September 2014

Charlotte defends against Bayley at Takeover Fatal 4 Way. This is the era of NXT where it was so rewarding to watch the TV and follow along week by week. We've seen Bayley going from naive and starstruck to betrayed by everyone around her, which has wisened her up a bit, and given her an edge as she goes for payback. She's been on a roll and earned a title shot from wrestling and beating people like Summer and Sasha. And it was actually Charlotte's turn on her in late 2013 that kicked this all off, and Bayley has never really got proper revenge on her for that, so it's only fitting that it comes here with her chance at the title. Bayley is fired up. She's also over a…

Tons of meaningful submission work, great counters and reversals, and a satisfying finish. I like that Mashimo alternates between working the arm and the leg, and Tonai does a good job of selling, especially the leg. It’s a sound strategy that actually plays into the finish. There’s a great little back-and-forth sequence around the leglock and cross armbreaker, with some fun, innovative arm work by Tonai. In the end, Mashimo has Tonai in the scissored armbar and as Tonai works his way over to the ropes, Mashimo traps the leg, preventing the escape and ensuring the submission victory. Excellent stuff all around!

Go Shiozaki vs Suwama - AJPW 9/15/14 Royal Road Tournament I really enjoyed Suwama in the two matches I watched for the Best of Japan in the 2000s and the trend continued here. Suwama understood Shiozaki's greatest asset to be his energy. He continually sapped that by effectively using the sleeper. This did not achieve the level of the famous sleepers match between Pegasus Kid and Black Tiger in 1996, but it was a perfect use of the sleeper. The sleeper/chinlock is best used to drain the energy of an explosive babyface and let a heel regain his wind. Too often it is misused and thus triggers people's attention to drift. Shiozaki is all about those chops, but Suwama is…

Jun Akiyama vs Kento Miyahara - AJPW 9/15/14 In 2014, Akiyama was the God King of Offense. Usually, offense is one of the first things to go for the greats, but I would argue he actually almost has too much good offense that it has been working to the detriment of these matches until the unbelievably awesome finish. The problem with Akiyama dissecting opponents like Omori or Miyahara is that they don't have the cache of a Misawa or Kobashi that I believe in that comeback as much. Miyahara was way better at showing fire than Omori, which helped greatly. I loved the beginning the sense of urgency of both to pounce on each other's mistakes. Then it devolves into who will…

Pretty excited to see this pop up online since JWP pick this as 2014 match of the year and there hasn't been much Arisa pop up online from this year. I've never really cared for Leon as I usually find her to be a fairly spotty worker, but here I thought she was really good. She picks up the intensity early on, then starts to focus on Nakajima's back mixing in different spots like lucha subs and a spear into apron. Arisa sells the backwork incredibly well especially during her comebacks. During a sequence where she elbows out of a spider-german suplex attempt, then hits a mountain spike, a jumping DDT onto the apron, and a double-stomp off the top to the floor. Normally, 9…

TNA World Tag Team Champions American Wolves vs Team 3-D vs The Hardyz - TNA Impact 9/16/14 Full Metal Mayhem Full Metal Mayhmem is TNA's name for TLC and you do have to pull down the belts using a ladder to win the match. I remember this getting quite a bit of buzz back in 2014 and I thought I'd check it out. Having four of the original six TLC combatants helped this match from a framework and escalation perspective. One thing I liked about the original TLC is how they used the big highspots to effectively eliminate people in the match. We see that in this match. D-Von tumbles hard from the top rope through two tables. The "big" highspot is Jeff Hardy being sh…

Definitely a really good match but disappointing especially compared to something like Atlantis vs. V3. It seemed to lack the immense drama and emotion of that match. The finish was also terrible. *** 3/4

Tanahashi & Shibata have an excellent chemistry with each other & this is their best match. It really felt like it was the culmination of their whole story - all their previous matches, Dome '06 (& even their matches before that), G1 '13 & '14 lead to this. There's just this great feeling of importance throughout the whole thing. It's amazing. The storytelling is top notch & the performances of both men are perfect. Shibata, as usual, smacks the crap out of Tana & Tana sells it brilliantly while busting out some really great looking offense himself. Overall it's just terrific stuff from start to finish. One of my favorite NJPW matches of all-time. …

Cena manages to score an early AA as he attempts to avenge his lose from Summerslam, but it has little effect on Lesnar, and it's Suplex City time for Cena. Lesnar mixes up his offence and we see some snap and belly to belly suplexes. Lesnar is hellbent on tapping out Cena, so we also see a Kimura, with Cena selling the pain convincingly. Cena isn't afraid to potato Lesnar during his comebacks, and he busts up Lesnar's nose. Lesnar taking off his gloves is a neat visual, letting everyone know that he's not fucking around now. The submission exchanges looked organic, and Cena using an AA to weaken Lesnar for the STF made sense, as he sure as hell wasn't scoring a pin fall…

Good tag match. Golden Lovers are in control for a lot of the match. They isolate Endo and put him on various submissions. Endo is actually really good at that because he's struggling like hell at all points to get to the ropes. The crowd really gets behind Takeshita and Endo as a result (it helps that Honda is their hypeman). I thought he was by far the best person in this match, he's still selling fatigue down the crazy finishing stretch. Once Endo and Takeshita come back it turns into an absolute sprint. Ibushi stiffs Takeshita a lot, which was cool. Takeshita's series of suplexes on Omega for the finish was very good as well. The worst part of this match is Omega…