June 2004

I'll be honest. I had never even heard of this match, let alone seen it pimped as anything special, until I saw this post. I'm not even slightly a fan of actual shoot-style, but I do generally enjoy guys with shooter gimmicks in pro-style matches, so I figured this was worth a look. This match is for the WLW (Harley Race's promotion) Heavyweight Championship. Let me begin by saying how much I love Morishima's Inside the Heat Beats theme, largely because it's so incongruous for someone who's supposed to be a monster/power wrestler. It sounds like it could be Sakura's theme in a Street Fighter game. Then again, Morishima does look like a giant schoolgirl, so maybe it it…

Jeff Jarrett vs Raven vs AJ Styles vs Chris Harris vs Ron Killings (King of the Mountain match for the NWA Title) TNA, the company with the idiotic concepts. Well, at least they try. On paper, it looks like a gigantic clusterfuck. In actuality, it was a spectacular clusterfuck, in the best sense of the word. I have no idea how they managed to make it work, as it's basically a deathmatch, a penalty box match, a falls count anywhere match and an inverted ladder match all in one. And yet, they did. Jarrett, Raven & Styles particulary shine here, although Harris brings goods to the table and Killings, the token NWA champ for a week (despite not being anywhere close to…

This was mostly an angle to draw more heat for Vampiro. I kind of dig that he's turned rudo. The opening fall is quite good but goes long, so you know there's something fishy going on. Casas warms his way into the match, but man, if you didn't know who Casas was you would not think he was some kind of legendary worker watching this match. Shocker was decent, but it hasn't been a great 2004. Not sure if that's because of the booking or because he's starting to stagnate. The match gets thrown out when Vampiro catches Casas doing his Perro Aguayo spot off the apron and drives his crotch into the ring post. He then takes his frustrations out on KeMonito, kicking him in the f…

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AJ Styles vs Kazarian (X Division title - TNA 06/09/04) WIth the debut of Impact, TNA seems to give a brand new focus to the X division with AJ Style as the new ace, which is a smart decision. By making the X-div title "as important" as the world title (this was the main-event of the first PPV post Impact) with their best worker and former world champ as the ace, it gives a lot of credibility to the part of the product that is very distinctive from WWE. The six-sided ring was also an idea, if nothing else, and the announcers did a good job explaining how it changed the in-ring strategy (more difficult to get to the ropes, more sides to create offense etc...). Kazarian…

This could have been better. You had two really good workers squaring off against each other with one of them having the potential to be a generational maineventer, and instead of having a short, intense bout, we get a bunch of bullshit with run-ins and continuing storylines. CMLL has flirted with American style booking throughout the early 00s, but they can never seem to commit to it, and as a result, their attempts at booking their TV like this week’s RAW come across as half-arsed and ham fisted. Frustrating.

Izumida comes out wearing in a Hashimoto cosplay and it's clear this match is going to rule and that I should watch more Izumida since I only remember he does Headbutts. KENTA has a really cool control segment, with all of his good looking striking and kicking combinations, where they constantly tease standard pro wrestling transitions but KENTA always does that extra move to remain in control. KENTA uses those small Kawada'esque kicks and hurts his foot because of how strong Izumida's head is! Izumida proceeds to just destroy KENTA because he's small and that's how the circle of life works. The only problem is that in doing so outside of the ring he starts beating up wre…

Such a gem of a match. Danielson is very aggressive on his onslaught towards Kanemoto - in particular he starts targeting Koji's back. The match is mostly dominated by Dragon, but as it goes on, Koji sneaks some offense in; he starts going after Danielson's leg which ended up paying off big time when he got that win via submission. Great psychology, vintage Korakuen atmosphere, great performances by both (especially Danielson). Great match. ****

Chris Benoit defends the WWE World Heavyweight Title So after a couple of months of Benoit vs. Evolution, and Benoit vs. Michaels, we get Kane as the number one contender. Still, if Eddie can turn his matchup with JBL into one of the feuds of the year then surely Benoit can do something with Kane. There's a surprisingly strong wrestling focus to this match. Instead of brawling like Eddie and JBL did, the match is built around the fact that Kane had powered out of the Crippler Crossface on RAW and that he was too strong for Benoit to submit. Benoit channeled his performance against Sid in WCW, and classic Bret Hart performances against big men. He tried to take Kane's…

This was a decent match for these guys' skill level. I like the fact that the Intercontinental Championship is being taken seriously. This was the first time for me to see Orton take on someone who wasn't a seasoned vet, and he did a fairly good job during his control segments. Benjamin was clearly a hard working dude but his movements were still telegraphed. It must be hard transitioning from tag wrestling to singles matches, so I'll cut him some slack. The finish was convoluted, but I guess they wanted both guys to keep their heat. Not a bad match.

