February 2005

I really couldn't tell who was tecnico and who was rudo throughout this. Both wrestled pretty similar styles, and I couldn't hear if the crowd were chanting 'Wagner' or 'Shocker'. I'll put it down to my own stupidity. This excelled in delivering some really slick and impressive power spots - suplexes to the outside, powerbombs, general feats of strength. It made a nice change of pace, but lacked the excitement of Mistico matches. Good but not great, for me. *** 1/2

Talk about it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnv1IhcwlJs&feature=youtu.be

I had no idea that the WWE did an episode of RAW in the Saitama Super Arena in 2005. Smart decision to open the show with a pair of wrestlers the fans knew well. I wish the the match had been longer, but they got a decent amount of time for an opening bout and the crowd were into it.

Taped in Japan so an unusual crowd for a WWE match. Really great stuff that doesn't need to go overboard to make a fun and compelling match. Angle dominated the first half with Rey getting hope spots in by outsmarting Kurt. Then makes a comeback so he can fly around, before one big dive too many sees him submitting to an ankle lock. Just a very watchable match with suplexs from Angle and flying from Mysterio. As a means of making me think back more positively about WWE TV in 2005, it was a big achievement. ****

This was much better than I expected. It was a title match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship, and while it was far from a traditional title match, I appreciated the measured approach they took to the opening fall and the amount of selling Mistico did. They managed to work a compelling match despite the fact that workrate and elaborate spots had replaced matwork and submission teases as the main focus of a lucha title match. We tend to think of modern workers as not slowing down to sell and let a match breathe, but they're not helped by the television editors who are just as jumpy as the workers. I'm sure if this was edited with a slower rhythm that people wouldn…

This was criminally short given the workers involved. Did they really think we didn't want another 10 minutes of this? Mind you, with the editing fuckery it may have actually been 10 minutes longer than it appeared. There's not a single one-on-one matchup in this match that isn't intriguing and what they do give us is good stuff. Shocker still has his face paint on. I really need to unpack that mystery.

Talk about it here.

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This is the first of two ironman matches between these two in 2005, and this is the better one of the two by a slight margin. While the one at Bound For Glory was more of a wrestling clinic, this was more of a war, as both AJ and Daniels were going all out in order to win the X Division title, and AJ was even bleeding! Both were tied after 30 minutes, and Dusty Rhodes gives the match 5 more minutes, in which AJ gets the deciding fall with the Styles Clash. ****1/2 (Great match that put over both competitors very well, the right story in that this was all about the belt, and the right person went over as AJ only won the title last month)

Look-I'm giving Jeff Hardy's first TNA run a shot. I like trainwrecks. "Full Metal Mayhem" screams "we wanted to do a TLC match but WWE copyrighted that". This is a garbage match in TNA, is there an unnecessary additional stipulation that accomplishes nothing? You bet there is! I didn't expect this to make sense and it met my expectations, it had the obvious setting up of spots I feared and Hardy even won a ladder-assisted test of strength against Abyss. Lots of walking around that doesn't look like fighting or them fighting while wasted. I'm sure Jeff Hardy vs. Jerry Estrada would've been a classic though. The Twist Of Fate on the floor was embarrassingly looking bad…

These guys didn't match up as well as I would've expected. Their strike exchanges looked phony and the Captain Charisma stuff came across as goofy. Orton was still a face here and they created this minor thing with Christian to give him something to do for February's TV, but it didn't do a ton for me.

Keiji Mutoh vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - AJPW 2/16/05 In his quest to be just like his hero, Tanahashi completed the final mission by having no knees. But this 2005 and he still has knees! I think these two have a more famous match at the Dome in 2008-ish which I have seen but not sure I reviewed. This match is on the undercard of the Kawada vs Kojima which in a lot of ways was the last heralded All Japan Main Event. Business wise I found it interesting that even with this 1-2 punch they only drew 6000, one year prior Kawada vs Hashimoto drew 10+ and Mutoh’s 20th Anniversary with Misawa, Hase and Sasaki also 10k. They are at about 50% on what is probably the most stacked c…

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This was much more like it. There were momentum shifts, there was blood and hate, the strikes look great and they build to some great spots. Hurricanrana off the cage was a highlight. A reverse hurricanrana looks great, but does not get the same kind of reaction it would in 2018, which I actually appreciate. It's a cool move, but it can look awkward and should not be a 1-hit kill. Cabana was the ultimate dumb face, climbing the cage when he could have walked out the door, but at least he pays for it. Finish was great, as Aries runs and dives out the door before Colt can climb down. Cabana's best ever match? ****

