April 2006

This sure has some beautiful technical wrestling throughout. I like how Bryan tried to get into Lance's head by being mean w/ that slap early on, but to the champs surprise, Lance just shrugged it off & gave him one back. Bryan continues to be lil' nasty as the match goes on by using the lace of his boots to grind on the side of Lance's face, choking him, trashtalk n' slaps. It's very good stuff and it showcased Bryan's frustration very well, because he sure wasn't liking how Storm was hanging w/ him, and even showing him up in their exchanges. If I had to pick one singular moment to point out as my favorite from the match, I'd probably go with the Surfboard bit. Love…

lol at Triple H's King Conan entrance. It was better than Cena's entrance. The crowd was electric for this and the split crowd made for quite the spectacle. Even JR admitting that he couldn't relate to Cena gave the match a different feel from the typical JR commentary. He leaned into the blue collar aspect of Cena's gimmick vs. Triple H being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, even though the latter hadn't been part of Triple H's gimmick for a while, and of course there were the obligatory football mentions, but it was straight hearing JR call a match where he wasn't slobbering over the babyface. The match was well laid out. In fact, I thought it was the best Cena ma…

This was pretty good, but like most of the matches on this show it was too short. You don't expect a world title match to clock in under ten minutes. I thought the beats were good, so whoever laid it out did a good ob. My only gripe would be that an arm drag to the outside shouldn't have been enough to prevent Angle from interfering with the finish to the match. Rey (or Orton) should have taken him out with something more devastating. Rey winning the title by pinning the co-challenger wasn't as impactful as Benoit making Triple H tap, and I hated that they used Eddie's death to fuel the storyline, but if they didn't have the stones to run Rey vs. Angle as a singles match …

Mick Foley vs Edge - WrestleMania XXII Hardcore Match This is a quintessential Mick Foley match where his pain is supposed to be our pleasure. It is the greatest hits of his career, the knees into the steel steps, slamming the back of his head on a metal surface. His offense was tight. He escalated the match well. Edge added nothing to this. In fact he actively detracted at times with his abysmal selling. I have no idea what the hell he was doing at the finish. He looked like he was suffering from hypothermia. I thought Lita was awesome in this. In fact, I thought the Lita/Foley interactions were the most compelling. Anytime, Foley looked like he was really going to d…

I felt obligated to watch this. It wasn't the worst match I've ever seen but it was still pretty shit. Way too much dicking around to get to the payoff. I could go the rest of my life without seeing Vince McMahon's leathery ass cheeks.

WWE Women's Champion Trish Stratus vs Mickie James - WrestleMania XXII I had a massive crush on Mickie when she first started in late 2005 into 2006. Loved this storyline with the obsession leading to Mickie snapping and some really good brawls between the two. It felt like the first real blood feud in the women's division and the only real blood feud going on at the time between any two wrestlers. I had never seen this match, but always wanted to. Mickie was awesome in this match. I have not seen a Trish match since she retired. She is exactly as I remember her sometime who tries really hard. I think it was great she spent most of the match selling because she wa…

This is a gritty fight. Both competitors pay every time they try to introduce a ladder into the ring, with Togo eating a baseball slide dropkick and Hero bouncing face-first off the metal when he tries to launch himself out of the ring. That leads to Hero getting busted open, and Togo takes advantage by hitting a diving senton through the ropes. Togo is a fantastic bully, punching and stomping the life out Hero with every bit of vigor and venom in his body. Hero matches Togo’s pettiness, slapping the taste out of his mouth and chopping him directly in the face, which gets a visceral reaction out of me. He also sells with a dazed look in his eye, stumbling around the …

World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton - Smackdown 4/7/06 These two have crazy awesome chemistry with one another. This is the first Smackdown after Mania XXII where Mysterio won the championship over Angle & Orton. I think Orton & Mysterio could have main evented on their own. I thought this was in the same ballpark as their great No Way Out match but with the feel good finish here putting this one slightly ahead. They really establish Orton's size advantage early on. Orton was so good execution at this point in his career. You can see why a Bret Hart would look on him so favorably. Should tackle bowls over Mysterio. Love Orton dropping to…

Along side with Tenryu vs. Miyamoto, that main event wasn't even half bad, but I enjoyed it. The first half was pretty dull to me, but the second half when Ikeda and Taichi started beating the living the shit out of each other brings up the momentum. And the finish was a bit well-executed. That's all I can say. And also, thanks to Misawa and few of the NOAH roster, this is the only best Kings Road show I have ever watched. Good match and good show. ***3/4

TNA X-Division Champion Christopher Daniels vs Samoa Joe - TNA IMPACT 4/13/06 We start in medias res as the Impact program starts with Daniels tapping a gusher. As Daniels is writhing around like a bloody fish, they show some of Daniels shine and how he was able to use speed to keep Joe off balance until Joe was able to catch him on the outside and smash him into the ringpost and then hit an Ole Kick according to Tenay & West. Daniels is out of it in the ring. This is the episode where Sting had his first match on TV so they are really trying to goose a big rating. Daniels throws a body shot and Joe BITES THE CUT! He really went at it. Daniels is throwing de…

This had flashes of what I wanted to see between these two kinds, but I wish it hadn't been worked within the confines of a cage match as it was obvious that it was going to lead to a typical BS ending. JBL was so good at his craft, and their brawling was so tight, that I remain convinced that these two had a classic in them. We just never got to see it because of some sort of shortsighted bullshit.

