November 2012

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The awfully-named Always Hypers rush Laughter7 as soon as they're in the ring as they know they don't stand much of a chance playing fair. It seems to work until Inoue is left in the ring with Shibata, who starts brushing off his measly strikes and shows poor Wataru how to dish them out correctly. Shibata just oozes charisma here. Sick of seeing his partner tenderized, Makabe tries to attack Shibata, and they end up brawling into the crowd. Sakuraba takes over Inoue and schools him on the mat before putting him away with a submission. Not as good as the first match, but this sets up the Makabe/Shibata singles match at Wrestle Kingdom perfectly. ★★★

TNA World Heavyweight Jeff Hardy vs Austin Aries - TNA Turning Point 2012 Total car wreck match. I was really excited for Austin Aries' 2012 campaign, but besides the excellent Samoa Joe sprint, he was really hamstrung by lame opponents. Hardy takes about four really gnarly bumps. The splash into the hinges of the ladder was wicked. The worst one was the way he fell off the ladder. You know the standard tipover spot well Aries didnt gently tip it over, he steamrolled it and Hardy collapsed into a heap. It was wicked. Aries dropkicked him off the ladder. My favorite was when Aries setup the ladder so that he dropkicked it into his throat on that high intensity dropkic…

This was essentially a glorified squash match but masterfully executed by both guys, with TAKA trying to outwrestle Suzuki to no avail as each counter is promptly reversed. I love the way Suzuki ragdolls TAKA on the mat, picking at all limbs and working in aggressive legscissors. When TAKA tries to slip out and slide into a headlock, Suzuki immediately puts him back in the legscissors. Knowing he can't outwrestle Suzuki, TAKA employs his usual tactics, grabbing Suzuki's top knot, or smacking Suzuki in the ribs when he's got him on the ground, that shit-eating grin on his face. The strikes really heat up in the backend and when TAKA tries to get cute, Suzuki slaps him sill…

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KENTA vs Takahashi Sugiura - NOAH 11/23/12 I wanted to watch this match two reasons: 1. I want to watch at least one match from each of the major Puroresu promotions a year for 2010-2014. It is such a sad state of affairs in NOAH by this point that almost no match from 2012 got any fanfare. This was the highest rated match on Cagematch. I think Morishima is such a bland wrestler and he seemed to really tank it as a champion at least from a match quality perspective. 2. KENTA vs Sugiura from 2013 was a fucking banger and just a total asskicker of a match. This match unfortunately is a pretty big step down from that. They start off in the most inauspicious way. T…

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