August 2014

Great narrative of the outmatched veteran getting decimated by the younger, stronger wrestler and trying to find ways to survive. Rush's offense and rudoing were superb, Casas was as great as you would expect and the finish was awesome. Casas's resigned look in the postmatch was an amazing visual. This had all the pieces to be a MOTYC level match but the lackluster pacing and disjointed feel hinders this pretty badly and it just falls short of the great mark for me. Still, well worth checking out. *** 3/4.

No thread for this yet? This is one of the more universally liked matches. Fantastic clash of styles (no pun intended), killer arm work, great selling, intensity, unique spots and grit. 2014 MOTYC. ****1/4

Credit where credit is due, I thought this was a borderline masterpiece. One of the things that set this apart from a typical strong style slugfest was the fact that they both seemed to have strategies beyond "take turns clobbering each other until one of them goes down." Goto won me over in the opening minutes when he responded to Tenzan's invitation to come off the ropes with a shoulder tackle by kicking him in the gut and following up with elbows. I also really liked the struggles to maintain control and the way both men had to gradually fight their way back in rather than transitioning with a single big move or counter (or worse, no-selling). There was a sequence near…

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW 8/1/14 This was a really fun Greatest Hits, bomb-throwing sprint match. Maybe not a sprint, but very efficient clocking in around 15 minutes. I love how they build to both guys bigger spots and really make each other earn it. The spot of the match has to be Nakamura doing his signature taunt before the Bom-Ba-Ye Knee only for Ishii to NAIL him with a dropkick. Each man really had the other scouted. They establish each man is going for the killshot early as the very beginning, Ishii goes for the Sliding Lariat and Nakamura goes for the Bom-Ba-Ye Knee. Both miss but both let the other know they arent here for a long time, they…

Pretty decent match, very watchable. Good selling by Lawler and Steen plays his part as the obnoxious heel well. ** 1/2

Really great stuff, an out of nowhere classic. I can't believe how good Jeff Hardy was in this, he is a guy who had his moments over his career, but I think the consensus was that he was completely shot by 2014, a casualty of drugs and bumps, but I cannot remember him ever looking this good, not only was he bumping like crazy but all of his offense looked really good. When has Jeff Hardy ever thrown good punches? He was cracking the Bucks here, spin kicks looked great, just a unbelievable performance. I really loved how the Hardy's incorporated all of the Bucks stuff into a traditional hot southern tag. Their taunts came off more like douchey heeling and less like meta wi…

Even better than I remembered it being in 2014. It's a classic sprint smackfest between two of the hardest hitting, sprint puttin' lads in New Japan. Tells Honma's 2014 G1 underdog story quite well too w/ him throwing everything he got at Shibata, only for Shibata to ultimately put him away. Excellent stuff. ****1/2

A piece of shit shooter and a bully big boy against the babyface ace and the thicc big boy. Gotta provide at least some stiff shit. This is a weird mixture of light hearted action and bomb throwing. There is no sense of urgence, which is not exactly a bad thing, since they provide some laughs and still put on a good match. Hino and Sekimoto chop exchanges are gross. They are pretty much hitting forearms to the jaw at points, and the sound is loud as shit. Unusual to see Sekimoto being overwhelmed in this type of duel, but it happens here. Miyahara gets his ass kicked by both Sato and Hino and it is glorious. He is a very good underdog in this setting, and even…

Kazuchika Okada vs Minoru Suzuki - NJPW G-1 Climax 8/8/14 This match takes place from the last night of the round robin portion of 2014's G-1 Climax. If Suzuki wins the match, then Okada will not go to the finals and Styles would enter the finals. For these high pressure stakes, I don't think Okada is wrestling like this at all like anything special. Minoru Suzuki is wrestling at a very high level throughout match and really carries the day. Okada disrespects early with the cocky clean break. Suzuki takes exception and takes him down with an armbar. Okada lunges for the ropes. Suzuki is relentless on the arm using the Tarantula and his big kick on the apron. Suzuki ha…