I’m sure the fans were just dying to see another Shawn Michaels vs Triple H March in 2004. This is billed as the match that will end their rivalry once and for all. JR and the King completely oversell how dangerous the match is. JR goes on a five minute monologue about how satanic the cafe is. There’s a lot of exclaiming about careers being ended and Hell in the Cell participants never being the same afterwards. I kind of hate that Triple H has adopted Hell in the Cell as his own personal gimmick match. If HITC was associated with anyone at this point it ought to be Mick Foley or the Undertaker. Anyway, instead of taking bumps off t(e top of the cage, they break the recor…

Typical Lucha cage match. There’s a certain novelty in seeing these guys inside a cage, but as with most American adopted ideas, they don’t fully commit to it. The only time I can remember seeing a proper cage match in lucha was the classic Infernales Infierno en el Ring match, which is the closest Mexico has come to producing its own equivalent of a Hell in the Cell match. I’m not sure why luchadores struggle with the gimmick so much given the country’s storied tradition of bloody brawls, but they do. Of course, it doesn’t help when the booker gets cute with the eliminations. I won’t spoil the result, but the match basically replaces violence with cheap heat. This i…

We are in Brent Town Hall. Going into this match Doug Williams was over a year into his title reign as the British Heavyweight Champion, although the commentators note he has a partially torn rotator cuff. The result of this is that while FWA Title matches were contested under 2 out of 3 falls rules, the injury means that FWA management have only sanctioned this as a one fall contest. Following his rivalry with Hade Vansen over the All England Title, where there were a number of controversial finishes, Zebra Kid was given the title shot as recognition of being the longest reigning All England champion. He is accompanied to the ring for this match by his (and Paige’s) Dad …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXVpOjuh0K0 This is Low Ki’s return to the FWA after first appearing at the FWA/ROH show Frontiers of Honor around a year before this. He’s matched up here with James Tighe who was the break through wrestler of the year in the FWA in 2003, culminating in him main eventing British Uprising II for the FWA Title. Following that unsuccessful challenge he’d been in a slump and on a losing streak. This match feels very much like a Low Ki/Bryan Danielson match at times, but whereas those matches were much more even, Low Ki is able to dominate much more, especially in the opening stretches. There is some great counter wrestling at the begin…

If a A.I. had to be programmed to make hoss matches that appeal to the beef-inclined side of myself, this would probably be their first pick lol. I mean with these four you aren't gonna get anything less than great, but let's see why this hits that mark in the first place. Izumida just runs in pre-match and starts throwing hands, allowing the pair to isolate out Rikio and get him on the outside. Awesome spot where Izumida and Takayama hurl rapid fire stiff elbows and headbutts before Takayama counts the three for his partner after a final headbutt, and they have a goofy little celebration afterwards. Morishima gets worked over for the start until he hits Izumida with a b…

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This is Hardy's TNA debut. Enthusiastic crowd cheers him on and it goes much better than his legendary ROH debut did. Soaking it in like they did was the right call. Mechanically AJ was leagues above Hardy here, and Jeff's usualy sloppiness seemed to be even more of an issue here, probably due to his unfamiliarity with the six sided ring and I assume he was a mess at the time since WWE got rid of him. Most of the action here was OK. I thought the chop dare spots were stupid but liked AJ kicking Hardy when he grew tired of him and him shoving Jeff's wacky hand sign aside was a cool moment and we got the usual non-finish. **1/2

Very seldom do I think comedy in modern pro-wrestling is actually funny. Yet, this bit made me legit laugh. You have Gilberti wearing a leprechaun costume, following the loss of a "humiliation match" against Pat Kenney & Sonny Siaki, arguing with David Young (who has been a legit funny guy to watch for months as Gilberti's flunky) while Swinger, wearing a cliché female samoan outfit, complete with coconut bras, is flexing is muscles, Lex Luger style, in the forefont. The real fun part, aside from the good comedic timing of both Gilberti and Young, is that no one ever adresses the fact Swinger seems to enjoy himself quite a bit in this outfit, including regularly fixin…

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Hector Garza returns to CMLL with little to no fanfare. It’s interesting seeing his rudo moustache and awkward brawling style, and he still risks breaking his neck with some of the shit he tries, but overall he’s just another plug-in for the never ending parade of half assed trios matches. The only real positive to this bout is that Perro and Casas aren’t getting along, and Casas making sad faces is by far the best acting he’s done in forever. Now if only it would ignite into something that’s legitimately good.

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Ridiculously stiff match that is very much the product of its times. The positives in this one by far outweigh the negatives for me and I have to give them extra credit for the abuse they took in front of 50 something fans. The early matwork was good but fairly inconsequential in typical J Cup fashion. The match built to a crescendo where it seemed only a knockout would keep either guy down. I don't remember hearing anything about this back when but it stacks up nicely against other indie epics in this era.