This is a very intriguing 1-on-1 match-up on paper, and it was a great one! Love how Spanky finds his first real opening with that dropkick & then Punk's leg becomes the main story of the match. Spanky is perfect in his role here being ratty, fast & crafty at finding openings. Punk's selling is class all the way through. The way the targeted leg seals the deal in the finish is brilliant. Really loved this one. ****

A taped fist match is one of the coolest stipulations in the history of professional wrestling, but they couldn't replicate the atmosphere of an old-school territory match here and instead worked a weak 90s walk around the arena, no-DQ brawl. Danielson bleed for the first time in ROH, but it didn't amount to anything. They worked some nearfalls during the finishing stretch, which is lame in a taped fist match, and the finish was pure sports entertainment. What happened to ROH being a flagbearer for the anti-sports entertainment sect? They should have watched some old Mid-South tapes and worked a 10 minute bout to a blood stoppage. They could have even done the shitty spor…

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B+ for effort and effectiveness for these guys, and another good Korakuen 6-man from NOAH. Marufuji is a highlight acting like a massive dick. This builds the upcoming Kobashi/Rikio match pretty well, with the pair brawling around Korakuen several times. This picks up quite a bit at the end, with Kobashi and Rikio throwing bombs. A fun match without really escalating to the heights of the best NOAH output from 2005. *** 1/2

This was such a smartly worked bout. The intensity and focus from Cena was remarkable. I damn near bought into his story and it's 20 years later and the match was commentated by Taz and Michael Cole. The defining thing about the bout was that they established the psychology and stuck to it. It was clear that Cena couldn't outwrestle Angle on the mat and that his only way of beating Kurt was to force him into a more traditional pro-wrestling bout. So often in WWE matches the early psychology of the bout disintegrates into finisher spamming, but in this bout they rode it out to the end. The selling during the finishing stretch isn't something you usually associate with Kurt…

This was much better than the Orton vs. Christian match from the week before and the type of roll-out-of-bed crowd pleaser that WWE workers do so well. It was a reunion of sorts for the Edge and Christian team, which JR smartly tapped into and even Edge's hammy acting and Christian's corny Captain Charisma shtick couldn't derail the premise. Lots of quick tags, lots of exciting action, and even an RKO chant from the crowd. Was t Was the WWE wrong to turn Orton? Inquiring minds wish to know. There's no way if you tuned into this in February 2005 that you wouldn't have been entertained.

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A very good match w/ some very nice dueling body part targeting; Punk early on went for the arm to soften Shelley up for the Anaconda Vise, which Shelley countered by unleashing an absolute beating to Punker's mid-section. Shelley's all around performance was pretty terrific -- his focused attack on that mid-section was all kinds of awesome, and he sold the arm really well; I especially liked how he couldn't fully lock in the Border City Stretch at first, 'cause of the damage Punk had done to that arm. That was some good shit. Punk was rock solid with everything he did in the match as well, but I do think he could've sold the mid-section a little bit more, but it's not li…

This is a very good midcard match. Cabana & Nigel compliment each other quite well with their signature in-ring styles. Charming competitive technical wrestling throughout with good little comedic moments in there all in the name of said competitive technical wrestling. ***1/2

This was Jamie Noble's debut in ROH. There's a strong anti-Smackdown vibe among both the crowd and the commentary. It was a bit annoying, to be honest. It's not as though the ROH product is that much better than Smackdown. It's been a while since I've seen a ROH match that was as good as that Angle vs. Cena match. Apparently, Gibson would be back in the WWE before the year was out, so yeah. It's been a minute since I've seen Spanky. This was perfectly good North American junior heavyweight wrestling. There was a void for this type of wrestling in the North American market in 2005, but it seems like ROH didn't want to pigeonhole anyone by weight class.

I was kind of torn about whether it was a good idea to book this match. You're basically saying to the audience that you've got this guy who's the ex-champ that's so much better than the guy who's the current champ. On the other hand, Joe deserved a return match. Aries ran from him too often at the beginning of the match, which is not the kind of image I'd want to present if I were the newly crowned champ, but eventually there was some good back and forth action and Aries began fighting with the guts that won him the belt. Unfortunately, the finish was botched. It was supposed to be a fluke pin where Joe's shoulders were accidently caught on the mat, but the ref counted t…