April 2021

Here we get our usual Drew Gulak Main Event appearance. Unfortunately it's against Humberto Carrillo again and unfortunately this is probably the lesser of their matches so far this year. This was more of a Carrillo display (more so than their previous match) and it felt kind of cold and flat. Gulak seemed somewhat uninspired, but we did get a cool flying kick counter into an ankle lock and hellacious modified vertical suplex near the finish but unfortunately it gets blown off for the eventual finish. Really wish Gulak would be featured more on SmackDown and would get paired with Daniel Bryan after WrestleMania again as he was great during that run and it never received t…

Great action from the opening bell until the end. This didn't feel like a 30-minute match at all with all four women giving maximum effort keeping my attention fully with individual segments and sweet-looking tag maneuvers.

Very intense between these two that kept progressing until the finish. Nakano right now is one of the best in the world and can draw emotion like no other. Natsupoi is getting there on the list of those on Stardom's roster who's ready to have the rocket strapped to them with her great showing here.

Easily Bea's best performance in Stardom and Utami's best Red Belt defense. A great story of her going all out and hitting every bomb imaginable in her arsenal to secure the win but never could put Hayashishita away who's battles back strongly.

This was so much better than I was expecting it to be. I remember being cold on Raquel before she got repackaged and she was working mostly Florida live event as Reina Gonzalez. She never really stood out and was always much bigger than most of the other women on the roster but she seemed to be afraid to work like a big girl. Since being repackaged and paired up with Dakota Kai, she's been great. I would have preferred if this was more of a David vs. Goliath type match with Raquel working on top for the most part and Io getting sprints in of her flashy offense instead of having Io work on top for most of the match but I still think this was good as Io went balls to the wa…

I'm a big fan of WALTER but I feel he works way to evenly with much smaller opponents at times (such as the A-Kid match from NXT UK earlier this year) but that didn't feel as the case here as Ciampa is pretty jacked and almost as tall as him. WALTER chopping the table and tearing it in half was perfectly executed, as was WALTER's selling of his injured hand moving as he added the little touches (such as not being able to put on an STF, not being able to hold onto the bridge, having to use his other hand and clutching his own head to keep on a rear naked choke, etc). Ciampa using endless lariats to chop down WALTER (who had to rely on the ropes to stay up) was great. I get…

Not a MOTYC or anything but this is a good heavyweight match that is built as a fighter with a more varied MMA fighter vs. a more one dimensional grappler. There's some odd and overly flashy strikes from Benjamin but aside from that he throws some good looking body and leg kicks, some great knees to the body and ground and pound elbows. He also pulls off a cool arm trap transition into a deep rear naked choke (that would have been a perfectly fine finisher as it was under the chin and deep). Tito on the other hand struggled on the feet and was constantly pushing to get the fight on the ground and he busted out a massive throw and he also caught an overconfident Benjamin s…

This match was originally scheduled to take place last year before the pandemic and unfortunately it got cancelled and rescheduled for this year. This was more so a pro-wrestling match with some segments of shoot style. The ground work here is tight and gritty for the most part and the ground and pound from both guys is pretty brutal as they both unloaded a variety of elbows from the top on each other. This is the first time I recall there being blood in a Bloodsport match and it added to the brutality of the match, namely Moxley who had a near Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL crimson mask. Moxley pulling a Mike Tyson and biting Barnett's ear and not getting DQ'd on the same card S…

This was a really good match. First time seeing Karaoui and I was really impressed. He's a French wrestler who's apparently spent years in Mexico and he busts out some wicked lucha submissions yet he makes them look credible in shoot style ala Alexander Otsuka (obviously not as fluid as he's less experienced in the style). Makowski is always a guy who impresses me when I see him but unfortunately he usually works smaller shows which fly under the radar for the most part. As every other time I've seen him, he was incredible here. Some of his strikes here were questionable but he threw a pretty wicked knee in the clinch. There's some neat throws in this as well with Karaoui…

This was a nice surprise. I'm not particularly big on James the times I've seen him but I thought he was decent here as he got some big throws in and was decent on the ground with some gritty transitions grinding his elbow in Grimm's face and also attempting multiple subs. However Grimm was on another level here. His striking was decent (hit James with a pretty nasty spinning back fist) and his groundwork looked great as he looked constantly active and he made it all look like a struggle (those headbutts on the ground from Grimm were great). The big butterfly suplex leading to the kimura was gratifying finish. Much, much better match than I was expecting.

Been watching Kevin Ku from MLW and he's good also this was my first exposure to Daniel Garcia and I liked what I saw. This was an intense physical technical struggle that stole the show on WM week and it was tremendous. Everything these two did had a purpose with the intention to punish while managing their time sensibly.

Good BJJ vs. wrestler match. Martyr seems to have a wrestling background and is tiny so he has to use his speed to try and trip takedown the much bigger Garrini. He's also a dirty fighter as there's a neat moment early on with him suckering in Garrini to engage in a clinch and he rushes in with a sneaky headbutt and he uses the leverage for a trip takedown. Garrini of course has no problem tossing Martyr around with some wicked German suplexes. Both guys exchange ground and pound here with some stiff shots being thrown by both sides. Martyr gets cocky and Garrini blasts and drops him with a stiff slap that Martyr sold with a blank stare that gives the impression he was le…

Entirely different match from WALTER/Ciampa as this is more of a straight up hoss fight. Rampage brings the fight to WALTER and it's a 15+ minute bomb fest between these two. Match is worked evenly as it should be with Rampage looking like a threat to WALTER. That Doctor Bomb from Rampage was pretty nasty as WALTER landed on his shoulder. They go a bit overboard in the finishing stretch with the big move 2.99 kickouts but I still dug this and thought it was very good. Would like to see them run this one back once they are fans back in the arenas.

