December 2004

This was a decent bout. Low Ki was leaning pretty heavily into his heel character instead of bringing his A game, but it still managed to be a strong encounter between the two. It's noticeable how overlooked the code of honor has become at this point with more of an ECW feel creeping into the booking, but I suppose that was inevitable in order for the company to have ongoing storylines. Low Ki ducks the extra five minutes after a time limit draw, and we're left without a number one contender for the world title.

Was Danielson cosplaying Kobashi here? It sure looked like it with the hood, the black trunks and black boots. This was a surprisingly mediocre bout. Danielson dominated the majority of the match after Homicide suffered an ankle injury. Not sure why they went with an injury narrative since the crow had zero sympathy for Homicide. Danielson won the bout, and afterwards the Rottweilers tried to break his arm. To be honest, the post match beatdown was more exciting than the match itself.

All Star Extravaganza II - December 4, 2004

It's a washed Kawada vs motherfucking Tenzan~! Tenzan is either proof positive that if you stick at something long enough you'll get good at it, or if you watch enough of a guy you'll develop a soft spot for him. Either way, he's probably my favorite Japanese worker of 2004. I wish he'd laid his shots in a bit more during the early going since he was working with Kawada of all people, but aside from that he looked convincing in the challenger role. Kawada's selling and psychology was nowhere near the level of his mid-90s prime. I've always had a theory that the psychology in those matches didn't come from the minds of the workers in the spur of the moment but were careful…

America's Most Wanted vs XXX (Daniels & Skipper) - Turning Point 2004 Six Sides of Steel There have been a lot of crazy spots in the history of pro wrestling, but I still think this one is the craziest. Skipper really could have died in the spot that made this match iconic and I think everyone knows the spot I am talking about: the tight rope walk across a top of the cage into a hurricanarana. I mean that was a narrow pipe we was walking across. I dont blame TNA one bit for constantly replaying that for the next five years. That was truly incredible and insanely dangerous. If he lost his balance, it was over man. They were chanting "Please Dont Die" and you know …

The title has apparently been vacated and an enraged Triple H chases off Lilian Garcia when she announces him as the former champion. There's not much point to this match other than to display Triple H's frustration over "losing" his title and plant the seed for an eventual split with Batista. At first I was confused as to why they were vacating the title at the end of the year. Then I realized they ran a RAW PPV in January since the December PPV was a Smackdown show.

For the time, they were given this was a wonderful sprint of just great action and even some good storytelling here. Some missed timing aside, I find that Trish and Lita really brought a lot of impact and crispness to their action here. One of the main problems that some womens matches have is that there's just not enough weight behind the moves they're pulling. That was no such problem here. Everything was snug and impactful. The finishing stretch was fiery hot with a lot of decent nearfalls and a great pay off for what is really a very strong womens match. ***3/4

This was a decent scrap, but like a lot of 2004 indie wrestling it leaned too heavily into the sports entertainment tropes that it had rallied against previously. Indie wrestling was suddenly overrun by factions and featured more interference and post-match brawling than I can recall. I'm sure the bookers were drawing inspiration from classic territory wrestling and ECW than the latest episode of RAW, but little by little the wrestling, and the matches, were becoming secondary to the factions.

I downloaded this on a whim from Ditch's website and almost immediately had buyer's remorse when I saw that the file was 387 MB. I certainly wasn't expecting a bona fide classic, but that's what this ended up being. For those who approach long Tanahashi matches with trepidation, rest assured that this is nothing like his usual fare. The veteran outsiders control probably 90% of the match, and they put the young guns through the wringer with a combination of technique, brute force, and underhanded tactics. It was like watching Jumbo and Fuchi torture Kobashi and Kikuchi. It's easy to forget that Nakamura used to do moonsaults and corkscrew planchas. The combination triangl…

The world title is still vacant as Lawler and JR keep reminding us every five seconds. There's kind of a weird vibe to this storyline where the wrestlers are making out like Bischoff will anoint them as the new champion if they physically dominate the other contenders. In reality, he schedules an Elimination Chamber match with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. What this match does present us with is a rather non-subtle ending that the commentators choose to ignore. There was some sort of vignette earlier in the show where Batista told Triple H if he stood victorious at the end of this match that Bischoff would have no choice but to award him the world title. Ho…

These two had great chemistry and this was another excellent match between the two. I never dreamed I'd write a sentence like that prior to watching this stuff. This was basically a PPV quality match as the opening bout of RAW, which is nothing to sniff at. The finishing stretch was slightly counter-iffic, but that comes with the territory. I was just happy it was clean. The highlight of the match was a sensational dropkick by Orton as Edge was flying off the top turnbuckle. I definitely did not expect to like Randy Orton as much I did this year.

This was a decent enough mano a mano between hated rivals. Universo dominated the early going and went after Perro Sr on the outside. Perro Jr made a superhuman comeback and the camera cut to Perro Sr sitting in his seat cheering his son on, so apparently quick recoveries run in the family. Perro looks awesome when he's on offense, but it works better against a Santo or a Casas than Universo. The finish is convoluted with the man in black distracting Perro Jr with an appearance on the ramp, Perro Sr. interfering and getting his boy disqualified, and the Capos showing up to remind the Aguayos that it's always going to be three against one.

Hair Vs. Mask Eight Man Tag Team Match: Do FIXER (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Magnum TOKYO & Ryo Saito) vs. Florida Express (Daniel Mishima, Johnson Florida, Kensuke Sasaki & Michael Iwasa) I can't believe it. Kensuke Sasaki got pinned! That was unexpected. Obviously it was through Do FIXER antics (freedom salt) but but did the job. The match was hilarious like most Florida Express matches. Do FIXER desperately tried to budge Sasaki to no avail so they attempted to quit the match, which was pretty funny. There was an amusing all inclusive suplex spot, including Hokuto with the punch line being only Sasaki and Hokuto do a moonsault while the rest of the group ge…

Open The Triangle Gate Title Match: Italian Connection (Anthony W. Mori, Milano Collection AT & YOSSINO) (c) vs. Aagan Iisou (Shuji Kondo, Takuya Sugawara & YASSHI) While this isn't Aagan Iisou’s final match in the company, it's the last one that was on TV, as they'd be fired on New Year's Eve for behavioural problems. It must have been something big as all five members were sacked. What a rowdy bunch of lads. They were the same in their wrestling as well. In Dragon Gate, there is a big distinction between heels and faces, similar to Lucha Libre in the way I mean, and they were real heels. Kondo has all the advantages in the world with his size and yet he insist…

Open The Dream Gate Title Match: Masaaki Mochizuki vs CIMA (c) Great match with an incredible ending with a hot crowd that went nuts for the result. Unlike the Susumu title defence, the grappling was much better this time around with Mochizuki staying focused on the chest, also using it for kick practice as the match progressed. This was a respect filled match as neither tried to cheat in the match. This was a straight match with them telegraphing what each other was going to do, like CIMA stopping the Sankakugeri by Mochi very quickly and Mochi blocking the Schwein from CIMA before lighting CIMA up with the flurry of kicks for the finish. The match was full of net coun…

James Gibson is Jaime Noble wrestling under his real name. Fun match that's set up like a competitive squash but ends up being an upset. I really ought to watch all the Noble on tape.

Final Battle 2004 - December 26, 2004