May 2012

A very good match, but also one where you get the impression that in the worker's head, they think the match is great and it never came all the way together for me in that regard. We have seen a good bit of limb and body control work from Okada in this run now and this was the weakest of those narratives. Goto doesn't do many compelling things on top and Okada's facials and overall demeanor isn't as strong as it was in the Naito match. Goto works the neck of Okada as well and does have short bursts like the running clotheslines that look effective but their isn't much follow up. Okada continues to have a system that he employs into his singles matches the more you watch s…

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Generico is a weird wrestler to me because in the few matches of his that I've seen, you can tell he's very technically proeficient for the style he works (I remember him saving Isami Kodaka from certain death in their September 2011 match) but I don't particularly care for any of them. The section where he repeatedly dumps Ibushi out of the ring here is probably the most interested I've been in him so far. However, I think that only comes about because something went wrong, Generico was yelling at people ringside while Ibushi struggled to get back in. For two wrestlers who generally do complex spots fairly easily, this match is kind of a mess. There's a funny moment in w…

This seems to be a very weird matchup to main event Korakuen, but it's a good match! It is very matwork heavy, which works because it turns out Hino is good at that. Takanashi isn't so much, he does the wrestling thing where he fumbles a limb so there's a couple of seconds where he has to start doing whatever he's doing over, but it's still good enough. Takanashi trying to hurt the leg and Hino shrugging it off is a nice touch. Being outmatched, Takanashi tries to cheat any number of ways, and he gets the win off a ref bump and a low blow, but the DDT AUTHORITY FIGURE restarts the match. Hino kills Takanashi at the beginning of this "second" match but eventually, Takanash…

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AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle - TNA Sacrifice 2012 Cant sleep so lets watch another AJ match. I am skipping March PPV because Mr. Anderson is AJ's tag partner against Daniels & Kaz. I am skipping April PPV because it is a Lethal Lockdown featuring the Bischoffs. I am not too excited for this match either as I generally dislike this pairing, but I did enjoy their match at Slammiversary 2013, which I was live for. I would say this is probably the best match I have seen between these two until I rewatch the Slammiversary match. Angle is just absolutely horrid at transitions. Transitions are really important to me and he is just the dirt worst. AJ actually created his o…

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Common themes along these Cena metamodernistic classics: using a fire extinguisher and the Big Show corner chop. I'm not really sure what to think of the match. It's definitely worthy of being inducted in the list of meme matches, but it felt like a celebration of crappy overproduced wrestling more than anything, and as good as he has been in so many matches and promos this stuff does serve as a sort of reality check that a lot of his work has also just been not good. In terms of what made this work I would easily rank Ace's selling and acting (throwing himself out of the ring after the Airplane Spin was brilliant) and Michael Cole's enthusiastic biased commentary over th…

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A fascinating match that I bet didn't even crack most people's top ten indie matches of 2012. What makes it fascinating is that it doesn't feel like it even belongs in PWG. The story here is that Ricochet wants to upstage and supplant the older El Generico, so there's a lot of selling on Generico's part while 'Shay' acts like a dickhead. Reseda doesn't really know what to do with the heat section and even Joey Ryan points out on commentary that the crowd isn't sure how to react. This may have played better in front of a different audience but with that said, it's still awesome. This is the year Ricochet came into his own and Generico is a seasoned vet at this point. Their…

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