A surprise to start day 1 of the Carnival. Yuma played the disrespectful youngster perfectly, even mocking Otani's sword pose. Contrast that with Otani being the no-nonsense veteran who's not putting up with Aoyagi's mess made up this awesome sprint these two put on.

Short but entertaining tournament match with Momo dominating with kicks leading SK to make her comeback and gain the upper hand. Both did as much as they could cramming in as much as they could resulting in a finish that made both look strong.

Yeah, that is not a thread title I thought I would ever be typing on here. This wasn't an all-time classic or good or anything but it far beyond exceeded expectations and is one of the best celebrity wrestling matches ever. Bad Bunny busting out a wild counter into an armdrag, La Casita like he's Negro Casas, a headscissors and a Destroyer was wild. Also his selling was far better than it had any right to be. Priests hot tag offense was on point and I would say he's improved a ton and been much better since moving up to the main roster. This is a match they obviously rehearsed a ton at the Performance Center before but kudos to everyone involved, specially the Miz who was…

Both guys have been really good throughout the year and both guys brought it here and put on together a hot opening heavyweight title match. This didn't have the stiff strikes or potatoes the Drew/Sheamus match had but it had a bunch of big bombs from both guys. There's also a wild dive from Drew in this which unfortunately got brushed off by Lashley and MVP and McIntyre just splatted back first on the outside. That no sell kip up from Drew to the second spinebuster felt very Shawn Michael'ish and was something I could have done without but the crowd went nuts for it so it worked. The drama and false finish with the kimura was a great and the referee stoppage to the Hurt …

This was soooo much better than I was expecting it to be. I'm not a big Rollins fan but I would be lying if I said he wasn't good here. The lead in to this was built around Cesaro's giant swing and how he'd humiliated Rollins with it in recent weeks so of course there's a giant swing tease in this that gets the crowd going nuts. Cesaro's main offense is usually a variety of European uppercuts and Rollins hurts Cesaro's shoulder with a buckle bomb so we get portions of Cesaro's main offense being shutdown briefly due to it. There's two really neat transitions here that look like throwbacks to transitions Cesaro would do with Quack for Ian Rotten in IWA Mid-South; in one Ce…

This was the big main event and it had the big match feel to it. Heel Sasha is much better than face Sasha and we get instances of heel Sasha here with her constantly going after Bianca's braid to use it against her, including her going after Bianca's braid and using it to keep her close so she can punt her constantly with one of those punts landing on the mouth. We get a big Sasha dive early on which Bianca catches and roles through and we get one of the most impressive press slams ever with Bianca carrying Sasha up the stairs and tossing her inside the ring from the ring apron. Sasha is also someone who can get wild on offense like Manami Toyota and she will just throw …

Another match that was much better than I was expecting it to be. They start with the New Day as faces and AJ and Omos as heels but the roles are reversed in this as the New Day refuse to wrestle Omos early on and they put an extensive beatdown on AJ and constantly cut him off from tagging in Omos. Eventually the anticipation to seeing Omos make his in ring debut is built up and we get a hot tag that delivers with Omos coming in absolutely wrecking the New Day; he catches Kofi with a Volk Han aikido wristlock throw and he absolutely crushes Woods' ribes with a brutal rib breaker. The Headshrinkers like assisted springboard Phenomenal Forearm was a great looking spot as wa…

THESE TWO having THIS MATCH at THIS STAGE. Neat as hell. It was classic Zayn vs. Owens stuff; bombs bombs bombs with everything looking magnificently dangerous & destructive. A badass 9-minute sprint. ***3/4

Matt Riddle defends the WWE United States Title Given the chemistry and some of the past matches these two have had before, I was super hyped to see what these two would on the big stage. Unfortunately this didn't reach the level of their TV matches which were much better as they were much more condensed. I still dug this as the work was tight and snug and we got some great bits such as the great knee counter to the Riddle flip from the ring apron inside the ring. That entire White Noise botch off the top rope was obviously silly but the big Bruiser Brody like King Kong Knee Drop off the top rope from Sheamus was great and looked like it would crush Riddle's jaw. Sh…

Roman Reigns defends the WWE Universal Title in a triple threat match I love how they wasted NO TIME with the bombs and the interference. Made people stand on the edge of their seats from the get go. Actually, that's all irrelevant. Roman pinned both men at the same time. Shoulders down. Dreams got smashed. This is the Big Dog.

Best Gulak singles match this year so far. He absolutely brings the aggressiveness and caves Garza's chest in and busts his mouth open with a sick dropkick in the corner (if there was a dropkick that required a John Woo bump, it's this one). He also channels Volk Han as he catches Garza's superkick and puts him in an ankle lock before transitioning to that sick side STF Han used to do. Garza's facials for that were great as he genuinely looks like he's about to pass out while Gulak's forearm is deep under his chin. Aside from his great facials in the STF, I thought Garza was decent in this fighting from underneath. His comeback clothesline after the pants toss was solid a…

Much like her performance earlier this year with Miyu this was another serious outing from Ito by starting with aggressive offense and never letting up on Rika. Tatsumi had a spirited comeback to even things for the middle portion with strikes leading to the end with back and forth action between the two resulting in Tatsumi gaining the win in a strong Princess Of Princess title defense.