November 2020

Darby showing up to Cody right from the get go with his superior quickness was very nice, and Cody taking control by brutally dumping him outside arm-first was a fantastic way to transition into his heat seg. Cody's work over the arm was all kinds of awesome with big focus & the confidence he showed throughout doing it was great. Really felt like it was a big gameplan coming to fruition & the wrestler doing it was executing it excellently. Those straight up bully-like moments with him running his mouth & doing some taunts were all awesome as well. And of course Darby is superb doing the selling -- his arm was total dead-weight throughout, and I loved stuff lik…

Two former tag team partners face each other in the finals of the AEW World Title #1 Contenders tournament. Talk about it here

This is the follow up rematch between these two and it's a really strong TV main event as it featured some nice action and of course the big commentators table bump. Jey has stepped it up since his singles feud with Roman Reigns and he was exceptional here. His grounded elbows to the ribs of Bryan were incredible. Bryan is currently my pick for wrestler of the year as he's been absolutely incredible even though he was absent for a few months. Crazy to think he's still this good and he's said his career is starting to wind down. He busted out some of his cool ROH world title run spots such as his face stomps, the avalanche backdrop and the small package which he used as a …

This was creative, this was brutal, this was dumb. That's a 3-piece recipe for ladder match success. There's some nice limb-targeting, quite a few very brutal n' dumb spots & some nice little touches that I totally loved. One of them was in the early going when Kyle went to climb the ladder for the first time, Dunne came in & just quickly and bluntly pushed the ladder down; usually they always milk them for at least some amount of time, so just pushing it as quick & bluntly as he could made it feel super neat. The ladder also hit Kyle when it went down, so that's some more brutality for ya. Sure there's some moments that felt pretty unnecessary & pretty si…

Loved this so much. An absolutely lovely grappling exhibition with everything looking slick & coming with such a nice sense of urgency. It never feels like they're sitting & waiting for the other one to do something either -- there's a good feel of lil' competition & having to earn what you're going for, whether it's a hold or another position. Some terrific selling in there as well, especially by Thatcher, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. And of course when they throw in some strikes in there, all of those look great & fit the match well. It's a jolly good time. Really hoping that we get some more Thatcher vs. Kushida goodness eventually, becau…

Another very good match between these two fellas. They get a lot more time here than they did in their previous meeting, and this really feels like a bigger PPV-version of that said previous match of theirs. Great feel of physicality, with both guys always looking to do some more damage without letting the other guy breathe. Both of them once again showcased their wide array of offense with lots of nice strikes & vicious bombs. Sheamus also looked really good going on the ground w/ Riddle! That heel-hook he busted out seriously popped me. Banger of a match. I liked that October match more, because it felt a bit more tight w/ its sprint nature, but this one also kicked…

Off the top of my head I can't think of a better Street Profits match that I've watched. This had a charming dynamic of two babyface teams going at it, with Kofi & Xavier kind of assuming the role of vets protecting their spots. I thought the early stuff with Kofi going against Montez ruled & had a couple of really nice moments. The New Day lads isolating Ford & doing a number on his mid-section also ruled -- not many times have they come off as so focused, but watching them execute their attack here w/ such a great focus indeed was truly a joy. The multiple Boom Drops by Kofi, Woods' big gutbuster etc, such good stuff! Ford's selling was also solid; he did hi…

They truly did the gimmick justice here. This was fantastic grudge-match violence mixed with perfect touches of lil' fun -- very much exactly what I wanted out of it. Dustin & QT rocking kneepads over their jeans, every participant wearing white to show off those eventual bloodstains, haystacks flyin', fire extinguishers, handcuffs, BLOOD, epic ladder & plywood spots, super satisfying babyface ending to the match. QT Marshall absolutely killed it. What a BLAST. ****

The fact that this is a pro-wrestling PPV main event in 2020 rules so much. Sadly the match doesn't hold up from the initial viewing; it just feels slow, and while I understand why they did it, I do think it relies a bit too much on gimmicks rather than their actual strengths, which is having a constant scrap with wild fists flying, eye gouges, chokes, etc. There's a good amount of that kind of stuff - the good stuff if you will, but it's just moves at such an uninteresting pace throughout, it kills much of the energy of the match. It's still a good match though, just not as great as it easily could've been, given the participants involved. ***

It's not SO great the 2nd time watching it, but it's still pretty great. I felt like most of the match was some mighty fine, awesome tag team wrestling showcasing the differences of the philosophies behind these two teams, but some of the moments felt a bit forced, as in it felt like they wanted to cram it full of "moments", and some of them fell flat in the grand structure of the bout, in my eyes. It's still a helluva match though, as most of it totally rules. ***3/4