May 2004

IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs NWF Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Takayama - NJPW Tokyo Dome 5/2/03 One of those watched this in the morning before the girlfriend woke up, but only getting to the review 12 hours later so sorry in advance if shit is out of order. Nagata successfully defended his IWGP title last year to the day against Takayama at the last May 2nd Tokyo Dome. Here's how things have changed since then. Nagata is still champ and successfully defended against numerous challengers most recently Yasuda. Takayama won the resurrected NWF title at the 1/4/03 Tokyo Dome show (the show Nagata defended against Barnett). After he Nagata/Barnett match, Takayama…

This was taped at the end of April, but it appears that we're going by air date in the database. Noble vs. Mysterio is a great match up and this match is no exception. Noble works like a smaller version of Benoit, and I love how he brings out a side of Mysterio that we don't often see -- his striking game. Noble's a guy who Mysterio can realistically strike and it's cool watching him go all Manny Pacquiao on Noble's ass. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was still cool watching Mysterio throw strikes.

When I saw this match listing, my eyes lit up thinking we'd get Charlie Lucero vs Blue Panther exchanges, but Panther actually squared off with Averno in the opening caida. It was the type of old-school primera caida exchange that we've barely seen in 2004, and pretty cool. You could tell that Averno was a guy on the rise, much like Ultimo had been about five years earlier. When Lucero and Panther finally did square off, Lucero launched an all out attack on him. Now, usually I'd bitch and moan about how they were doing mask ripping instead of mat wrestling, and have a bit of a cry, but I gotta tell you, Lucero's attack on Panther was fucking awesome. It was more of an ass…

IWGP Champion Bob Sapp vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW Tokyo Dome 5/3/04 Fantastic match! Totally different than Sasaki match, which you would expect but I don’t want to take for granted. Nakamura’s approach to taking down the Beast was submission technique as opposed to brawling. It was like shoot-style version of David vs Goliath. Stick and move became submit and move. Bob Sapp’s presence and aura is perfect. Shame he vacated the title after this and was never given a main event run somewhere. Dude was money waiting to be printed. I love how aggressive Nakamura was early. He was the Tasmanian Devil wrestling circles around Sapp taking him down. The problem was Sap…

World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit vs Shawn Michaels - RAW 5/3/04 Where the flying fuck did this match come from??? This was absolutely terrific! I think I may need to rewatch again because I cant believed how much I liked it. I am talking like "Best WWE match ever" contention after seeing it for the first time since I originally saw it. Shawn Michaels haters be damned. He fucking brought it in this match. This was his best offensive performance since the AWA. He knew he was going up against Benoit and just laid all his shit in and really brought to Benoit. I thought this was one of Benoit's all-time best selling performances. I really cant think of a better Benoi…

This was a short Coliseo match, but a perfectly good scrap. The thing I appreciate about Perro Jr is that he makes everyone work hard on both ends, offense and defense. I enjoyed watching him beat the shit out of the rudos with Pierroth's belt, and I also enjoyed his interactions with Emilio, who, at this point, just entertains me with his sheer presence.

Raven vs AJ Styles (NWA title match) So, Raven & AJ Styles decide they have a WCW Saturday Night circa 92 main event, with fat Raven working like Ole Anderson if Ole was a terrific seller (the knee, the knee !) and was feeding and bumping hard. Seriously, Raven's work is excellent here, relentless on working on the arm/shoulder of AJ with crisp stuff. I never thought that he would actually peak in 2003/2004, he's just an old-school guy with strong psychology. Since he's kinda turned back heel, he tries to cheat by using powder and it backfires. Screwy finish with a fake La Parka, which was kinda lame but at the same time protected Raven (see, AJ Styles didn't kick…

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Toshiaki Kawada vs Mick Foley - HUSTLE 3 5/8/04 HUSTLE is always a promotion I have wanted to check out because seems like it would be entertaining as hell. This is my sporadic request but if anyone has the video of Takada & Kawada singing Yeah, Yeah, Yeah send it to me. But this is before any Erotic Terrorists, Sumo Wrestlers hatching out of eggs or Takada dressing as M. Bison, this was when Hustle was a strait-laced freak show dream match promotion. Hashimoto/Ogawa vs The Outsiders sign me up! Overall this match was fine just a collection of their spots and Foley didn’t do anything too wild. This is within a month of his masterpi…

Whaddayaknow, another good match on RAW. I haven't been following the Jericho vs. Christian feud, but this was a kickass blowoff match with all the trappings of a WWE cage match, including the obligatory dive from the top of the cage and a really cool finishing sequence. There was also a ton of blood. Where is all this blood coming from in the WWE? Dudes are blading left, right and center. RAW keeps its hot streak alive, and the WWE is running away with 2004.

It's so weird to me that Dr. Wagner and Canek are having a match against each other in CMLL in 2004. I can't be bothered looking up the ins and outs of it, so I'll just say it's weird and leave it at that. I can't imagine that there's anyone, anywhere on the internet, who's interested in watching Wagner wrestle Canek in 2004, but I'll give you a short write up. It's a typically short, mano-a-mano match from this era that would have been better in the 80s but is truncated in the 00s. Wagner has the potential to be one of the best wrestlers in the world in the early 00s, but rarely delivers. I really dug the second fall, especially the way Canek put Wagner away, and I was i…

Christopher Daniels is a guy I should probably watch more of (along with Chris Hero and Steve Corino) as he was a pretty decent worker for this era. A little indy-rrific at times, but hard-working and genuine. This was a long indy match, which is something I was actively seeking as ROH hasn't been putting on the same blockbusters as they did in their first year. It was a hard fought match. A little cute at times, but that has a lot to do with the trappings of the style and something you just have to accept. Despite the fact they went long, I was keen to see more.

