July 2011

Jun Akiyama vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - NOAH 7/10/11 I love me some Nakajima. I am excited that he is in this years G1 Climax and hope he has an impressive showing. He was so damn good in the late 2000s, but with the decline of NOAH his star has faded. I was really excited when I saw this match up. It did not disappoint in the least bit. Nakajima was a ornery little muthafucka out to prove himself against Akiyama. Akiyama did not even get in the ring before Nakajima tried to take his head off. They did some fun M-Pro style crowd brawling, which I liked. Nakajima was just rifling Akiyama with kicks to the chest. They were great! I loved when Akiyama tried to run up behind …

AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels - TNA Destination X 2011 Another match of the year contender from AJ Styles in 2011 in a style of match that could not be more of a departure from the violent, bloody war with Bully Ray. This was an excellent, mutual respect face vs face technical classic. What stood out to me the most was hope well they weaved their shared history throughout the match. We have all seen the usual we know each other sequences (both throwing dropkicks at each other, yawn) this felt authentic and on top of that it was consistently played upon throughout the entire match unlike in similar matches where it will eventually be dropped. The beginning chain…

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Mark Henry vs Big Show - Money In The Bank 2011 "You know nobody is going to look at me cross because I will break their face in" - Mark Henry Somebody's gonna get their ass kicked. Somebody's gonna get their wig split. Excellent super heavyweight match. Maybe the greatest super heavyweight clash of the titans match ever. I feel like I am missing something obvious. Apparently, Big Show beat the shit out of Mark Henry when he was venting over Alberto Del Rio. Mark Henry was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well Mark Henry is nobody's victim. He gave Big Show the World's Strongest Slam through the announce table at the last PPV and put him through the Steel Cag…

A good sub-ten minute scrap. Seiken's a guy I was unfamiliar with going into this but he's a pretty heavy striker, maybe a kickboxer. I liked the early exchanges, with Seiken overwhelming Kengo out of the gate, and then Kengo settling into the more self-assured bruiser role, swatting down Seiken's wheel kick and stooging around with his weaker follow-up kicks. Then he gets caught in the grill with a second wheel kick and a solebutt to the gut. Mashimo dominated the finishing stretch with suplexes and head kicks -- the kick that buckled Seiken's knee looked especially nasty. Fun stuff.

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Mark Henry vs Bobby Howard - Smackdown 7/29/11 The second inductee of the Hall of Pain: Kane. As Mark Henry demolished Kane's knee in similar fashion as he did Big Show's at Money In the Bank in the Smackdown after MITB. Now nobody on the Smackdown roster wants to face the World's Strongest Man. Hence this dweeb (perfect word from Michael Cole) comes and gets fed to the lion. Mark Henry is ready to induct this chump into the Hall of Pain when Teddy Long (ex-manager and current GM of SD!) comes out to tell Mark that he cant wrestle anymore because he cant find anyone to fight the big man. Sheamus comes out to a huge pop. WHAT?!?! There is even a Sheamus chant. Wow! He …

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