September 2015

Really fun title match that had these two going toe-to-toe right at the start. What really makes the match work is that both women are actually able to throw good strikes, which is rare for indy women. Santana gets bonus points for fearlessly bumping into the creepy guys in the crowd during some brawling outside of the ring. They do a frantic roll-up finish at the end which is worked a bit sloppy but did fit in with the pace they had worked all match. ***3/4

5★STAR Grand Prix Blue Stars Block: Kairi Hojo vs. KAORU KAORU was working old school heel style; arrogant, calculative, methodical, but she's a high flyer too and was quick to remind Hojo of that whenever the Real Pirate tried to get flashy. Hojo would dig down deep for her comebacks, super motivated to advance to the finals of the tournament, but KAORU's thick slab of wood was always there to stop her progression. Simple, effective storytelling. There's a gruesome spot where KAORU counters Hojo's diving forearm by batting her out of the air with the wood. Hojo gets struck on the arm and rolls to the outside writhing and screaming in agony. Some great mature woman …

Watching this you can really see why WWE signed Sombra. He came off as one of the most charismatic dudes in wrestling here - totally loved his swagger. This told a very good story of him being the younger, faster & more athletic of the 2, and Atlantis being the crafty veteran. While Atlantis was really solid, I thought that, for the most part, this was a total La Sombra show, and a damn great show at that. ****1/4

GHC Champion Minoru Suzuki vs Takashi Sugiura - NOAH 9/19/15 Damn Sugiura got old quick! This is during Minoru Suzuki's Reign of Terror in Pro Wrestling NOAH. According to VOW, this is the best match of his in NOAH in 2015 so lets see how it goes. First 15 minutes: Ultra-stiff! That's Sugiura's style to a tee. The matches I have seen him in against Kensuke Sasaki and Takyama are just these brutal, ultra-stiff stand-up contests. These two were just rifling each other with the stiffest elbows to the neck/jaw you will ever see. Sugiura got the best of the stand up initially but when he tried to kick Suzuki's head off, he ended trapped in a classic dangling armbar …

You can imagine my joy when the first thing Kamaitachi did was stomp on Rey Horus' head in the corner. Horus kicking out of his own pin was not so cool. He looked pretty unpolished here, messing up some sequences and dragging Kamaitachi down. This reached an incredibly high peak with brutal chairshots, breathtaking dives etc. and then just kinda faded away before the finish. ***1/4

This is a really great tag match as the Sisters get a title match after beating the champs on a Sendai Girls show a couple of months earlier. Both of them, especially DASH, channel their bitchy outsider roles which gives them a fresh look from their typical babyface style. They still bring the slick double teams and the level of stiffness that you would expect from Satomura trainees. The two of them manage to get the early advantage by cutting off one member of Thunder Rock and working her over. The champs manage to hang in there till they are able to make a comeback that leads to a fun series of flashy exchanges. The finish is pretty neat as Sachiko goes to whip Shirai i…

A really good example of pure sloppy BEEF kino. Akebono struggles with intensity that Ishikawa brings in spades and Ake brings a remarkably rare example of Ishikawa not being able to do his usual dominant giant routine as he's not the biggest man in the room as per usual, so we really get a nice little sprint that mixes things up ever so slightly between the two. If you weren't a fan of Ake control sequences then this won't be up your alley but I personally got into fairly easily thanks to the above reasons since this had a dynamic going for it that you aren't really going to see much anywhere else. Ishikawa just in the middle goes right into the crazy stiff knees and for…