I thought this ruled, in the same vein as that Cena/Gabriel match where you've got the top guy showcasing why he's deserving of his spot while also making his opponent seem like a threat. I watched this after watching two Danielson/Joe matches from 2003 and not only did I like this way more Joe looked on another level here than he did on those. I liked him periodically looking down at his fist after a strike like he knew he had the ultimate equalizer and that slap was insane.

Not as great as their previous meeting, but still a really awesome match in its own right. This had almost the same lay-out on paper as that said previous match of theirs @ Reborn: Stage Two, but with the teams assuming different roles & putting some new touches into things. I thought the highlight of the entire match was pretty easily the Mark FIP segment with him selling well & The Saints doing a real lovely, focused number on his banged up ribs. ***1/2

The prematch video made this feud look insanely heated with JBL causing Eddie's mother to have a heart attack and Eddie being pissed off and vengeful. JBL cut a very racist promo against Mexicans before the match. This was so old school I can't believe it's 2004. Crowd is crazy for Eddie here chanting his name even before his music hits. I forgot how ho he was at the time. The match starts hot with Eddie going nuts on Bradshaw. Throwing him into tables and punching away and choking. Just a great shine sequence by Eddie. It gets to the point where JBL tries to leave the match, but Eddie chases him down and keeps the assault up. Eddie keeps chucking JBL out of the r…

Another RAW, another quality match. This Evolution era stuff doesn't get enough praise. It's not at the WCW Dangerous Alliance level, but it's producing consistently good matches week in, week out, without cutting anyone off at the knees. Benoit's title reign continues to be a thousand times better than I thought it was. There's a storm on the horizon, as I think Kane is about to become the number one contender, but so far, Benoit's run has been one of the highlights of the year (in a year I thought would be all about Eddie.) It's interesting how a few guys jumping from Smackdown to RAW has revitalized the flagship show. I also liked the dynamic that Orton brought to this…

Kikuchi came into this match with his shoulder heavily taped. You'd think that would be like a red flag to a bull with Liger, but they actually beat the shit out of each other for a while before Liger snapped and went after Kikuchi's shoulder. Great selling, as you'd expect from Kikuchi. Great heel work, as you'd expect from Liger. Seriously, aside from maybe Bret Hart, has there even been a better tweener than Liger? I don't love this feud like a lot of people do, but even I enjoyed this. Get on it, if you haven't already.

ROH World Champion Samoa Joe vs Homicide - ROH 5/22/04 There's only 30 minutes left in my night shift and I blowed up folks. This is probably gonna be short & sweet. Much better match than their previous outing. Based on the announcers (who was the deadpan guy he was fucking atrocious), I guess Homicide was a happy-go-lucky babyface and the previous match I watched was his heel turn. I guess I should have cut him some slack. The shine is great. Homicide flips off the crowd but then Smokes decks him by accident and Joe takes off Smokes' head with an Ole Kick! Tremendous work all around! Apparently, Homicide injured Joe's neck at previous show and he is targetting …

Punk & Cabana are such a well-oiled machine together - watching them isolate Whitmer & do a real sweet tag team number on him ruled. As did Dan Maff's eventual hot tag; he is at his best when wrecking shop in short bursts, and that's pretty much what he got to do here. Both the hot tag & the build-up to it was some good stuff. They eventually brawl all over the crowd, with this being a no dq match & all, and during & after it there's this very nice chaotic feeling to the match, and I really liked that as well. The more "traditional" first half ruled, but so does the frantic second half. Banging match. ***1/2

Because you wanted to see it again, it's Canek vs Wagner. It's actually kind of cool. I know Canek doesn't have a great reputation, but I dug his rough and tumble style here, and it was freaky seeing how much bigger he was than all of these middleweights. Satanico vs. the Infernales has revived my interest in Satanico, and who better to bring to this sort of fight than a fired up Atlantis? I was settling in for a fun one when it ended. Okay. Thanks.

This was an exciting shot of adrenaline. It was careening to a DQ finish where Tarzan Boy injured Perro Jr, but there was a lot to enjoy in the time they were given. Shocker reignited his rivalries with both Tarzan Boy and Vampiro and finally looked like his old self, and the Casas vs Pierroth strike exchanges ruled and made me wish those two had some kind of minimalistic house show match somewhere where they just continuously slapped each other. It was over too quickly, but fun while it lasted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWKqEUY7lOE This is my first time watching an all-star AJPW tag from the post-split pre-Kawada leaving era, and now I want to see out everything I can. When watching NOAH from this same period, I often find myself annoyed by the uninspired layouts and matches going too long. This match is the opposite of that, delivering a sprint with some cool ideas that doesn't last any longer than it has to. The Kawada/Jamal interactions are awesome and there were parts where Kawada seemed to be hiding a grin at Jamal's crazed foreign monster schtick. The other guys deliver solid go-go-go type action and I enjoyed Taka's goofy attempt to do Kawada s…

This didn't have quite the same intensity as some of the Satanico vs. Averno matches we've seen, however I can safely say that Satanico is having a better year than 2003 and the Averno feud is a big part of that. Bestia was awesome, as always, and for the briefest of moments we got Satanico vs. Bestia, which was a mark out moment for me. Most notably, we got a lively performance from Felino, who was bubbling about being cheerful.