January 2021

The finish to this match was awesome. Abe, without breaking motion, was able to reverse Iwamoto’s Kokou no Geijutsu attempt and lock in a crucifix cradle for the three count. Exactly the type of thing you'd expect from this match - lots of nifty counters out of dangerous predicaments. The Astronauts showed good tag chemistry, stringing together a few good double team offensive moves. There was a running bit where they'd do a double team move and end it with either Nomura or Abe kicking Hidaka, who is left flat footed, off the apron. Hidaka at 48 is still as fast as ever, being able to keep up and evade Abe’s attempts early in the match. He is truly blessed with eternal yo…

Strong Heavyweight title match. This was pretty fucking great. Nakanoue is no stranger to title matches in Korakuen to start the year off and he's certainly not a stranger to Okabayashi being faster and much stronger than him. So Nakanoe goes to the body and opens up the little window he needs to have any sort of chance in this. Without Covid there's no doubt in my mind this would've trigger some very special Korakuen magic because both Yasufumi and Yuji put on a fucking show and make you believe the underdog has a legit chance. The nearfalls were dope, the strikes were on point, the struggle for moves was classic Strong BJ and the ending...dope fucking match right h…

Good sub 10 minute TV match with Lashley working as the big bruiser and Riddle taking some wild bumps. That corner bump on the outside was nasty. That finishing sequence was creative and neat. I'm all for these two feuding over the US title. Riddle has been coming along nicely on RAW with some quality singles TV matches against Sheamus last year and now this one against Lashley.

Oh how glorious this was, Miyu being her dominant bad ass self dishing out an vicious attack and Maki trying to hold her own and survive. Both women were great but Maki Ito’s performance really shined here. She was all serious and limited the comedy showing her desperately trying to pull off the win against the deadly strikes of Yamashita, this is best I’ve seen of her so far. The rest of the match built well with Ito geeing her hope spots in and being defiant to end flipping off Miyu and receiving a knockout blow then getting a fist bump from Miyu for her courage, damn this was good and I want more of this Maki Ito.

An intense hoss battle of endurance that maybe had the best Jeff Cobb performance in New Japan. There were times Cobb channeled his inner Matanza Cueto as an unstoppable monster during his Lucha Underground tenure with dominant offense. Shingo was his consistently great self as usual, you can never go wrong with this man in the ring. Both men's selling was out of this world conveying exhaustion tremendously, especially Shingo working underneath. Not surprising this will be on everyone's MOTY lists because this was pure brilliance.

They try to recreate the magic of the Takeover match right down to the very specific body part selling from O'Reilly. I think it was a mistake to have KOR working under so much of this match again. He does it exceptionally well but it made this feel structurally a little too similar despite more of a television match pace. Balor did bring more aggression to the table this time around and once again we get some unexpected blood. And another fantastic ending sequence and finish! This was a step down from their MOTYC last year but still a very good bout by the end of it.

These two had a good singles match last year and just put on a very good match. There were some hokeyness to this, such as the obvious plastic fence Raquel tore with her handcuffs, but despite that, this had some true senses of violence with some brutal kendo stick shots that left visible welts on their backs and some absolutely nasty bumps such as Rhea taking a spine breaking ringside commentators table bump, a nasty spear through a glass door and a big table bump in the back with Rhea diving off a locker onto Raquel on a table. The brawling to the back was mostly done in the picture-and-picture so it was hard to follow, but the Dakota Kai run in was great as she was lan…

It's always pleasant watching Gulak pop up somewhere in a WWE ring as he is one of the best and least featured wrestlers on the roster at the moment (really wish they would have brought him back up to continue his angle with Daniel Bryan when he returned from paternity leave). The match itself is a nifty sub 10 minute smaller show WWE TV match. We get some Fire Ant days Gulak at the start with some brief quick armdrag exchanges which is something you would have seen him throw in those Colony matches back in the day. He also pulls of some an incredible counters and he catches Ricochet twice in half crabs and you actually buy into him possibly pulling off the win on the sec…

This thing is completely carried by the legitimately great match between Nakamura & Bryan. Nakamura looked & felt more spirited than he has in at least 90% of his main roster matches; him & Bryan already had a nice little TV-match last year, but this was even better. If I were to rate it as a singular match, I'd give it ***3/4. But as it is, I would go *** on the overall gauntlet, and that's still a helluva score considering none of the other segments in it were anything, really. Adam Pearce being in a WWE PPV World Championship match outta nowhere in 2021 is pretty amazing in all of its randomness.

Decided to rewatch this after having dug the recent Darby/Miro title match and while this isn't on par with that one, I dug this quite a bit on a rewatch. Darby takes his freakish bumps as per usual with that press slam over the top rope through a table holding up as one of the wildest bumps of the year. Darby didn't fling himself with his offense here as much as he did against Miro, but the use of the belt was still brilliant by Darby. The kick out into the corner and the entire Sting lights out angle was kind of lame, but I get why they did it.

With a WALTER match is simple, if you stick to the formula you’ll always knock it out of the park and this is another perfect example. A-Kid trying his damndest to avoid the heavy bombs from the monstrous ring general by going after his legs. Eventually WALTER gets his stuff in by mauling him with chops and other vicious strikes leading to the hope spots giving you the belief that A-Kid might actually win, but in the end it wasn’t enough. These two conveyed great urgency trying to put the other away and bonus points for keeping it short, it contributed to the realism immensely, damn good stuff.

