June 2023

One of the ring trucks arrived late at the venue, so they were wrestling on exposed wooden boards with no mat or turnbuckle pads. Koroku and Okatani struggled over an Irish Whip, neither wanting to take the full brunt of the turnbuckles. That kind of adaptability to the situation bodes well for their future, and I’m excited to see them develop further. The match was wrestled smartly, with both teams taking extra precautions to avoid getting slammed onto the wooden boards. That’s not to say the action was light, as Higuchi and HARASHIMA battered each other with kicks and chops until the latter’s chest was beet red. You also had the dynamic between Higuchi and former s…

Really didn't need to be a almost 30 minute match but hell this is probably Shinzaki's last proper singles match (unless he pulls a Muto and starts winning titles at 60) so you might as well. The guy is in great shape and unlike Great Sasuke he hasn't broken himself down nearly as much to the degree where this would've been painful to watch. As you would think, this did slog on a fair bit at the beginning; lots of slow holds, trading hammerlocks, etc. It made sense to the logic of what they were trying to showcase here, however: MSUASHI is Michinoku Pro, or at least their last truly loyal trainee that hasn't bounced like Kenoh or the like. He's trying to establish that he…

This isn't even ten minutes long, but it's a brilliant match. It perfectly plays off of ther earlier tournament matches that Ito and Aoki had that got them to the finals, and the end result is the morality play that pro wrestling is supposed to be. This isn't going to get the attention, or amount of dicussion (for better or worse), that Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns from WrestleMania did. But, unlike Cody, Takanori Ito was able to "finish the story." While I sat in front of my laptop trying to piece together what all I wanted to say about this match, it got me thinking about the mentality of only wanting to see the "best" matches (and for the record I am just a…

This was really good but fell short of WK. First, the positives: I really liked the role reversal with Ospreay as the belligerent heel and Omega working from underneath. There was plenty of aggression and many of the sequences/spots (the smashing of heads into surfaces, Omega knee to the back of the head counter) were compelling. The Tiger Driver 91 was vile but well incorporated. Omega got a weak kickout but was all but done after it and the next move finished him off, which is exactly how you should employ dangerous endgame moves if you choose to incorporate them. But this was not nearly as well put together as WK. Awkward pacing and many lulls in action (perhaps becaus…