Kazuchika Okada vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW G-1 Climax Finals 8/10/14 The dream match that NJPW booking has wisely put off since Okada burst onto the scene in the beginning of 2012 pits two stablemates from CHAOS against each other for the G-1 Climax Championship and pretty much a mortal lock to headline the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show. Okada has reminded me a lot of old Nakamura. From a technical execution standpoint, Okada is a great wrestler, but he seems disinterested in the outcome of a match and just is not showing passion. In this match being challenged by one of the other two top natives in NJPW, he seems hungry to assert himself as the premiere pro wrestler in the w…

IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Hiroshi Tanahashi G-1 Climax 2014 Consolation Prize The biggest star of the company facing the champion for the very first time in the 3rd place match of the G-1 Climax may seem like bad booking, but I think it is really, really good. AJ showed up and won the IWGP Champion and I believe some of that credit is shared among the Bullet Club. Thus AJ has never faced most of these guys. Sure, he is the champion and an experienced vet, but he is inexperienced against this competition. So it only makes sense he slipped up early against Naito. As we know from real sports, it is hard to beat the same twice or three times in …

RAZE’s PREMIER debut and the second appearance of Savoy after her match against Cole Pistol was cut short. Savoy throws some kicks at RAZE’s thigh and when she ends up catching one of them, looks for a flying arm bar that doesn’t quite come off. RAZE escapes the side headlock and then crowbars Savoy’s arm, pulling it all the way back into a regulation cross arm bar but has to let go as her own shoulders are to the mat. She uses her size advantage to bully Nicole around, throwing some knees to the mid-section weakening her stomach ready for an abdominal stretch. Savoy powers out, hip tosses RAZE to the mat and goes for a cross arm bar of her own, however RAZE maneuvers…

This was almost a nice little TV match prototype of what they would go on to do later. The thing about these TV matches, particularly the short ones, is that with 2-3 minutes you only really have time to get your shit in and go home. So they all tend to look the same when you're hitting the same signature moves. The thought that struck me watching this is that Bayley and Sasha make every match of theirs look different. Even the short ones. Thankfully this was a No. 1 Contender's match and got about 6-8 minutes or so and they went to town. Bayley is a great fired up babyface. Sasha does a tremendous convoluted run around to eventually trip Bayley on the apron and…

I have a pretty neutral opinion of both of these teams so I was surprised by how much I liked this match when all was said and done. Which makes sense because the Young Bucks are masters of making you think they're going to schtick their way through a match, only to have you hooked before you even realize it's happening. By the end of this match I was rooting for Super Smash Bros hard even though I didn't have a rooting interest going in. That to me is the mark of a match that has some awesome work put in from everyone involved. There's no doubt these are two teams that are great at chaining together offense and that's fully on display here. But so are plenty of little to…

This is pretty much a squash but is probably one of the 3-5 greatest squashes ever. Cena's selling was pretty fantastic here and Lesnar's offense and character work were pitch perfect. A 15 minute+ match that felt like 3 minutes. **** 1/4

Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins - WWE RAW 8/18/14 Falls Count Anywhere From my recollection, this was the best of the disappointing Ambrose vs Rollins feud. It should have been a slam dunk feud, but the WWE got in their own way and cooled this way down before the anticlimatic blowoff. I wanted to include something from the feud, but this is not a sympathy pick. Upon rewatch, I definitely think this holds up as one of the more better and more entertaining matches of 2014. It was not just a match filled with weapons and gimmicks. There was malice behind those shots from Rollins and hatred poured from Ambrose. Rollins turned his back on the Shield and screwed him…

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Union Pro title match. Sato struggling to keep Ishikawa down was fantastic throughout. Sato's selling when he gets thrown outside or whenever Ishikawa gets a suplex is fantastic. Most of the match is very slow and methodical, they get the most out of even things like Sato blocking a powerbomb. Sato rolls out of the ring twenty minutes in and Ishikawa starts really dominating him. Sato is hurt by every strike Ishikawa throws but he has this nice desperation takedown into a kimura. Unfortunately for him, Ishikawa picks him up while in the kimura and piledrives him. Sato gets a guillotine choke and tries to pin Ishikawa but he kicks out, he follows with a suplex and Shuji …