December 2015

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v98385051zYTh4hzf This met my expectations and then some. Everyone had a key role and they all played their parts well. Takayama is out looking for retribution against MiSu and even ends up beating his own tag partner who insists on being tagged in. That very same tag partner is completely blanked by Suzuki when Suzuki wants a piece of Takayama who wasn't even in the match at the time. It's very funny stuff and the comedy was tasteful and well placed. The match flawlessly transitions from comical to serious, as Miyatake eventually fires up and it seems like he almost has a fighting chance against Suzuki. A sleeper MOTYC for sure. ★★★★

This was a lot of fun. Solid grappling with a good feel to it - the intensity kept raising & raising throughout the match, it built very well towards the finish. Only 11 months in and Matt Riddle was already having this kind of matches! ***3/4

TLC 2015 - Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns - WWE Title TLC Match For a match that I've yet to hear any real hype for, this match came out of nowhere and really blew me away. Right off the bat Reigns just tattoos Sheamus with a right to the face and it never lets up from there. I don't expect much in terms of layered psychology from a TLC match but at the least I appreciate when the work is rooted in some form of logic, and the logic here is that both guys were going to beat the tar out of each other. I don't think they attempted to climb the ladder until at least the mid-way point, and that wasn't because they were too busy setting up cute table spots on the outside. Tag te…

I really like how they laid out this match to how they booked this feud. They found the right tone for Emma's character as she realized how dangerous Asuka is but still thought she could beat her by outsmarting her. Also really liked Emma's in-ring performance, she worked really smart and laid in a lot of her shots while not being afraid of taking anything from Asuka. It was cool to see Asuka dust off some of her old strike combos. The most noticeable difference between Asuka here and her work in Japan is how much she plays to the crowd. She rarely worked in front of big crowds in Japan so it's nice to see her adjust and work "bigger" here. The finish was smart even if th…

Really good match. Joe is on top for most of it, and he's pretty great. His submissions look vicious & his striking was awesome as usual. Great swagger shown by him throughout too. Bálor is solid from underneath, but it really is the Joe show overall. ***1/2

Jay Lethal defends the ROH World Title. AJ's coming into this with some well known back problems, and that ends up being the big story of the match. Lethal first goes to it as he drops AJ on the apron, and after that the target is clear. Lethal's work over the back is really good, and AJ's selling is just faaantastic. During this time period, this was a very different type of a match for Styles, with him being the Bullet Club leader & top heel in NJPW; but here he was the babyface who was forced to fight from underneath because the champ took an advantage of his injury. It created for such a great struggle for AJ throughout; he was so good at gaining that sympat…

Man-Yuki Ishikawa rules at pro wrestling so much. I've seen a fair bit of videos of Yoshiaki Fujiwara stretching folks, I imagine if I were to execute them without much training they would look like Wallace's did here. He also did a lot of kicking and stomping that was more similar to ATtitude Era stuff I loathe than the Battlarts matches I love. Ishikawa was just so amazing though, he did some wristlock takedown that was just breathtaking, on the ground his transitions were just.......indescribably beautiful and he executes every single thing with such intentsity it's a joy to watch. Loved how he kicked Wallace to break his grip in the Armbar and the vicious knees on the…

This is really well done tag title match featuring the new team of Ohata and Mizunami, who are two women that should have a higher profile in the joshi scene given their talent level. While this was a long match, it does manage to keep a pretty good back-and-forth pace for it's entire length. It plays out similar to wide-open basketball or hockey game wear the momentum of the match is swinging back and forth in a fairly regular pace but never delving into a clear "your turn/my turn" structure that it could have taken. Lots of nice double team sequences and counters from both sides. The length and pace does make it a bit draining to watch though, but if you stick with it t…

This was quite the way to end the Stardom/Sendai Girls feud, or at least for now. Story of the match has Io constantly getting drilled by Meiko but still managing to get in some comeback and slowly chip away at Satomura. The strikes here are just nasty, maybe it was the way that the sound was setup but you could hear pretty much every shot the whole match. Wasn't crazy about some of Io's selling on her comebacks, she hit some big stuff a little too easily. Still an awesome way to end the year for Shirai, who is my personal woman wrestler of the year. ****

The start of this match is pretty great. Narumiya is in full idol mode before the bell by playing to the crowd, especially the men. This upsets Fujimoto, who tries to sneak a kick in but Maki avoids it and counters with her finisher for a nice near fall right off the bat. Narumiya then does a 180 into bitch mode tossing Tsukasa around all over the outside of the ring ending with a slam on the stage. While the match isn't very long they do manage to take advantage of the aggressive start with some good selling by both women, which allows them to have a finish that still has a satisfying build to it rather than a rushed one. Overall, a quick but very entertaining match. ***…

Naoshi Sano (704 here) and Keita have combined their sleazy powers as the new LWO to handle one half of the 2023 MOTY and Shota. Arai/Keita seems like a dream match in the making (despite them having a frankly underwhelming 2011 singles before) and their encounters definitely had a lot of enjoyable to be had as Keita would just run through the pair with random cool submissions and counters for the beginning sequences. Him and Arai have a nice little bit where they actually utilise proper pummelling technique between each other until Keita takes the arms for the cool underhook sumo spot where they throw them while said arms are trapped, always mark out for Taue spots like …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BfoWxfpOqQ&list=WL&index=119 Wow, these four just go right at each other for 14 minutes non-stop. After about a minute or so of a feel out period the match turns into a constant flow of cool double teams and nasty strike exchanges. Ohata and Mizunami are shockingly great despite this match only being the second match they have worked together as a team. This is also the first great match to come out of the awesome pairing of Nakajima and Fujimoto. Fantastic way to end 2015, and really looking forward to watching both of these teams in 2016. ****1/2