December 2010

These two have always made great opponents; it's why there was such heavy rumors that WWE was going to sign Averno and bring him in to work with Sin Cara in 2011. And much like Baba did for Kawada in the 1997 Carnival, CMLL gives Averno his first ever win over his longstanding rival in a tournament setting, which can obviously lead to another singles match down the road for Mistico to get his win back. Anyone who's seen any of their previous matches won't see anything new from this go around, outside of the finish. They do their usual sequences, and after Mistico counters La Magistral and does one of his own for a near fall, it looks like the end is coming. But then Avern…

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This is for the NWA Title in the pre-Corgan NWA era, and Colt Cabana is the special referee. Colt vs. Pearce was the main storyline they were heading in for the title at this point. It is a very young Willie Mack, but you can already see his charisma and in his mannerisms that he can get the crowd behind him. They are clearly going for a Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes vibe here, even down to the early flip flop and fly elbow from Mack and there’s lots of babyface shine from the challenger early on. Pearce is very good as the old school stooging, stalling heel, but if we are all honest, pretty boring on offence. I do appreciate the way he carries himself in his 80s throwb…

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This is for the Interim KO-D Openweight Title after Dick Togo was unable to defend the official title or something. I dug this a ton. Honda especially has developed into one of my favourite wrestlers, even without the Togo match and he brings a ton to this match with his babyface performance and driving determination. His punches were awesome. There was a real scrappyness to them. Some missed, some caught him but it was all intentional in Honda's style of punching. I've never seen GENTARO before but I've heard good things. He was pretty smooth. His offence felt very Dick Togo-ish almost lol. I liked it but there was a lack of something big. No real spark to his offence de…

Uhm... it's these guys fighting eachother for 25 minutes in 2010 FUTEN. We get lot of really good exchanges throughout and an incredibly violent finishing run. The broken down version of Ishikawa/Ikeda is a pretty great matchup in itself, as all their exchanges have this continually exhausted Lawler/Mantell feel. Ishikawa was the far superior grappler by this point and would catch in Ikeda in all kinds of neat submissions, while Ikeda would come through with something incredibly stiff once in a while. It's a testament to Ikedas selling ability that even knowing he can take absolutely insane punishment he can make you believe he was seeing stars after a simple sleeper hold…

Another really good match built around Hashi as a dangerous monster. For a junior he does that remarkably well. Largely strike based match, which as not a bad thing as these guys aren't pussies when it comes to striking. Lots of nice palm strike flurries, and they build the match pretty well. Hara is initially able to avoid the big Hashi strikes but Hashi grabs him and drops him with a big Ki Crusher which is a spot that kind of rules in the middle of a shootstyle strike exchange. Really good ultra stiff Mantell/Lawler exchanges for the finish, with the headbutts being of course insane.

Huigaji looked awesome in the first Futen match that we saw, but everything else was far away from that performance for some reason. This felt a lot like Mashimo leading him along and that you could've told any other indy guy to stop pulling strikes and put him into this match and it would've been fine. Mashimo carries Hiugaji through some shootstyle mat exchanges fine before he starts giving him the business with brutal kicks and slaps. Hiugaji is able to catch Mashimos leg and is basically able to hang on through that while occasionally catching Mashimo with a big punch or stomp. Fun layout and together with the stiffness dialed up makes a really really fun match.

Okubo sure has put on weight since U-Style. He is still smaller than Nagai. FUTEN crowbar Nagai is really the best use of him post-RINGS. They don't go for matwork and just blast eachother with mean kicks and elbows. Basically just a short basic indy undercard match with Okubo selling fired up youngster taking a beating and Nagai working on his arm, but Futen stiffness elevates everything to at minimum a fun match.

6 minute Futen opening match which means you are going to get a dose of fun violence in a short amount of time. This feels a bit like wrestler vs. MMA figher, with Nohashi trying some takedowns and sticking to headbutts and dropkicks otherwise while NARITA throws punches from mount. Narita has some really nice punches and a cool rolling Octopus Hold for a nice nearfall, but Nohashi soon headbutts him into oblivion, full on with a bloody mouth and welts on his head.

This is an awesome breathless spotfest, even accounting for the occasional moment of in-ring interior decorating. My favorite Young Bucks are the Scumbag Garbage Match Psycho Young Bucks, and without any of their Kliq schtick they just find new and both increasingly elaborate and brutal ways ways to hit people with chairs and ladders. And Sabin/Shelley are far from slouches in this environment, either. Only two table spots, neither of which is superlatively great but both very effective within the context of the match and are both as organic as such things can be, with both teams using the right strategy for a TLC match (you have to get the spots in, so make them seem…

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Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe - TNA Final Resolution 2010 Submission Match This is during Jeff Jarrett's glorious MMA gimmick where he was doing the Double J Double M A Exhibitions. Easily the best thing on TNA in this timeframe. Jarrett was actually positioned for a super heel run and you could argue he was the number one heel in TNA through the first half of 2011 not too shabby for 'ol Double J. He was aligned with heel Hogan/Bischoff and would be feuding with Angel soon. I thought this could have been funner at times. More Jarrett cowardice would have been entertaining. He was thoroughly dominated by Joe as should be expected. Joe was attacked before the match by h…

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TNA TV Champion AJ Styles vs Doug WIlliams - TNA Final Resolution 2010 Lets celebrate AJ Styles ascension to the top of the pro wrestling industry by going back to the lost years. I watched TNA pretty religiously from 2005-2010 pretty much after AJ 's World Title loss to RVD I stopped following. There seemed to be a weird feud with ECW wrestlers in the fall of 2010 so I am skipping that. This seemed like a fun random midcard match against a guy who I thought was pretty decent. Excellent AJ offensive performance. Normally I don't care about execution, but when you are so freaking good at as AJ it is noticeable and boosts the match. Normally don't like the Quebrada …

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