October 2022

Technically very solid but I get why this is so divisive. Funaki can still go when he wants (like seriously, the dude looks pretty good for someone in their 50's when he's bothering to actually wrestle and do stuff that isn't just weaker material from his AJPW days) but Sakuraba was never a amazing wrestler, just a very gifted technical worker; even back in UWFI and Kingdom this was the case more or less. At this point he's just kind of there, a lot of good mat-work but with none of the showmanship or psychology that Muto had to make that grounded style click (obviously he doesn't wrestle shoot-style, but you get the point, his work feels more impactful despite it functio…

Fun, breezy six-man tag on an outdoor show. They hit all of their moves cleanly and everything moved along at a steady pace. The opening grappling exchange between Kojima and Ishida was buttery smooth. I continue to be impressed by Ishida and how he’s set himself apart from his contemporaries with his sumo-based offense. Katsumata played the face in peril for a bit until he made the tag and The 37KAMIINA rallied. Higuchi ran wild, but Ueno and Katsumata wiped out the two senior members of Harimao with a pair of dives. It would eventually come down to Ishida and Ueno, with the latter hitting the Best Moonsault Ever for the win. I appreciated the fact that when things broke…

This was one of those matches where everything clicked. Bandido got to show off his inhuman feats of strength, including an impressive, one-handed press slam onto Watanabe. Hayashi and Watanabe played the de-facto heels, cutting off the energetic high-flyers at every turn. They double-teamed Komander and roughed him up for a bit. The tides turned when he sent Hayashi out to the apron and hit a hurricanrana on Watanabe. It all culminated in a wild dive train, followed by Komander’s signature rope-walk topé. Komander dazzled the crowd with rope tricks, as well as an elevated double DDT on Watanabe and Hayashi, thanks to some assistance from Bandido. Komander would score the…

I don’t know what got into Izuchi, but he wrestled with more vigor than I’ve ever seen him compete with before. From the outset, you could feel the hatred between Izuchi and Ishida. Izuchi jumped Ishida and kicked him square in the head several times. Even Izuchi’s elbow strikes, which I’ve often found ineffective, were ruthless. Once things went to the outside, Ishida didn’t allow Izuchi any respite, repeatedly bouncing his head off the apron and delivering thunderous kicks of his own. Neither wanted to give the other an inch, looking to prove that their arsenal was the strongest. Ishida got busted open from a kick around five minutes in. Even the usual modern trope…

This match comes at the tail end of a grueling near-twenty-minute KO-D Tag Team Title defense for Higuchi. Aoki interrupts Harimao’s victory speech to cash in DDT’s anytime, anywhere, Right to Challenge NFT, one of many in a long line of silly gimmicks in the promotion. Aoki immediately goes after Higuchi’s injured arm, which Daisuke Sasaki and KANON attacked in the match prior. Aoki employs ruthless kicks, baiting Higuchi into a lock-up and pulling at his bad wheel. Higuchi’s selling is terrific. His arm is practically limp at this point, and Aoki uses that to his advantage. Higuchi desperately escapes to the ropes, but Aoki continues to pepper him with kicks, showi…

This match combined two of my favorite archetypes in wrestling: two tough guys beating the tar out of each other and the surly veteran teaching the young gun a lesson. Narita being the protege of Katsuyori Shibata, one of Ishii’s fiercest rivals, has probably studied plenty of tape on his opponent. That manifests in ways like Narita cutting short Ishii’s counter sequences with a sleeper hold or a kick to the head. Ishii, ever the resilient underdog, may have met his match in Narita. Ren gets just as aggressive as he does, dishing out punishment with unruly slaps. Ishii fires back by simply chopping Narita in the throat repeatedly. It was a visceral sight, and Narita’…

Classic big man/little man dynamic. You know exactly what you’re getting with this match-up, and they more than deliver on that promise. Mysterio’s strategy early on was to stick and move, using evasiveness to his advantage. Gunther’s power proved too much, and he took control with a series of chops. Mysterio took a few gnarly-looking bumps, getting thrown head-first to the floor and powerbombed onto the apron. Gunther was dismissive and brutal in his control segment, raking the boots across Mysterio’s face and delivering bodyslams and clotheslines with ferocity. Mysterio using his arms to block the former was a neat touch and something I can’t recall seeing before. …