April 2015

One of the best turn the dial to 11 indy matches I have ever seen. I watched Mad Max Fury Road earlier today, and in many ways this was that kind of wrestling match, never has Speedball's nickname been so apropos, cause I felt like I did a speedball before I watched it. I hadn't seen much Lee before, but he was great, he has this Clay Guida look, and kind of wrestles like Guida, intense always attacking and with great closing distance speed, when an opening presented itself he would leap right on it. He had some really brutal stuff, too, nasty running forearms, great dropkick, crazy judo throw. Bailey has some fun fancy shit, crazy kung fu movie kicks, and great highspots…

Roddy is in the middle of his career great PWG World Title reign and as such is one of the most hated heels in wrestling. ZSJ is the hot new prospect trying to take the title away. Although there's a certain contingent of Roddy fans in attendance that night, this crowd is for the most part anti-Roddy. It's a very simple match at its core, ZSJ is the technically superior worker trying to find openings to go after Roddy's arm, tap him out, or catch a quick pin. As for Roddy, he's trying to grab just the right hold of Sabre to throw him around and bomb his life away. This match plays out incredibly tensely with a real sense of struggle playing out in the transitions as well.…

This is a really well done title vs. title match between to very good indy women. They did a nice job of showing off how even they are while still making it look like a competitive situation. My favourite part was when they teased a couple of typical non-finishes between champs with a double countout and double pin. The finish had some really nice back and forth. It came off as the proper way of doing a your turn/my turn finish as they worked in enough selling and struggle to make it convincing. ***3/4

Other Deep Dive stuff Link to based match Probably the match of the night, to be honest. JOKER and Ogawa spent all of the first five minutes just rolling on the mat and doing slick technical work until Ogawa started pulling out his old Rat Boy tricks to work on the arm, then we got some brawling, turnbuckle smashing, and Ogawa being a dick by stomping on the exposed shoulder of JOKER with some nasty targeted work. There's some cool little bits like Ogawa using the ref to balance himself during a sunset flip attempt or doing a weird reverse key lock with arch that I've never seen someone do before. They got a ton of mileage out of Ogawa doing his usual control se…

IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Kota Ibushi - Invasion Attack 4/5/15 Holy Shit! WHAT A FUCKING FINISH! I don't want to spoil it, but I think that's gotta be spot of the fucking year. Absolutely nuts! Ibushi definitely seems like the breakout star of 2015 in spite of his injury late this year. I may not be as high on his Nakamura & Shibata matches, but I still thought they were great. On top of that, the Tanahashi match is killer and then this match is another feather in his cap. It was definitely a massive year for Kota Ibushi. AJ Styles regained his IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a fantastic match against Tanahashi and now faces the burgeoning star o…

This is from the Santino Brothers Battle Arts gym, but worked under Battlarts rules -- no pins, just KOs and submissions. Solid old fan favorite vet vs. cocky young rookie story developed and for the most part a one man performance from Yuki Ishikawa with the British Brawler just coming along for the ride. Ishikawa brings the brutality he usually brings and for the most part the Brawler is timid and holds back which is noticeable as there's a bit where he drops Ishikawa and he hits some strikes on the ground which Ishikawa whiffs off and just stiff kicks him back as an indication to bring the heat as well. Ishikawa also brings his great and brutal looking body shots featu…

Hey Avisman!! I used to love that dude back during the glory days of IWRG. He was always a guy who could work on the mat, and really developed into a great brawler, and then he disappeared (along with other awesome guys like Chico Che and Freelance) so IWRG could be all crappy fake Capos sons. This is Virus working a straight maestro style, focused on leg and arm locks and cool standing counters. Avisman is perfectly comfortable working this match, he has some very cool abdominal stretch variations, and looks perfectly comfortable countering arms and legs, great performance and I hope he shows up more. Virus is great at working this kind of match too, it is different then…

DDT Extreme Title 60 Minute Iron Man Match: Akito (c) vs. Daisuke Sasaki - DDT Saitama Slam! Vol. 1 19/04/2015 Daisuke Sasaki has great strategy going into the match by going for the knee joint of Akito. Sasaki isn’t known for being a technical guy but he really steps up his work while picking a limb apart in this match. His submissions look tight and he is focused on it for the first quarter of the match. And I liked him trying to get a quick count out victory from it. Akito retaliates with leg work of his own and totally out-does Sasaki at it, which is great storytelling given Akito is an actual technical wrestler unlike Sasaki. Everything from that point on was…

Son of Havoc, Ivelisse & Angelico vs The Crew - Lucha Underground 4/22/15 No DQ Inaugural Trios Tag Champs Apparently, the babyfaces are doing the whole dysfunctional family gimmick. The evil promoter throws one last curveball at them by sending out his Crew in a No DQ and winner wins the titles. I recognize Ricky Reyes but not the other two members. This got high marks on Cagematch but it is only like 5-6 minutes and there's not much to it. The Crew lay a pretty good beatdown on the faces. They use Ivelisse very effectively to maximize sympathy. Isolating her in the ring with a bad knee totally at the Thugs' mercy. Havoc saves but Vampiro calls him "Whipped" for…

In 2015, Big Show wasn't exactly mobile, and he was a few years away from having a late-career revival after losing some weight. Still, what he lacks in mobility he more than makes up in presence. He was out there smashing tables with his fists, breaking kendo sticks, just looking like a mountain to be conquered. And yeah, Roman is super fucking over in this match. He does have the star presence, even if his character is not the mob boss he's known for now. They do a great job of keeping this match, which features a very slow-paced stipulation, fast and intense. There is not much down time, and the bombs keep on coming. There is a sense of escalation to the bum…

Keisuke Ishii does some incredible stuff in this match. He's in for most of the match and has to sell for two bigger guys but does it well enough and gets enough things to get more over. It's a great performance. The finishing stretch where he goes against Sekimoto all on his own and almost beats him is great, after a whole match of him just being outmuscled. Strong BJ is also really good, continuing their monster outsider tag title run. I love their double torture rack spot every time they do it. Irie does everything he has to really well too. Honestly, I have a tough time getting into Team Dream Futures, because of the incredibly goofy name/terrible gear/awful dye jobs…

Much better match than their Saitama Arena match and I probably liked it a bit more than their 2009 Ryogoku match. The opening matwork is really good, as per usual. This time, there's no singular focus on a limb or body part but Ibushi does gain the upper hand and from there starts getting off his bigger. Match centers around HARASHIMA outlasting Ibushi. Thankfully, he doesn't just lay down and absorb offense, which almost always makes for dull wrestling. But for most of the match, Ibushi gains the upper hand at every turn. Ibushi counters all of HARA's big match moves, such as the kneedrop (?) he does over the ropes and the diving somato. HARASHIMA escaping the phoenixpl…