Far from their best match together, but this is a good little TV match as you would expect from these two. Bryan targeted Cesaro's left arm and Cesaro targeted Bryan's ankle after he kicked the ring post (which you could see coming once Cesaro got in place for it). Loved Bryan pulling on Cesaro's nose to pull off the Yes Lock and Cesaro countering a top rope huracanrana and pulling on Bryan's ears to setup a great looking super plex. Great finish too with Cesaro hitting his elevated European uppercut followed by the neutralizer. In my opinion, Bryan was WOTY for 2020 with continuously good to great performances despite having been away for several months due to paternal l…

With the names announced minus Gallows I was excited and knew would be a banger but then the news came out about Alex Shelley. It’s a shame that he didn’t make it but to his credit Moose made up for the absence and really was the star of the match. He was motivated and on point with everything he did and I wouldn’t mind if he has a one off with Kenny. As for the others they were their usual great selves and went all out with cool exchanges especially between Omega and Swann setting up for their eventual match, man this was a great trios match.

These two did their best packing as much as they could in five minutes and they succeed. This was all action with Yoneyama being serious against her former pupil dishing out brutal high knees and trying to get the victory quickly as possible. Smooth fast pinning attempts leading to AZM catching Kaori in a roll up. This was a fun one.

Solid enjoyable affair between two good consistent performers in Stardom. It was also cool seeing Tam display some cocky heel mannerisms. SLK was good showing offense and fire in her comeback, like I stated earlier solid.

Hayashishita’s second red belt title defense and it’s against the challenger Maika. Makia had a great strategy of working over the left arm with submissions and Utami trying to offset that using her power. Everything here was fine, it did drag some in the middle and I zoned out in some parts but picked up big in the end. Things escalated into throwing bombs leading to Utami hitting a perfect looking BT Bomb, solid stuff.

This was more of a brawl and much better than the Fight Pit from last year with Riddle which featured the hokey flying teeth spot. I also felt this was a notch above their match from TakeOver last year which I also dug. Not a mind blowing brawl or MOTYC or anything, but both guys worked really snug and threw some heat behind their strikes. That slingshot on the rail on the top of the cage looked pretty nasty. Maybe an unpopular opinion, but Ciampa’s running knee looks much better than Kenny Omega’s V-Trigger which he usually just flys by his opponent while slapping his thigh really hard. Dug the use of the cage as well with both guys flinging each other into it and using …

This gave off major territory vibes in how this was laid out. Hardwood was great cutting Jungle Boy off whenever he tried to gain steam with Jungle Boy being the perfect babyface fighting with no quit in him. The finishing sequence with both trying to go for the pin was good leading to Jungle Boy getting the huge submission win. My only slight complaint is maybe Dax’s leg should’ve been worked on some when that was the finish planned, other than that excellent match.

Another week, another solid Main Event Gulak TV match against a flippy cruiserweight. Carrillo isn’t nearly as crisp when it comes to doing contrived high spots as Ricochet, but Gulak is an absolute beast and he’s perfected the craft of working the sub 10 minute match against the more flip oriented wrestlers on the roster. Offensively, Gulak reminds me somewhat of Finlay as everything they put together looks brutal. He even makes a headlock takeover look great as you can see he puts some power behind it instead of just taking Carrillo over. Despite not being as crisp on offense, Carrillo still hits a heat Super Astro like springboard back headbutt and he takes a hellaciou…

The match is JIP and we only get 4 or so minutes of it and it’s more so a quick fun short Cesaro showcase sprint so you know it’s not a MOTYC or anything along that line. We get some odd scrambles early on and then we get some stiff European uppercuts from Cesaro and a lengthy big swing. Ziggler’s inoffensive in this as he’s mostly along for the ride by eating the big shots and just flying around to display Cesaro’s strength. Cesaro reversing a sleeper into a suplex was pretty neat as was the finish which seemed like a throwback to his CHIKARA matches catching Ziggler in a pop up Neutralizer. Nifty little 5 minute TV match.

Underwhelming match that told a simple story having Ashino work over the leg of Suwama only for him to turn the tables and go for his leg in return. The work was decent but the pace dragged only because of Suwama’s body is breaking down bringing Ashino to his level. They tried to make this great with every false finish and submission tease they possible but it failed to capture what these two did last year. It’s time for a new triple crown champion.

This was exactly what it needed to be with these two - two badass mofos having a badass pro-wrestling fight. Both guys have such great arsenals, it's a joy watching them beat one another up. Archer served more than well as the babyface going against Eddie. Wonderful sub 10-minute STUFF. ***1/2

This eventually ended in a dq & turned into a multi-man tag when a lot of people got involved, but everything before that was really great. It isn't a surprise since it's AJ & Bryan going at it -- as always with the two, they simply make every bit of their wrestling look better than anybody else's. Everything is awesome, and it sure wouldn't be a Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles match without them going after specific bodyparts of one another; especially Bryan's targeting of AJ's arm was glorious. Because of the finish this definitely won't be remembered as one of their best matches or anything close to that, but it's still a yet another neat addition to their storied, …

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I liked what I saw from the Great-O-Khan in his Tokyo Dome match against Tanahashi, and this was a yet another good showing by the lad. As a pure single individual showing, I'd say it was about on par, but as an overall match, this was even better than that said neat Dome bout. Liked just about every bit of offense O-Khan showcased here, and the strategy of weakening Tenzan by the neck was nice. Tenzan definitely more than showed up too - what a lovely, fiery performance by the veteran. Of course with the stipulation and all, much of the match is centered around them Mongolian Chops, and it of course RULES, because both fellas sure throw 'em with everything they got. This…