October 2013

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CMLL really was brilliant in 2013. Between Porky/Escorpion and Rush/Casas/Shocker we got tonnes of awesome brawling. If they allowed blood in Arena Mexico then this would've been twelve stars. I actually thought at several points they were trying to open Porky up hardway as Escorpion was just punching the absolute dogshit out of him, biting him like he was trying to siphon the gravy out of his forehead. It was sort of harrowing because Porky could barely defend himself. He looked like the fat kid being set upon by a gang of thugs and no wonder the ref' tossed out the primera. Porky eventually snapping was incredible and man oh man was he potatoing Escorpion something fier…

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Not as explosive as their G1 match, but then again, there aren't many matches out there that are. I liked the pacing in this one a lot - it was great that in their 2nd match they changed it up a little bit & had a more slow paced matches that built & built as it went on. Thought both guys, in particular Ishii, did some really neat selling there & of course the offense of both looked as great as ever. The 2nd chapter of the Shibata vs. Ishii rivalry was a very enjoyable - a great match. ****

Watched the AXS episode featuring this and Naito vs Takahashi w/Barnett & Mauro commentary. I don't know the specific background leading up to this one; commentary claimed these two were partners in NOAH and Marufuji challenged Nakamura for the IC belt, but Cagematch.net shows they teamed one time. So I'm guessing this is just a unique dream match for this NJPW PPV. Maybe I'm biased because of how disappointing the WWE run has been, but I thought Marufuji outshone Nakamura in every way. He dominated the match and if this wasn't an NJPW vs NOAH match, I'd be more annoyed that he lost. These two had fantastic chemistry for the first half with Marufuji's speed…

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Kenoh defends his Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship against Davey Richards in the main event of the first 4FW/Michinoku Pro UK show. I know it was popular to hate on Davey Richards back in the day, but seeing his performance here was a reminder of why people found him so polarizing. This went 16 minutes and you could disregard the first two-thirds as nothing of note happened apart from no-frills exchanges. They established nothing; there was no limb work or finishing moves teased. The final third at least featured some cool spots and the go-home stretch at least felt physical, with Davey busting his nose on a blown spot. Davey hurts his ankle and nearly taps out in a…

This features a lot of comedy wrestling mixed with some fun juniors action. Bubblegum, who has the gimmick of a chickenshit council estate yob, provided most of the comedy and he really shone in this match. After Bubblegum, Elgin impressed me the most by doing some impressive power spots and working surprisingly well as the straight man to Bubblegum's comedy act. Dragon didn't get too involved with the comedy, but his broken English delivery of telling Bubblegum to go fuck himself really tickled me as I didn't expect that on a family-friendly show. Dragon didn't do anything too physical, as he only comes in to get some shine and to get the decisive fall. Ligero was just h…

A hair vs hair match under Super Libre rules. This is basically worked as a faux MMA match-they work in a Porky quasi-dive, but that's about it in terms of "clasic" lucha. Falls are won by shooty submissions instead of the theatrical ones you're used to in lucha matches. The crowd was molten for this one, heavily behind Porky. It's hard to describe exactly what this feels like-it isn't like a Danielson/Ki match that you can compare to Battlarts, if not in direct influence than in the conclusions they came to in how to construct a match. This feels uniquely mexican-it's not that far removed from the classic brawls. You can imagine Sangre Chicana working something like this…

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray vs AJ Styles - TNA Bound For Glory 2013 NO DQ In typical TNA fashion, they tried to copy the Summer(s) of Punk storylines with AJ having no contract, but I guess AJ really did not have a contract. He did do them a courtesy of coming back and jobbing to Aldis on his way out, but he clearly had no intention of staying as he was working Ring Of Honor and the Indies soon after. It just made TNA look bad. While the angle was the shits, this match was anything but. I enjoy these types of matches a lot, but only in moderation. I think maybe 2-4 times a year they should bust a match out like this. I am talking about an overbooki…

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One of the better HIAC matches. This had a fantastic sense of urgency, intensity & hatred between the 2 men. Orton was really good as the vicious heel, and Bryan was absolutely brilliant as the all action, revenge seeking, full of fire babyface. Sure, the finish was shit, but this was still a tremendous match & deserves more love. ****1/4

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