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Enson Inoue is someone you never hear anyone talk about that I really like, this was a pretty great performance from him, great punches and just super smooth matwork. The armbar escapes here were phenomenal, a lot of times you can sense where the workers are going and so can the crowd, here they looked like something from a real fight, just superb stuff. This managed to be very compelling despite Inoeu being so dominant which also made Hara's brief comeback more special. Love the way Inoue used the headscissors early on to control Hara, kind of rolling with him as he tried to escape or improve his position. ***1/4

My love for Usuda will not yield. After checking Karaev's wikipedia I have found out he was a sumo and a mixed martial artist. I am sold. He crushes an apple during the introductions. Usuda tries to do so as well and fails miserably. Man this ruled. The size difference was enormous. Karaev has awesome fat man offence and Usuda did a great job of selling for him and working around him. You go the feeling he was going to die once Karaev caught him and.......he eventually did but Usuda managed to briefly convince you he could maybe win, like when he caught Karaev in a Wakigatame and when he kicked Karaev in the head by climbing onto the second rope. ***1/4-***1/2

This may be my favorite Shibata in BML match. A super fun little match, with a pudgy, teenaged Nakajima slugging it out with Shibata Tons of great strikes, good counterwork, and crowd-supported hope spots for Nakajima. I loved Shibata’s Cobra Twist counter into the shoot pin attempt and Nakajima’s mini-elbows. When Nakajima begins a comeback, Shibata cuts him off the hard way with a piledriver! Nakajima fires off a big roundhouse kick and a German suplex hold but Shibata comes out of the two count with a double wristlock on Nakajima. Shibata follows that up with a PK to the arm, a kick to the chest, and he’s right back into the armbar off the kickout. Nakajima tries to es…

Total dream match for me right here. Ten seconds in Kensuke and Murakami quarrel over who's going to start and chop and punch each other for a second before Kensuke starts things off, that spot is awesome in that setting but when you have like, Sekimoto and X modern puro guy doing it for twenty minutes it's boring. MiSU-Kensuke interactions sound least intriguing since I've seen them go at it plenty of times including a 40 minute match. They do a quick strike exchange and Kensuke irish whips MiSu into the ropes and-stare offs might not work in junior matches after doing kung fu sequences but they totally work here when MiSu suddenly stops as Kensuke is going to chop him. …

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Talk about it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml2Uuu9QEBk&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XD_SVQvoqM&feature=youtu.be

Man I watched this a few years ago but wanted to see it again before I gave it a thread and I still can't believe how much Henry made me care about a Lashley comeback. I watched Goldberg/Henry from 2003 before this and although you could see glimpses of what Henry would become he's on another level here. The trash talk and the mileage he gets out of simple shoves early on is unreal. Plus keeping score as he beat down Lashley ("Three for me! Zero for you!") is something I can't believe hasn't been used more often. This makes every Lashley hope spot feel important and when he explodes out of the corner for that clothesline I lost it. This leads to yet another Henry cutoff c…

This was the 1000th match between Kurt Angle and Rey Mysterio, but you can't go wrong with Mysterio and Angle as a matchup. What made this special is that it was wrestled in the Wembley Arena in London, England, site of some famous British wrestling matches. I don't know if I like them pushing Rey as an underdog champ who can lose at any given moment. .That feels like they're cutting him off at the knees booking wise. Interestingly, the Wembley crowd appeared to be pro-Angle. There were even boos for Rey. They worked their usual back and forth bout until Mark Henry showed up and pissed the crowd off by costing Angle the bout. Now we know the heat against Henry was orchest…

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Triple Threat match for the WWE Title. My biggest gripe about this match has to be that it's supposed to be babyface John Cena defending against two heels, but only Edge is seriously trying to get heel heat here. It doesn't spoil the match but it does get aggravating. They work the triple threat formula quite well with Edge staying out of the action at the start, just getting involved to break up a pin attempt, at which point Cena and HHH decide best to beat him up first before HHH attacks Cena from behind. Cool spot where Cena gets both HHH and Edge up for an FU at the same time which gets the crowd to their feet even if it gets blocked. HHH does a ridiculous bla…