May 2021

A great New Japan main event for the NEVER championship. Jay worked extensively over Tanahashi's left leg leading in the retaliation of Tanahashi focusing on Jay's leg from an offensive and defensive perspective. Tanahashi was in his big match form selling and steadily building to an epic conclusion. As for White, he was on fire adding small fragments of his heelwork while working on the leg. This went over 30 minutes but made everything they did engaging never feeling like a bore to watch. A strong finishing counter sequence ending in a sweet-looking blade runner by White winning the belt and having his second-best performance of the year.

Will Ospreay defends the IWGP World Heavyweight Title Forty-four minutes and Fifty-Three seconds with two of the best in the world currently displaying their unavailable excellent chemistry. This lived up to their epic BOSJ final and then some. Crazy spots, beautiful counters, and callbacks with maneuvers from past opponents were the components to make this amazing masterpiece of a MOTYC.

A near long hour of beautiful technical wrestling displayed that never overstayed its welcome. Smooth and crisp counters dominated the majority of the match (from Moriarty's end) until things escalated into slight outside action. Once that was done they quickly it all cumulated in YUTA putting away Moriarty in a mostly clean fashion, this was damn good.

This right here rocked on all levels. An intense and physical grappling struggle with both men constantly trying to stay in command on offense with great urgency. Garcia seeking to wear down Drake and in turn Drake using his large frame to combat these attacks. This went down to the wire with a conclusion that has both looking strong coming out.

The beginning was structured in the standard lucha formula of sprinting through the first two falls and having the real meat of the match in the third fall. Kushida continually worked over the left arm of Escobar's arm in a technically dominant fashion. Santos tried to fend off the attack but limb work was too much, good stuff.

Darby Allin defends the TNT Championship. This was kinda like Darby's awesome match vs. Brian Cage from January, as in it's Darby getting destroyed by a brute for the most of it, but at the same time, this had a completely different dynamic & charm to it. It's also better. The pre-match attack by Miro was amazingly vicious; it was a complete crime-scene before the bell even rang & I loved it. Then the match officially began & the narrative continued with Miro indeed mostly just completely destroying Darby, and it rules. Miro looks like a monster between his awesome offense & Darby's willingness to make everything look twice or thrice as brutal. Darby'…

The Young Bucks defend the AEW Tag Team Championships. If Daniels & Kazarian lose, they will never tag again as a duo. I thought that this was a really good tag match. The Bucks got to really showcase why they're such lovely pricks, Kazarian looked good, getting plenty of time to shine on the offense + Daniels delivered big time selling his ass off w/ the blood; his whole "final stand" segment after he gets the final tag was certainly my favorite bit of the match. It was pretty great. ***1/2

Three way matches usually drag, but this was absolute bonkers from start to finish. These three guys have had quality matches on RAW between each other this year, so I was def. looking forward to this and thought it was good. It was a sub 15 minute pro-wrestling demolition derby. Just three big dudes throwing each other around like madmen. McIntyre's Michinoku Driver is easily one of the most impressive spots of the year and the Claymore Kick counter into a big powerbomb table bump was great. Screwy finish which I don't mind as it allows to build another match with Lashley returning to ringside and tossing McIntyre out of the ring after he had hit Strowman with a Claymore…

Roman Reigns defends the WWE Universal Title. This was great. The first third or so wasn't the most interesting stuff, but once Cesaro's arm becomes THE major focal point of Reigns' onslaught, it gets extremely compelling. Reigns is great at targeting that said arm; loved him talking trash to Daniel Bryan & going to town on that arm total DB style. Good shit. Cesaro's selling was of course tremendous too; really consistent + I loved the way it came into play in a couple of key moments like the Neutralizer try or the pop-up Uppercut attempt. Kinda surprising to see him lose 100% clean like that, but I don't think he came of…

This was some textbook tag team wrestling & a classic Rey Rey performance. He was selling his ass off through the entire thing & was just being the best babyface in peril in general. Absolutely lovely stuff by him, and the Dirty Dawgs were definitely on point as well; I thought that Bobby Roode especially had some awesome moments punishing Rey & cutting off Dom's hot tag run. Epic spinebusters & backbreakers to name a couple of things from the great, fun arsenal he showcased here. Gotta love the feel-good ending to cap this match off too; they told the story extremely well right from the start, and by the end, Dominic coming in & hitting that Frog Spla…

I was at the CWC live for this match and thought this was a blast. I'm not super high on El Legado del Fantasma, but I thought they were really good here and this is easily their best match so far as they were taking a nasty beating from Thatcher and Ciampa and then working stiffly when on offense instead of doing their usual Jr. heavyweight routines. Ciampa hit Raúl with a nasty running elbow in the corner and his nose just exploded which I recall going nuts for as it landed flush. Surprised it didn't KO him. There were some odd stoppages to check on Raúl, but luckily those were during commercial breaks so this could continue flowing. The only things I found kind of lame…

This was way better than anyone expected it to be. The early gritty collar and elbow tie up set the tone for this match. Riddle showed he was the superior grappler early on and Woods used power to hit some vertical drop suplexes on Riddle including a great looking suplex from an arm bar counter. Woods also pulled out an impressive press slam into a gut buster. The highlight though was Riddle dead lifting Woods from the ring apron while he was standing on the second rope and hitting a nasty German suplex that surprising enough didn't end with a neck injury or fractured arm. The finish was pretty clever with Riddle hitting an unexpected RKO. Woods singles match I've ever se…

The beginning of things started at a gradual pace until Deeb flipped the switch and went full-blown heel. Serena was in full command of working aggressively over Riho's leg and riling up the crowd, she was channeling Bryan Danielson circa 2006 and it was a blast to watch. Riho sold the limb attack well, got some good highspots in, and did a great in her hope spots being the best babyface that she can be. The leg work played heavily to the finish in a banger of a match.

A great back and forth opener between two contenders for the AEW title. Both men meshed well, having Cage toning down his usual style and focusing more on being the powerhouse brute with Page working off of that with good babyface offense. I appreciate the fact that the only attempt of a high spot from Cage was a failed buckshot lariat. Furthering story was built of Cage dissenting from Taz wanting to win all on his own, leading to Page getting the victory. Also shoutout to the hot crowd that made everything these two did matter.

The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) defend the AEW World Tag Team Titles. There's a great feeling of excitement and energy from this match which elevates everything. The crowd are really into Mox & Kingston's entrance singing along to "Wild Thing" and the match starts hot with them going straight for the Bucks and we get a big brawl on the outside. This is all very well done and I really enjoyed the first 10 minutes of this match. The big problem though is the inconsistency with how the referee enforces the rules in the first half of the match, only to completely drop it in the second half where the Young Bucks are just happily double teaming Moxley for lit…

This is much better than their match from the previous week. It's a good big man vs. little man match. Drew uses his big power moves to try to putdown Kofi and Kofi uses his speed and agility to try and putdown Drew. We've gotten Drew vs. bigger guys for most of the year and the matches have been monster truck derbies for the most part, so it's cool seeing him face someone smaller and less physical that is willing to use his speed and agility. That doesn't mean Kofi doesn't bring the intensity though as he catches Drew with a dropkick on the side of his face that leaves a clear visible welt. We saw one of the nastiest bumps of the year here with Drew catching Kofi's trust…