to zone in …

I missed Yuji Nagata. The word missed in this sentence meaning that he passed me by. At the peak of his powers in New Japan, I was still under the impression that Shawn Michaels should have beat John Cena at WrestleMania 23. By the time I discovered Japanese wrestling years ago, I skipped the 2000s right into the 90s. New Japan didn’t enter my view until the mid-2010s by the time that Nagata’s run at the top was long done. On forums I frequented, Nagata was never greeted with much love so I never thought to seek him out. By the time I watched Yuji Nagata for myself, it was a banger against Tomohiro Ishii from last year’s New Japan Cup. The man could hit hard and…

I'm literally headed out the door right now, so I'll write more later. But, the short of it is that this is easily the best match I've seen all year!

Two of my favorite guys on the American indies today get some time to have a strong one on one match. What’s not to love? Much of the early goings focuses on Garrini’s martial arts background coming in to play as the more unorthodox Deppen tries to whether the storm. They have some fun exchanges on the mat where Deppen doesn’t exactly match Garrini’s grapple work but instead tries to fight his way out. It adds a scrappy vibe to the match. He uses his strikes and brawling to try to get the advantage back but Garrini can always somehow work his way back into the advantage. Although this wasn’t wrestled as a deathmatch, I felt that these two guys made the most of t…

An excellent 60 minute Iron Man match between two Southern indie favorites.