August 2012

Okada starts off trading strikes with the bigger guy and it goes how you'd expect; he tries to hang in there and does a nice job selling for Tenzan. Similar mapping to the Goto match, Okada takes a bunch of punishment and looks pretty strong surviving, but his offense is pretty blah here. There's a real awkward transition where he just picks Tenzan up for the inverted neckbreaker and it's nasty looking. Later Okada gets flipped over and nearly doesn't make the full turn. Rainmaker is reversed into a wicked headbutt (camera angle helped), but Okada just shrugs that off and hits his dropkick and the rainmaker to win. Similar model to the Goto match with Okada getting less o…

So I have been watching NXT starting from when they re-branded and started running tapings at Full Sail, and this is easily the best match I have come across yet. A rematch of the main event of the previous week, both guys definitely raised their game in this one. Rollins does a very good job selling an arm injury, there's some nice back and forth, big moves, a couple of good false finishes, just a really fine example of pro wrestling. Given how both guys have progressed since then, hopefully we get a rematch between them on Raw at some point in the near future.

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This started out with a real traditional base. A lot of hammerlock and headlock exchanges. Nothing was awful about this exchange but it wasn't high end either. We do get a nice tease of the finishers early on which isn't as played out in 2012 as it is now. This also helps give gravity to the situation based on the fact that 1 RainMaker has been a KO blow so far. The action escalates on the apron and Anderson gains the advantage going after the arm of Okada. I was excited at the prospect of this as we havent seen that strategy utilized so far. Anderson does some good stuff on top wrenching the arm but Okada fires back. Okada focuses on the neck and does the guardrail spot …

With loses to Nakamura and Naito earlier in the night, whomever won here advanced to the finals. Given that, I expected more urgency or just something in this match. Someone could hypothesize that this didn't get much more of a chance to build into something worthwhile, but it did have nearly 9 minutes. At the end of those, this neither felt like a well executed sprint or a 20 minute main event condensed by half. Makabe is a worker I eternally struggle with and some of his punches here were awful. Okada in turn didn't seem to know what to do with him throughout the match or in a storyline sense. The general arch of the match was him standing up to Makabe and showing his t…

Ogasawara is a goofy guy with a even more goofy Karate gimmick. He's basically the striker equivalent of Tamon Honda: started wrestling late into life and wasn't a particularly big achiever for most of that career anyway, mostly being a undercard/gimmick guy. On the indies he's a different beast though, he hits Keita hard as anything and doesn't let up, with this striking allowing him to consistently break though holds and submission attempts out of stiffness alone. Keita incorporates that into the match well as his moments of frustration, trying to lash out and throw his own (obviously inferior) shots gets him in hot water when it really shouldn't, but because he's tryin…

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Hardcore Tag Team Match: Ryuji Ito & Shuji Ishikawa vs. HARASHIMA & Togi Makabe Holy shit. HARASHIMA blonde. I don’t like it. He looks like a scummy dude from Freedoms. I guess that makes sense in the match though. The match is a pretty action packed brawl. They waste no time using the chairs and assorted weapons around the ring. HARASHIMA gets bloody fast and the deathmatch duo takes advantage - I know I said I don’t like the hair but a bloody face plus the hair is always a great look. Ito smashing a chair into the forehead was a total dick move, and he doesn’t redeem himself with those chair shots to the back either. Makabe puts in a shift as well. He is kn…

WALTER has said that he feels like his chemistry with ZSJ works so well because all of their matches feel like FIGHTS. I think none of their matches against each other showcase that better than this one, right here. It's a classic David vs. Goliath FIGHT w/ ZSJ being absolutely excellent as the scrappy underdog, fighting with his heart to try & beat the Goliath - and WALTER is of course absolutely tremendous in his role, just bullying ZSJ around, striking him down & throwing him around. It's a wXw classic. ****1/2

Brock Lesnar vs Triple H - WWE Summerslam 2012 This is the match that actually inspired me to join PWO. I found PWO in the spring of 2012 and fell in love instantly, but like most people started out as a lurker. I loved this match so much and was surprised a lot of people here didn't like it so I decided to join and speak up. The rest is history. I still think this is one of the most underrated matches in WWE history. I am a huge, unabashed Brock mark and this is a stellar Brock performance. Brock has a pro wrestling IQ so much higher than everybody else it is scary. He just has a great feel. He knows exactly what makes sense for Brock Lesnar. We start with the…

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Jun Akiyama vs Masakatsu Funaki - AJPW 8/26/12 This is the famous sub 5 minute sprint from these two. Loved it! Very ballsy! Akiyama gets a knee to the head early and he pounces. He wants to exploit this advantage and win this match in short fashion. Funaki has some counterwrestling tricks like an armbar and legbar, but Akiyama is coming full steam ahead with the knees to the head. Nice struggle on Exploder. Coming out of the legbar, Funaki rifles the leg with a kick and then knocks Akiyama out cold with a head kick. Hits a shoulderbreaker to win the match. Great sprint! Akiyama saw an opening and tried to accelerate, but when that happens y…

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